The Test

Stolen directly from Alex's website, and so true it's sick:

Step right up and take the test!
Keep score on a piece of paper. Yes or No:

1) Do you like Kimchi?
2) Does Kimchi prevent Cancer?
3) Does Kimchi prevent AIDS?
4) Does Kimchi prevent Homosexuality in pregnant women's unborn children?
5) Do you say the word "Maybe" more than the word "like"?
6) If you sleep in a room with the doors and windows closed and the fan on, will you die?
7) Do you like Super-Cutie-Junior?
8) Are the boys in Super-Cutie-Junior handsome?
9) When your cell-phone rings, does it take priority over every present conversation no matter the situation?
10) Is your cell-phone's ring something cute and bubbly?
11) Do you not know what I'm talking about, because you've only heard it called a "handeu-pone"?
12) Is K-1 awesome?
13) Do you and your significant other wear matching outfits?
14) Are you the same size?
15) Do you eat the same food for every meal of every day?
16) Is 10 degrees Celcuis parka-weather?
17) Does eating dog prevent colds in winter?
18) Does eating dog give you a better sex-life (for males only)?
19) Do you know your blood-type for the same reason Hippies know their astrological sign?
20) Is pink the most manly colour in the rainbow?
21) Should Ginseng be made into suck-candies?
22) Is live squid a bar-treat? (like peanuts, but moving!)
23) Soju tastes great!
24) Men should have long fingernails for optimal beauty.
25) Do you cross your arms in an X when expressing a negative or saying no?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your parents about your family history -- there may be some Korean blood in there.















I'd like to counter Alex's list with a "Why I love Korea List".

Why I Heart Korea

1. The first time I had to take a bus somewhere, I made myself really annoying and attempted to ask lots of gesturing, poorly spoken questions so that I could figure out when to get on the bus. Now, when that same old man I harassed see's me coming, he demands to see my ticket so he knows where I'm going and yells for me when my bus gets there. I love it. I haven't gotten on the wrong bus yet.

2. Every now and then in my English town when I come back from lunch the kids swarm around me and give me cookies, chips and various other dessert snacks from their lunch. I love elementary kids!

3. Every now and then I can get an old ajumma to crack a smile at me, even if she does think I'm a strange looking "megook saram" (the dreaded "American person"). Once I walked past a group of mountain ajumma's (these are a different breed of ajumma; they wear bright pink jump-suits, and they're much more spry); when they saw me they all stared as usual, and one ACTUALLY SAID HELLO to me. When I said hello back they thought it was the funniest thing ever.

4. I can buy a freshly cooked sweet potato at 4am.

5. The mountains.

6. The heated floor in my apartment.

7. Having money in my bank account that I didn't have to borrow, or shovel shit, or clean a dish, or climb up a 30 foot ladder to get. My job is sweet.

8. Celebrity status for being a person from another country. Very surreal.

9. Things I had never experienced before: the ocean, being in a temple, sleeping in pagodas, playing volleyball with a bunch of intense Korean men, norae-banging (karaoke) with drunken teachers, travel.

10. Meeting lots of interesting people.

The one reason I've found to not like Korea: a bouncer at a night club named "Dong Yang Nights" in Gwang-ju wouldn't let us in because we were white. The bouncer was a jerk. Oh, and ginseng candies are NASTY little things. They have this disgusting dirt aftertaste. They even smell like pungent dirt to me. Ugh.

In other news, I'm off to Wolchulsan again this weekend, weather permitting. And this wednesday, the "Wednesday Waygook Night" will be expanding it's members to include a bunch of foreigners that work together at some christian school in Naju, and possibly the Naju Mormons. We're all going to go bowling. Sounds like a Craaaaaazy party to me!!!