lost in translation, or is it subtitles?

I forgot one of the funniest things that happened to us over the weekend. They had a movie theater on the 10th floor of the Lotte Department Store which is connected to the Lotte Hotel. We decided we wanted to try to see a movie on Saturday night. Most of the American movies are in English with Korean subtitles. So after I returned from shopping and Ken from golf, we went to see what was on and what time it started. We had planned to eat on the 9th floor at TGI Fridays, so it was close (and easy).

We looked at all the movie posters and decided to go see the movie "Babel". It has Brad Pitt in it and I had heard it was about a man whose wife was shot while they were travelling overseas. That was basically all we knew about the movie. Our only other choice was Rocky Balboa and some children's movie. Everything else was Korean. You take a number from a machine and sit and wait until your number comes up. There were probably 12 counters, so you can imagine the amount of people at this theater. You go to the counter when your number comes up, tell them the movie and the time and you get your ticket. So we got our tickets and returned to our room to get ready for dinner and a movie.

After dinner, we headed upstairs to the theater and to our seats. You have assigned seats. The movie began. The first scenes were set in the desert (I think it might have been Morocco)and the characters were speaking another language. Normally you would have subtitles in English at the bottom of the screen but since this was Korea and the characters were not speaking Korean - the subtitles were in Korean. Do you follow me so far? We weren't too worried at this point and it was fairly easy to follow the plot of what was happening. Soon afterward, they switched to Brad Pitt and English with Korean subtitles which was good.

But it doesn't last for long. Brad Pitt and his wife have a Hispanic maid at home watching their children. Most of what she says is in Spanish and it only gets worse when she takes the children across the border into Mexico for her son's wedding. So now the Spanish the characters are speaking is subtitled in Korean again, not English. Are you still following?

It gets worse. Once in awhile, they switch back to Brad and his English speaking companions. Then all of a sudden, a Japanese man and his wild deaf teenage daughter are brought into the picture. Not only do you have subtitles in Korean for the Japanese words, but also for the deaf daughter's sign language. These would normally be in English. We could figure out the connection between Morocco and the Hispanic maid to Brad Pitt but not the Japanese man and his deaf child.

Finally after 45 minutes, we leave. I am sure it is a good movie and is probably tied into the story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible. If I remember correctly, God made everyone speak a different language so they couldn't come together to build a tower to Heaven. Which would make this story doubly ironic, since we weren't able to read the subtitles of a movie named "Babel".

getting out of Okpo for the weekend

Our Busan trip turned out to be great fun. Ken and I took the 5:00 ferry and were picked up by T.Y. and taken to the Lotte Hotel, where we stayed. It is quite an impressive hotel. I know Ken has seen and stayed in numerous hotels in foreign countries, but I was impressed nonetheless. We were on the 29th floor and I took a couple of pictures looking out the window. Keep in mind that most of the tall buildings are apartments.




We then met T.Y., his wife and Mr. Kong, who works with T.Y., for a traditional Korean restaurant meal. It was the first time I have sat on the floor since I have been here. T.Y.'s wife did not speak English, so we did alot of smiling and nodding and sometimes her husband would translate for us. They have 3 children and one of them had just graduated from the university that day.

I cannot adequately describe our meal but I will try. Maybe in time I will be able to explain more of what I ate but it all happened so fast!! They brought us a small plate, along with a cup of tea and beer.

Then the meal began in earnest.

I told Ken that I wished I had counted the many different items they brought out. They are all on small plates and you just help yourself. I guess the Koreans have never heard of "double dipping" because you just take what you want with your chopsticks you are eating with. There were a few things I either didn't get around to or chose not to eat, but I think I ate eel, seaweed, pumpkin soup, soybean paste soup, Korean pancakes, and who knows what else. Poor Ken probably had to try more things than I did because T.Y. kept passing plates to him to try. Of course there was kimchi, different noodles, and vegetables. There also was the spiciest ribs I have ever eaten. They brought some scissors to the table so that it could be cut off the bone to be eaten with your chopsticks. I believe I started sweating after eating that (in addition to the fact that the floor was heated). T.Y.'s wife had begun sweating earlier on with her quick eating and continuous shuffling of plates around the table so I didn't feel so bad. I couldn't imagine being the dishwasher at a place like that. All in all, it was quite a "fulfilling" experience.

Ken met T.Y. in the lobby around 8:00 the next morning and they headed off to play golf for the day. This time in Busan I was prepared with maps and my itinerary for the day. I took the subway to the Gubje Market, or the International Market. Basically there are streets and alleys that have numerous booths set up. Motor scooters come through periodically, so you need to watch out. Some shops are permanent and some aren't. It is sort of divided into areas like stationary, linens, hats, shoes....you get the idea. I had the best time exploring everything. Since we are going to Shanghai this week, I didn't buy too much but I did get some pottery pieces. I am sure I will return to the area many times during my stay here. The only area I didn't venture too far into was the food area. I guess the meal the night before was too fresh in my stomach and the hanging pig heads (really and truly!) weren't on my shopping list. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I will next time.

