The host mom is out of town for a few days on a school field trip (the one I *politely* declined to go on) so that means grandma is over helping out with the cooking--at least during
the morning and evening hours. The woman is horribly nice, and I notice the little things she does to make me more comfortable when she's around (see: leaving food for dinner, then calling from her house during meal-time to see if the "American" likes it), though she never fails to help me remember that I'm actually not Korean. Like the way she talks to me; she knows I don't understand anything she says--especially when it all comes out with a heavy accent, slurred, and fast as all hell. I mean, most conversations start out this way. But most other people, if they're actually interested in communicating, either slow things down or eventually find words that I do understand. That last point is probably the greatest irony: I actually know a fair amount of Korean now--but when there are 10 different ways of saying the same thing, it's a guessing game for Koreans to figure out what I do and do not know. There's also the food thing...for which grandma was lambasting my host dad (about me) this morning. I.e. I do everything wrong.
Rule number 1: You don't drink while eating..."bad for digestion" (I usually don't do this here, to fit in, but I was especially thirsty upon waking up this morning). Rule number 2: When you finish your rice, why the hell would you ever eat anything else on the table? This second one is like a balancing act that I haven't quite mastered yet--timing how much rice I eat with other
foods so I don't just end up eating the meat or various styles of kimchi after my rice is gone...atwhich point the people here just stare at me curiously at I say, "what? It's delicious." Rule number 3: You always finish your rice. Panchon (side dishes) leftover's are completely OK. In fact, it's odd to finish them and what's left is generally stocked away for the next meal. But the rice! I think it must be in Section II, Article IV or the Korean Constitution: Thall Shalt FinishYour Damn Rice, though maybe not in those words.
Going back to the big picture, I think summer is finally heading out. It's bright, sunny, and in the upper 70's today. What I meant to say with that last sentence is that I can finally ride my bike around without looking like that sweaty American. Perfect timing too, I would say, since I have this little 5 day vacation, giving me a chance to enjoy Mokpo and travel around a bit. I successfully navigated the KTX (Korean Rail) website this morning and booked a trip to Daejeon for tomorrow afternoon, where, following dinner, I will take a bus up to the one and only Cheongju. I don't know why I'm so excited, except that I've never ridden a train before--except for the silly ones they have at petting zoos and various other urban rail systems. There's a first time for everything I guess.
The rice thing is crazy... from day one I have emptied my bowl, because I was always taught that you eat what is sat in front of you... However on like my third day here, my host father watched me finish my rice and then asked me if I liked the food... when I assured him that I did, he explained that you have to scrape EVERY last grain of rice out of the bowl when you are finished... He said that if you don't that means you didn't like the food, so his wife had thought I didn't like what she had been feeding me... needless to say, I have since scraped my bowl.
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