I just spent the past 45 minutes writing about our adventures with our landlords (complete with Korean characters and everything!), and for some reason it has disappeared! Oh the joys of technology!!!
I'll make this one short... Last night our landlords showed up to fix our dripping pipe under the kitchen sink. This is just one of the numerous times that we have had our landlords in our apartment, helping us with something... usually it's the hot water. They arrived, he with a paper bag of tools to fix the leak, and she with her usual enthusiasm. He got right down to work, she came and joined us on the floor. We were watching a movie (Beowulf) and had set ourselves upon the floor (sadly it's more comfortable than our couch!) in front of my computer. I had my knitting out and she was so intrigued. I brought out my socks, mittens, scarves, and hats that I have finished since arriving here... she was amazed. It's funny, I get so much attention from the ajumas (grandmothers) of Korea when I bring out my knitting. If I'm on the subway, the ajumas will invite me to sit in the seats designated for the elderly, disabled or pregnant. They watch, enthralled, as I knit socks, mittens, or hats, it's pretty cool! Well, our landlady LOVED my knitted items.
After the drip was fixed our landlords told us how old they were (I think they were really just fishing to find out how old we are!) He is "seven zero" (minus a year because he's Korean - you are a year old when you are born here) and she is "six two". Both of them work out - he can do 70 push ups and 50 sit ups. She works out at the gym... at the end of the conversation we even got to feel our landlord's arm muscles... madness I tell you!! All of this conversation happened in broken English and Korean, but we were able to understand the gist of it.
I must say that living here certainly doesn't leave us bored... it's not very often you get to check out your landlord's pipes!
I will leave you with a bit more Korean culture.... this gem was introduced to me by some grade 5 students. I kind of like it, but I have no idea what it's about! Enjoy....
~Jen
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