SO Korean

I just got home from one of my tutoring lessons, where I help a middle school boy with his essay writing. Today's essay was a compare and contrast essay, and in the hour and a half that I spend sitting there and daydreaming while he writes, I started comparing and contrasting Korea with any other place I've lived. There were so many things that seem unique to Korea, so I came up with a list of things that are just so Korean.

KIMCHI: I'll start with the obvious ones, such as being served Kimchi with EVERY SINGLE MEAL. I still wake up in the morning thinking of pancakes and french toast, only to be served soup and rice with Kimchi for breakfast (and lunch, and dinner, at any and every restaurant).

UNIQUE STYLE: It always seemed to me that, while there are many trends in America, Americans tend to add their own uniqueness to their style, being similar but still different from everyone else. In Korea, I see no such desire to be "different." THE style is very obvious and everywhere. For women, the hair style is straight across bangs and hair chopped straight at the shoulders. The look isn't complete though without the big square glasses, oversized sweater, and pair of converse shoes. For the guys, the "pretty boy" look (as the korean girls call it) is desirable, complete with slim jeans, polo shirt, scarf, and pea coat.

PINK ANIMATED SOCKS ON OLDER MEN: Another thing I've never noticed anywhere else is the use of "character socks" by all ages and genders here. Character socks are ankle length socks with different animated characters on them, in all kinds of colors. I've now gotten used to seeing them on my middle to high school aged boys, as well as the old men walking around the streets in sandals and many times pink character socks. They're available just about everywhere for 1,000 won (just under $1.00).

MIRRORS EVERYWHERE: Anywhere you go in Korea, you're bound to see a group of girls, mirrors out, just looking at themselves. They do this on the busses, in restaurants, on the streets, etc. I assume this is why mirrors are include on everything from wallets to cell phone charms here. There are mirrors in every elevator and entrance, and if that isn't enough, you will always see people standing in the middle of the sidewalk, checking their appearance in the nearest window reflection.

BOY BANDS: Lets just say that if the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync had moved their act to Korea, they would probably still be as popular as ever. K-pop is the music of Korea, and boy/girl bands are all the rage.

BABY PERMS: About half my kindergarteners have them. You have to make sure your baby is in style.

RAINBOW DOGS: Ask any of my students what color a dog would be, and they'll give you a very confused look. Why? Because in Korea, a dog can be any color you want it to be. You will rarely see big dogs here (too scary), but you'll see plenty of very colorful, small dogs. The ears, tails, and even whiskers are sure to be dyed a bright pink, green, orange or blue.

HALLOWEEN EVERY DAY: Just kidding. Koreans don't celebrate Halloween, but I don't go a day without seeing Korean women that remind me of the holiday. Masks are commonplace and many are made to cover the entire face, leaving a slit/flap open for the eyes and mouth. I still do a doubletake when I pass them on the street. The look is usually completed with a big visor.

ACCESSORIES: Accessory stores are everywhere and there is never a bad time to wear an oversized bow in your hair or a headband with minnie mouse ears.

Halloween is for Witches

Halloween isn't widely celebrated in Korea, although I hear there are festivities wherever there is a high concentration of foreigners (such as in Busan or Seoul). Also, most hagwons have some sort of celebration, in order to bring some American culture to the students via the foreign teachers. Paula and I thought it would be a great idea to have a halloween celebration at our hagwon, and even started planning everything from dressing up to candy for the kids. We figured it was a go since our boss loves when we plan events for the kids. I told my Korean family (the family I live with) about it and they seemed very excited about it, too. Anyway, the other day, I was in the teacher's office with the other teachers when our boss walked in. I told him the idea and asked if we could get a letter sent out to with the students about it. His response?

"No, I believe Halloween is for witches."

I was a little shocked by that response and I guess he could read it on my face because he quickly added, "But how bout we have a really big Christmas party?"

My family was pretty excited for it so I'll probably take the kids over to the other teacher's houses for some trick-or-treating.

Speaking of my Korean family...the family is a couple with two kids (14 yr old girl and a 7 yr old boy), and they have all but adopted me. The dad works in a different city so he only comes home on weekends, so that leaves the mom and kids. The daughter, Lilly, is one of the students at our academy and is a lot of fun. Every night when she gets home and I'm not home, she'll send me a text saying simply, "Where?"

Her younger brother, William, is very quiet and shy but occasionally has spurts of energy during which he'll yell out random English phrases like, "you can buy your friends!"

