Fan Death and Busy Weekends

I learned something new from one of the TPs at school this week, and I thought I’d relay it (I also did some research to flesh out how the whole thing started).  In Korea there is a very widespread belief in something they call “fan death”.  Basically, Koreans say that if you leave a fan on at night with all your windows closed it can kill you.  Scientifically the idea didn’t seem to have a lot of merit to me, so I did some research to see if there was even a hint of truth behind it.  Only one study was released on the subject, and it was done in South Korea several years before, by the government.  One article I read on the subject claimed that this study came out after an unsuccessful government campaign to get people to use less electricity in their homes.  The theory is that this study was released as a new method of getting people to use less electricity, by not leaving their fans running all night.  However, it is a very vehement belief for a lot of Koreans, so taking up the other side and saying that sleeping with a fan on is probably not harmful just seems to make people angry.  Moving on.

The last two weekends have been really eventful, which is great because they've both been amazing (and I've got another great one coming up) but at the same time it leaves me no time to talk to friends back home or post on my blog.

Two weeks ago I went to an orphanage in Anyang with Amanda and some other assorted friends. It was an orphanage run by the same people as Amanda's adoption agency (if I haven't mentioned it before, Amanda is Korean but she was adopted as an infant and grew up in Oklahoma, hence she speaks very little Korean). We met a bunch of little kids. When we first got there they said that they had too many volunteers that day already and we couldn't visit the kids, but then they changed their minds. We headed upstairs and some of the older kids were sort of roaming the halls and a few of them played with us. Pretty quickly we went into one of the rooms that contained all the three and four year olds. They were absolutely adorable. When we came in they had been watching TV, but they immediately came over to show us their half-broken toys and play with us. One boy bee-lined straight for me, wordlessly plopped down in my lap, and went back to watching TV. Then he started stroking my face and calling me "Oma" which means mommy. Uh, seriously, break my heart kid.

We went in and helped feed the one year olds during lunch time, though I mostly stood in the hallway and played with the older kids who were still roaming. By older I mean like six or seven. None of these children spoke a single word of English, by the way. Even the three year old who sat with me was talking about the Thomas show on TV, but he didn't know that Thomas was called Thomas and kept calling him "hamatchita" which is what they call Thomas in Korean, I guess. The others fed the babies, but I've never been big on children when they're that small, so I just hung back in the hallway. Then one of the little girls kept staring at me and reaching for me, so Holly called me in and I sat with the girl in my lap. She was adorable, and really only wanted to see my necklace, which she kept trying to pull straight off my throat. It was just an old chain with Sam's old nametag on it. Then she stopped trying to do that, and any time she thought I wasn't paying attention would try to jam one of her hands down my shirt. Fyfe was laughing at me the whole time, and so was Greco (two of the Air Force guys who came with us to help translate since Fyfe is a Korean linguist).

We left after lunch because it was naptime. On the way out we stopped at a bulletin board with babies pictures on it and little descriptions, and Ellie (Amanda's TP) started reading them to us. They were pictures of babies that had just been abandoned, with descriptions of where they had been. Every single one of us (except the boys) started crying. When Ellie (who is the sweetest, most gentle woman) got to one where the baby had been abandoned in a toilet, she got so angry and embarrassed that she punched the bulletin board and wouldn't read any more. None of us really wanted her to anyway. Then we stood outside awkwardly and silently for about ten minutes and cried.

Then it was Shannon's birthday that night, so we had a big barbeque and weekend out in Songtan with all the guys. Holly had revealed that week to us girls that she is pregnant and is maybe going home to the states in a few months to have the baby and then wait for her husband to finish his time in Korea and come join her at home. So she doesn't work at Maple Bear anymore. We found that out just before the party, so after having a great time at Holly and Chris's house, we went out without them. It was a pretty good night. We all came back to Holly's and fell asleep on the floor, then got up the next day, walked a dog on base (Greco volunteers at the shelter on base) and got some Taco Bell. Seriously, they are going to have trouble tearing me away from that. Then we played some soccer and hung out in the sun. The weather here has been beautiful here lately.

Last weekend was basically Nacho's going away weekend (he finished his time here a few days ago, and is now back in the states on a month's leave). Nacho is Cally's boyfriend, and one of the central guys from the air force that we usually hang out with. He's also hilarious and we're all going to miss him a lot, because he was always the life of the party. We went out to base on Friday after work and they got us passes to spend the weekend there. We had already bought tickets to go white water rafting with all the guys up in Northeast South Korea (that's a lot of cardinal directions really close together), so we left Saturday morning at 6:30. One three-hour bus ride later, we got there, and got out on the water. It was really fun. One boat was Fyfe, Greco, Nacho, Cally, Amanda, Winge, Doc, and me. Doc may sound like a dwarf, but there is no Snow White around, and he is from deep Alabama and has the accent to prove it. It was my first time meeting him and he's actually pretty hilarious. Winge is dating Amanda now (as of this weekend).

The river was fun, and we got soaked, mostly because we jumped in. I'm an idiot and when I jumped in to swim I freaked out for a second because the water was sticking to my eyes, and droplets were clouding my vision, but then I realized that I had jumped in with my brand new sunglasses on, like a moron. Don't worry- they're unharmed. We swam for a bit, and rafted a lot. Really we were just acting ridiculous the whole time. We had chants that we did any time we came up to any other boats, and a war cry. We also loudly sang Aerosmith "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for most of the ride, and for some reason none of us can remember we at one point softly murmur-sang "On Top of Spaghetti" to one another. The whole time was hilarious and I am really glad I went.

Of course, we went out that night. Shannon came out and we went to our first Handsome Boy's Night, which is where the guys all get together and watch movies and get drunk. But they call themselves the Handsome Boys, so there you go with the name. Then we went out to watch Chris, Holly's husband, play at the local bar we frequent. Holly couldn't come because bars in Korea are super smoky and she has to incubate baby Baldwin (their last name) so she opted out. We all had a great night, but I don't think any of us girls actually spent any of the time together, because we'd all made tons of new friends among the guys that day. It was a great night.

Then the next day Holly, Shannon, Amanda and I went to Seoul in the afternoon with a few of the guys (Fyfe, Greco, Chris, and Doug) and met up with two of our TPs (the same two from the orphanage, Ellie and Faye). There was a huge festival for Buddah's birthday, which is this Friday. People were making little lotus lanterns and all sorts of crafts, and there was a bunch of traditional Korean dancing. We went to a Buddhist temple and took pictures. It was all really cool, but we were all exhausted. We took the fast train home, but it was so full that we basically all ended up falling asleep in a pile on the floor of the cafe car.

Monday was Nacho's official going away roast, as in Comedy Central style roast. Then Cally showed this 30 minute video she made for him made up of pictures and videos she'd taken while dating him. One of the great clips of video was a video of me speaking to Nacho entirely in Spanish while he refused to speak Spanish back to me. I don't remember it, mostly because it was a long time ago and I'd never seen the video before, but it was funny.

This weekend for my birthday (which was Tuesday) we are all going up to an island off the coast of Incheon called Muido. We have a three-day weekend because of Buddha's birthday, so Shannon and I are going up Friday morning and everyone else will come up Friday afternoon after the guys get off work. I'm really excited about it.

Last note: it looks like I'm resigning with my school for another year which means I will be coming home for two weeks in August (probably the first two weeks) and then I'll be back here until August 2011 for more adventures.