Korea has come a long way in a short period of time. It’s a very developed country, but some things about Korea are so bizarre to those of us from western countries. Rather than large trucks, people pull carts around to collect trash and recycling. You can click on the picture above to get a better look at this man and his cart.
I saw this place last night on my walk home. I wasn’t sure what it was, but the Christmas tree has been there for as long as I can remember. The sign says “24 Hour Men’s Only Resting Room.” at first I thought that was kind of creepy, but JuHye explained that it’s just a place men can go to eat snacks, smoke or rest.
This is an example of movers in Korea. This truck has a built in lift and things are moved in or out through the window. There’s a platform that goes from the bed of the truck up to the window.
This picture may not look that interesting at first glance, but it’s actually pretty funny. That man that appears to be directing traffic is actually a robotic mannequin. His batons light up and his arms move. It’s pretty elaborate. Driving in Korea is weird and it’s something I’m glad I’ll never have to do.
Korea is so obsessed with love that they celebrate it in some form or fashion on the 14th of every month. On February 14th, girls are supposed to give gifts to men and then on March 14th, the men return the favor.
Just as my secret stash of chocolates from Valentine’s Day ran out, White Day came along and replenished my drawer of sweets. I was given these candies from students today.
Dave was in Busan tonight and came bearing chocolate… and lots of it! He learned quickly that dark chocolate is my favorite. He did good. 🙂
Here’s a list of all of the other Korean love-related holidays…
So my co-teacher is pregnant. Yesterday she asked me if it’s common for people in America to find out the sex of the baby. When I said yes, she said, “Really??” and then explained that in Korea it’s illegal for the doctor to say the sex of the baby. To get around this he will say things like, “I think your baby will like dolls.” or “I think your baby will like sports.”
My co-teacher went for her sonogram yesterday and was hopeful to find out the sex of her baby. She said that her mother-in-law was going to come along with her and she was nervous because her mother-in-law was hoping for the baby to be a boy.
This morning I found out the results. Seems like the baby will “resemble its mother.”
*I didn’t write any of these myself, but they pretty much sum up life in Korea. *
You can find the original post here:
Things that just don’t seem strange anymore…
I know I’m extremely behind on posting. I felt so bad about it that I decided to make a video to make up for it. Even though I’ve just started month 5 in Korea, I made this video using short clips I took during my first 3 months here. Enjoy!
Blogging is more work than it seems. Between being sick for so long and being a terrible procrastinator, I’ve managed to get about two months behind on my posts. I decided to go ahead and blog about my birthday weekend and then I’ll go back to playing catch up.
I love going to baseball games so I decided that’s how I wanted to start my birthday weekend. Busan is actually famous for baseball so the games are a lot of fun. Our team is the Lotte Giants. I don’t know what their record is, but they have lost both of the games I have been to. Maybe I’m just bad luck.
I charged my camera battery before the game, but forgot to put the battery back in before I grabbed my camera and left for the game. You can take my word that it was a fun time. We even made a few new friends, but I had to steal pics from friends to prove it.
Afterwards we went to Fuzzy Navel in Seomyeon. We ended up getting there just in time for one of the fire performances.
Afterwards we talked, danced and had a great time.
I ended up sleeping until about noon and then meeting up with my friend, Faith, to explore the city. We went to Nampo-dong and had Pizza Hut. The Pizza Hut is in a great location in PIFF Square, on the second floor so there are lots of opportunities to people watch.
Afterwards, we made our way to Busan Tower. The tower is fairly inexpensive (just 4,000 won) and the views are great.
We took the subway back to Seomyeon after visiting the tower. We hoped to see a movie, but there weren’t any good English movies showing at either of the theaters. Afterwards, we both headed home.
Even though I celebrated all weekend, Sunday was my actual birthday. I ended up waking up to tons of Facebook messages and a few KakaoTalk messages from people back home. Later on, I got some hilarious voicemails from my best friend which put a huge smile on my face. I wasn’t able to speak directly with anyone back home, which was really disappointing.
