Blending cultures and interesting Korean legends..

I found a place in Itaewon (the Expat place in Seoul) that has clothes which fit me! Thank God! Granted, they are more $$ than I'd normally pay... BUT if I get a hankering for buying some outfits, I know where to go. (quite a small selection, however... understandably.)

I was talking to my Kiwi neighbor/fellow crip buddy about the differences between all the cultures here at the school- American, Canadian, British, Europeans, Aussie, Kiwi, Korean, etc.. It was interesting b.c. we could tell the Kiwis were the most laid-back, nice ppl whereas the Aussies and the Brits are more uptight/blunt/hard people... I still love em all, but simply in regards to specific cultural and personality differences... it led us to talk about the origin of our feelings towards other cultures.. like the Canadians' and Americans' feelings are ones of competition rooted from way back to colonialism; the Kiwis' and Aussies' are muy competitive which also rooted back to colonialism and the different ways their lands were founded: i.e. Australia was the convict colony for the Brits whereas New Zealand had more pacific islander/ancient Maris roots- there's a bit'o'tension there...

 

 also quite noticeable are the tensions b.n the Aussies and the Brits... now, not serious "I don't like you, can't stand you" tensions, but kidding around "ugh, I'm way better" type stuff... Naturally the Brits think they are way better than everyone b.c. they were the root of all that colonialism and Americans ignore everyone b.c. they know they are the best.. yet, everyone knows that about the Americans, therefore we are constantly shafted for bein' so arrogant. lol. For instance: 

It's just such an interesting mix and it's really intriguing to analyze. I can pretty much tell the difference b.n. all the cultures based on how they act.. it's funny. 

I saw this picture in a magazine which was RIDICULOUS!!! It's these two adjumas (old Korean women) sitting on a humongous stone statue of a penis with two tall stone penis statues behind them.. It's called "The Sea Cock". This was the "Pic of the month" in the mag!!! Basically, according to legend...

A long, long time ago a bay and a girl were dating in this village. The boy was a fisherman and one day he left his love on a rock and told her to wait for him to return. Alas, a storm moved in and the girl drowned before he could rescue her. Legends have it that since the girl died a virgin a serious curse was put on the town. So the villagers did what any good village would do, they had the boy ejaculate into the sea and erected a Penis Park for the girl. Ever since then the curse has been lifted and fish have been plentiful. 

Isn't that crazy?!?! lol. 

"Only in Korea"- a slice of the first stages of culture shock...

Only in Korea are the cell phones real cheap and have TONS of features, yet the iPhone has yet to exist... Saturday I went to Hongdae (a posh, yet eclectic, section of town right next to a university)

and got a cell phone!! I wasn't planning on getting one b.c. my heart is set on waiting for the rumoured iPhone that has yet to arrive... but as time passed while my friend was signing up for one, I thought more and more about the logistics of it all and came to my senses that a free phone was WAY better than an outrageously expensive iPhone (if, and when, it ever comes!) So the plan is way different than in the US... I pretty much have to pay for outgoing txts and calls BUT I can receive as many as I want for FREE... AND I can get email on there... so I'm straight. Only in Korea... 

We ate at a mexican place called "Dos Tacos" where I had the best quesadilla in my life! (Beat that- La Napolera!! granted, no one will ever beat your humongous beers :) )

Only in Korea the Koreans can't do nails and charge an arm and a leg... the fake nails are muy $$$ and made of crap craftsmanship.... So, after dinner, we went to a nail place to get our nails done. Now this turned out to be quite the experience. You'd think, coming from America where everyone that owns nail salons are Asian, that when I come to an Asian country, they should be better... well, wrong. Everyone here actually HAS real nails, so acrylic nails aren't as popular AND their fake nail-tips are formed differently so as not to accomodate no-nail individuals like myself. :( So the lady took one look at my nubby fingers and her face was simply indescribable... she spent 45 minutes talking to my Korean friend that was with us about the different possibilities for my fingers... she eventually decided to go with "Silk nails" which is seriously a piece of silk on my nail covered with acrylic powder and then shaped roundly. This eventually hardens, but is WAY weak... Now meanwhile, I'm not going to say how much, but this was THE MOST EXPENSIVE MANICURE IVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!!! fo' sho! Only in Korea....

I copied the following from a site that has advice for foreigners coming to Korea,

"Nail salons are as abundant as gas stations, and there are over 14.6 million registered vehicles on the road here as of 2005. The salons also cost a fraction of the price as compared to back home, I only know this because my Korean girlfriend gets her nails done all the time ;) 

Things you wont find easily: high end specialty items, usually required for hobbies and recreation. In my case, lot's of specialty camera and motorcycle gear is difficult if not impossible to track down. Also, if you're over 6 foot and have big feet, forget about finding any kind of selection of shoes, shirts and pants.

