Our first Korean wedding

Just a few pictures from this weekend. Jarrett and I went to a wedding of his coworker, U Taek, in Seoul.

The wedding was much like American weddings, with neon lights to spice it up. I asked Jarrett "what was your favorite part?" He replied, "the fog machines."

Cherry Blossoms, love motels and kimchi sales.

Last weekend, Jarrett, our Canadian friend we so lovingly refer to as "Maggie" and I took the three hour bus ride down to Gongneung for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. I had been worried that the blossoms would be affected by the snow we'd been having but luckily, they delivered. The blossoms were beautiful and we got to catch up with a lot of old friends. We even ran into one of the elementary principals from Yanggu.
(I have recently been lamenting my loss of anonymity. I am seen by a Korean I know even three hours from home.)
Around dusk, we three headed back to Chuncheon (the nearest major city to Yanggu) only then realizing that we'd miss the last bus to Yanggu and we'd have to get a hotel in Chuncheon.
Maggie assured us she knew of a cheap love motel* near the bus terminal and so we set off. After arriving at this hotel (Hotel If), we were told they had no vacancies. This is how we ended up staying in the nicer, more expensive Hotel Petite a few blocks away. Initially, I was pretty mad about the price (the three of us paid 140,000 won all together for two rooms) but my negativity was assuaged when I saw the king size bed a jacuzzi bathtub. (Jarrett and I share a twin at home and I haven't seen a bathtub since I arrived here.)
The best part of the trip was the next morning, post-latte and well-rested, when we went shopping at E-mart**. There were no Koreans pushing and shoving their ways down the narrow aisles, trying to get to that Kimchi sale. It was early Sunday morning and they were all at church or sleeping; we had the place to ourselves. Brilliant.

*love motel- a cheap hotel Korean couples use for alone time away from their families. (They usually live many generations in a household.)

**E-mart- the Korean Wal Mart

A return to simplicity

My move to Korea, the total upheaval of normalcy and routine in my life, has had some unintended consequences. The word 'consequences' here has a neutral or even positive connotation.
While the lifestyle here is relatively similar to that of Americans, there are a few differences that really have made an impression on me.

1. Certain things considered necessities in the States, are truly luxury items in Korea. (dryers, fast food, dish washers, ovens, space)

Dryers- while having a dryer is a nice amenity, it uses an indulgent amount of electricity.
See the power consumption table here; dryers top the list of power usage (4000 watts.)

Dish washers are the same story. They use tons of water and electricity.
Here is water usage for an older model (I've never had a brand new dish washer.)
Pots & Pans Cycle --- 78 minutes - 15 gallons.
Normal wash --- 69 minutes - 12.5 gallons
Water MIser - 60 minutes - 10.0 gallons
Light wash -54 minutes - 7.5 gallons
Rinse & hold - 18 minutes - 5 gallons.
Also, as a result I am more conscientious of my dish usage because I know I have to clean them by hand later.

Fast food- As pervasive as fast food is in the States, it's no wonder our country has a weight problem. I have noticed that the Korean people have smaller waistlines, clearer skin and fewer health problems related to obesity. Jarrett lost a good deal of weight during our first month because processed food is pretty scarce where we are. It is much more affordable to eat fresh vegetables and meats; not to mention, much of the food is grown locally. It doesn't take careful observation to notice the meat is smaller because it's more natural, the potatoes are dirty because they just came from the fields and the milk doesn't have that chemically taste.
See my previous post here for an overview of our new diet.

Ovens- this is the one thing I wish we had. I do miss making casseroles and cookies. But the lack of an oven has forced us to find new, more creative ways of cooking. Jarrett has been experimenting with all sorts of new cooking methods with very positive results.


2. Things deemed unnecessary in the States are a must in Korea.
Public transit- We don't have cars and so we rely on public transportation.
What a blessing! I don't have to pay for gas, insurance, maintenance or parking. Not to mention, Koreans are terrible drivers and I'd be terrified to drive on the roads with them. The blog "Ask a Korean" deals with the subject in depth here.
It costs $1 to go into town and $5 to take a bus to the nearest metropolitan area. $12 for the two-hour bus ride to the capital (Seoul.)
The only downside is planning around the bus times but they come frequently enough that it is no problem.

