Pao VS OLO

"Must I always be waiting on you? Must I always be playing your fool?" Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson

Korean names are traditionally trisyllabic. And the writing is also traditionally written using the surname first followed by your given name. For example, Korean gold medalist Yuna Kim is spelled 김연아 in Hangul (the writing system in Korea, of course.) 김 is pronounced Kim (which is her family name), which is then connected with 연아 (Yoh nah if Romanized). Thus, the creation of "Olo" was formed. When I first started meeting Korean people, I introduced myself as Paolo, of course, without mentioning my last name.

"That's an interesting family name," one had mentioned.


"How do you know my family name?"


"You just told me. Isn't Pa your family name?"


"That's part of my first name."


"Your first name isn't Olo?"


"No, but I'll respond to anything, really. Your Highness is perfectly acceptable."


Even my very young 3rd graders had started calling me Olo. In the mornings, I'd hear a line of little students shout "Good morning, Olo teacher!" It's quite funny, actually, so I've stopped trying to correct them. Also, "Pa" is Korean for scallions, so this morning one cute 3rd grader saw me walking up the stairs and screamed "Olo teacher, chop chop chop! Mashita!" Mashita means delicious.

This past Memorial Day weekend, I decided to head up to Seoul, but made a spur of the moment trip to Daejeon, which is a landlocked city in the middle of this peninsula. I stayed with another American teacher and we went to Expo Park, Korea's EPCOT-World-Of-The-Future thingy.

As much as I love visiting other cities here in Korea, it really makes me appreciate being in Busan.


In other news, I'm ready for my summer vacation.

Ten days in Thailand is going to go by real fast.