Yesterday was rough. I think I visited every toilet in Andong -- praise Buddha that we are in a fairly modern city and I did not have to face the squat toilet, I think I would have cried! When I got home with my host, I immediately had to throw up. My host mom took very good care of me and gave me a facial (face massage) while I lied down on the living room floor.
Today was a much better day. Still a bit tender in the tummy, but I am almost back to full health. We missed Mina today as she was home with the same tummy thing I had -- kumquats from the Traditional Market?
We visited the Korean Traditional Paper factory today where they make paper by hand. It was really something to see. They use the bark of mulberry paper trees, strip it, soak it, pound it, lay it and dry it -- all by hand. Very beautiful.
Along with the Soju Museaum, the Hahoe (pronounced ha-way) Folk Village, the Andong Folk Museum, we visited the Yuri Oriental Hospital. Yuri means world without disease and pain. There is a problem in the smaller towns (I may have mentioned this before) with the young people moving to Seoul. That leaves the older generation on their own, so there are lots of government sponsored facilities for them.
We had an opportunity to meet with an Oriental doctor. He looked at our tongues and took our pulse. He said that my blood is clean, my body is no problem and my mind is busy, stressed. Need more sleep. Drink more water. Just got over a stomach problem. Shane's report was 'maybe your blood is not clean and inside your body is problems. Brett, 'body is unbalanced, too fat on top, climb the mountain is very good for you. Janis, 'skin aging, blood is not clean, stressed is a problem.
Tonight after the Rotary meeting my host wasn't there to pick me up, so we stopped at a Golfing 'bar?' to wait. There were big screens with a picture of a fairway on it and you drive a real golf ball at the wall from about ten feet back. It didn't look like they serve alcohol there, but everyone was smoking. There was also a putting green. We went back to Brett's host family to wait for my 'Chung Mu Opa' (older brother) to pick me up. It turned in to a little bit of a party. There were 10 of us there in the end and they served one bottle of wine in little shot glasses. When I left there was still 1/2 a bottle left. Brett is staying with a family with two boys. The twelve year old was snuggled right in to him the whole time, too cute.
Some other notes about Korea:
- they smack their food
- they talk on cell phones at the dinner table (or anywhere)
- they smoke inside, although most of them are fairly considerate and it hasn't been too much of a problem (my family doesn't smoke)
- they pronounce silent e's as in villagey, Shaney, even e's that aren't there as in wishy, lunchy
- when they see a picture of Jono and I together they point to us and say, "Same same."
On the way home from the party tonight, Han Jong said I looked tired (everyone has been saying that I look tired) and gave me a hand massage -- very firm in the fleshy part of the hand between the thumb and the index finger. It kind of hurt, but it really seemed like he knew what he was doing. I sure could learn a lot if only I could speak the language :) We get by though, with smiles and lots of "O.K."
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3 comments:
hi tan,
glad to hear you made it through Thursday and didnt miss anything. good luck getting your rest day. I liked your description of the rock star effect at the girl's school.
Im off to find Andong on google earth now.
love ya, terry
hey ,
April was showing me a couple days ago what her acupuncturist was doing to her and she massaged the fleshy bit between my thumb and forefinger- very hard. the acupuncturist told her thats where stress is stored. it was quite tender, I think he also told her it was good for the organs.
huh!
the cwg meeting was good tonite, thye had all read your blog and were remarking on what a good writer you were.
"hi" from elaine, ed, colleen, Lawerence, catherine.
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