It's not wrong...it's just different..an inside look to Korean culture...

It’s been almost two months since I first arrived here in South Korea and I just want to start this post off with a look inside of the Korean culture. I haven’t quite fallen in love with this place yet unfortunately, but I also didn’t fall in love with Barcelona immediately either. I think a lot of that has to do with the culture here. Culture constantly fascinates me in ways that I can’t always describe. Korean values are pretty similar to American values; they surprisingly seem to come off as a very materialistic culture. Everyone must have nice things as a symbol of status like cars, clothes, and cell phones. They are also a very “wired” culture; it’s very rare that I see someone without a cell phone attached to their ear or hand (most of the time sending a text or even watching live tv). Appearance here is also very important and the hierarchy system is still very much in place. Men are in charge and it would be very rare for a woman to own a business. They are a very touchy feely culture and tend to be clingy sometimes. Koreans are some of the nicest and rudest people that I’ve ever met, all at the same time! They have no sense of personal space, enjoy silence on public transportation, love their spicy ass food, and refuse to let any sunlight penetrate their skin. They are a very active and physically fit culture with a huge emphasize put on being  “tall and skinny.” Education is the absolute most important thing. The language to me is confusing and every single word ends in a vowel and this is no exaggeration. Everywhere I go it’s, Yogi-yo, kam-sam-nee-daa, on hay seo…. everything ends in the vowels…nee da, ha-seo, or yo. The average size family includes 1 maybe 2 children. Koreans also don’t sweat and will wear turtle necks, long pants, gloves, and a huge hat to shade their whole face when it is 90 + degrees outside, and STILL – no sweat.  Koreans are also very big on national pride and take their country very seriously. The children are adorable but Koreans do not age well at all. The older they get, the worse they look I’ve noticed.

 I think that overall when it comes to cultural values here and the way of life, I’m not sure that this is a place that I would want to live forever. Korea is very nice and maybe I haven’t experienced enough of it yet to really form an overall opinion of this place, but these are my initial thoughts after 2 months. There are worse places on this earth to spend my days and Korea is certainly not one of them. 

Educational Culture – Here in Korea the students go to school during normal hours just like we would in the US. From about 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. everyday. In school they study a variety of subjects. After school almost all Korean students will attend some type of academy. For example, one student’s week could look like this: Monday & Thursday – English academy after school for 3-5 hours, Tuesday & Friday - Math and Science academy for 3-4 hours , and Wednesday & Saturday maybe a sports academy like Taekwondo or a Korean academy. Then after the kids go to academy, most of them get home around 8-10 p.m. every night and then have to do normally 2-3 hours of homework on top of all that. I’ve been told that 6 hours of sleep for a Korean student each night is a joy! The kids also go to school pretty much year round here, they get a month off during summer and a month during the winter but that’s about it. Education is the top priority here in Korea. Where we might see this as demanding and cruel, this just happens to be their culture. It’s not wrong, it’s just different…




That's about it for my cultural rant at the moment. At this point I think anyone who's reading probably has a grasp on my daily schedule at this point: Sleep in, wake up, gym, work, and then stay up late doing whatever. So I don't need to go through everyday...BUT, I will give you the highlights of the past 3 weeks...here are my random thoughts in no particular order...

