Living in Korea

My friend recently showed me this wonderful website on tumblr that somehow manages to present life in Korea in an extremely accurate, yet hilarious way.

This lead to a little trouble in a recent seminar at work (for the students. In Korean, so I was not there to participate, just sit in the back) where I almost burst out laughing, but covered it up with a cough (supposedly) because I saw this:

Well, I would like to explain how some of them are accurate. Here are 15 examples.

1. Laundry
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/25061874247/washing-your-clothes
Notice that the laundry is in a giant knot and and he's just like, "ok whatever. I'll deal with it.

You might think, no way, that is an exaggeration. That doesn't happen.

Yes.

It.

Does.

I don't know how, but somehow, no matter how many items you put in the washing machine, from 2 to 20, they come out in a giant knot. Then, no matter how much fabric softener you use, your clothes dry with the texture of sandpaper and your towels are more like shark skin. Please see this as an example.

2. Going to the doctor. Please read my previous blog about the dreaded medical exam from my first week here. Then look at this:
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23290832389/going-to-the-doctor

3. Well, this one has more to do with how various friends and family members react when North Korea makes a threat, but I did recently have a dream that North Korea was invading South Korea and I was stuck in my apartment (probably because of the cockroaches).
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23354654494/when-north-korea-makes-a-threat

4. I have written a bit I believe about being shushed on the bus or subway, even when speaking at a mild whisper. At first, you feel really bad, then you realize that you're not actually being loud and they shush only foreigners, not the people shouting around and fighting on the bus. You either take the quiet route, take Queena's tactic of yelling "I'M SORRY I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!" in English if they yell ask you to be quiet, or J's route, sit on the other side of the person and then talk over them.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23582128248/being-shushed-on-the-bus

5. How I feel all the time in Korea. See previous blogs about the staring. See this blog. And this blog.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24374045574/trying-to-blend-in-as-the-only-foreigner-in-my-kpop

Having blonde hair (even though my hair is more of a golden brown). My students always comment about my hair, saying "Teacher, it's gold! How is it possible!?" They say the same of my white skin. One student commented on my skin, saying it was blinding her. How rude.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24027676917/having-blonde-hair
the same can be said for having blue eyes as well.

6. I cannot tell you the number of people I know who were hit by cars here (students and coworkers alike).
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24578904075/crossing-the-street-in-korea
And it really does feel like that. All. the. Time. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here. Cars do not stop for anyone. and buses certain do not. See previous blog. Which is only about pedestrian life here.

7. Unfortunately, yes, this is true.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24783010341/when-im-out-sunday-morning-and-i-see-random-piles-of

As is this:
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24101203017/when-i-wire-money-home-and-i-see-the-final-amount-after

And this:
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23215962924/when-i-tell-my-school-i-cant-teach-because-im-sick

8. I was able to handle spicy food before. Now I have an insanely high tolerance and could handle many different foods. I CRAVE this extremely spicy soup here all the time. It's so delicious. http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/25195989435/eating-all-the-spicy-food-here

Also, related to food, I can pick up anything with chopsticks. From peanuts and tiny tiny fish, to Pho noodles.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23602349152/using-chopsticks
Well, supposedly I can pick up Pho noodles. I ate with Carrie and did perfectly fine. I ate them with Hae Jung and could barely pick up a noodle and after 15 minutes of not actually getting a noodle into my mouth, I had to ask for a fork.

9. If you ever need to get on a bus that might be crowded, you are pushing your way through the crowd. There's no "excuse me" here, it's just elbowing your way on and hoping you fit. Not most of the time, but sometimes. Always if you're trying to take the bus to Hongdae from my street, which unfortunately I go to frequently and my Korean class was there. I've not gotten on that bus many times due to too many people being on the bus. The older woman are insane. They elbow and push to get to their seat. I know someone who was 8 1/2 months pregnant and a woman pushed her out of the way to get into her seat.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23645409235/waiting-in-line-for-the-bus