The mom speaks enough English that we can communicate, with some help from Lilly, and she is extremely nice.

I've spent a lot of time with them in the past couple weeks and have actually really enjoyed it. They invited me and Jesse to their grandmother's birthday party in a neighboring city the other weekend, and I was able to experience a traditional Korean birthday meal, including everything from birthday sea-weed soup to octopus tentacles to porridge, and many other unidentifiable things. We were seated on the floor around a very long table, and every single inch of it was covered in little dishes to try. Then that night the younger uncle took Jesse and I out to sushi with some of his friends. That was another new experience. Instead of sushi rolls, like I was expecting, we were served huge plates with slabs of raw fish on them. This was followed by about 8 other courses which included, among other things, fish eggs in rice, octopus, and something that was still moving when I ate it.

Also new to me is this FREEZING COLD weather. It's only fall and I feel like I'm going to get frostbite. I don't know how I'm going to make it through winter here!

The DMZ, Global Gathering, and my new family

I've been keeping my weekends action packed, and last weekend was no exception. Paula and I booked a tour to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, starting at 7am Saturday morning, and going from there to the Global Gathering on Saturday night. Global Gathering is a huge dance festival featuring DJs such as Armin Van Buuren, Fat Boy Slim, and Justice. I had never heard of most of the DJs but was talked into going and really enjoyed it, although I was ready to get back to my bed after about 3 hours of it. Thousands of foreigners and Koreans showed up to dance.

Now back to the DMZ...a very worthwhile tour. We started by getting briefed by a U.S. soldier at camp Bonifas and signing a Declaration that said we understand the danger we are putting ourselves in by going on this tour (how exciting). I think Paula and I were the only non-military related people on the tour. The tour included a meeting in a building that is shared by both North and South Korea (they take turns using it and lock the doors so the other can't intrude), which is guarded by Korean guards who are in a constant, expressionless Tae Kwon Do pose, ready for anything. We were warned that even though they are there for our protection, if we touch them or get too close, they will hit us (this almost happened to me twice). We were able to see but not take pictures of the North Korean military posts/buildings and were told to under no circumstances make any contact or gestures to the North Korean guards. We were taken to various other sites along the border, including a lookout station that looked over and into the Propaganda Village (picture below), but again, we were prohibited from taking pictures past a certain point. The last part of the tour was a extremely long, hunched over walk through one of the tunnels dug by North Koreans during the war in an attempt to surprise attack Seoul. Next step: booking a tour in North Korea.

To make sure that there was no uneventful moment in the weekend, I was picked up from the bus station as soon as we returned, and moved out of my 4th apartment since coming here, and into another homestay! Long story short, when my co-worker who lived next door to me decided to disappear, that caused our contract with the landlady to be broken and she decided that I should leave, too (we foreigners are such a risk), so now I am living with a family again, but liking it much more than before. This family has two kids, william (7) and Lilly (12, a student of mine) and has lived in the U.S. for a couple years, meaning they speak some English so we can communicate! The father works in a different city so he is only here on the weekends, and the mother and kids are great. The mom makes me breakfasts (rice and curry counts as breakfast here) and lunches every day and I spent last night at the movies and arcade with my new little sister (Lilly).

I had planned a nice relaxing weekend in Jinju for this weekend, but of course, that is not to be had. I was talked into going to a city a couple hours away for a hot air balloon festival and an indie rock festival on Saturday, and was planning on coming back to be here Sunday until my Korean family found out I'd be in Daejon, where apparently they are celebrating their grandmother's birthday on Sunday and insisted I go. There goes my relaxing weekend, but it should be fun, anyway :).

Co-worker update

This one will be short, breath easy. Just thought I'd update on the co-worker situation since I mentioned it at the end of my last post.

Co-worker Arthur, the 30-something year old who has a reputation for being sexist and racist, didn't show up to work at all today and didn't answer any calls. My boss asked me to go home when I got off of work and check on him, since he is my neighbor. I went with our Korean co-teacher, Jess (30 year old woman who lives with her parents, as most Korean women do until marriage). We got to his door and were both imagining the different scenarios of what might happen next (was he dead? abducted?). No one answered when I knocked, and there was no need for a key as it was already unlocked. I opened the door (very slowly) and Jess gasped, covering her mouth. It was all very funny but scary, not knowing what we'd see. We both slowly peeked in and took a couple steps before finding the light and discovering an empty room. Turns out he packed up and left without telling anyone! Sounds like there will be trouble for him if he tries to stay in Korea or ever tries to come back. He will probably be "blacklisted." End of story.

