Our 1st Korean Subway Train Experience

We had no idea what we were doing and those seats we are sitting in are actually for the elderly, disabled, or pregnant folk. Ooops.

I think after I leave Korea, I will have no problem using public transportation anywhere in the U.S. At least it's in English there.

Things you should know when you come to visit me: a.k.a. Korean Etiquette

Pedestrians Do Not Have the Right of Way!
Be careful when walking on the street and sidewalks. Even if you are at a crosswalk and the little green walking man appears and the light is definitely red, there is still a chance you might get hit. I've been in taxis and buses that run red lights all the time and it's a little un-nerving. However, this doesn't stop the fearless Koreans for they will start walking across a huge intersection just before the walking sign appears. And the sidewalks aren't safe either. People on motor bikes and scooters, especially those who are delivering food, will constantly be riding down a crowded sidewalk and you just have to move out of the way. And in Korea, everyone delivers; not just Pizza and Chinese places. Watch where you're going and you'll be fine.

Loogeys.
And speaking of watching your step...keep a lookout for huge, hocked up loogeys all over the place. It's considered very rude to blow your nose in public or mess with your hair too much while dining, however, it it perfectly acceptable at any given time outside to hock up a huge loogey and make the loudest, most disgusting sound possible and then spitting it out anywhere on the street or sidewalk. I find this to be gross! I can hardly stand it; I might flip out on somebody one day. And supposedly, it gets worse in the winter. EW!

Never trust a picture.
It's really helpful that most Korean restaruants have pictures of most of the items on their menu or even fake food displays of what it really looks like. However, that doesn't mean it is what it looks like. Pretty much every time Erin and I say, "oh, let's get that breaded chicken looking thing with the cheesey stuff and those mashed potatos with gravy," the result is nothing close to what we thought. Solution: forget everything you know about food and don't try to compare Korean food to anything remotelyWestern (except for the fried chicken, which is delicious!)

Take Cover.
You can show your legs, but not your collar bones. Girls rarely wear tank tops here, even in the hot summer. It's just one of those things. The fashion is weird here. They will wear these long baggy shirts that cover their chest and shoulders, but often wear short shorts or skirts with high heels...or they will wear jeans, but always with heels. Coming from Florida, I'm all about some tank tops and bearing my shoulders. This causes people to stare; but they stare anyway since I'm one of the few white girls around this area, so what's the difference. Anywho, if you are a girl with big boobs you better stay covered up because they are not used to that here and they might even ask if you are Russian implying that you are a prostitute. Luckily, I don't have heaving bosoms for anyone to gawk at.

No shoes, service.
In the traditional Korean restaurants, you eat on the floor and you have to take your shoes off when you come in the restaurant. I also have to take my shoes off at school and put them in a locker at the teachers' door and I wear some cheap Korean slipper/flip flop type shoes that are pretty comfy. (Oh, and the word "service" means "free" in Korea. If I buy some nail polish, I might get some free beauty samples and they will say "service." This also goes for food and pretty much anything you buy. It's awesome! I love getting free stuff!)

Unsuspecting Compliments.
Here are some of the sentences I hear from my students, co-workers, and Koreans in general that are supposed to be compliments:

*Teacher, you have a perfect S-shape ~or~ You have a cola bottle shape.
Translation:You have great curves.

*Your skin is very pale/white.
Translation: The paler, the better in Korea. Most Koreans, especially women, strive to be as pale as possible and they even buy make-up with skin whiteners in it and carry around parasols to shield the sun from their skin. This is probably one of the reasons they all look so young...and never get skin cancer.

*You have a small head/face. ~or/and~ You have big eyes.
Translation: I'm sure you've seen Japanime before and noticed that they all have big eyes and small faces...another desired trait amongst Koreans. Some women even get surgery on their eyelids to make their eyes appear bigger.