10. This is exactly how I felt. Both the first and the second time. The first time because I had no idea how my hair would react to straightening, but I had someone to translate for me. The second time, I was terrified because I was sure she didn't speak English. But she did and now we're good friends.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23767975816/first-time-going-to-a-hair-salon-in-korea

11. Samgyeopsal is awesome.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23832971802/when-one-of-my-friends-suggests-samgyeopsal-for

There is one samgyeopsal restaurant we eat at, that has amazing, AMAZING kimchi. This is what happens:
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23211296501/eating-kimchi

12. This is the story of my life. One of my students said "WHAT THE HEAVEN!" the other day, which had me bent over laughing. Not particularly inappropriate, but a little. But, this does happen to me all the time...Like when my student described the sultan's wife in Arabian nights as a playgirl.

http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23900977547/when-a-student-makes-an-immature-inappropriate-joke-in

13. No need to comment
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24167206403/being-sexy

14. Luckily, this has only happened to me once.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/23221576054/when-i-forget-to-push-down-the-button-after-taking-a

15. Pardon the language, but this is hilarious. Luckily, I did not weep at mother. But, when I got herded into a cab by myself and taken on an hour long taxi ride without being told where I was going, or given a chance to say goodbye to my friends or get phone numbers, I can tell you I would have if I'd had a working cell phone.
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/24924531175/skyping-home-when-i-first-arrived-to-korea

Here's some about life in Korea. Please come visit me if you can!

Mountains, the Hulk and Cannibals

Well, here's a blog of random stories, both student stories and others.

Some of my students and I were discussing handicaps. One of my students said, "Voldemort has a handicap. He has a snake nose. That's why he's a serial killer."

I also learned during that discussion that it's illegal to be a detective in Korea, which I thought was interesting...I think that they meant a private investigator/detective but still! 

The other day in class, I said "who knows" in it's usual context. 

Student 1: Teacher, Why is _____ like this?"

Me: Oh, who knows...
Student 2, very seriously: I know!

Me: oops

I had a student describe a "butt" to me as a mountain with the grand canyon in the middle and a river flowing through it.

Student: Teacher, when you smile, it makes you look a little like a child. You are very cute.
Me: Thank you, new favorite student.

Ok, I didn't say "new favorite student" but that's what I wanted to say.

The boys in my class did not appreciate the "Teacher you're cute" comment. For their group project they drew a picture of me + The Hulk. Aka Laurk. And had me get captured by cannibals. Yes that is my decapitated head being cooked and my body on the ground. Good heavens.

I taught the word "capture' to my students the other day. One of my 5th graders said, "In the summer when I am on a diet, Pizza captures my brain!" Then talked about how her brother eats pizza and wafts the smell towards her. Sounded just like Grant!

One of my students wrote on a writing test that "some students are swimming in the sea of video games!"

Today, Carrie and her two friends went to Garosugil to have dinner and went to a cafe after. Her friend was trying to order a piece of chocolate cake. He ordered using the Korean word (which, by the way, the Korean word for cake is "cake" with an extra vowel at the end) and the worker kept holding up juice. He was pointing to the cake and the guy was still not getting it. So I attempted to help, reading the name on the cake, whilst also pointing at the cake, and he was still picking up various juices. And we're still pointing at the cake and getting annoyed. Finally, extremely frustrated, I yelled "THE CAKE!" and he figured it out. Oops.

We laughed about it rather hysterically later. I felt bad, but really, juice and cake do not sound the same, nor were they anywhere near each other in the display case.

Later, we saw a bus driver do a legal u-turn, but couldn't fully turn because a taxi was sitting in the middle of the road. The taxi driver wouldn't move despite the bus driver's honking. The bus driver got out of the bus, opened the door of the taxi and started shoving the taxi driver. He was yelling. Then he got back in the bus and the taxi driver STILL WOULDN'T MOVE! It was so weird. Traffic was building up and he wouldn't move. Eventually he did, but it was so weird!

Busan, or where I saw an escaping octopus

Chungdahm...

This weekend, I went to Busan with Hye Jin (same friend I went to Gyeongju with in case anyone was confused).