Hope that helps, take care,

Greg"

My thoughts on this, GREG, are that: 

#1. You're a man, thus you know nothing about nails. 

#2. This is the type of stuff I read prior to coming here thinking I would be able to find everything I needed, thus I got rid of everything I owned and only took 4 checked bags at the airport which I why I've intensely regretted that decision numerous times. Esp. when I want to buy stuff. ugh. 

Culture shock much?!? Lol... not yet!! (It's supposed to come later... egads!) 

Recent news from SoKo...

CGV opens world's biggest screen

From: The Korea Herald | Sept. 17, 2009

The largest movie screen in the world opened at the Yeongdeungpo CGV multiplex in western Seoul yesterday.

(It's about 103 feet tall and 43 feet wide!! Yowza!)

'Many more people dying from suicide than H1N1'

From: The Korea Herald | Sept. 14, 2009
By: Lee Ji-yoon

Suicide is the 4th leading cause of death due to the rapid modernization and stress for competition which has led to a breakdown in family ties/connections.

(Esp. this year!! There's been something like 4 major suicides made public or something like that!!)

Culture Clash a Constant Struggle for Foreigners in Korea

From: The Chosun Ilbo | Sept. 17, 2009

For a Canadian English teacher, one of the most challenging moments of living in Korea comes every morning in the changing room of the gym near his home. The Korean men in the shower often glance at his lower body, and some stare with explicit curiosity at his private parts. He feels "like a monkey" in a zoo whenever it happens, he says.

(Yep... it sure is like this... not that I know what it's like in the men's showers... lol)

Taechon beach retreat and Korean traffic!

Sorry it's been so long since an update-- as I've broken my foot, I can't go anywhere... thus no new and interesting things have happened to me. Blech.

I did go on a faculty retreat this past weekend to Taechon, South Korea to our school's BEACH house!! Nice!! There was a lodge there and I truly felt like I was back home, camping, and having a good 'ole Girl scout-y time :) I couldn't go down to the beach b.c. then I'd get sand in my cast and blech about that... I also couldn't go to the campfire b.c. you had to walk up this huge hill that- well- I mean I have a cast on my foot, so obviously I wasn't going to be able to do that... but, luckily I had some friends that stayed around the lodge area and hung out and played games with me! :) Nice friends!

Now- one thing I DID notice was that even though the beach was like 2.5 hours away- it took us 5 hours to get there!!! I thought, "ok.. is this some holiday I'm unaware of?!?" NO... it's simply a Korean weekend!!! lol. The way it was explained to me was: The Koreans work all week long, so on the weekends they like to get into their cars and go somewhere... even if it's just to sit on the highway with all the other Koreans and never really have any time at a destination.

Lol.. I mean, I got to the beach house/lodge 2 hours AFTER the retreat part ended! lol... then on Sun. when we went to leave... another 5 hours to get home!! If anything, I learned to not buy a car, to not travel via car or bus anywhere throughout Korea, and to not plan on getting anywhere on time! lol.

Also, Korean rest stops are like mini-malls... there's stalls that sells things like pottery and stuff... there's a convenient store but then also a food court like thing (like in our malls) and then of course there's the outside food stalls that sell the Korean food like potato balls, octopus, kimchi, etc.. Quite interesting.

I have 12 days left until my cast comes off!!! Thank God!! then I get to go to Taiwan for Chuseok and def. have some more updates :)

Scary movies

It’s been a nice little break for recuperating with my foot- but SUCKED b.c. I couldn’t go ANYWHERE!! :( Viable travel opportunities... gone.

Oh well... I still had a good time with “Asia movie week” with Tish -- we watched 7yrs in Tibet, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It was nice for my foot AND back since we laid on her awesome mattress!!! (Yes, she shipped it from home, so it’s nice and comfy and soft- totally unlike the mattresses here... hard and crap. :( )

ALSO- she had gone to a massage place last week and the guy gave her his card saying “Call me and I’ll come to your house” !!! Pretty much b.c. it’s cheaper to make house calls instead of him having to pay a fee to his boss... NOT b.c. he wanted to do other things with us... (which I say that, b.c. in China- it’s like that.. In China, you pretty much just DON’T get a massage at all b.c. a massage means... well, you know!!)

So I had a 2 hour massage for about $40!!!!! UH-Mazing!!! We will make it a bi-monthly ritual :)

Today I had to get outta the house. So we called for the “international taxi” which is supposed to come pick you up at your house and take you wherever.. except, they didn’t have on in our area!! (which doesn’t make a whole lotta sense since we are the rich foreigner area of town, but whatev!) So- Tish got a cab at the bottom of the insane hill we live on and came to get me and we went to see a movie.

Now- first off... you can’t really find out the movie times here b.c. everything is in Korean.

You can’t call the movie theatre for times b.c. everyone speaks Korean.

