My weekend continued...

So lunch with Danny was interesting. He talked about the "Korean Way" a lot and how people are just friendly and trusting and everything works out. Its getting frustrating though because whenever I do something nice he says "Ohh you are learning how to be a Korean." I think its great how much pride he has in his country but I feel like they think all American's are one way and I really don't fit that mold at all. For example we were going to have noodles for lunch but Danny took me to the wrong restaurant on accident and when he found out they didn't have the noodles (after they had already poured us water) he said okay so you want to go somewhere else and I said we could just stay and eat at that restaurant. He said me being flexible and like that is very Korean but this is something I have done before many times in America. Anyways it wasn't a big deal but I he definitely thinks I am a rare American who is adapting into Korean culture quickly but really I think many people have similar values. But I do admire his pride in his culture. He bought the meal then said we would go get coffee so we did. On the way to the coffee shop we stopped at a digital store with cameras and TV's and stuff and I looked at digital cameras. He recommended a Fuji or Fiji camera I'm not exactly sure of the name. If anyone has any biases for or against this camera please let me know ASAP because I think I will go ahead and buy it because I NEED A CAMERA ASAP! So we looked around then headed for the Coffee shop we always go to called "Sleepless in Seattle" he said its the best one. He told me I would pay for the coffee so I did and we sat and talked for a while.

He told me when people are talking to me I nod my head and say yes and okay a lot and that it seems like I am saying "yes" as in I already know what they are going to say so it seems like I don't care what they say and he said I should work on not doing that as much. It was very blunt but I am learning his ways so I didn't take it in a negative way. He said since I worked in a restaurant for a long time I was probably saying "yes" to people a lot so thats why I do it. I just agreed with him and nodded... I have been listening to myself talk and I think I do it a lot because it is one of the skills of a counselor to act interested and nod a lot but I guess in Korea I will try to sit back quietly when people talk to me. Anyways that was a very entertaining conversation because he had some trouble saying exactly what he was trying to convey so it was interesting. Another thing I have learned about Danny is he repeats himself multiple times!!! He like to recap what he just said then recap what he just recapped so conversations are long.

After that be pulled out a folder he had been carrying around all day and showed me his work. He invented a testing tool for people with diabetes and now he is writing the user manual in English. This is where I come in. So he said "So I have been helping you so now its your turn to help me" and he explained that he wanted me to rewrite the manual for his "LANZO LANCET" so I took it home and worked on it for a couple hours. He had things like "turn the knob anti-clockwise" so I changed it and rewrote a lot of the instructions. It was a big project but I think I did a good job.

So that was my Saturday...

Sunday I went to Eddie's soccer game at 11 then met with my two students at a coffee shop about 20 minutes walk away at 2. They are about 30 and 32 I believe.(While I am on the subject of age I will stop and give some quick info. So Danny told people I was 23 because in Korea I would be 23 because they count the birth of a child as age one then every January 1st they are a year older so really I would be 22 and 10 months so he wanted me to sound a little older so he just said 23. This makes a lot more sense to me now because Melody who is 7,was born December 24th so in America she would be a 5 year old. This makes everything a lot clearer for me because I was confused by children's behavior but really they are just acting their age. Amy the 16 year old would only be 14 1/2 so she is actually younger than my little brother. Anyways I was relieved to have that all cleared up because I felt awful having to lie to people saying I was 23 when I was only 21. This was something I had always known about Koreans but for some reason I didn't put it together when I came over here.... Back to the lesson Sunday. So one guy is very talkative and a pretty good speaker while the other one is very very quiet and shy so it makes it harder to have a lesson with both of them at the same time. Jimmy (the more talkative one) bought books for each of us to use and we went through the first couple pages together I had them read a dialog out loud then we went over types of answers to questions like "I dont know" "Could you speak slower" "I think its about 3 feet long" etc. then I asked them questions for a while and they used those answers.

After the lesson I met up with Eddie and Danny and we rode the subway to a big K1 fight. We didn't have tickets so we stood around waiting for a scalper but couldn't find one so we started to head home. At the subway station we found tickets for the $90 seats for $60 each. We were a little suspicious but we got in and ended up watching the fight. It was really exciting. It was the first fight I have seen live and it was really fun! They had lights and funny 80's music with pyrotechnics whenever the fighters came out. They had a really loud annoying voice that screeched out the names of the fighters in English and lots of blood and gore! YAY! They had a previous UFC champion and the biggest fight of all was at the very end with Dennis Kang (which they pronouce Gong who is a half white half Korean man http://www.deniskang.com/) and a Japanese-Korean man. It was an amazing night and we decided we would go see another fight before we go back to America because it was so much fun. http://www.mmafighting.com/news/2007/heros_korea_october_28.html

After the fight we went out for dinner and drank Soju with Danny. The restaurant had stoves in the middle of the tables and we ordered raw food then it was cooked in front of us. We had a chicken vegetable dish with crab meat sweet potato and rice cake noodles. It was scary at first but I ate and enjoyed it. Danny talked to Eddie about studying hard and as always recapped the conversation multiple times then we headed home. It was an exhausting day but it was a lot of fun! Today is my only day off and I will be catching up on everything!