Speaking of food, my culinary delights for the day were very American. I started in the morning at Starbucks for a muffin and a latte. Price was very comparable to U.S. Starbucks prices.

Then I progressed to McDonald's for a "cheeseburger set" - a small cheeseburger, fries and a diet Coke. It was only 3,000 won ($3) which wasn't too bad.


I met Ken back at the hotel and we elected to go to TGI Fridays for supper. He was quite tired from his day of golf. I will elaborate on golfing in Korea another time.

After an Egg McMuffin (actually 2 for Ken with hash browns) we headed home to Okpo on the ferry after a full weekend.

to busan/pusan

Ken and I are heading to Busan this afternoon on the ferry. We are meeting the agent T.Y. and his wife for dinner this evening. Then tomorrow morning Ken and T.Y. will go play golf somewhere in Pusan. I am roaming the city. Hopefully I will be able to navigate the subway much better this time. I guess the worst that could happen is that you go the wrong direction, you get off and go the other way.

I am still a little confused about what to call Busan. I looked it up online and it stated that in 2000 Korea issued a revised romanisation of the Korean language. Apparently this was last done in 1984 but there were some changes they wanted to make in regards to pronunciation of some Korean consonants. That is about all I could understand without indepth studying. So I think it is to be called Busan now. I think. Anyway, it is the 2nd largest city in Korea with 4 million people. I think Houston has 4 million people but is definitely spread out much more than Busan. I copied a map so that you can hopefully see where Okpo is in relation to the rest of Korea. Look at the lower right hand corner and you can see where I wrote the word Okpo on a little island southwest of Pusan. You can see why it is closer to take a ferry across the water. They are in the process of building a bridge from Geoje Island (where we live) but it will not be finished for several more years. If you drive to Busan, you have to go west, go over a small bridge and then go back east. I know the map is little, so it may or may not be clear.



We are going to stay Saturday night as well and return on Sunday sometime. The tenative plan is to maybe go to a movie and out to eat at some western style restaurant. Maybe McDonald's. You might think I am kidding but I am not!!

english in okpo

Once in awhile, I will be walking around Okpo and see signs that don't quite make sense to me. Maybe it is common to keep beer and fish in a bank, but I don't think I will open up an account at that bank (even if the fish is fresh!).






I hope you don't think I am making fun of the English signs in Okpo, but you sometimes have to laugh at some of them. However, I am sure I couldn't translate Korean half as good (if I knew Korean).

These pictures are just a few of the ones I see around town. I'll try to get some more to show you. I sometimes get looks on the street whenever I am taking some of the photos. People probably wonder why I am taking a picture of a sign.





I saved the best for last.

korean brush stroke class

I took my first Korean brush stroke class this morning. The classes are held at the Foreigners Club (see previous entry) - you either go from 9-12 or 1-3. It is taught by a Mr. Park - a little Korean man with thick black glasses. He speaks some English but I have found that he doesn't always answer your questions. So I think he either doesn't always understand you or doesn't know how to answer you or both. Anyway, the class is very laid back. You pay 90,000 won for 4 classes and 70,000 won for your initial supplies (which I will go over later). Instruction can depend on how many people come to class that day. We had 6 people this morning including me. Everyone is at a different place in their instruction, so he comes around to everyone and works with them a little at a time.



He will sketch (outline really) what you are to paint. Everyone learns how to paint pink peonies first. Some of the students draw their own pictures, usually copying a scene from a book. I saw a scene with a cow in it that I eventually want to learn how to do. But back to the peonies.... It is basically a type of watercolor and some of the techniques remind me of tole painting. The trickiest part to me is judging how wet your brush is. But I had a blast - I think this will become a long term thing for me.




You are provided with a long strip of black felt that you lay on the table. Then he gives you a long strip of rice paper that you weigh down on either ends with these little plastic black rods. He also gives you the colors and the mixing tray. We also have a black ink pad - not a traditional ink pad - but one that you add water and make the black ink by rubbing it with another black rod. I know I haven't been clear, so I will try to show you in the pictures.



You also have 2 paintbrushes, one large and one small, that you roll up in a little reed carryall. The only things I had to purchase were a water pail (which is kind of cute and ingenious) and a plastic tube with a shoulder strap to carry your artwork in. When you are through for the day, you roll your paper up in the black felt and put it in the tube.

first ferry ride

I had my first ferry adventure out of Okpo yesterday. Brenda and I took the ferry to Pusan (or Busan - it is spelled either way). We weren't too prepared - all we had was a list of the ferry times and a couple of places to possibly go in Pusan. Unfortunately, it was also quite cold and windy but we pressed on. The ferry terminal is only a 10-15 minute walk from my apartment. I met Brenda there.

The ferry isn't cheap -19,200 won each way (approximately $20 each way). But it is fairly nice - thankfully you sat inside with comfortable seats. Not knowing how I would feel, I chose to sit in the middle section of the boat. Even though it was a bit choppy at times, I had no problems with seasickness. I wanted to look out the window more, but was afraid I would get sick. It only took around 45 minutes and we were walking out to get a taxi (what Ken suggested). It will become obvious later what we should have done at that time....!