Korean baseball games, festivals, and racism?

Imagine this scenario for me: You're in the U.S. (easy enough), we'll say Costa Mesa, and a shiny, new apartment building has just been completed, advertising nice, spacious rooms. There's just one catch...these rooms are only available to "non-foreigners". In other words, if you're Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Latin, Arabian, or from any other number of countries, you aren't allowed to rent an apartment in this building.I wonder how well that would go over?

I ask you to imagine this scenario because my co-workers and I have just been refused accommodation in one such new building, because we are foreigners. It's actually pretty funny. Our boss convinced the male owner that we would be good tenants, and secured the four of us apartments in the building. Three days later, we're back at work after the weekend, and our boss tells us that the owners wife is refusing to let foreigners live in the building, so no apartments for us. While I was initially somewhat shocked by this, it does save me from a decision I was supposed to make- whether to move now or wait until January. I'm starting to feel at home in my tiny shoe box apartment and I love the area (is it bad that I feel safer here because my boss doesn't like or get along with the landlady?), so I wasn't sold on moving out just yet. If I wait until January (which looks inevitable now), I will move into the apartment that Paula (my friend and co-worker) lives in now, as her contract will be up in January.

Now...on to less comical subjects, like baseball. This past weekend, I went with three other friends of mine to a baseball game in Busan. Baseball is pretty big in Korea and I hear they do well internationally, too. I'd been wanting to see a game here for awhile, and it's the playoffs so my chances were running out, so we decided this was the weekend to go. All the tickets were already sold out so we had to scalp some. That in itself was a great experience. The main entrance was surrounded by police officers and extremely crowded. We weren't sure where to look for tickets so stood there looking lost, until a Korean man came up to us and pointed up to the next level. When we got there, there was a whole group of old Korean men, all trying to sell tickets. When we approached them they chose one amongst the to deal with us. The guy told us to follow him to a different area, and then asked for the money, telling us we'd get the tickets at the entrance gate. Don't worry, we're smarter than that. We went back to where the group of old men were gathered and made motions until they realized we wanted to see our tickets first. Another old man motioned for us to follow him to yet another area, and handed us four tickets, grabbed our money, andhurried off. As we were approaching the entrance, we realized that the date on one of the tickets was two days earlier. We went back in search of the man but he was no where to be found and the others refused to switch tickets with us. We decided to try and get in anyway, and succeeded, at least into the first section before entering the actual stadium.

When we tried to get into the stadium, no one seemed to know what gate we should be at. We were first directed to go up and after going up, were sent back down, then left, right, etc. About five gates later we were finally in the stadium and searching for seats. This was also confusing since we couldn't read anything that was written on our tickets, so we just claimed three seatsin a very nice section, and sat there forabout two innings before getting kicked out and herded over to where the general admission ticket holders were supposed tobe. Of course by this time there were no seats, so we stuck to the stairs. The game was fairly exciting (for a baseballgame) and we got to witness a fight between a couple Korean fans and the officials/police...the fans won (and while being led out of the stadium continued to push the officials around with no consequences). It's interesting to me that Korean police officers seem to have no power here, yet you never see any crime and I never feel threatened here. Anyway, back to the game. Another funny thing is that it is trendy for women here to wear "Minnie Mouse" type ears to all events they attend. There were plenty of these at the game. Another difference between the experience here and how it would be in America- instead of hot dogs and cracker jacks, the staple baseball snack is driedsquid...mmmmm.

As for the festivals, I've just attended my first here in Korea, and have gone back for three days now. It's a lantern festival at the river, to commemorate the time in the 1500's when Japan was invading the Jinju castle and the Korean soldiers inside the castle used lanterns tocommunicate with their soldiers outside of the castle. Now it's a huge festival with big lit up characters on the river, thousands of lanterns everywhere, festival food (I've had the Turkish kebabs, Korean overpriced crab, cinnamon pancake, and strawberry choc. chip ice cream..all very good), along with hundreds of shops/stalls selling everything imaginable. There is also a stage with various acts going on at all times(we witnessed some Korean drummers in costumes and some latin dancers "movin it"-guys in tight sparkly leggings and girlsin tiny skirts and bikinis), and fireworks on a couple of the nights. Overall a fun experience :). I'll have to cut this "short" as I'm being ordered to go home and search for our co-worker/my neighbor who didn't show up to work today and hasn't answered any phone calls.