Christmas

Christmas was this past weekend. Now, South Korea was only introduced to Christianity recently, like 60 years ago.  Christianity here isnt like it is at home.  In the States you have a mix: the people that go to Church every Sunday and are involved in that Church, those who maybe sometimes go to Church, and then you have people like myself who maybe go on Christmas and Easter. There really isnt that much variety here.  It seems that if you are Christian here you go to Church every Sunday.

And many will try to convert non-Christians. Its actually funny when evangelicals are out on the streets trying to convert people and they approach foreigners like we dont know what Christianity is. It was foreigners, those American's that are all over the place here, that introduced to to you. I dont need to be converted. Nor do I want to be stalked down the street by crazy people trying to preach the Bible to me and asking me if I know God. Back off!

Anyway, my point is actually that though many people here are Christian, Christmas is a huge holiday here like it is at home.  I rarely heard Christmas music while walking down the street. It wasnt constantly on the radio for me to listen to. I resorted to listening to the favorites online: Bing Crosby and some Earth Kitt. (side note: you should all check out grooveshark.com) They dont really do presents like we do either. And its not so much a family holiday as its a holiday for couples. Most of my students spent the day playing computer games in a PC Room. Its all they do, really. Its quite a different atmosphere.

On Christmas eve I had a few friends over to my apt. We had no traditional Christmas feast. No turkey, no mashed potatoes or greenbeans. I'll definitley appreciate that more next year.  Our dinner consisted of kimbap, crackers, cheese, cake and cookies.  Sadly, the cheese was the real treat here. Finding normal, good cheese here is a challenge. A good amount of wine was also consumed. All of this was eaten on the floor which is heated, so at least we were warm down there. 

On Christmas day I did nothing.  It was really pretty sad.  I woke up at 6am and skyped with my family who had to tell me what they were having for dinner. I'm still jealous. After that it was back to bed for me. I did nothing for the rest of the day.  I was really quite lazy :)

Sunday I did a practice LSAT. It did not go well.  I really hate that test. And the people who make it. 

General Korean Craziness

I have free time at work today. Rather a lot of it. So, I'm catching up on posts.

Crazy Things In South Korea:

1. Adjamas. They are a breed of their own.  And they have their own power, 'Adjama Power.' What are these mystical creatures? Women over the age of, maybe, 50.  How can you spot them: They have short, permed hair. They will elbow you out of their way. On occasion they run a long side buses until the bus stops for them. They hike, faster than you. And are not adverse to hitting you with hiking poles if you dare try to pass them. Beware. They are strong women. They can be dangerous.

2. Dogs with dyed ears, cheeks, and tails. Yes, thats right. Little dogs are really just another accessory. I have seen dogs with their cheeks dyed pink, dogs with green ears, dogs with pink tails.  First thought upon seeing one: What the hell? That poor dog.  I wonder if its embarrassed?'

3. My students. All crazy. Especially for candy. They are serious sugar addicts. But at least I know what to bribe them with.

4. Threats from North Korea. These, unfortunately, have been pretty consistend since I've been here.  Though things have escalated somewhat drastically in the last 2 months or so.  At the moment North Korea is threatening a "Holy War" with "nuclear deterrent" Not so comforting for me, but nobody here is panicking, so, I guess I shoudlnt worry too much?

5. Hodduck! Amazingness! Yes, thats right, its the best food in Korea. Not squid, not fishy anything, not kimchi.  What is this amazing food? Deep fried batter of somekind with brown sugar in the middle made fresh by the man at the end of La Festa. And I can look out my window to see if he's open.

6. The weather. When I arrived it was disgusingly hot and humid. You cant wear anything that reveals chest or shoulders. Not convenient. Now? Currently it is 7 degress Ferenheit. Luckily I have a heater next to my desk. Did I mention the school dont believe in heating? It has to be reallly cold for them to turn the heat on. So one bonus of it being so cold outdside: my classrooms are warm. Until the students opent the windows. Because they are crazy.  And the halls dont get heated, so the trip from my office to class is a very cold one.

Thats all I can think of at the moment, though I'm sure I'm forgetting things. Basically, Korea is a crazy place.

Hmmm....Blog? Sure, why not?

So despite the fact that I've now been in South Korea for, oh, about 4 months, I've never blogged about it.  Well, I've decided to remedy this situation. Too much crazy stuff happens here that I feel you all need to know about.  However, I'm going to have to work to catch you up whats happened here so far. Brief recap:

1. Arrive in Korea. Spent the weekend sitting in my apartment too scared to leave for fear of getting lost.  For those of you who know me and my sense of direction, you know this is all too likely to happen. Thoughts: Why the hell did I ever think coming here was a good idea?

2. Leave apartment. After a week or so I finally braved the great outdoors.  Walking around, I saw many men holding hands, touching, kissing on the cheek. Thoughts: Wow! I didnt know Korea was open like that! Its not. Its the culture. Boys/men touch. And sit on each others laps on the bus. This is all normal and to be expected.

3. Skip ahead to the end of September. Chuseok=Korean Thanksgiving=1 week vacation.  How did I spend this vacation? Biking and camping around Jeju Island. Awesome idea, not entirely awesome experience. Again, for those of you that know me, you know I have horrible luck.  If something is going to go wrong, its going to happen to me. On the second day by bike got a flat tire. Now, this didnt have to be quite as bad as it was.  Unfortunately, however, I'm not a speedy bike rider and was there for at the back of th group.