Once again, I went to bed ridiculously late the night before and woke up exhausted. I attempted to sleep on the bus, which did not end up happening, which was unfortunate.

We arrived in Busan, immediately saw a Chungdahm bus (The company I work for) rented a car and headed to Haeundae beach.

I hadn't seen the ocean since I was in Seattle in December, which doesn't really count since it was raining the entire time and I didn't get to really walk along the water.

We arrived at the beach, had a random Korean man say hello to me, then wandered along the sand. We sat down for a while enjoying the sand and ocean breeze.

The weather was wonderful. About 80 degrees and sunny.

Afterwards, we headed to a baseball game. The LG Twins and the Lotte Giants. Korean baseball games are so much cooler than in the states. They get so much more into their games!! There's tons of singing, they have cheerleaders and lots of chanting.








There were a ton of Giants fans, since it was their home field, and just a small handful of Twins fans. The Giants fans had a chant all prepared, where the Twins fans would yell and then they'd yell "SHUT UP BOY!"

Also, as my friend said, Korean baseball came from America, so some things are similar. One of those things includes "OUT!" being the same word (which I read in Korean, asked my friend what it meant and she said, 'umm it means out.' The guy next to me kept yelling "THREE STRIKES YOUR OUT!"

They made paper pompons.

There are the cheerleaders.

We ate some dried fish (delicious) and dried octopus (slightly less delicious). Part 1 of food that I've never eaten before.

At one point the very fat mascots were break-dancing.

They did the wave.

The best part was definitely when every person tied orange plastic bags to their head because it's "tradition." My students told me later it's to protect their heads from foul balls, but I'm not sure taht's true.

I'm not joking when I mean everyone. Some tied them in cute bows, but for the most part they blew them up like balloons and attached them to their ears. Absolutely hilarious.

My friends team, the Giants, won. We then headed off to the next location, Gwangali beach.

They happened to be having a lantern festival, which was pretty. We walked a bit along the beach, had some American kids ask me to take their picture, then headed to dinner.

We went to a famous restaurant, which served 회, otherwise known as "sashimi" aka raw fish. Yes, I've had sushi before and it's delicious.

But, they kill this fish and then immediately serve it to you. And yet, it was quite delicious. Part 2 of food I've never eaten before.

We walked around a little bit more, then headed to our hotel.

Here is the view from our hotel. It was a bit far away from the center of town, but there was a nice view.

I laid in my bed and fell asleep immediately. The next morning Hye Jin said "you fells asleep really quickly."

The next morning was a bit cloudy, but a very comfortable temperature.

We headed to an area that is similar to the shopping area, Myeongdong, in Seoul called Nampodong.

We saw some adorable puppies.

Examples of the dried octopus we ate.

We had some breakfast (dumpling soup haha).

The area had a ton of statues, which were very cute.

We then walked up the hill to Busan Tower and went up to the top of the tower, which was quite cool.

We then headed to Jakgalchi fish market. They had a lot of different fish, some alive, some very newly dead.

(Remember this picture).

Some very large octopus.

These were mildly horrifying. They were very alive and I have no idea what they were.

Some turtles and eels, which would later be eaten.

As we were walking around, there was a bucket of octopus. One of them threw himself out of the bucket, flopped on his head then started very quickly crawling away. He was making an escape, until Hye Jin caught the attention of the seller and she caught him and put him back in the bucket.

We then headed to Taejongdae, another beach. We wandered around a bit, hiked up and looked at the ocean.

These are known as the "suicide cliffs" because a lot of people commit suicide here, apparently. Or at least they did.

They had some more fish sellers.

We then got some of the spiky red thingy (a sea squirt?) from above and ate it. It is difficult to describe what it tasted like, but it was basically like eating the ocean. It had very little taste apart from ocean. Part 3 of food I've never eaten before.

We took a boat back to the entrance of the park and headed back to the bus station.

We had this at the bus station (Ojingeo) which is some sort of fish cake, which is difficult to describe and was not delicious. Part 4 of food I've never eaten before.

We took the bus home. It was a great weekend!