Public Urination

Gross!!!!....I know.  You see this everywhere.  No, it's not just the random Korean who has gotten drunk from too much soju.  The majority of citizens seen urinating in public are young boys, and they're guardians help them. I have heard that this does not only happen outside but has also occurred in the subways (ewww).  There is no shame in it and it seems that none of them actually hide to do their business either....But what's worse, it is not only the male species taking part in this but also little girls ( I don't think grown women do this, but I could be wrong!).  I experienced this first-hand when my students were out playing on the playground a few weeks ago.  One of our little girls pulled on my co-teacher's jacket and said that she needed to use the bathroom.  Without hesitation the teacher helped her with her pants, lifted her ankles above her head and she just peed on a bush!! I was embarrassed to be near this and was looking all around to see if anyone was watching.  Of course back home, you know they would be.

Another encounter that we had was a little boy peeing in the sewer and his nanny was telling him to hurry up.  As I said this is pretty frequently seen throughout Korea and will always be strange/amusing to us.

Maybe Haechi could teach a lesson to our Korean friends :)

Taking out the Trash

One of the really nice things about Korea is their effort in trying to recycle.  Every time we go to take out the trash we have to separate our trash into many different categories.  The main stations are glass, plastic, heavy cardboard, light cardboard, paper, food waste, and a place for trash bags.  Trash bags are pink here because they are government regulated.  We get a pack of 10 trash bags for $5.  A lot of Koreans that we have talked to think this is a high price for them to pay for this.  They use the money to put back into the cities sanitation. When we go down to put everything away we are always afraid of the security guard.  He walks inches behind you and literally looks over your shoulder when you are putting away stuff.  He's checking if we are putting things away in the right spots.  At first we thought he did it just for foreigners, but he does it to everyone.  We have gotten use to it, but when it first happened we wanted to drop everything and tell him to do it if he was so worried about it. Here are some pictures of our place we put all our trash and recyclables.

A walk to school

Here is what my day looks like when I walk to school every morning.  Its about a 15 minute walk and it is very enjoyable to do everyday.  We have yet to take the bus or anything else to get to school, so whether rain or snow we will be walking everyday.  Just some days we have to bring a change of clothes because of the rain during monsoon season.

Pretending to be too busy to post

We have been ignoring the blog too much because we don't want to post very long posts with our busy schedule.  We will be back to doing regular posts soon.  We will try to do a post 1-3 times a week.  We'll do shorter posts, but looking for interesting things about Korea.  We are getting closer to the end of our contract and we are thinking that we are not going to resign with Etonhouse.  There are some things going on and we are looking for a new job.  We are not sure what we are going to do yet, but we are looking for a new place in Korea down south or Japan.  So long story short, we want to make the best of our last months of our contract in Korea because it might be our last.

First post of randomness that happens in our lives everyday, ADVERTISEMENTS!!!!! We live in a studio apartment called an Officetel which means the building could be used for living or business.  So we are use to having lots of people in our building that could live here or be here for business.  Anyone who passes by our door always leaves an advertisement. The ones on the doors are only from this week.  We throw it away at the end of each week.  Then we start over collecting them again.  We are in a busy area having a subway station in our basement.  That's it for now, we'll have more to come.

Korean Folk Village

Over our summer break we traveled to a Korean Folk Village about 45 minutes from our apartment. Some of these villages are actually lived in and others are just set up to look like the original villages. This one, people actually still live there. The first thing that we did when we got inside the village, was check out these white string-like covered trees. Turns out they are wishes. There is a table and your are supposed to put your wish on a piece of paper and tie it to the tree in hopes that it will come true...kinda neat! They never seem to take any of the wishes down, so it is covered with these papers and I guess when they are full they just make a new one.

The village is divided into different social classes and you could go around and see how each class lived. There is also a zen garden and an amusement park attached to the village. We did not go into the amusement park. There is also some beautiful flower gardens that I got a chance to take some photos of.