The cab took us to the Lotte Hotel, where the Lotte Department Store is attached to it. The hotel lobby is beautiful and you walk through some doors into the entry to the department store. We were a little early and had to wait outside while the salespeople had some sore of pep talk and did their morning stretches (to music of course). Then the doors finally opened. The store definitely wasn't a Penneys, or even a Dillard's or Macy's. More like a Saks or a Nordstroms. Every designer name you could think of was posted. We decided to go to the top floor (9th) and work our way down to see what was there.

Even though a group of people came in with us, it felt like we were the only ones there. Kind of on display. I told Brenda I felt like the President walking through the store, the way everyone was just standing at their posts with the "presidential-like" music playing. Then the music changed and everyone seemed to be getting to business and moving around. We decided that maybe it was their national anthem or something. I will have to ask someone.

The 9th floor had restaurants and various other floors housed clothing and housewares. Some of the bed linens were just beautiful. Anyway, after looking around we returned to the 9th floor for lunch. We decided on TGI Fridays since it was something we couldn't normally get. They also had a Starbucks, a Krispy Kreme and a Pizza Hut along with various Korean and other Asian restaurants.

While we were eating, we saw a couple come in that were possibly American (I have found that just because they aren't Korean, they aren't necessarily American). It turns out they were Americans that had been there for 3 years teaching English. Anyway, they gave us a suggestion on where to go and told us to just take the subway. Having lived in Paris and navigated their system just fine, I told Brenda we would be okay since we had a subway map. However, it wasn't that easy. The signs weren't very clear and the machine that you got your tokens from had no English on them. Brenda saw a line of people scanning their resident cards (which we have) and getting a token. Luckily we didn't stand in that line - we later decided that the elderly got their tokens free in that line!! An older couple that spoke some English came up to us and helped us get a token and on our way. We were felling pretty smart at that point.

The area we went to was called Na Dam Song - it had recognizable shops and alot of street stalls too. We definitely want to go back to that area - it was more to our liking than the Lotte. Like I said, it was soooo cold, so we ducked into Dunkin Donuts for some coffee and a doughnut before we hit the subway again. We finally figured where to go and got off where we were supposed to. But when we emerged from the underground, no ferry terminal was in sight. We started walking with coffee in hand toward the harbor area. We were a bit nervous when we saw the International Ferry (NOT where we needed) but after walking a few blocks more we came to where we got off the original ferry. Like I said before, we should have looked at our surroundings more when we had left the ferry in the morning because we couldn't figure out where to buy our ticket. After much motioning and such, we got a ferry worker to backtrack us back to a building we had passed to get tickets. By then we had thrown away our coffee and were trotting a bit. The ferry left a couple minutes after we got on. I realize I had neglected to tell you that it was the last ferry leaving for Okpo. It wasn't the end of the world if we had missed it though - we could take another ferry in an hour for another nearby town. Ken or Norm would have had to pick us up though.

We had quite a day but hopefully next time I will be able to tell you about my purchases. The only thing we bought was the food we ate!!

the foreigners club

It is a miserable day outside today. Very rainy and foggy - I can't even see the mountain across the bay from our apartment.


I went to the Foreigners Club - http://www.gfra.net/home - this morning for the women’s coffee. After arriving here, I have realized that the website is a little outdated, especially with the activities. But I enjoyed looking at it prior to arriving. The Foreigners Club is housed in a building right down the hill from me. There are various businesses housed in the building. There is the Okpo Mart, which is a small supermarket that I go to pick up milk and other staples if I need them for the week. The Epicurean is a bakery that sells fresh baked bread and baguettes. They also have a changing array of refrigerated American and European food items like different cheeses, salami, etc. I bought some sour cream there one time. There is also the DSME store (DSME stands for Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering – more on that another time). It also sells different food items – I have bought things like flour tortillas, Crisco (to bake with) and dill pickles. You definitely pay a price for these items – around $3 for a package of 12 tortillas to $6-7 for a block of cheese. But it is worth it some of the time.


Back to the businesses. There is also a small wine store, a daycare, a barber and a few other places I don’t know about. And the Foreigners Club. It is basically a big room with a bar on one end and a kitchen on the other end. They have a lunch menu that Ken and I have frequented a few times. It can be a bit British at times with curries and mincemeat pie. However, we did have the fish and chips once and it was good. They also are open in the evenings but we have not gone during that time. The coffee morning is not a real organized sort of thing. You just donate a dollar (1,000 won) and sometimes different women bring something baked. It seems to vary on who is there week to week. I have enjoyed meeting a variety of women. Today I mainly talked to 2 women from Sugar Land (!!!) and another woman from Germany. I would say that Americans are usually the minority, British and Norwegians seem to be the norm. There is also a small library of books in the back that you can use. I think you just bring one and then you can take one – the honor system I guess.


Tomorrow morning I will be heading back for my first Korean brushstroke class. I will let you know how that goes!