One week down…and then some

Well, I’ve been in Copán for just about 1 week. I’ve had 20 hours of Spanish lessons, eaten lots of refriend beans and tortillas, and been awoken before the sun rose by roosters every day. It has been exciting. The Spanish is coming along. At the moment I am pretty much restricted to the present tense, which while it seems limiting, provides enough challenges.

I am living with a local family. I have my own private room and bathroom, and they feed me three times a day. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

So far I haven’t done a lot of extra activities. My lessons are in the morning. Starting next week I’ll be going to an orphange in the aftnernoons. That was a big part of my life in Korea, and helped me pick up the language much faster. I’m looking forward to what that will look like here.

As far as pictures go, you can see some of them here:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317323&l=7d3bd&id=5739740

I’m working on posting other pictures to a more public site but most of the time, it goes frustratingly slow!

I make no apoligies

Contrary to what you may think, I am still alive.  I am also still in Seoul.  I just haven’t been blogging so muc here. I have been doing it here.  Also, I feel like there hasn’t been a whole lot of things to say over the past fe months.  My life has been pretty consistent recently.

Anyway, I do want to spend some time talking about the recent protests here in Seoul.  Perhaps you heard about them.  If not, read this.  It will bring you up to speed in a very fair way.  The most recent news is that the South Korean presdident has agreed to some of the citizen’s demands.

The recent protests mentioned have been quite a spectacle.  I have dozens and dozens of pictures that will eventually make it on my my flikr site.  I’m also working on a video to share some scenes from a recent march and to translate some of the picket signs I collected.  Look for that in the next few days or so.

Anyway, comments make me feel loved, and probably encourage me to write more. (hint, hint)

A Kids Song…

Do yourself a favor and click this link. It’s a flash animation of a popular Korean kids song. If you happen to be studying Korean, you’ll even be able to find a bunch of other songs on the Yahoo site. They are great study tools. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to get the gist of the meaning just from watching, but the translation is important for the cultural insight I picked up today.
My little brother is a curly-curly haired brat.

He only has one true name, but he has a few nicknames

Mommy, she calls him honey pigDaddy, he calls him toadI call him prince

Which one is right? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.

It’s important to know that this song is written from the perspective of a big sister. When I first saw this, I wasn’t 100% sure of all the words, but I new enough to guess based on the pictures. And the last nickname I assumed to be prince, and not princess. This of course makes sense to my American mind, where sibling rivalry is the norm, especially between two young children of the opposite sex. I’m not sure what it says about Korean culture… if it reinforces the rather misogynistic status quo, or if it is just a positive example of sibling love. I an imagine the silly kids song in English that would have the same happy big sister thinking she was so clever to call her little brother princess. ( I should point out that the link I sent you is a different version from the one I saw, where the boy really does look dressed like a princess during that line.)

The second verse repeats the first half, but goes on to elaborate just how special this little brother is:

He’s a healthy “honey pig” that eats well

He’s a kind hearted and happy (plump) toad

He’s a wise and brave prince

Which one is right? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.

I actually didn’t know about this second verse until today which really prompted these thoughts. Again, I’m not sure what it really says about Koreans, but I am struck by what I see as glaring differences in what an American English song would say.

In other news, this week is the big biennial “Mass Games” put on by my school. Pictures to come sometime this weekend.