Dear Judith,
Exposure to a new culture is a wonderful thing: the language, the culture, even the food. Tutoring is a great excuse to learn more about another country. In my case, that country is Korea.
It was a regular morning at preschool about a month ago. Belle's mom dropped her off and stayed around for a little bit. Out of the blue, she asked me about tutoring her 2nd grade son, Ricky. No idea what I was getting myself into, I agreed. Communication proved difficult and it took at least 10 minutes of negotiating a price.
The Apa (Father) is in Korea, and Belle and Ricky are the only children. I'm still not sure if the Oma (Mother) works, but they live in a nice apartment complex with a generator and a swimming pool.
You might know Ricky--he was in 1st grade at SDA last year. He goes to SCS now, but everyone seems to remember him. He's very hyper and very unfocused. The first couple of days, I wondered if it was worth the money I was getting paid. Slowly, things got better in that area.
Every night, Oma makes me dinner. One of the nights, she made me hota, which is like a pancake filled with sugar. It was amazing, so I was left with a false sense of security about my dinners. Later that week, she made me another pancake-type thing. I timidly put the fork to my mouth, chewed and swallowed. I closed my eyes and prayed for the strength to eat all that was on my plate. I took another bite, and looked down at my plate. There, staring up at me, was a cute little tentacle with white suckers. It took all that I had to not immediately vomit. I stopped eating it, felt like a terrible guest, and thanked my angels when she took the plate away.
After that, I told her that vegetarian meant all meat, including seafood, dinners got better...kind-of. There was still the night that she fed me a donut, but I prefered that to octopus. A few days ago, she gave me an onion bagel with peanut butter and jelly and a fried egg. I did not eat it, and again, felt terrible. Last week, I was eating noodles, and I made the mistake of asking what something on the table was. Ricky informed me that it was squid, and asked if I wanted any. When I declined,
he pushed the matter, finally dropping some into my noodles. With a "plop", my dinner was over.
Tonight, they took me out to eat at the buffet at World Resort. Almost everything was seafood. I walked around, hoping to find something that was vegetarian. I've never been so happy to see a salad bar. Ricky offered me some soup, which he promised was just corn chowder. I was just about to eat it when Belle found an octopus tentacle in hers. I'm so thankful that I hadn't eaten any yet.
Despite all of the strange foods that I've been introduced to, I love this family. They are so warm and welcoming, and I feel at home the second I walk into the apartment. They're attempting to teach me some Korean, though I'm failing miserably. Ricky is calming down, Oma and I are improving in our communication, but one moment tops them all. After tutoring one day, Belle kept looking at me and saying, "Oni, Oni." Ricky looked at me, smiled, and said, "That means sister."
I may be thousands of miles away from my house, but this is my home.
Exposure to a new culture is a wonderful thing: the language, the culture, even the food. Tutoring is a great excuse to learn more about another country. In my case, that country is Korea.
It was a regular morning at preschool about a month ago. Belle's mom dropped her off and stayed around for a little bit. Out of the blue, she asked me about tutoring her 2nd grade son, Ricky. No idea what I was getting myself into, I agreed. Communication proved difficult and it took at least 10 minutes of negotiating a price.
The Apa (Father) is in Korea, and Belle and Ricky are the only children. I'm still not sure if the Oma (Mother) works, but they live in a nice apartment complex with a generator and a swimming pool.
You might know Ricky--he was in 1st grade at SDA last year. He goes to SCS now, but everyone seems to remember him. He's very hyper and very unfocused. The first couple of days, I wondered if it was worth the money I was getting paid. Slowly, things got better in that area.
Every night, Oma makes me dinner. One of the nights, she made me hota, which is like a pancake filled with sugar. It was amazing, so I was left with a false sense of security about my dinners. Later that week, she made me another pancake-type thing. I timidly put the fork to my mouth, chewed and swallowed. I closed my eyes and prayed for the strength to eat all that was on my plate. I took another bite, and looked down at my plate. There, staring up at me, was a cute little tentacle with white suckers. It took all that I had to not immediately vomit. I stopped eating it, felt like a terrible guest, and thanked my angels when she took the plate away.
After that, I told her that vegetarian meant all meat, including seafood, dinners got better...kind-of. There was still the night that she fed me a donut, but I prefered that to octopus. A few days ago, she gave me an onion bagel with peanut butter and jelly and a fried egg. I did not eat it, and again, felt terrible. Last week, I was eating noodles, and I made the mistake of asking what something on the table was. Ricky informed me that it was squid, and asked if I wanted any. When I declined,
he pushed the matter, finally dropping some into my noodles. With a "plop", my dinner was over.Tonight, they took me out to eat at the buffet at World Resort. Almost everything was seafood. I walked around, hoping to find something that was vegetarian. I've never been so happy to see a salad bar. Ricky offered me some soup, which he promised was just corn chowder. I was just about to eat it when Belle found an octopus tentacle in hers. I'm so thankful that I hadn't eaten any yet.
Despite all of the strange foods that I've been introduced to, I love this family. They are so warm and welcoming, and I feel at home the second I walk into the apartment. They're attempting to teach me some Korean, though I'm failing miserably. Ricky is calming down, Oma and I are improving in our communication, but one moment tops them all. After tutoring one day, Belle kept looking at me and saying, "Oni, Oni." Ricky looked at me, smiled, and said, "That means sister."
I may be thousands of miles away from my house, but this is my home.
1 comment:
Ricky. . .I love that guy.
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