Affordable healthcare- I had heard very good things about the Korean healthcare system from expats before I came here. I heard equally horrendous remarks about "socialized medicine" in Korea from people who had never traveled anywhere, much less been to Korea. (These were the same people who asked me in which Korea was I going to teach English.)
The healthcare is not free, because they take a small amount from my paycheck every month to pay for it. But it is shockingly cheap and efficient. I had a sinus infection last week. It took thirty minutes to see a doctor, get my medicine from the Pharmacy, and get back home to bed. Urgent care like that must have cost a fortune, right? All expenses accounted for, it cost me $8.

Recycling- recycling here is not a choice but instead a part of your social responsibility in much the way not littering is a part of American social responsibility. In Korea, you sort your trash into three categories: food/perishable, recyclable and other. The recyclable you then sort into the appropriate containers.

*I must put a disclaimer on this post so that I am not misunderstood. I am not saying Korea is superior to the States, nor am I saying that Korea has no problems. I intend to acknowledge the things about Korean culture that I find very objectionable in a future post. Also, as I have limited experience in Korea (one month) I can not speak for every household in Korea, but instead for the collective experience of the Koreans with whom I have discussed these matters and the other foreigners with which I live.

Q&A

1. What do you eat, mostly?
I am “very lucky” as the Koreans say to me, to have a boyfriend who loves to cook. For breakfast, we have the normal western meal eggs and bacon or cereal. Koreans usually eat rice and pork or fish for breakfast, if they eat anything at all. That is so weird to me! My co-teacher says she eats Ramen or a banana for breakfast.
I eat lunch for $2.00 in the cafeteria. Always rice and kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage), and some kind of meat or fish. Sometimes we have octopus and noodles. Yuck!
For dinner, we rarely eat beef because it’s expensive but we frequently eat quality pork, chicken, fish and mussels.

1.b I would love to go to the market there and check out the veggies/fruits.
Fruits are very, very expensive. Upwards of $10 for grapes or strawberries. The vegetables are delicious and cheap though! We eat onions, greens, mushrooms, garlic and potatoes almost everyday.

2. Is there chocolate? Coffee?
The assortment of chocolate is pretty much the same as it is in the States. I have a yummy brownie after lunch everyday and it costs about $0.30.
Coffee, however, is so expensive! Last weekend we splurged on a coffee press, grinder and bag of beans. We also have a mini moka pot that makes espresso. Koreans drink a lot of instant coffee; it’s just not the same!

3. Are you suffering from baked goods deprivation?
I can’t bake cookies or casseroles because I have no oven. But the quality of store-bought breads and pastries is amazing! Much better than in the US. There are also many bakeries in Yanggu that have decent breads and coffee.

4. How large/small is your town? Is it like Gainesville/Denton/Fort Worth...?
Comparatively, Koreans say Yanggu is a small town. There are about 35,000 people here. Denton’s population is 113,000, Gainesville is 16,000. Yanggu is really cute and pedestrian friendly. I have to take a bus into town (costs $1) but from there I can get anywhere. Taxis are prevalent and cheap. Click here to see a video tour of Yanggu, South Korea. Start the video at 1:12.
Because of Yanggu’s small size, I see my students everywhere. They yell “Hello Laci teacher!” and chase me down. How about the Korean adults? It takes the adults a while to get used to us (we are like aliens to them.) Because we are so different, anyone who has seen/met us knows who we are. That means our behavior is always important. I have a hard time remembering their names and telling the adults apart if I don’t know them well. But out of 35,000 Yanggulians, I am the ONLY white, blonde girl.

5. How do you do your laundry?
We have our own washing machine for the first time ever as a couple! It’s nice but most people don’t have dryers in Korea so we hang our clothes to dry. It is a luxury that I enjoyed in the States, but dryers use SO much electricity that I think it’s more sustainable to go without them. Though the washing machine works too well, I think my clothes are becoming threadbare!

6. The kids in your class, are they bratty or well behaved? Is working with children a more effective form of birth control than abstinence?
The kids here I would imagine are more well behaved than most. But, kids will be kids no matter what country they are from. Sometime I want to slap them, but most of the time they are so sweet and adorable. Especially the really young ones, they love hugs and snuggles.

