Happiness From Austin

I know, I know, I just posted about two days ago, but these last couple days have been full of stuff. I promise the play-by-play of my life will stop once things become a bit more regular.
Two days ago I went to my school for the very first time. I met Coraline, another Rotary student from France. I was so happy to finally meet an English speaker. She was a lot of fun. Once the Rotary people arrived we met with my principle and talked about classes. My high school is a technical school, so it doesn't have normal classes. It has a bog focus on computers. There were six majors that Coraline and I could chose from. Four of them had to do solely with computers, so I threw those out the window immediately. One was a bio-chem sort of thing, which I find interesting, but it's not my best subject and I probably couldn't do it in Korean. So, I went with the last one, design. Some of the design is on the computer, but it has nothing to do with the inner workings of those blasted machines, so it's all good.
Yesterday I went back to the school with Coraline again. This time we got a tour of the school from the VP. There were a number of classes we were introduced to. It was honestly pretty embarrassing. Everyone stared at us while we stood there, not understanding what the teachers were saying to us. But, when we were taken to our home room it was a bit different. We got to introduce ourselves. After the class stopped clapping, Coraline went first, in English. No one could say her name very well. Then it was my turn. It was very strange for me because everyone here calls me Amy. So when I introduced myself I said Amy the first time not Emmy. But I did introduce myself in Korean. All I said was a simple "Hello, I'm Amy" but the whole class let a huge "OOOOHHHHH". It was really funny. We also met the schools English teacher, who is actually American. But of course, his last day is Friday and I start on Monday.......
The rest of yesterday was jam-packed with activities, so brace yourselves for a few more paragraphs. As soon as I got home Oppa, Unni, and I headed out. All I knew about where we were going was that it was a beach. Oppa told me that I shouldn't expect it to be pretty like American beaches, but I thought it was gorgeous, in it's own way. We went to Daebudo island. First we went to restaurant and ate some noodles and what Oppa called "traditional Korean pizza" which was absolutely nothing like pizza. It was vegetables and breading and little octopus tentacles.

 

This is the beach we went to. The brown part looks like it's dry, but it most definitely was not. It was muddy and rocky with lots of shells. There were little crabs scuttling all over the place. Unni and I both ended up taking our shoes off and squelching through the mud. It felt so nice and cool on my feet. Oppa caught a couple crabs for us, but I didn't want to hold one. I find them mildly disgusting. Unni also caught a little tiny fish before we decided to head back. As we were driving away Oppa explained that that area is tidal water, so it washes in and out periodically. He promised we would go back when the water was high. Next we went to Oido Island. Unni and I walked along a path on the edge of the sea up to a red lighthouse. We also walked inside a navy boat, like in the Mississippi River Museum (for those of you who know it). At the lighthouse there was a group of people lined up at the railing feeding the seagulls that flew in circles over and over again. So Oppa bought a bag of these weird shrimp cracker type things that everyone was feeding the gulls with. It was really fun to throw them is weird directions and watch the gulls twist and turn and dive to get them.


At this point we had been out for about 4 hours and you would think that I would be tired and want to go home and just relax. But, in fact, I could've gone on much longer. I drew energy from the beautiful landscape and all the new things I saw. So when we headed home and Oppa told me we would be heading right back out again I was quite excited. Oppa picked up a couple things and then we got back in the car to go and see Halmuhni (Grandma) and Hahrebuhji (Grandpa). For a while I just sat with Unni and Halmuhni and listened to them talk while a really weird English movie about killer bats played in the background. Then we ate dinner and everyone oohhed and aahhed over my chopstick skills yet again. I just sat contentedly and listened. After dinner there was of course more food (fruit) brought out, which, of course, I ate despite my full stomach. Oppa then told me that Hahrebuhji is very good at making names. He makes names from your birthday and the palm of your hand. It was a bit strange to me. But I was very honored that he agreed to give me a Korean name. After about 20 minutes he came up with 효정 (hyojung). It was a night full of lots of food, laughs, misunderstandings and bad translations. It was wonderful.
Now, of course, by this time I actually was tired. But in the car Oppa asked me if I wanted to see a movie. I, naturally, said of course (in a sleepy voice). So, we headed to the theater, situated in the middle of a big store akin to a multi-leveled Walmart, but with more variety. We waited about half and hour in a big lit up café area, during which time Unni and Oppa looked at posters for new movies while I told them whether they were good or not, since they came out a couple months ago in the US. Then we went in and saw Now You See Me (in assigned seats). That really is the last thing we did that day.
Today was also interesting. I woke up at about noon (hehehe). Then Oppa and I went to the little market just around the corner to get ice cream after lunch because it was 70 percent off. After we ate some we went to get an adapter so that I can plug in my tablet (very much needed). Then at about six Umma and I went to have 삼겹살 (basically huge, thick bacon) with a group of her friends. For the first half of dinner I sat with Umma trying to figure out the proper way to eat the food and only said a couple things in response to questions, but after a bit her friends from the other end of the table called me over and we attempted conversation for about 20 minutes. I think I actually did pretty well, as far as understanding goes (maybe not speaking). It also made me happy to discover that when not in a formal setting, Koreans really aren't against the whole touchy-feely things. We sat pretty close together and it was a lot of fun. After we left Umma and I stopped by a bakery and got some blessedly American food, like sweet bread and donuts. We also stopped and bought some fruit, including this really cool yellow and white stripped little melon that I tried for the first time when we got home (it was quite tasty).
All in all, I am very happy. I know that this whole year will not be as easy as the last few days, but that's ok, because “Happiness is something that comes from our own hearts, not from other people.”. I know that I can have joy, if not happiness, in any situation if I choose to.  (Lynn Austin).