grannies and baby carriages

I think that almost every grandmother in my area has an old baby carriage to push around. Usually with a brick to weigh it down. I haven't really seen much along the lines of a normal walker here. The little grannies push around their carriages and collect cardboard and newspapers from the recycle piles. Then they stack them neatly. I'm not sure what they do after that. Maybe someone then picks them up to take them to the recycling depot. And they all know each other. Walking down the road, I sometimes see a couple of them walking together... sort of. I think it is almost a competition to see who can get the most cardboard piled up on their buggy. When they see another one down a side street they always call out to them. I often see on little granny pushing a pile of newspapers that is almost a third higher than she is (tied together). She keeps peeking around it to make sure she isn't going to run into anything as she pushes it along. When ever I see her I am worried that the whole stack is going to just topple over. She doesn't seem to worry much about it.
A lot of grannies also sell produce and such on the street corners. I often see them with a little pile of lettuce and a few other things. In some places you can see them selling some sort of root. In others they are selling grains/beans to add to your rice when you cook it. It is always small scale, what ever they are selling. Maybe from a private little garden? I also sometimes see them wandering along the parks digging up certain little plants. I'm not sure what it is they are picking, or why. To add to their salads? To sell on the corner?
The elderly in Korea seem to make up a lot of the work force in terms of the grunt jobs... cleaning. In a lot of the buildings, old women are the ones that do the cleaning. It is usually old men that are cleaning the streets. Maybe it makes them feel useful. Or maybe they are still trying to help support their families, whether it is needed or not. Or maybe no one else wants to do those jobs. Who knows.

women in Islam

Canadian woman to head major Muslim group

ISIS

Would you go to the ends of the Earth to preserve your relationships with the important people in your life? If so, the ancient Egyptian goddess, Isis, may be the source of your inner strength and perseverance.
Isis, whose sphere of influence includes romantic and maternal love, is known for her commitment to her husband, Osiris, and her son, Horus. According to Egyptian mythology, after Osiris was killed by his brother, Isis gathered the severed pieces of his body and brought him back to life long enough to conceive Horus. Her phoenix wings represent her power to resurrect the dead.
You probably don't bring things (or people) back to life, but you might credit Isis for your steadfast nature and ability to smooth over disagreements. With Isis on your side, you may be considered a generous person who is willing to use her power to help others attain happiness.
Learn more about Isis.
[results from quiz taken at gURL.com]

BLUE

Blue just happens to be my favorite color. :D

I took the "The Color Personality" quiz on gURL.com
		My personality is... blue You're a cool and collected blue... According to color psychology, you're the very picture of serenity. You're probably great at keeping calm and clear-headed when others are freaking out... Read more... What color is your personality?

Rafting

Today I went rafting for the first time. I went with 5 of my friends from work. It was so much fun!
I was so tired, this morning, though. I'm not used to getting up that early.
The bus ride there was a few hours. Then we got our life jackets, helmets and paddles and headed down to the rafts. We had a group of 4 join us, as the rafts seated 10 people (plus the guide guy, of course). We had a little bit of instruction as to the commands and what to do. Since I was a weigook (foreigner), the guide decided to do the commands in English: "Let's Go" for paddle forwards, "Let's Go Back" for paddle backwards, "STOP" for stop.
I think our rafting group was the most interesting. Lots of jokes being told and such. At one point, my friends broke out into some song and we were bouncing down a slow part of the river to that. We also stopped at one point to jump off of a huge boulder into the river. That's always fun. We got to go for a little swim at another slow part. One of the girls from the group of four ended up floating past our raft, so we had to all jump in and paddle to catch up to her. It wasn't in a dangerous part, so it wasn't a problem. At the end of the rapids, we caught a smaller bus back to where our bus, and the facilities are. While we were waiting for that, another raft that was going through the last part of the rapids, a fairly strong part, ended up tipping over. I'm not sure if they got the oars back, as the disappeared fairly quickly down the river. No one appeared to be hurt, thankfully.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of me on the raft, as it isn't exactly a safe place for a camera. This picture is near the beginning of the rapids, below where we had lunch. The river did get wider and bigger in other parts.Back at the buses, we got cleaned up and had a nice little lunch above the river.