I went back to Nampo-dong on Sunday for lunch with some friends. We had Indian food and then headed to the beach. I ended up getting some great gifts and cards from my friends and had a great time. I got two cakes, a gorgeous necklace, a beautiful potted cactus (that is now sitting on my desk at work) and some amazing birthday accessories (sunglasses and a party hat).
At the beach we had soju popsicles and some cocktails. We didn’t stay out too long though because the sun decided to hide and the wind started blowing too hard.
Overall, it was an amazing birthday weekend. I had a great time in Busan with my friends. I am keeping my fingers crossed that 27 will be my year!
Monday was Field Trip Day. We went to see an amazing martial arts show/play called JUMP. It was soooo sooo sooooooo good! We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the show, but I found a short video on youtube to share with you.
After JUMP we went to eat a buffet lunch at a hotel that was right across the street from Haeundae beach, which is the most popular beach in Busan.
The second part of the field trip was a trip to Posco, a GIANT steel mill that the Koreans are VERY proud of. POSCO is in Pohang, which is about 1.5 – 2 hours from Busan. We all loaded back into the bus to get ready for round two.
Unfortunately, I started feeling really carsick on the way to POSCO. I stuck it out and was so relieved when we made it to Pohang. It took awhile to maneuver through the city and actually get to POSCO. When the buses stopped, we all got out to go to the restroom and take a group picture in front of an old furness that they had displayed. Afterwards, we were all told to get back on the buses. My bubble immediately burst. This was a bus tour! Not only was I going to be stuck in the bus for two more hours, but our tour guide didn’t speak English… oh my! Our orientation leaders had to translate it into English for us and it was really too complex to get a good translation. Plus, a lot of the things they were telling us to look at were covered with fences that were lined with vines and shrubs. We were able to get off the bus once during the tour. We went inside of one of the buildings to watch a giant block of flaming hot steel going down the line and being washed off and molded into a longer, thinner sheet of steel. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures for “security purposes.” We were taken back to the building with the restrooms and we were allowed to go to the bathroom, and then we were stuck on the bus for another two hours. Being carsick for 6 hours was definitely one of my least favorite things about orientation.
The girls all went to eat at a traditional Korean restaurant that night, but I stayed in because I was still feeling bad. I ended up eating snacks from the convenience store again. I also took some Dramamine to help me feel better/sleep. I must have been pretty delirious because I ended up putting my Coke in the shoe closet when I meant to put it in the refrigerator.
I forgot to bring my camera on Tuesday and Wednesday, but we were very busy during these two days. We were back to the breakfast, lectures, lunch, lectures, dinner, Korean class schedule. After all of this, I met up with my group to prepare for our lesson plan presentations on Thursday.
Thursday we had our group lesson plan presentations. My group was great. We all worked really well together and our lesson was voted second best by the class. The presentations were all really great and gave me a lot of ideas for my classroom. We were all so excited to be done that we jumped for joy!
Later in the day we were introduced to the head of our metropolitan office of education (MOE). Everyone was very anxious because afterwards we finally were able to find out where in Busan we would be and what level we would be teaching.
Then we had the Closing Ceremony & Dinner.
After the week we had, we all decided to go out and celebrate.
We started at a place called WTF? That had specials for the EPIK teachers.
Priscilla and I tried soju for the first time… Cilla hated it!
We didn’t stay long at WFT? But here’s what we found once we left…
So after WTF? we went to a place called Bob Marley, but didn’t stay long. Then we went to a place called Thursday Party. It was an absolute blast. Not long after being there we met a table of Korean university students that were having a great time singing pop songs in English. Megan found free pizza… I swear she has a pizza radar. We all just mingled and had fun chatting with a lot of people we knew we probably weren’t going to see for awhile.
Right before we left the bar we stumbled across something quite interesting…
Popcorn seasoned with curry
Also, it looks as though some guy left his phone on the seat of his motorcycle while he went out to party. I wonder if it was there when he got back…? In the US I would say absolutely not, but in Korea, it wouldn’t surprise me if he found it right where he left it.
Cellphone left on motorcycle
I think that’s enough for now! I had originally planned to write about Friday also, but once I started writing I realized that I had enough to say about Friday that it deserved its own post. It will be up tomorrow so be sure to come back to take a look!
Life Outside of Texas 