Settling a bit

It's been a while since I've posted anything so I'll cover a bunch of random topics.
My last post was actually just taken from an email I sent my folks.

We have been pretty busy and our internet doesn't always work so we have been lax on posting.
Things are pretty great. Really. I think we are both finally adjusted to our jobs and the environment. We are familiar with the bus system and getting around our town so it’s much less stressful performing daily activities now. We are also getting used to standing out and being stared at everywhere we go. No joke, Laci and I were walking down the street on a Sunday morning to go to a bakery and study Korean and a man in his fifties stopped dead in the middle of the street staring at us. We walked about 30meters toward him and he never moved, never blinked, dumbfounded. We deal with that by singing songs about what’s going on like, “oh, you’re starin’, you’re starin’, you’ve never seen whitey before. I know were huge and kindy freaky lookin’ but what you stare for?” Things like that make it easier to laugh at it. Sometimes you get really mean stares or just people who are way too intrusive with their looks so I have perfected a little look that says, “I’m a demon from the Wild White West” which instantly ends any unwanted attention. We are also used to the cold. Since gas is so expensive we have been leaving our heat off and we just realized we are quite comfortable when our breath is visible in the kitchen.
My school is great. I had a similar school dinner/party experience with my school. My principal really likes me because I try hard to speak Korean, I eat everything and I requested that he pour me a shot of soju without anyone prodding me. I think most of my teachers respect me even though I am very young (age is very important here) because I am so interested in their culture. I always carry around a little notebook, which I use to write down names of people, foods, places, colors, et cetera to help me learn daily Korean vocabulary. Even when everyone is drunk at 2am I can always find a willing Korean teacher. My vice-principal was pouring me beer and giving a pronunciation lesson, which really helped because we were both shouting the sounds.

My classes are going well. I am teaching the Beatles’ songs, “Hello, goodbye” to my third grade classes and “No Reply” to my sixth graders. They love it. Getting to use music in school is such a boon because it is fun for me and it gets the kids involved and rolling off English words with more fluency. I also teach my co-teachers advanced English points on things like accents, rhythm and prosody so that they sound more fluent. They really impress me with their English vocabulary but they have a lot of difficulty understanding me if I speak normally. I am trying to transition into not using my teacher voice with them so they hear English the way it is actually spoken. Korean pronunciation is mostly very regular and English pronunciation is a bitch so I feel for them. See the poem "The Chaos" to know what I mean and to have a good laugh. I am also giving one of my co-teachers French lessons in return for Korean lessons. French and English are so similar that she was astounded to see that she already knew much of French vocabulary.

I wish I could say the same for my Korean studies. Every vocab word is a struggle but at least the tenses of the verbs are very regular. Korean does not conjugate person or number and often drops pronouns so everything depends on context. This is good if you are speaking because you don’t have to say much, noonchi let’s the listener figure it out from context. This is bad if you come from western culture where we are very specific about everything. We would never say, “where go?” to mean “where are you going?” The same phrase could mean, “where are they going?” “where is he going?” “where are we going?” and so on. Korean is called a situational language because of this feature. This, plus the different sound structure makes listening comprehension very difficult for me. Also, verbs carry many possible markings for different levels of familiarity with the speaker as well as the formality of the situation. Verbs look and sound completely different when I speak to my students, my teachers, and my principal. It is difficult to find a resource on what these levels are exactly and they are maddening to learn, as we have no such conception of this in English.

Nevertheless, trying to speak makes people happy so I do it a lot. I can order food, bus tickets, find the bathroom, and give simple commands to my students. Listening to announcements or questions is a very different matter. We use a lot of gestures. In Korea, you cross your arms in front of you in an “X” to say “no.” So at the grocery store I do this and say “kabang” to mean I don’t need a bag. It works alright. They also say “ne” which means “yes.” That doesn’t seem to difficult unless you have only studied European languages where “no” is “no”, “non”, “não” or other words that begin similarly. I never thought it would be so hard to say “yes!”