Most of these compliments are just statements in general about the way you look and it's hard to tell when they are meant to be a good comment or just a comment. A lot of my students are fascinated by my arm hair and will randomly rub my arms if I am close enough to them.

Also, a lot of people will try to talk to me and they always ask, "Where are you prum?" This is probably one of the few countries I actually admit to being an American in because they LOVE Americans here. Especially teachers. They look at me and see their childs ticket to Harvard or something. I like to reply in Korean: Me-guk aesuh whasayou (I came from America). But it gets a little ridiculous at times and sometimes I'm just tempted to say I'm from France (Koreans also love the French style and there are lots of French cafes here) so that no one will try to speak the 5 words they know in English to me or ask me if I can hang out with them and help them improve their English.

Other things people will ask you:
*How old are you?
This might seem rude or like a faux pas in our society, but in Korea the way you speak to a person largely depends on their age. You must speak polite to everyone, but there are different levels of this and they are much higher and different when you are talking to someone older than you. Korea is definitely all about the fillial piety, if you will.

*Are you married?
This is a big deal as well. Most men will ask me if I'm married before they proceed to talk to me, I don't know the details on this one. But I've noticed that not a lot of women wear wedding rings that are married. The younger married couples definitely do though. Traditionally, the woman keeps her name in Korea as well, but the kids always take their father's last name.

Erin and I have become friends and language exchange partners with this cute Korean girl named Soo. So we try to help her with her English and she helps us with learning Korean. We will probably try to take an actual Korean class in the fall because we can't expect her to teach us everything, but she is trying.

I'm sure there will be more things to add to this blog, but this is a good start, for now.

Bucheon Yangji Elementary: The Kids in Korea

My school is pretty nice; and the kids are pretty good, you know, for kids ;) Ha ha. I'm not complaining at all, I don't know if I could teach the kids in America, but my job here in Korea is easy. I teach two after-school classes a week (in addition to the 20 classes per week I teach in the morning) where I can do and teach whatever I want. I usually just make them sing songs I remember from childhood and play games like musical chairs (which the 3rd graders are absolutely mad about.)

I think I almost relate more to the kids here in Korea more than the adults. I mean, I'm probably at the level of a one-year-old in terms of my Korean conversational skills, but still, I understand how it must feel for these kids to try and learn English while I'm trying to learn Korean. It's a bit annoying after a while of sitting with all of the teachers at lunch or in whatever situation, where they just speak Korean and obviously talk about me and don't explain what they're talking about because they don't speak English. I stopped asking...and caring for that matter. It just makes me feel horrible for not knowing Korean. At first, I didn't care, and it's still not a big deal, because this way I don't have to make pointless small talk with these other teachers about where I'm from, what I like to do, etc. But nevertheless, I'd much rather eat lunch with the Kindergarteners who don't rely on speech to talk. They don't even have to make sense of things. They use gestures, giggles, nonsense and as few words possible.

Sun Jung's son, Hyeung Jun (above), is adorable. He's a typical, cute, little boy with a raspy voice and a playful attitude. He's always laughing and getting into things in a cunning way. He showed me his Korean workbook and I said he should tutor me or practice with me, since we both don't understand the language fully. I definitely need help with the vowels. They all sound the same to my ears.

Erin and I were talking about how we always see big sisters and little brothers in Korea, but never the other way around. I was thinking, or wondering, if it's because if they have a girl first, they will try again for a boy, but if they have a boy first, they don't have anymore kids. I see a lot of boys with only child syndrome... Oh, and in Korea when two people get married, no one changes their name. However, the kids always get the father's last name. Interesting, huh.

These are my 3rd/4th grade after-school students. [Oh, and minie Vrenlie is the one on the left front in the light pink and yellow.] Ever since we first played musical chairs, that's all they ever want to do. "Jesshica teacher, let's play the muzhic chairs game!"

The 5th/6th grade after-school class is a little more shutter shy than the younger ones. I could only convince these 4 5th grade girls to pose for the pic...

