Entry #4

Hello American Consumer,

Being a teacher is full of surprises, especially when your students don't understand dirty things in English. One of my students, Jamie, responded to the question "What does the doctor tell Carol?" by writing "The doctor tells Carol her husband will do her on the plane."

When such a thing happens, you're faced with a moral dilemma: do you lie to a child?

Turns out, for me, it was "yes." I told Jamie that his answer didn't make sense (and it really didn't, the doctor didn't tell her anything like that). I said, "Jamie, people can't do each other. That doesn't make sense. How would that even work?" Lying to a child, wow. I'll make a fantastic Dad someday.

On the more wholesome side of things, I decided to check out a Korean church. While I didn't understand a single word said, the hunched over old lady next to me was nice enough to hold up the hymnal and point to the Korean characters while we were singing. I gotta give her credit, after hearing a baritone, tone-deaf 6'3" white guy butcher the first song, she kept with me to the end. Her kindness and patience was something else, let me tell you. The priest also spoke a little English, so I chatted it up with him afterwards.

Speaking of after church, anyone who knows me, knows that my favorite food is sandwiches. Little known fact, Korea doesn't really make bread and 8 ounce blocks of cheese go for a cool ten dollars American out here. But, on my way out of doing my holy thing, I found a shop that exclusively does sandwiches. Less than two bucks got me an egg, sausage and coleslaw sandwich with BBQ sauce and some other wacky things. But they make it in front of you and my God, it tasted like home (except for the coleslaw, but I dug that).

I spent the weekend in Busan, the second biggest city in Korea, and known for their beaches. I arrived at 4:00 Saturday morning with a fellow teacher. We found a Mexican place he liked and sat outside drinking beer and eating tacos until the sky began to lighten up. Then we walked to the beach, I laid down, and watch the sunrise over the distant mountains. The combination of mountains, city, beach, and sun all in one view was truly something special. The weekend was spent mostly dancing between sleeping in the hostel and walking the beaches. Especially when flying fish jump out of the water to greet you ever so often.

Speaking of Mexican food, last thing for this entry - "salsa" or 살사 is not, when said in Korea, a reference to either the spicy tomato concoction or the fiery Latin dance.

No, dear reader, salsa, in Korean, is their word for explosive diarrhea.

Now, I'd leave with just that, but I've started to ponder something. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (and they're always right), the English language has 171,476 words. I've been doing vocab quizzes here. We have like seven words for friendly, and not a single word for explosive diarrhea. That seems like a crime to me.

I miss and love you all, and have the sudden and strange craving for salsa.

-Daniel Joseph Foley