a weekend away...

For those not in the know, I literally spent all of last week madly studying Korean in an attempt to become proficient by the weekend -- my weekend plans involved going away to Gyeongju for a couple of days with some folks I know.

So, things from this weekend (in no particular order):

1 - I was able to communicate in Korean in a casual conversation context! Well, kind of. (WOOT!)

2- I suspect there's a really cute, sweet Korean guy who speaks almost no English, who is sizing me up for marriage. (I could be wrong, but I just got that sense from some of the questions I was asked, such as "Do you like Korean guys?", "If you met a Korean guy you liked, would you marry him?", "If you married a Korean guy, would you want to live in Korea?" etc.)

3- I have learned and forgotten the Korean word for "sesame leaves" 4 separate times (that's right, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday) from 3 different people in 3 different locations (Friday and Sunday were the same friend, same location.)

4- I have mastered the Korean words for "pervert", "secret" and "illusion". Also: "innocent" and "cinnamon". Funny enough, these are the kind of words that you learn when you learn your Korean from bartenders. He, on the other hand, learned the following English words: "attrocious", "illusion", "vulva", "cinnamon" and "sesame leaves". (The bartender at the foreigners' bar is helping me learn Korean - so anytime I stop by for a beer it involves the two of us testing each other on vocabulary from last time and then chatting and giving each other new vocabulary, as it comes out of the conversation...)

5- I have been given a Korean name and I quite like it... the guys and Ellie have christened me Bae Ka-Yeon. I have been told by many (well, the four Koreans that I've told) that it's a really beautiful name... I think so too... woohooo!
I should note that I've been given Korean names before, but this one seems to fit the best - it's like my English name, and I think it's pretty...

6- In case you were wondering, it IS possible to study Korean for 5 hours straight, 3 days in a row. Without your head exploding.

7- Korean cookouts rock - for one, it's tradition that the guys do all the cooking. Second, um, can anyone say FRESH SHELLFISH and yummy-yummy galbi? That sure beats spidey-dogs and marshmallows!

8- When building a fire, all that technique I learned in my youth (you know, strategically placing newspaper, smaller branches and larger pieces of wood) is not important if you have a blowtorch.

9- Don't stand downwind of the person using the blowtorch. Unless you want to be covered in ash and other sooty particles. If that is the case, DO stand downwind.

10- The Korean card game Go Stop is much more complicated than I had ever suspected. Gah!

11- I suck at poker.

12- I really just have bad gambling luck. Any time there's money involved, I WILL lose.

13- After a long weekend, I'm SO happy to see my students!!

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be standing with someone when you're both rendered mute by lack of language skills, but you want to communicate... so it's back to the Korean studying for me! But first, I'm going to take a quick nap.