Posts Tagged ‘immigration’

YG United! Even though this was technically last week, I didn't have this picture then ^^;

Remember that cold that manifested itself last Saturday? Well, by Sunday, it turned into the real deal: runny nose, cough, etc . . .  Fortunately, the family I sit with at church was also struck by “fluctuating weather syndrome” so I didn’t feel so bad when my body decided it was necessary to sneeze at awkward times. Afterwards, they even took me to lunch, since they knew the perfect sick food! It was a type of noodle soup that reminded me of soleoptal- a mild soup with pieces of meat but without much flavor, so you have to add salt and rice- but with noodles.

Monday was quite uneventful besides the attractive consequences of a head cold during my two hour history class . . . I was late, however, since the cross walk outside the apartment is only 20 seconds long and occurs every 3 minutes or so and I ended up missing the bus I was supposed to take. I thought about jay-walking, but there was too much traffic so I decided against it . . . I actually almost got hit by a taxi last week! I don’t know why, but he chose to start driving when I was in the middle of the street as opposed to the other 20 people I was crossing with, and ended up bumping into me. Turns out it could’ve been a lot worse! Yesterday, a friend told me that another exchange student (who lives in the dorms) was hit by a taxi and ended up being flipped over the top of the car and didn’t regain consciousness until the next day! The last he heard, she had to get surgery since she had some hemorrhaging on her brain, but as far as he knew, she was going to be okay . . . Man, I can’t even imagine what her parents are thinking right now . . .

Me and my foster mom <3

On a lighter note, on Tuesday, I met the foster mom who took care of me for the four months before I came to America when I was a baby. Okay, back up, so the meeting was supposed to be at the adoption agency’s building. I thought, seeing as I was told to take a bus, it only take a half-hour or so . . .  Nope! It took one and a half hours to get there and another 2 hours to get home. In any case, I was late, and my foster mom had just left. SoOoOo, the social worker decided to make my time worthwhile and showed me around. Up until about 1980, they were hosting up to 200 children from infants to young children awaiting adoption. Now, they rarely get 100- right now there are about 40 babies in the program, thanks to abortion and a better Korean economy. Three of the four buildings used to house kids-including the one I stayed in- have been closed down and a playground for the older kids has also become nonexistent. They are, however, receiving a larger percentage of mentally ill babies since the general age of the mothers has decreased (the theory is that they don’t know how to take care of themselves while pregnant). In any case, I got to see the four babies staying at the agency right now, though I had to keep my distance as to not get them sick . . . It made me so sad though, since they were absolutely ADORABLE!! The other babies are in foster care right now, most likely getting fat before heading off to their new families. Haha~

Anyways, as I was getting ready to leave, the social worker found out my foster mom was only a few blocks away, so I was able to meet her after all! It’s funny, the first thing both she and the social worker asked me was if my eyes were okay . . .  apparently I had a lazy eye or something and they’ve been worried about it for the last 20 years! (For your information, I’ve never had any problems with my eyes and according to my parents, I was fine when they picked me up at the airport ^^;) My foster mom gave me a stack of 16 baby pictures and told me she wants me to come to her home to meet her family and to make me food . . . I guess I was really small when I left the agency, but my foster mom made me fat- my mom even said that when I came to the States I was “a chunky little thing”!

Korean melons . . . okay taste, STRANGE texture o_O

Since the bus ride home was un-expectantly long and cold, I ended up staying home from class on Wednesday . . . Yes, I spent my St. Patrick’s Day sleeping, eating, aaand sleeping some more . . . I did get a a shiny new motherboard for my computer though! Over the past week, it had been refusing to start consistently, and by Sunday evening, it refused to start at all- the motherboard had had enough. Fortunately, it was still under warranty, so I got a shiny new one installed free! Anyways, while all I wanted was a cup of tea and a bed, my host mom insisted I take four different kinds of medicine and wanted to make me eat more food, turn up the thermostat, and sleep with another blanket. I did convince her that I didn’t need to go to the hospital though! Apparently they’ll give you a shot and that’s supposed to make you get better . . . I don’t know, I wasn’t about to spend money on a shot I didn’t need in the first place- it was just a normal cold ^^;

Needless to say, I wasn’t very comfortable that night (it was BOILING hot!), so I ended up only sleeping for 3 hours. Since my first class was only discussing the online readings I couldn’t read because of my faulty computer, I skipped. Fortunately my professor understood and blamed the weather for people’s troubles of “body and mind” and told me to take “good care” of my health . . . I did attend my afternoon class though, since I looked much better after my 2 hour nap, though the commute to and from class was enough to drain me for the day ^^;

To tell you how messed up the weather is, this beautiful day was sandwiched in between rain and snow . . . just so happens I was sick this day -_-

By Friday, I had a serious case of cabin-fever . . . I had barely left the apartment for two days and I just wanted to get out. SoOoOo, I buckled down and went to the Immigration Office to wait for 3 hours to hand in an application for an Alien Registration card that’s “mandatory for all students this semester”. On the way there, I happened to run into a friend from school (the one who told me about the girl who was hit by a taxi . . . he actually told me that while we were waiting our turn ^^;) who also didn’t really know where the office was. Thanks to technology, though, I was able to call another friend who already got his to get directions. While at the office, another friend randomly showed up to pick up her card! Who knew that the place to be on a Friday was the Seoul Immigration Office??

Today, my host mom asked me to go to lunch with her at the wedding hall across the street. I agreed, assuming there was a restaurant there or something, but no, it was a wedding. Not only was it an actual wedding that I wasn’t invited to, but my host mom didn’t even know who was getting married! I guess the groom’s cousin works at my host dad’s office and gave him two invitations, but he ditched the wedding for golf, and that’s why I ended up going. Yeah, it was kind of awkward. Fortunately, Korean wedding receptions are a lot less organized than American receptions- no toasts or first dances or the like… the bride didn’t even stay in her wedding dress- so we were able to eat there like we would at any other buffet . . . I was just glad that the newlyweds didn’t greet our table! I think the funniest part of the affair was watching the lady sitting next to us shove two bottles of beer and a paper cup of food into her purse- is Korean Budweiser valuable enough to sneak it out of a wedding?? ㅋㅋ

So ends another week in the “Seoul of Asia” . . . Stayed tuned for next week’s edition of the Wonderful Adventures of Sam in Korea, right here on ParentNet.mtu.edu! (What? I got to spice things up somehow! )