And you can’t just randomly show up at the theatre hoping to get a movie you want, b.c. everything is in Korean and all the Koreans buy their tickets from home.. ( which I can’t do b.c. #1 I can’t read the website and #2 I can’t buy an online ticket b.c. I don’t have a Korean national ID #!!!, I’m just an “Alien”!)

So... we called this help line and asked for the movies.. the only english ones were “Orphan” and “The Prefect Getaway”.. The Koreans TRULY enjoy scary movies!! :)

So we went to the “Orphan”..

The movie theatre was in a tall building about 13 stories high.. each story was a theatre with a different movie playing..

So we were on the 11th floor (luckily there were elevators.. which you really take for granted in the US, having them.. but surprisingly S. Korea, despite it’s real advanced nature, is lacking in the motorized moving helpers.. aka elevators, escalators, etc.)

We went to choose some seats in the back of the theatre b.c. of my broken foot and about 5 minutes later 3 korean 20-somethings come and stand next to us looking like we’d taken their seats.. I was like “What are there assigned seats here or something like that?! lol..”

Well, sure enough..

There are!!!

Evidently the US is one of the only places in the world that DOESN’T have assigned seating at the movie theatre!!!

So after realizing our seats we pretty much in the front (which we entered at the back and naturally there are stairs going down towards the front) I sat in some other people’s seats and waited til they came to see if they’d switch.

Luckily when they came, they guy understood a little bit of English and agreed to take our seats in the front! whew.

Crisis averted. (ESP since the seat-holders came late and it was already dark and mid-scary music and creepy scene #2!!)

So.. it was interesting seeing a movie.. but I don’t think it will be a common occurrence b.c. there’s no recent movies playing here yet!!! Like, movies that came out in the US in June have yet to arrive here!!!! No wonder the blackmarket on bootlegged movies is SO popular AND good here... like under $10 for 5 movies that are in US theatres!!! Not bad, not bad.

Now, if only I could get to the blackmarket to buy them... that’s another issue. :(

My absolute awesome clumsiness...

Today was quite eventful..
At morning swim squad, day #2, I was coaching on deck. (naturally)
I was leaning on the ladder with my weight on one leg... I went to put my weight on the other foot and miscalculated the edge of the pool!
I fell right into the pool and in the process of doing so the ladder steps caught my foot, pulling it up! Ouch. I was in pain, yet laughing.. b.c. really?! Only me.
I was embarrassed but luckily it was just the other coach that saw me b.c. the swimmer was too busy with the workout! :)
I got out, thought I’d jammed my toe and tried to shrug it off.
Time went by, the pain worsened, the swelling increased...
After an hour, I couldn’t put pressure on my foot except for the outside side of my foot and I def. couldn’t get around very well.
It was time to see the Nurse, despite her recent popularity due to the H1N1 virus spreading rapidly throughout S. Korea.
She took one look at the crooked toe and said I needed to go to the hospital.
How would I get there?!
After a few tries, I secured a driver + car from the transportation section of the school to come get me and take me to the hospital. (Yes, it was the international clinic, so they could speak English)
Waiting in the clinic to be seen by the doc, I see a fellow teacher then a student and his mom... later I see 2 other teachers and my wheelchair-wheeler girl says I’m quite popular..
Now the weird part is that in Korea- even if you have insurance, you have to pay the full amount of your bill on-site!! `No matter what it is... xray, appt, surgery! All has to be paid immediately or you don’t get the service. (Luckily, it happened at work so I got this letter from work to say “We will pay, don’t worry”)
But if you don’t have the $$, SORRY!!
So..
I go to the Xray station which is weird b.c. everything is like an amusement park ride with lines and no real “waiting rooms”.. but b.c. I’m a foreigner (aka paying more) I get preference... (at times, that is- IF I befriend my wheelchair-wheeler.. which I did and she was my age and trying to learn English, so it worked well in my favor once I learned that my connections meant everything)
Also- Korean wheelchairs are not made for people my size! Tight fit!!
I get the Xray and the guy didn’t speak English and was hurting me but we couldn’t communicate except for “Ouch!”
The doctor looked at my Xrays with me- the bone in the bottom part of my toe was pushed over to one side- a place where it should NOT be.. she said “I usually don’t do this, but I will give you cast then you make appointment with special orthopedic doctor”
So... I waited for the cast.
The cast guy didn’t speak English and was hurting me but we couldn’t communicate except for “Ouch!”
I get back and get medicine to take home- the tylenol version... so pretty much crap.
Then- How do I get home?!?
Luckily, the nurse at school gave me 5,000 won (@ $5) to get a cab for the way home.
But.. I have a soft-cast on now;

the pain is pretty bad; and I have the crutches I came IN with , as well as the crutches they GAVE me at the hospital!!!
So holding onto 2 crutches per arm, I hobble out to the street and try to hail a taxi.. lol.
It’s so hard managing 4 crutches that no cabs realize I’m trying to get one...
Finally, the man directing traffic gets one for me, Thank God!
I make it to the gate of my housing area.. and the cab drops me off..
I have to 4-crutch it all the way to the back of my little neighborhood (quite a trek) and THEN up my stairs!! Let’s just say I haven’t left my house since.

