Hello BiK readers.
Today's post will be a bit more reflective and boring than usual, but that's how we roll sometimes here at the BiK Blog.
Today is National Foundation Day here in South Korea so I happen to have the day off of school. What better time for an update?
First of all...GO BADGERS! Way to beat up on the Nebraska Cornhuskers! I
was Jumpin' Around in my apartment watching that magnificent
performance. Also, GO PACK and GO BREW CREW!
Well folks, I've been in Korea for a little over a month. So far things are going pretty well. I'm settled into my apartment, I've got a pretty good idea of where a lot of things are in my town and I know how to use the bus and subway system.The only things that have been a bit annoying are 1.) Not having a telephone or cell phone and 2.) not having my own internet connection to use. I don't necessarily need them to survive, but when you're the new kid on the block without a phone or internet and can't communicate with pretty much anyone because you don't speak Korean, it makes the process of meeting new people or even getting around much more difficult. The good news is that I do get my Alien Registration Card (ARC) on Friday (after a month of waiting) and that, my friends, is the key to victory. I will be very happy to hold that in my hands.
It's the small things...
OK, I'll now give you some of my impressions of Korea after being here for 34 days. Both good and bad.
I have to admit, after the initial fun of the first couple days of being in a new place, I was feeling quite overwhelmed by what I had gotten into. Not to mention homesick.
I've never traveled before, so I don't think I was quite prepared for the state of culture shock and lifestyle change that I was suddenly in. Not knowing the language, not knowing exactly what my job was, not knowing where to buy stuff, - it was a bit much to be thrown into in such a short period of time. But alas, I've endured and things have improved.
So what's Korea like? Well it's a lot different than the United States, or anything in the western hemisphere, I imagine. That's for sure.
As you can imagine, the people and society are very different here. In both good and strange ways. For example, there is almost no crime in Korea. People don't steal, people don't murder, people don't batter... people don't even freakin' litter here! No one. It will be 10:00 at night and you'll see two 9 year old girls walking home in a dark side street- by themselves. No way would that be safe in the U.S. but it's safe here. As a result, there is a very light police presence that I have noticed. especially in cars on the street which brings me to a counter point.
Korean drivers are absolutely nuts. They tool around in their little Hyundai and Kia cars like reckless lunatics. Stop lights (if they exist) are optional, and people don't stop for pedestrians. It's a dog-eat-dog free for all with lots of random swerving, sporadic U-turns on very busy roads, and endless horn honking. Oh yeah- they all have GPS systems and those have cable TV on them which they watch while they are driving too! I was blown away. One day, two of my co-workers had both gotten into a car accident on the same day- one of them ended up in the hospital because he was driving drunk. (Apparently not a big deal at all here as I went with my vice principal to visit the guy in the hospital). It honestly can be pretty frightening, especially once you hear the story of how I got the job position I did. I found out how I got placed where I did in the following conversation with my co-teacher:
Me: "So have you ever worked with another foreign teacher?"
My co-teacher: "Yeah we had a guy last year. He was a nice guy."
Me: "Cool, so did he do a good job? When did he leave?"
My co-teacher: "He got hit by a car this summer and died. It was really sad. He was a nice guy."
Me: "Oh...umm....?"
That's right, I'm taking over for a guy THAT GOT HIT BY A CRAZY KOREAN DRIVER.
How's that for an awkward welcome in?
Apparently it was a big story and when I've told other people around Seoul, they seem to have heard about it all over which makes me glad that it doesn't seem to be a regular occurrence.
Ok, back to some lighter topics.
One of the first things I noticed after being here for a few days is that there are no overweight people in Korea. I mean, coming from the United States it's been really strange to see. There are literally no fat people. This would be attributed to one of coolest parts about Korea that I've learned so far. Korean food is really yummy and it is really healthy for you. I would venture to guess that it is due to several things. First of all, portions are a lot smaller than what you would find in the U.S. Koreans just don't eat as much as we do. Secondly, they don't eat processed foods very much- if at all, and it's not even really for sale. The "supermarket" concept, while found in the big city in some places, is not all that popular here, and instead there is a highly functional system of open air market shopping where people pick up food and other goods like rice, produce, and then meat from a butcher shop. Is it a bit more rustic? Yes, but it's not done in the manner of a poor third world society like you might think. It's just the way they have it set up and people use it. And I don't blame them. It's probably one of the reasons why the local economy is really strong, which it is. People get out, people walk the streets of their town, they visit 10 different stores for each different item that they need, they go to markets, people sell things and people buy things there because they have no other option. And as a result, costs are very low. There's no Wal-mart or Targets, and quite frankly, I don't think they would want them or need them. It's all done in very small, humble operations.Really neat to see and every couple weeks there is a HUGE market day and the whole town becomes a big market where people sell everything: Shoes, clothes, watches, chickens, puppies (yes, puppies) fish and of course every kind of produce you could imagine.
