A Day in the Expat Life…
Anyone who goes overseas for long periods of time runs the risk of waking up in their exotic surroundings and finding themselves (gasp!) bored. It’s a guilty feeling, to be bored abroad. You assume you’re being idle, and not taking full advantage of your circumstances. But to live and work and set up house overseas will often lead you into a routine of sorts; its only natural to form them.
I wrote some notes on a typical day in my life as a teacher in South Korea, just to remind myself of the small cultural quirks I witness each day. I’d imagine that one person’s routine is another’s subject of fascination. I hope you like it.
Odour on my street: cherry blossoms
Odour on the intersecting street: rotting meat from the pork restaurant’s garbage
Time at which I’m woken up by the fruit vendor yelling down the street: 7:30am
Vegetables consumed: 3
Vegetables consumed that weren’t pickled or fermented: 0
Grains of rice consumed: oh, thousands
Number of times I sing “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”: 28
Number of kindergarten students who cry at the sight of me because to them, white people look terrifying: 2
Awesomeness of my high-speed Internet, on a scale of 1 to 10: 10
Number of times a zealous Korean starts an English conversation and calls me “beautiful”: 2
Number of times a zealous Korean starts an English conversation and calls me “fat”: 1 (it still stung, though)
Funniest student question of the day: “teacher, what is a “moneymaker”?”
Most awkward student question of the day: “teacher, what is a “homo”?”
English words that, when spoken in thick Korean accents, sound like “fuck you”: vaccum, backyard
Oddest flavour of gum at the 7-Eleven: lavender
Oddest flavour of dried squid at the 7-Eleven: peanut-butter-coated
Number of schoolgirls wearing Converse sneakers with their prim uniforms: every last one
Most popular place to drink in my neighbourhood: at plastic tables outside convenience stores
3 responses to A Day in the Expat Life…
Leave a Reply
Friends (64)
-
Daniel Nahabedian
Bangkok -
Eileen
-
Nora Dunn
Road Town -
poderes
Denver -
Stefan Klopp
Vancouver
Julie Schwietert Collazo said on April 23, 2008
I’m a big fan of telling the tiny details of daily experience and I love lists, so I really enjoyed your post!
Hal Amen said on April 23, 2008
Yes! It’s amazing how, despite all its peculiarities (which you’ve so excellently cataloged!), Korea can start to feel enough like home that you get bored. When you think about it, though, that’s a pretty cool thing, becoming so thoroughly integrated into a foreign culture. Just remember that once you leave you’re going to miss those pickled vegetables (though perhaps not the peanut-butter squid).
Jon Brandt said on April 23, 2008
Cool post. I’ll be teaching in Ecuador next year. I wonder what I’ll start to notice along the way.