I’m real worried about how in the heck I’m going to crutch it up the HUMONGOUS hill to work tomorrow morning at 630am...
I’m real worried about it for hours...
THEN~
School is cancelled for 7 days due to the H1N1 virus!!! It’s like a hurricane but better :) (Sorry, that sounded bad.. I meant the days I get off work..)

So let’s just say it SUCKS about my foot b.c. I really can’t get around.. not even to go to the store or to work or ANYTHING!! you go everywhere on foot here.. so it sucks. BUT it’s perfect timing for the days off b.c. I get time to relax and not have to go up that INSANELY huge hill! :) Whew.

Drum lessons, the REAL Seoul Tower, and OCTOPUS!!

School has started and my schedule is strange, but nice. I work from 630-800am, then 12-5pm. Weird.. but it’s nice.. I like it so far- parents are more “involved” to put it positively than they were at Stanton.. I think the culture’s emphasis on education creates an environment of “very involved” parental figures.. Good thing I had all those AP World conferences with parents and learned how to deal :)

After my first week of school was over, us girls went out to celebrate in Hongdai. (It’s right near one of the big universities here so it’s real trendy and a pretty cool hangout spot) After doing some night-sidewalk shopping we heard some music and went to discover it’s origins... there was this group of drummers sitting around in a circle just playing music..

after a moment or so, people start getting up and leaving and members of the audience sit down to play! I was like “huh?! They weren’t all in the ‘band’?” So..... we joined them!

The leader was super-enthusiastic and he taught us different beats and we pretty much just followed him and went along with how we felt like playing.. It was so impromptu and a perfect example of college life. After playing for sometime, our hands began to HURT!! I looked at them and sure enough, I had bruised them! (The next morning, my middle finger was swollen/black/and blue.. the girls each had their own unique bruised finger, but they had at least one!) I have NO idea how super-enthusiastic guy can keep it up for that long... he’s talented!

On Sat. morning we went on a Seoul city tour with Jack Moon, SFS’s activities director. He’s been living here since the 70s so he knows quite a lot and was telling us lots of really cool info... like:

Seoul actually has a population of more like 22 million, not 11 million as reported. The two neighboring regions that aren’t “officially” counted are actually part of Seoul.

The place where I live= Yonghi-Dong (“Dong” means neighborhood or area of town) is the “posh-est, nicest, and most well-to-do” area of Seoul.. when he arrived 30 years ago, the area was simply agricultural land!! Now, former presidents live in the area and well, let’s just say that the night before when I got lost in the neighborhood trying to find my way to a BBQ- I was stopped by some security guards that wouldn’t let me keep walking in their direction b.c. they were protecting some important and very rich people..

hmm.

So.. on the tour we went to Seoul Tower! Which is great b.c. my camera died the last time and I didn’t really get pics.

There were “Locks of Love” at the base of the tower

which is where two lovers will come and each have a lock. They profess their undying and everlasting love in words on each of their locks then they lock them together on a fence.

It’s a really nice sentiment.. except- there were some solo locks which had been there a long time which made us ponder whether the love was NOT in fact “undying” and “everlasting” and the scorned party removed her lock?! (Yes, I say “her” for a reason! heh)

We went up the tower this time (which cheap-o Berengere and I didn’t pay for last time) and it was pretty sweet..

On all the windows were the major cities all across the world and their distances from the Seoul Tower!! So I looked out the window with New York and DC and in that direction was my home!

It was pretty neat to see all that.

Seoul was even more impressive from the top of the tower than the base, like I’d seen before... understandably.

On Sunday, our travel-fun-day, Berengere and I (I’m sure you’re noticing a theme- we are the ones that aren’t obsessed with work and love to travel and sightsee more!) went to try to find this used English bookstore. It’s always an ordeal whenever you want to go somewhere and it took me 25 minutes to figure out the route to get to the bookstore not to mention about 45 minutes to actually take the route!!! We had to walk to the base of our hill and catch a bus to the subway station. We then took the subway and transferred lines, and then walked to our destination... which was CLOSED on Sundays!!! Bummer. BUT!! Luckily.. in such a big city, there’s always something close by so we went to Insadong which is essentially a touristy-ish area with things to buy and places to eat.

Berengere, the adventuresome Frenchie that she is, forced me to eat Octopus!!! Egads!!! But I wasn’t as adventuresome as some who eat it LIVE! Blech. It was an experience and at least now I can say I’ve eaten it!