On the bus ride home, my friends all wanted English nicknames. It is easy to name kids as it doesn't really matter, usually. But giving English nicknames to friends takes a bit more thought. After a while, though, I did manage to come up with names that I thought suited them, and that they all liked. Clockwise: Karen, Deanna, Angela (she kind of picked her own name... saying we should call her Angel... which was what started the whole English nickname thing), Me, Shannon, Melanie.

The bus ride back home took A LOT longer than the ride there. That seems to be normal for Korea. A little bit more traffic can mean a HUGE difference in travel time (add an hour or two, or more, depending on how much traffic).

We all had Dalk-kalbi for dinner: a spicy chicken and cabbage dish, cooked in the middle of the table. VERY yummy. Shannon's boyfriend met up with us when we got back and he paid for our dinner. Very nice.

MAKING PANG

From the front of a student's notebook for practicing writing English:

caterpillars...

The other day I was on my way to Itaewon to visit the chiropractor. I got off the bus to transfer to the subway. It is a little bit of a walk down and then around the corner. As I was walking along, I noticed that the sidewalk was covered in little furry caterpillars... white hairs. I thought nothing of it until I heard shrieking behind me. Then a shrieking girl went running past me. Well, she wasn't really running. It made me think of someone realizing they were standing in an ant hill and had ants going up their legs, with the sounds to go along with it. It amused me, anyway. She carried on like that all the way to the corner, where the trees (and the caterpillared part of the sidewalk) ended. And the whole way, she had her cellphone to her ear. I can't imagine what the person on the other end of the line was thinking.

sunset

After work today, I went to the Kyobo Bookstore near Jamsil Station. I had to pick out some books for a couple of my classes at LCC. When I finished, I decided to walk home. It is a bit of a walk, but nothing to strenuous, taking just under an hour. This is a little stream that I had to cross.The two large white buildings on the right are the Asan Hospital. Beyond that is the Olympic expressway along the Han river. On the left, the construction has been going on for quite a while. You can see those same cranes in the pics on the post of when I went to the Olympic Park in April.

Some Arab Humor

Abul 3abed goes to war found on The Arabist

Olmert was sitting in his office wondering how to invade Lebanon when his telephone rang.
“Hallo, Mr. Olmert!” a heavily accented voice said. “This is Abul Abed, down at the tea house in Beirut! I am callin` to tell ya dat we are officially declaring war on you, yes you!”
“Well” Olmert replied, “This is indeed important news! How big is your army?”
“Right now,” said Abul Abed, after a moments calculation “there is myself, my cousin Mustafa, me next-door-neighbor Abou khaled, and the whole team from the tea house. That makes eight!”
Olmert paused. “I must tell you Abul Abed, that I have one million men in my army waiting to move on my command.”
“Holy jeez,” said Abul Abed. “I`ll have to call ya back!”
Sure enough, the next day, Abul Abed called again. “Mr. Olmert, the war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!”
“And what equipment would that be Abul Abed?”, Olmert asked. “Well sir, we have two Mercedes 180, and a truck.”
Olmert sighed. “I must tell you Abul Abed, that I have 16,000 tanks and 14,000 armoured personnel carriers. Also I`ve increased my army to one and a half million since we last spoke.”
“Ya lateef“, said A Abul Abed, “I`ll be getting back to ya.”
Sure enough, Abul Abed rang again the next day. “Mr. Olmert , the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We modified a helicopter with a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four more neighbors have joined us as well!”
Olmert was silent for a minute then cleared his throat. “I must tell you Abul Abed that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we last spoke, I`ve increased my army to TWO MILLION!”
“Lah lah lah lah,” said Abul Abed, “I`ll have to call you back.”
Sure enough, Abul Abed called again the next day. “Mr. Olmert I am sorry to have to tell you dat we have had to call off this war.”
“I`m sorry to hear that” said Olmert. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Ya khayi, ” said Abul Abed, “we`ve all sat ourselves down and had a long chat, and come to realize that there is no way we can feed two million prisoners.”

Mapping Happiness

the article that goes with the map...