Jarrett

My first day of school

Friday, March 2- the first day of school
We had an elaborate “opening ceremony” that consisted of the kindergartners being called up to the stage one by one receiving a gift and a hug from the principal. Touching one another is generally acceptable in this culture as physical intimacy is far less sexualized here. (More on that in a bit.) As expected, a staff member gave a long speech in Korean that wasn’t listened to by me or my students. Instead, they stood in rows punching and kicking each other while I watched and laughed. When it was my turn to be introduced to the school, I was standing on stage listening for my name in front of hundreds of people. Well, they didn’t say my name but instead something in Korean (probably guest English teacher.) Since I don’t speak Korean, I stood there while everyone stared waiting for me to bow. My Vice Principal who is really awesome and happy all the time just laughed and said “Laci?” So I finally got the cue and bowed while everyone laughed. Well, at least I made an impression! The rest of the day was pretty inconsequential. I looked at my textbooks, made a PowerPoint and gathered supplies. Occasionally, small kids would high-five me and yell “Helloooo, how are yoooou?” The others just stared and/or giggled.
This is when the story really gets good.
After school, all of the teachers went together to a small restaurant for our party. There were three long tables about a foot high. Everyone sits on mats, Indian style. There were about three grills per table (the server brings you raw meat and you cook your own food) and 10 vegetable side dishes per grill. You also get chopsticks, a spoon, a wet towel, a water glass and a shot glass. When I first arrived, I was sitting with the 3 English teachers at my school, only one of them is a native English speaker. After everyone arrived, a male teacher called me out and made me sit in front of the principal. There are a few things you have to know first to understand what this meant.
1. The principal is KING. That is no exaggeration. What he says is law and everyone wants his favor. A Korean once explained it to me like this, “If he says, ‘go die’ I would go die for him.”
2. My principal is around fifty, his aura alone commands respect. He doesn’t smile, laugh or say much. He just surveys his staff from wherever he is sitting. He is by no means grumpy, more like stern and firm.
3. He is a man that I highly respect and would like to impress very badly.
So, I was placed right in front of him! What an honor! But now, I am thinking Oh no, what do I say, what do I do?? Well, I practiced what the Koreans call Nunchi. It means something along the lines of social intelligence. They feel that giving detailed instructions is condescending so most of the time you have to look around and just do what everyone else does. So that’s what I did. I noticed that the Koreans would turn their heads from the principal to take a drink and cover it with their hand, like hiding it. So I hid my drinking, and eating too (just in case this was also considered rude.) Another weird thing they do is give their shot glass to you, which they fill with Soju (a rice liquor) and you take a shot. Then you do the same for them. Sharing cups and food is a way of social bonding, as gross as that seems to us American germophobes. Luckily, I think the alcohol kills the germs. It is most valued to perform this ceremony with the principals. He did this with me and I was so honored and nervous (my hands were shaking when I poured his shot.) He also put food on my corner of the grill for me to eat. This is another thing to be honored by in Korea (I didn’t see him do this for anyone else!) So I asked the guy next to me how to say in Korean “Mr. Prinicpal, would you like some onion?” I have already forgotten it but I did remember it long enough to say it across the table. Everyone stared in awe and he smirked and said yes. That was the ONLY time I’ve seen him smile. After dinner, a man announced “Time for Round Two! Laci (more like Rashi) you have to come noribong!” This means Karaoke. I did an impression of a dying horse (which made my VP laugh) to communicate that my singing is horrible. Welp, it didn’t matter, they made me go anyway. So we left the restaurant and went to sing Karaoke. Remember that at this point, the Principal had had nearly 20 shots of soju yet remained as serious and professional as ever. In Korea, they have whole buildings for Karaoke with private rooms that fit around 20 people. They provide tamberines and a huge songbook in English and Korean. I sang Katy Perry and N'sync with the only other Westerner complete with the Bye Bye Bye dance moves. The Koreans loved it! We all sang and danced and had a grand ole time.
The best part was when my principal held my hand and fed me chips similar to Cheetos. This may seem strange but it is completely normal here. Everyone holds hands and if your principal feeds you, you’re in!! When Cooper and I decided to go home, my principal insisted on buying us a cab home. It was an awesome night! I let go of my fear of humiliation and just went with it! As far as I can tell from all the Soju they gave me, food they fed me, and the fun handholding time, they really like me!
Success!

K-Pop

Korean pop music or "K-pop" as it is called is one of the most fascinating parts of Korean pop culture. I intend to update this post as I gather more information on this, ahem, lifestyle... but for now, I leave you with a video.

Video: CLICK here!