During our first coffee together after the end of the camp I worked, in a nice coffeeshop, I was telling Lime about how all the boys in my class aside from William (whose name was always sung to the tune of the Smiths song) were referred to as a Mister in my class. There were mister Bang (long A, meaning B-aaaah-ng, not “bang” like a comic book gun), Mr. Mystery, Mr. I-Don’t-Know, Mr. Monkey, Mr. Bruiser. There was a period, though, when Mr. I-Don’t-Know hadn’t yet acquired his nickname, and some of the other boys were insisting he be called Mr. Chucky. I told Lime I didn’t know why they thought this name would be good for him, and she said/did the funniest thing I’ve ever seen her do:
“Do you know Chucky? The evil doll from hell?!?!?”
Then she kind of squished up her face using her hands, and in a horrible little voice, she said,
“I’m Chucky~~~~~~~! I’m the doll from hell!”
Another good quote from the conversation involved her telling me about life in the hospital where she is currently, er, I don’t know what it is. Pre-internship observations or something… perhaps it’s a practicum? Anyway, she has recently been in the OB/GYN department (even if you can’t read Korean, the pics ought to give you the idea), and after telling me about all kinds of experiences, both happy and also more somber or sad, she said,
“But you know, after all the time I’ve been there, everyday seeing womens’ genitalia. Now just walking down the street I can visualize every woman’s genitalia, just from seeing her walk on the street.”
I smiled at her and said,
Well, now you know what it’s like to be a man, honey.
The funny thing is, actually, that I mentioned that joke during the drive down to Kwangju last night, and Myoung Jae confirmed that he, like me, doesn’t actually visualize that sort of thing when seeing women on the street. I reassured Lime of that, noting my poor visual imagination, but it seems even some men with decent visual imagination don’t bother to visualize things like that.
Oh, and one more thing, since this is a Lime-centric post! My honey got a big scholarship over at the Uni! I’m so proud of her! I managed to finish my present for her and present her with it. It was a naturally-dyed handkerchief that we made on craft day at the camp, but with a message hand-painted onto it by yours truly. The text of it (I had translation help provided very kindly by my teaching assistant, Jin Seon, at the camp) went like this:
진장한 의사는
모든 사람에게 연민을 느낀다.
진장한 의사는
다른 사람의 슬픔을 참을성맀게 들는다.
진장한 의사는
마음 속에 사랑과 존경을 품는다.
진장한 의사는
그 무엇도 단지 환자의 한인일 뿐이다.
진장한 의사는
받는 것 보다 훨씬 많은 것을 준다.
당신은 진장한 의사가 되고 있다고 믿어!A true doctor
looks on all people with compassion.
A true doctor
listens patiently to others’ sorrows.
A true doctor
has a loving and respectful heart.
A true doctor
is more than anything else a servant.
A true doctor
gives more than she ever receives.
[Darling,] You are becoming a true doctor. [I] Believe it!
The translation is tough, of course, because some ambiguities exist in the Korean text that aren’t easily possible the English. For example, “Believe it!” can mean a 3rd person demonstrative “I/We believe it!” or be a weak imperative “You believe it!” or a 1st person demonstrative “[I know] You believe it!” and so on. And the polite word for you, 당신 (Dangshin), is also used in older couples as a way of saying, “Darling” or “Honey”. So I think the Korean text is much nicer than the English.