What has really helped maintain the successful farmer's market system is that people here have kept a very strong connection to gardening and taking responsibility to produce their own food in their own community. I live in a city of 100,000 people and it really seems like everyone is fed by the community itself. Yes there is fast food trucked in along with some other stuff, but there are thousands of organic gardens, small rice and potato fields and markets all over the city. In every nook and cranny of the city you'll see tiny plots utilized to the max for a few heads of cabbage, some corn plants, potato plants, chili peppers- everywhere they can fit. It seems like everyone has an organic garden and makes it an important part of their life. So as a result, people don't really need supermarkets or any other type of imported food too much. The meals are very produce oriented. Meat is available, but is used much more sparingly and there is a lot
more seafood and fish incorporated which makes it a lot healthier. Lots of rice, lots of crunchy vegetable dishes, lots
of kimchi, lots of soups and everything is nice and spicy. There's no bread or pasta, which kind of sucks because I really like bread and pasta :(
Onto the Korean people...
There is a noticeable military presence- you see young guys in combat
uniforms all over as it is mandatory for every Korean man to join the
military and go through 1 year of training after high school. There are
also military vehicles, helicopters and planes flying around pretty regularly.
The people themselves are very friendly... once you meet them, that is. Unfortunately before that, there is not too much kindness to strangers- especially like you might find in the Midwest of the US. It's just not a part of the culture here. Lots of public spitting, pushing, horn honking, cutting in line...etc. That's not to say if you appear lost, (especially as a foreigner) they will not come up and try to help, because they do that. And trust me, I've had my fair share of lost foreigner moments- like every single day! Once you formally meet someone, they are very nice and make a genuine effort to be invested in you- my co-workers are really nice to me and give me rides, food and advice all the time.
Being a foreigner has been a very, very unique experience for me. If you are western here, you stick out like a sore thumb in many different ways. I get many different reactions from curiosity, to envy, to distain, but the strangest has been all of the blatant staring. It was funny at first, then it got weird after a few days and I started to feel like a zoo animal. Some of the older folks will just stare with a cold resentful look. I know there is some anti-American sentiment here and the fact that I totally fill the stereotype of foreigner-who-doesn't-speak-our-language-or-know-our-culture-and-is-getting-paid-by-our-tax dollars can make for an uncomfortable feeling when in public- especially when you are alone in a subway full of Koreans. The younger kids are much more curious about me and I regularly get random people coming up to me and to say, "HELLOOO!" in my face and then laugh when I say "hi" back. It's very fun for them and they really like Americans. On that point, the youth, and even a lot of adults, have been totally taken up in the American hipster fashion- even more than the U.S. itself and it's just funny to see what they wear. All of the clothes feature American culture and have English all over. Boston Redsox t-shirts, Michigan football hats, bright neon yellow basketball shoes. A lot of it doesn't make any sense and I doubt that they even know what they are wearing or make any other connection except for the fact that it is American. Just the other day, I saw a mom and her kids walking happily together down the street and the mom was wearing a black shirt that said "I am Fuck YEAH!" in bright neon pink letters. I guarantee she didn't know what the shirt said or that it didn't make any sense. But again, it's not like they are wearing hand-me-down salvation army supplies like some poor African village, this stuff is sold in super trendy stores for a very high price and they all spend a ton of money buying it. They take their sense of fashion and looking well-dressed and western to the max.
To get into the topic a bit further, I have to say that just the overall obsession with western style and being western comes across as very awkward to me- especially with all of the traditional Korean customs that are mixed in with them. People strive to be, and look western. It's seen as very fashionable and very desirable. For example, as a present for graduating high school, it is very common for parents to pay for their kid to have plastic surgery in order to "widen" their eyes and give them a "double eyelid" in order to look more western. They also think that a narrow face and a narrow nose are very beautiful as well as a thin body-for both men and women. Koreans are very body conscious and people spend lots of time publicly staring at themselves and primping themselves in the mirror. Both men and women want big "western" eyes and thin faces. There isn't really a differentiation between male and female beauty like we know here as there seems to be a single, common idea of what is desirable.
The most ridiculous thing that I've noticed, however, is the sheer hours of time every day that everyone spends on their smart phones and electronics here. And I mean everyone. They don't just carry it around and text all the time, they do everything with their phones here. Kids have them in school, old people have them, they watch TV on them and check them every 2 minutes. You can literally sit on a subway train and 95% of the people- young and old- will just be glued to their cell phones. The entire time. I thought the U.S. was bad for this kind of thing, but this is a whole new level of obsession with electronics. I am critical of this because I really think it is a bad thing especially for young kids to spend so much time with it. This past year, the first study of autism in South Korea was completed and the results were reported to be staggering. The country had sky high levels of autism in it's youth population- even higher than the high levels we have in the United States, and I have to believe that the fact that all of these kids are so hyper connected with electronics is related to the cause.
Whew... That was a lot of information to cram into one post! I guess that's what I get for putting off posting for so long. Hopefully that will get better once I get some Internet around here.
Alright guys, I miss you and really enjoy hearing from you! Let me know if you have any questions or requests for future posts and I'll try to oblige.
Mike
