Seoul, Korea - November 15, 2005
Whew.. I was able to get a turnaround on this journal entry within a month! I have my Philippines airline ticket for December 15th, so I'll try to get out another entry (or two) before then. Once in the Philippines, I should be able to write quite a bit more, as I always seem to be able to do while on the move and travelling around a bit.
My apartent is really looking nice! Of course it has a lot do with my girlfriend being here. My once empty third room now has a couch, some furniture, curtains, and brand new wall paper. Looks really nice! Sure beats the old look with the ripped-up torn wallpaper badly in need of replacing. The entire apartment looks great actually. The kitchen feels much more like a kitchen, all of the windows now have curtains - previously none of them did, and the entire place just has that women's touch in every aspect of the hosue. I definetely can't complain about that by any means!
Outside of that, been meeting a lot more of the community from the Philippines who live in Seoul. Generally I've just hung out with English teachers and Koreans who are interested in learning English. But suddenly I find myself in another social group as well - the one of Filipinas and their often GI Military boyfriends/fiances/husbands. We've been going to the Catholic Church occassionally anyways, where she has met getting to know members of the Filipino communities. Recently we've been invited to weddings, other events, house parties, etc. Almost everyone has been US military/Filipina connection. Definetely a different world than my English teacher circle of friends I usually spend so much time with. Even the choice of going out and everything else is different. For one, military guys have curfews, meaning they party much earlier. Its also strange that moment when they all have to go home, and then its just me starting what would be the beginning of the night, but now its the end of the night - curfew for them is around 12:30pm or around there.
Its also interesting into where Filipinos in general seem to want to hangout - and its almost exclusively GI military oriented places. As an English teacher hanging out with english teachers, I seldom if ever come across filipinos anywhere. Of course I know a few bars where they work as waitresses/bartenders.. but nowhere else outside of that. Now suddenly I realize they also go out early like the US military does, they also go to GI military hangouts (not english teacher hangouts), and on and on. Mostly they like to socialize and center around Sunday Mass (most English teachers are sleeping with no plans to leave their apartments anytime soon on a Sunday morning).
One difficult thing about being around a lot of Filipinas however is that they almost always choose to speak in Tagalog nearly 100% of the time when in the company of each other! Meaning no boyfriend/fiance/husband or whoever else can or will know a word they're saying! Its quite isolating actually to be in that situation, and just hope somehow there is a foreign guy around to at least have a conversation with. Its a bit annoying as they all are very capable of speaking English quite well, but for whatever reason, choose to not to. This isn't just in Korea, but I've noticed it extremely common in the United States as well. Its a bit strange as anyone who has hung around with Europeans for example, knows they always speak in whatever language the most people in the circle of people together know the best. Not so with Filipinas however, they never do. Quite an adjustment as you can see that all the boyfriends/husbands are kept completely in the dark with almost all of their planning, conversations, storytelling, jokes, laughing and just plain fun at all times. Too bad really because Filipinas really are a fun, friendly, and great people to be around when they are speaking English to you and including you in the conversation!I'm not complaining though, but I can see it as a minor frustration with every foreign guy I know who has every dated/married/been involved with a Filipina. Seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Hopefully thats not a permanant perception/viewpoint on my part though.. I suppose it'll encourage me to try to study some Tagalog to have a clue to whats going on with their planning, jokes, and otherwise.
As far as Seoul and Korea goes.. same as always.. I can really say I really like this place quite a bit though. I get the occassional discussion about maybe I should go back to the US and look for work and the rest. Kind of scares me even if its probably best for the relationship. I suppose I'll be struggling with that for a very long time however, as its equally difficult to imagine what I'll be doing for work and otherwise whenever I do end up going back to the States permanantly. Sometimes I sit around and wonder though - do I really have to go back?
Next Journal Entry in the Philippines:
December 16, 2005
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com