Besides checking out the buildings and flower gardens, there are scheduled performances to take in throughout the day. The first thing we watched was the Farmer's Music and Dance. This has about fifteen men dressed in traditional apparel, the instrumentalists were basically playing different pans and drums. The dancers had long ribbon-like strings attached to their hats which they twirl in circles while dancing. They also did some leaps here and there. The climax of this performance was a gentleman with a really long ribbon that he performed several jumping tricks with.
The second performance we caught was the Equestrian Feats. This was a lot of trick riding and they showed how they would hunt boars. It was fun to watch them chase after the horse and get back on it.
The final show that we watched was the Tightrope Acrobat. This was interesting for a little while, but after watching him cross so many times it got a little old. The acrobat was an older gentleman and he used a lot of jokes in his show (all in Korean). He did some really difficult things and had a fan for balance as he walked across. He did some jumping to a sit on the rope as well as going to one knee.

There was one show that we didn't get a chance to catch and that was a reinactment of a traditional wedding. Maybe we'll visit again and get a chance to watch this. I'm not sure what performances are consistant. We were there during their summer schedule and it seems that some things change for each season.

There is a lot to take in at the folk village and there are many things that we didn't get a chance to experience. Also, there was construction and some flooding at the river, so some things were closed. There are some experiences that you can also be a part of such as dyeing material, a pottery workshop, a fan workshop, and a few more.

Most of the things at the village that are available for purchase are hand-crafted there. There is a wood carver, a knot tying shop, pipe maker, and many others. We both bought some bracelets with hand crafted knots as well as a fan and some hand carved ducks. The other interesting thing was that it all seemed to be at a reasonable price.

We enjoyed a nice lunch there as well, which we had been told not to miss out on the food there. It was very good. We look forward to visiting there again.

First School Fieldtrip to the Strawberry Farm

So when I was thinking strawberry farm, I thought, "Oh neat, we are going to see what a farm in Korea looks like." Wrong. So it the drive was about an hour to get there. There were rows and rows of greenhouses surrounded by a dusty lot. Inside the greenhouses were long mounded rows of trashbag-like material with strawberry plants shooting up out of them. Not at all what I would call a farm. The entire presentation was in Korean, so neither Chris nor I or any of the foreign teachers for that matter understood what was being said to the children. Each child was given a plastic carton to fill. After some time, the ladies at the farm told us to stop and give the containers to them. From there we went to another greenhouse with picnic tables inside and had to sit around them. They brought out bowls of already cleaned and cut up strawberries that the children squeezed and smashed by hand. Once each class had their strawberries mushed enough they were all poured into big pots. Each of the children got a chance to use the big spoons and stir the jam. We had lunch afterwards and all of the children had about an hour to play in some open area before getting back on the buses. Every child got to take home a container of strawberries and a jar of jam! None of the teachers were allowed any of the strawberries, but we did get to sample one or two before they were cleaned. They tasted funny, so we weren't too disappointed.

What I've learned in Korea

I will be writing different things that I have learned in Korea in different segments.  There is so much to cover and it seems like everyone's experiences that we have talked to are different as well when coming to this country.

First topic: Korean People helpfulness?

What I've seen is that Korean people are very nice and are willing to help whenever they can.  When we tell this to other Korean's or even foreign teachers they are very shocked.  I don't know what other people have experienced, but we are very forgiving for some things just because this isn't our culture.  One of the things that is not considered rude is bumping into each other.  When a Korean walks into someone, they will not turn around or say sorry, they will just continue to walk along like nothing has happened.  This is pretty understandable because there are so many people in different areas that it almost impossible to not bump into anyone. The basic moto is walk to where you need to go at your own pace, and if that means pushing people away that's fine.  I think the other problem people have is older men and women.  They feel like they should be treated better because they are older.  In all reality, Korea still has a lot of Confucius ideas in their society, and respecting your elders in a gracious way is one of them.  I don't mind it because I should be more respectful to them, but I usually am not.  Most of the time older Korean men and women are very curious about foreigners so they will try to communicate with us.  Some will try to practice English while others will babble in Korean and I just shake my head and try to use hand signs.  It's usually the younger Koreans who can speak a lot more English and can help us out more if we need help.  Overall we have enjoyed our experiences with other Koreans and love interacting with them more.