End result: I wondered around alone for about 45mins with no cell phone, no money, no idea how to read or speak Korean (cant ask for help), no idea where I'm going or where the hell I am. Eventually the leader of the pack (Warren) came back for me and waved down some nice man who put my bike in his car and drove me to where I needed to go.  This actually ended up not being so bad since I then couldnt bike anymore and my bottom was very happy about that. Have you ever ridden a bike for hours straight when you havent been on a bike in several years? Its a really pain in the ass. Literally.

Then I had money stolen. My fault. Shouldnt have left my wallet out. And biking miles up hill with the wind pushing you back down? Not so much fun. Especially for people who, while in decent shape, arent used to biking and arent pro-athletes.

However, overall the trip was still pretty awesome.  There was some camping on the beach, drinking on the beach and then drunkingly falling down and playing Hands in the Middle, a lovely singing game, meeting some interesting people, exploring Jeju (beautiful!), lying on the beach, making some yummy camp food, seeing a pretty waterfall, and just hanging out and enjoying life.  It was one of those things that at some points I had to ask myself, 'Are you crazy? This is torture! Why didnt you do something more relaxing?' But in the end is still worth doing.

4. Hiking. Hiking here is nice. Its nice to get out of the city area and get some fresh air. One hike was really fun with obstacles, like pulling yourself up/lowering yourself down the mountain using ropes. And dont let go, or youll go over the cliff and surely die. That was my favority hike, by far. Lots of fun, nice weather, Jess and Monica were there. It was a blast. Plus, there was some delcious food (ducgalbi) after.

The next hike was good to. Though it was much colder.  Going up was fun, the exercise was good, the air was fresh. We started at like 4am and were able to see the sunrise over the mountains. Beautiful.  The way down:hell. Hiking down for like 8-9km is hard to begin with. My legs were shaking pretty badly for a while. Its harder on the muscles than going up is. But that wasnt the bad part. What was the bad part? The NEVER ENDING ROCKS! I thought we would never get away from them! They were there the WHOLE way down. Small rocks, big rocks, all of the were loose and hard to walk on.  By the time we got to the bottom, I never wanted to see another damned rock again in my life. Unfortunately they are pretty unavoidable. 

5. My Birthday. It was very nice. My afterschools class threw me a suprise party. Hearwarming, really.  I miss them, actually. It was very, very nice. Later, dinner at Royal Indian with friends. Andy brought delicious cake and Emily made me a really nice card. Crafty, that girl.

6. Skipping ahead to last weekend. Saturday was just...crazy. I got up in the morning, met a friend, Jess, and went shopping. Dongdaemun (?) is insane. Its colorful, its crowded, and there is just so much STUFF! It actually reminded me a lot of the market in Bolivia. Anyway, so we shopped. We ate. We left. Only we went different ways. I was heading back home to Ilsan and Jess was not.

Sometimes the trains here randomly stop and eveyone has to get off and wait for the next train. While, I was so involved in reading my book I wasnt paying an attention when this happened. As as a result two gentlement had to tell me.  One of these men proceeded to talk to me, probably wanting to practice his English.  Its nice sometimes to have strangers talk to you.  This man was getting off one stop before me. So he proceeded to talke to me for the net half hour.  Now, I had just reached the pinaccle in my book, so all I really wanted to do was keep reading. But I couldnt.

One of their favorite questions to ask here is Are you Christian? South Korea is a country that has only been recently introduced to Christianity and, those here who are Christian, are rather fervent in their beliefs.  So, as someone who isnt particularly religious it can be awkward when asked this question. A simple 'Yes' would suffice, but then I usually get asked more specific questions and thats when the awkwardness kicks in. Naturally this happened on the train.

Anyway, this nice man and I had a chat on the train. He gave me his business card and said he and his wife would invite me to dinner. So far, in invitation, which is a relief.


Now, on this train there was also a girl. She kept looking at me in what I thought was pity for having to talk to this man. Ends up I was wrong. When we were getting off the train, in broken English, she told me she was singing now in my area, and would I like to come? Sure, why not? I had nothing to do.

Ends up there was a slight misunderstanding, but it was still fine.  She ended up taking me to see a Christmas show at the Opera House. She had 2 tickets, or rather, a picture of 2 tickets on her phone. This wasnt quite sufficiet.  They gave her one ticket.  Luckily and nice group of young men came by and offered us 2 of their tickets, and we all sat together.

Our group now consisted of me, 2 guys from Argentina, one from India, a Korean girl, and 2 Korean guys. Pretty multicultural for here.  It was really pretty fun.  There were some adorable little kids dressed up in santa outfits dancing to Christmas music and some skits to Christmas songs.  Lucky for me this was also all in English!

After performance was over we all went and hung out downstairs for a bit.  The girl who I had met on the train also had another friend there who I met as well.  We split up after a but, they guys going somewhere, and me and the 2 Korean girls heading to get coffee so they could practice their English with me.  The second girl spoke decent English, and told me about how she had lived in Tanzania last year.  I really had a nice chat with them.

Eventually we split up as well and made it back to my apartment only 3 or 4 hours later than expected :)

7: Christmas. Christmas is tomorrow and tonight there is a small party at my place. I'll let you know how it goes :-)

After today, posts will get more real-life. Everything thats happened in the past has a nice, happy glaze over it. Im at the point I can look at them and say, 'oh yeah, that was fun' even though at the time I was probably miserable.