• Here in Korea, if you happen to be in a relationship, you can purchase matching clothing! Couples do this all the time and it's not rare to see couples in matching clothes just walking around! They also have an entire section dedicated to this fad or fashion trend at the large department store here called the Dong-A! Crazy! I will try to snap a photo if I can...
• There was company picnic June 20th- none of us went though, it included having to pay 25,000 Won for lunch in some remote outskirt of Daegu. Pssh, Maybe next time if they decided to do something not so boring and worth my weekend...
• There has recently been a crackdown at work concerning use of the internet, cell phones, too much chit-chatting, and electricity conservation....My thoughts on this = GAY! The boss has been watching our every move on the CCTV system, I think a lot of his stress has to do with one of our branches closing, I can imagine that the merger is a little stressful but one of the rules implemented included no talking in the staff room except for during the 5 mins. break period...I mean come on, seriously!?
• I almost got hit by some idiotic woman driver the other day. They drive on the sidewalks here and she just started coming up onto the sidewalk off of the main drag at probably 25 mph! She nearly hit me and when she saw how pissed off I was she started doing some weird arm motion that I'm assuming meant "I'm sorry!" Regardless...I hit her car a couple of times and gave her the bird just to let her know how pissed off I really was...!
• I recently started drinking Aloe, it's a big thing here in Korea. At some point in time I remember my grandma telling me about it's benefits because she had purchased some for my sickly aunt. I had some at work when we had snacks one day and it was delicious and now I'm drinking it all the time. It might be the single cause of me staying here - it's that good!
• Another piece of advice from my lovely grandma..and this is verbatim... "I think that you just need to get laid. It will stop all this nonsense talk about being in love." - HAHA! My grandma...the world's best right there folks! She literally knows everything there is to know. I miss having our Saturday work days together!
• Another note about work - we have treats all the time! I love it! One day last week, the big boss guy (Woon Jang Nim) brought us in a big tub of baskin robbins ice cream, another day, our team leader brought in ice cream cones for everyone, and then another day the big boss brought us some Korean goodies...some purple noodles and some rice cakes in some spicy - wait, you guessed it -RED sauce...not too bad, that's when I tried the Aloe. We have also had cake on many occasions as well.
• Terrorism is stupid. 
• The fruit here in Daegu truly is delicious. The apples are probably some of the best I've ever had and the pears here are to die for.
• The humidity has decided to kick itself up a notch and is slowly trying to suck the life out of me...along with this humidity have arrived our not so friendly blood sucking pests that we like to call mosquitoes. I have already been bit about 5 times and from what I hear, I'm lucky, it could be worse! I need some bug spray STAT!
• While I have been neglecting my blog we had a vacation from work. It was supposedly a 4 day vacation but turned out to only be a long weekend - we had Thursday and Friday off... I did nothing productive with myself, sad to say but totally true. I hung out with Chris and Joel all weekend because everyone else was away on vacation. I spent the majority of my time frequenting the downtown area and staying out until 8 & 7 a.m. respectively! I did locate a pool though and thus went for a swim. I also did some shopping and actually purchased a few things for a change. I met a lot of new people so overall it was a good weekend. I kinda wish I would have traveled somewhere but I decided to just be boring :-/
• Speaking of pool...I did locate a pool that I can swim laps at. I purchased myself a swimsuit, cap, and googles and decided to get back at it! I didn't realize how much I missed swimming until I did my first 50 meters! Ugh, I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to stop doing it in high school (wait, I recall the big shoulders paranoia) ...I miss the swim team, great exercise. The Koreans at the pool seemed to be pretty impressed with me and the lifeguard went so far as to complement me on my great swimming with the little english that he knew. I liked it so much that I decided to go back this weekend and ended up meeting another girl named Victoria from England. She signed up to take swim lessons and the lifeguard asked me if I could come and help him teach her because he doesn't speak any English and is having a hard time explaining things to her! I felt so flattered but I can't do it because I work during the time of her lesson. I told her that I could give her some advice on the weekends though if she wanted some help...
• I also received my first care package from Auntie Jo, loaded with peanut butter, nutella, popcorn, and English magazines..I'm only allowing myself to read 10 pages per day so that they last me for a while! lol Thanks again Auntie Jo!
• Here in Korea they have this terrible music called K-pop, which in short stands for Korean Pop. It's probably the worst music on the planet. I told my students this and they said, "No teacha, no!" I explained to them that if it was good music it would probably be recognized internationally or at least in one other country - AKA there's a reason for this - it's TERRIBLE! If you don't believe me - download some.
•  Common courtesy goes along with any job.
• What’s so scary about being human is the unknown….
•  The most beautiful Korean women are supposedly found right here in Daegu.
• Boys hold hands here and girls hold hands here but it’s not considered gay, just friendly.
• I love memory foam and desperately want some for my bed!
• It's pretty cool to be paid in millions!
• One recently cool experience that I had: Joel and I went to this place called Dr. Fish. This is how it works..you go in, pay like 2 dollars, put your feet in these little tub things that are full of these little fish and they eat all the dead skin off of your feet! It feels so crazy! I am extremely ticklish so it was hard for me to get used to it at first but it's like receiving a pedicure by little baby piranas! Very cool. I also read that Dr. Fish only exists in Korea and Malaysia but that could be false...interesting experience though, I can't wait to go back!
• Canada Day was this past Thursday and the Fourth of July is currently occuring...haha It's been a fun filled weekend that included a sloppy night at the bar yesterday. Special food was offered in honor of these holidays this weekend here in Daegu at this bar called the Holy Grill. Goooood Eats if I do say so myself! 
• The past two weeks we haven't had hardly any students at school because final exams are taking place in their regular schools so it's been extremely quiet at work. Relaxing, but I'm ready for my little darlings to return to school tomorrow because I'm bored and they keep me pretty entertained at times...
• I'm trying to plan what I'm going to do for our next vacation. Karissa wants to go to Taiwan...anyone know anything about Taiwan? I wouldn't mind going there or the Philippines.

Random thought for the week..

Whose to say where I'll be a year from now?? I honestly can't even begin to think about that right now. People keep asking me this but I just can't make plans anymore like I used to. If there is one thing that I've learned over the past 3 years it's that you gotta take this world ONE day at a time...and sometimes you even have to take it hour by hour, and minute by minute.... Make it count because you never know when you won't be with the one's you love anymore...

Question of the week...

Is it wrong to go out with someone even if you don’t see yourself dating them in the future? Is it still wrong even if you just see yourself having fun with them as a friend?