2000/1/9

Dear Mr. Lee

I would be more than happy to be a penpal with any of your students,  or to be a penpal to the class as one.
I used to work at a school.
I know very little about Korea so you will be giving me a grand education.
Let me start by telling you more about myself.
My name is Jodi Larson.
I am 24 years old. I live in the city of St. Paul, in the state of  Minnesota.
If you are looking at a map Minnesota is in the center at the top, near Canada.
I live in the city, near downtown, where I work as soundboard operator at a theatre.
The theatre is called " The Great American History Theatre". it is a live theatre with actors not the kind with movies.
My job there is to add the sound effects such as wind, singing birds, or a train whistle to the play as it is being performed.
This is a very easy job that involves pushing a few buttons here and there and not much else.
I would like to know about yourself and your classes, Mr. Lee.
Tell me where in Korea you are located.
What  ages are your students?
What kind of city do you live in?
Tell me what you know about the United States, and what you would like to know.
I eagerly await  your questions.
Goodbye for now,
--->Jodi

1/10

Hello again,
I am not yet able to send photos of myself through email
(only because my scanner is not yet hooked up properly)
but I looked around for some internet maps to send along with this email
they are attached below.

Here is more about my life:
I have one sister, she is older than I, she has been married for 5 years and has 3 children, one girl, and two boys[Dvian is aged 7, Tierney is almost 5, and the youngest boy has just turned 3]
My mother lives with me
She moved in about a year ago
We live in a small attic apartment in a residentail neighborhood, the apartment  is part of a house that has been divided into 4 small apartments.
We have a pet cat that is bigger than some dogs.
My extended family is large
My mother has 6 siblings and my father has 4 siblings, and consequently I have 22 cousins, some of which have already married and had children of their own
My two gradmothers are still living but only one of my grandfathers.
My uncle Ken participated in the war in Vietnam, also with the Marines.
My grandfather was in the merchant-marines during the second world war, I think I remember him tell me that he had been to Korea right after the war, before he dreturned home.
Most americans know where Korea is, but I don't think many people know much about it.
If you asked the average american to tell you everything they knew about Korea, they might tell you that Hyundai automobiles are made there, there was a war there that the u.s particiapted in, and they might say that the olympics were held there not long ago.
I have a few questions about your country:
Are South Korea and North Korea united or divided?
How many Korean people speak English like yourself?
What is the weather like compared to ours?
Right now in Minnesota, it is the middle of Winter just like in your country. The temperature here is about 20 degrees fahrenheit(I do not know exactly what that would be in Celcius but I think that it is something like 1 or 2 degrees below freezing)The windter so far has been very mild and there has not been much snow at all

I work sometimes at a radio station located in the  neighboring city of Minneapolis(the tow cities are only separated by a river and are often referred to as the Twin Cities)
The radio station is run by volunteers. The station can be heard on the Internet by going to the radio station's websites www.kfai.org
You can hear me read the local news every Monday evening at 6:30 pm.
This is probably close to the middle of the night in your time zone!
Goodbye for now
---->jodi

1/14

Dear Mr. Lee

I looked up a conversion chart for world time zones
and found that minnesota is GMT -6
and since korea is in GMT+9
there is a 15 hour time difference
even though I new the difference was great, I was still a little surprised when I realized that as I sit here typing at 1:30 in the afternoon
on Thursday it is 5am on Friday in Korea.
So that  means that the evening news on Monday will actually be the Tuesday morning news there.
It sounds as if the weather here and there are very similiar.
we, too, can get temperatures that low, minnesota is known for being a cold state
even though it get up to a hundred degrees fahrenheit in the hot, humid, summers yesterday, we had  the first big snow of the winter, 8 inches of powdery mess
Most people do leave there parents when they grow up,
I have done the same,
except that my mother is no longer married and does not want to live alone so she moved in with me and pays half the rent
she is not too old to live alone but she saves more money living with me
she is only 50 years old
I think that most women tend to get married here in their 20s mostly after  25.
you are right , northwest airlines is headquartered here in minnesota, saint paul and minneapolis and separated only by the Missippi river and the airport lies along that river just south of the two cities.
Because the winters are long here, the city of saint paul has a winter carnival so people can celebrates all the good thing about winter.
there are ice sculptures and parades and lots of fun events at the end of january
It has been a city tradition for over a hundred years
(saint paul was one of the first cities in minnesota, when it was made a "territory" prior to being made a state, and so our city is only 151 years old this year)
so the winter carnival is almost as cold as the town.
have a good  weekend.
---->jodi

1/19

Dear Mr. Lee

Now it is my turn to apologize for the delayed reply.
Somehow the weekend ended without my getting anything done!
To answer your questions, I did go to college for a couple years but I did not finish.
I never chose a final major, but if I gone farther with my education, I would have majored in anthropology.
Here in the U.S.  a person is mostly judged on their indivual merits.
But when two people are going to get married, often the parents want to know "what his parents do" and what kind future the person has.
Even though the person's family history is looked over, the parents would be thought terribly old fashioned if they broke up a marriage just because of family history.
It is generally thought that a young person's ambition is far more important and that their future plans are held in higher regard than their past.
If a family is looked upon as being from a poor neighborhood or if they have a particularly unsavory family circumstance or history; there is an expression that is used, that they are "from the wrong side of the tracks."
It is like saying that they are from the bad part of town, or at least not from the affluent part.
The Korean way seems more traditional and time-honored but I think the main difference is that the U.S is only 200 years old and has not had the thousands of years of tradition to either go along with or change.
It is very much a soup made with lots of different ingredients and no recipe.
I would be honored to have my letters put up on website, then others can learn along with us as we learn about each others cultures!
Have a good day.
---->