And the Not as Awesome

Okay so far things have been pretty amazing. While, they continue to be mostly positive, I'm allowing myself one post for the less than awesome.

The water here is brown. I'm talking brown brown, like I thought it was iced tea the first time they served it brown. Apparently it's because the water out in the Naju countryside has to be boiled first so that it's drinkable. Also they need to put iodine tablets in it. Delicious.

Also I'm pretty sure that when its very hot out my grandmother just sleeps naked in our living room. And by pretty sure, I mean that on my way to the bathroom last night I almost tripped over a very naked halmonee.

The common response when people here find out I'm adopted seems to be, "WHY?" I feel that this must be amusing to them when I try to answer in my limited Korean. It sounds a lot like, "agee (baby), ohMA (mom), upsighYO (not have), and a lot of smiling on my part and grunting on theirs.

Today, my host sister (who I love), and I went to town. We traveled from our house to my host school. All together the trip looks something like this. Walk for 15-20 minutes in the 100 degree weather. Start to get a migraine. Load into the bus with a card I don't have and am still not sure how to obtain. (My sister paid). Get off the bus at the edge of town. Make forty two left and right turns for approximately another twenty minutes. Climb two flights of stairs and arrive at my school a hot mess. Enter the school and find out I have no appropriate footwear. Borrow footwear which is size Godzilla. Walk around school to a constant litany of Korean, none of which I understand. Have middle school awkwardness flashbacks.

Then walk straight along the river. Nearly pass out from heat exhaustion. Catch a different bus back to the general area of my house and gear up for another twenty minute walk. Sweet.

I love my family an absurd amount but the mom works often and my sister is in school. I think it might be more of a homebody family. When I asked my host sister what she does on the weekends she said...study? Sleep?

There is (as of my current knowledge), one coffee shop in Naju which is located behind the hospital outside of town. There are a couple bars which are in front of these apartment complexes, also outside of town. I love having my own space but sometimes I wish I was a part of the household so I wouldn't feel as guilty leaving the house to spend time in my room.

Okay hopefully this will be the last slightly negative post. I'm off to practice Korean (or more likely watch American TV shows.)