Yeah, that's right, I have my own entrance ;p

Here's the classroom after the kids have left for the day. There are actually 4 students that come in and clean the room everday before they go home. I found that to be pretty amazing. I don't know how it's decided on who has to come clean the English room, but I dig it.

Sun Jung in our office inside the classroom:

"All I want is a [school] with view...doo doo do."

English Village: May 23rd

*Note: The blog above this one is a video of Koreans imitating Native Americans at the English Village.

After Pizza Hut, Sun Jung and her family drove us to this place called English Village. I don't know why it's called that, something about art and architecture and they have little coffee shops. But they also have a huge kids section with Sanrio characters. Dalki is the main one. Dalki means strawberry. I really thought Erin was going to steal one of the cute little Korean babies and bring it home with us. They way she would watch these kids play was something slightly predatory. And then she would have this look of disgust on her face, almost, like she was annoyed at how stinkin adorable these kids are. I had to keep a close on her... ha.

I don't know what kind of flower that is and I have no idea what this guy is doing...







Erin wanted to steal the cute girl with the rainbow socks, but I convinced her to adopt the cute little blonde one instead ;)


She's trying so hard not to snatch her up ;p


<--- My co-teacher, Sun Jung, her son, her neice, and her nephew.

Ilsan: Medical Exam and Pizza Hut (May 23rd)

My co-teacher, Sun Jung, scheduled Erin and my medical exam for the same time Saturday morning at a hospital in Ilsan where her sister works as I'm not sure what and her brother-in-law works as a doctor.

Sun Jung, her husband, and their son picked us up in front of my apartment in their car and drove us 35 minutes to Ilsan. Ilsan is a nice city. It was my top pick, but we got Bucheon, which is probably a cooler city to live in for the convenience of being near Seoul. Anywho, we get out there and walk into the clinic where we have to take off our shoes and wear their special slippers. We were also shown to a locker room to leave our stuff in and change into the pink pajama-like clothes. They took our blood, urine, and xrays. They also did an EKG, which surprised Erin because she went in first and the nurse didn't warn her that she would be sticking suctions cup things all over chest. She even told me when she came out to be forewarned that she will open my shirt and stick them all over me...

Also, the staff couldn't speak English, so we had no idea what was going on the whole time and they kept laughing with us about the whole situation. Afterwards, we saw the doctor, who said we were healthy and then we met back up with Sun Jung and co. for lunch.

They took us to Pizza Hut. It was a nice gesture, but we would've gladly ate Korean food. Besides, the pizza here is not the same. Some of the crust was stuffed with cheese and the rest was stuffed with potato. They put weird toppings on the pizzas, like hash brown things, or squid, or crab or ramdom vegetables, but it wasn't bad. Erin got excited about the salad bar because she spotted nacho cheese and tortilla chips from our seats. But she was soon dissapointed to discover that the cheese was served cold in a container surrounded by ice. Weird.

Sun Jung's husband paid for the whole thing, including her sister's daughter and son and two other relatives that were in town. They also let me pick out a pasta dish to share and it was some kind of creamy alfredo-ish chicken pasta. Delish! We stuffed ourselves silly, and then walked through an exersise park, conveniently, and back to the car...

Things To Do Near My Home ~ week 1 of Korea

Eat in random Korean restaurants that bring you a ton of food and allow Erin to smoke:

Fancily decorated restaurants that is....

...with Soju or Beer, of course...

Or we can always grab a drink called "Death" at the Golden Age bar.

Mornings can be spent at Paris Baguette for a pastry or some coffee. But don't get the cheese and "marinara" sandwhiches, unless you really like ketchup. Ew. In this picture, Erin ponders the way in which we shall find a roof to sunbathe upon...

And of course, we can always do what we do best, play horrible games of pool sober. Why don't they have alcohol at pool halls in Korea? Don't they know we need alcohol to play well. Pshaw!

Look how the balls magically rack themselves. It's truly amazing. Don't you agree?