Subway rides

Tuesday we went back to the Thai restaurant and I had the Phat Thai again. The owner seemed to recognize us and was extra friendly. Then Wednesday (yesterday) was a holiday so Emily didn’t have school so I left for her house around 12:30 and got there at 2pm. I walked to the subway from our house (Eddie came with me cause I was unsure of the location) then took a subway to Shindorim which was wrong because I was only supposed to go in the direction of shindorim but actually I was supposed to get off at Daerim. So I got back on the subway and went to Daerim then after that subway I transferred over to another subway and went to Cheolsan and from there I walked to Danny’s house.

I met up with Emily and we had our first lesson. She is very bright and understood more English then I originally expected. With her I am mainly working on comprehension of stories. So I read her a story and asked her to explain what it was about then I had her read me a story and explain that one. She did pretty well. It’s interesting to hear how she pronounced the “R” and “P” sounds because it seems to be a more difficult endeavor for her seeing as she hasn’t had much practice. We spend some time growling like dogs so as to understand the sound she was trying to make, then moved on.

After Emily’s lesson their mother wanted me to work with Melody for a couple minutes. Melody was sitting on the couch and didn’t want to do any studying so her mom grabbed her and pushed her into the room with me and slammed the door. Melody spent some time screaming and pounding on the door then I began to sing the Alphabet song and she slowly started singing it with me. After a while she got the door open and said something to her mom like “the door stays open” or something because her mom said okay and left the door open. Melody kept singing then grabbed some peach slices her mom and brought in and sang with her mouth full for awhile. After the peaches began to dissolve in her mouth she decided to eat them and we continued singing the song. After a while I got some paper and as I sang the song I wrote out the letters with each word. I had Melody write the letters under mine while we continued singing. After we did capital letters I tried lowercase and she laughed and said “oh the small”. She became bored and was trying to get away so I drew a picture of a cat and then wrote the word cat she grabbed my pencil and said “ohhh NO! Cuter” and she drew another cat. Then she wrote the word cat under mine. She wrote the letter “C” about 10 times one under the other then wrote “A” 10 times then “T”. Really I was just happy she had done so much. After that she ran away and jumped on the couch and folded her arms. Melody was done with her English lesson for the day.

Danny came home a little later and we went to a neighbors house and I met with some other girls and their families who were thinking about taking lessons from me. We sat around a table and played “Go Fish” with fruit cards that the neighbor had. The girls were shy and only spoke a little but after a while I think they were having some fun. We would said “do you have 3 bananas” instead of clubs or hearts. The parents sat on the floor behind us drinking tea and talking the whole time which made me feel a little awkward because they were just watching me and speaking Korean. After the game Danny walked me to the front gate and I headed home.

I got to the subway and headed for Daerim. From Daerim I got on a subway headed for Shincheon. Eddie was waiting at the stop after Shinchon. I didn’t know there were two different Shincheons so I was heading the opposite direction. I spent about 2 and a half hours on the subway going all different ways until I figured out where I needed to go. At one point an elderly woman got on and there weren’t any seats so I got up to give her my seat but she grabbed my shoulder and pushed me very firmly back into my seat saying “you stay” and smiling. I was surprised how much force she used when being so kind but was happy to have a seat. When I saw Eddie waiting at the subway station I almost wanted to cry because I had been so anxious not knowing where I was and where I needed to go. I am really glad I made it home because I was ready for a hug.

We walked around for a while looking for a place to grab some dinner then we decided on TGI Fridays (which neither of us had ever tried even in the US). We walked in and the woman said “Hello it will be about 10 minutes waiting”. The food there was pretty good and the service was friendly but very slow. I think they were nervous about talking to us in English so they always waited a long time before approaching our table. Eddie had a burger and I had a shrimp and chicken pasta, which was delicious! When we got home I read for a while and Eddie taught me some more Korean then we watched some TV on the Internet and fell asleep. I was just happy to be home!!! Today’s agenda includes grocery shopping and hopefully a haircut for me!