Yays and Nays of South Korea - Part 2

Well you know what they say about good intentions.  I had good intentions to write a blog at least once a week, but the aforementioned busy schedule of mine took me a bit getting used to.  So I apologize if you've all been sitting, patiently waiting, on the edge of your desk chairs for an update.

To make up for it, I will bestow upon you all a brief synopsis of the last couple of weeks' activities.  Including, but not limited to, my first hostel experience, a doozy of a Korean cold, and finger condoms.  I will also be thrilling you with another rendition of "The Yays and Nays of South Korea" and in addition, filling you with shock and awe while I tell you the story of the missing ATM card...



The Lost Days

October 31 - November 1

Attempting to figure out a
Korean vending machine.

Happy Halloween Seoul :/

Last I left you I was headed off to Seoul for the night in order to catch a bus taking us to an Apple Festival the next day.  It was Halloween, and I was hoping to see something Halloween-y while in Seoul.  The only thing I could find in Gangwon was a bar gathering crowds with it's Halloween promotion that charged people to take a picture with a very pretty Korean woman in a very tiny Halloween costume.  With no enthusiasm for these kind of shenanigans and low energy from a long week, we decided just to eat some chicken and head to the hostel.



Finding the hostel was tricky with no real actual sign...ok I lied, there was one sign, inside the building, and here it is...

This was my first Hostel experience - some of it was good, some of it was bad.  But I'm pretty sure that is the only possible way to describe a night at a Hostel.

The good - clean place, adorable, cheap and within easy access to the bus station.  The blanket was warm, the pillow was comfy and the temperature was regulated.  Considering all I did was sleep there, those were the most important requirements.

Lockers for our stuff.

The bad - co-ed rooms with strange men.  Not to say the men were "strange", We never actually crossed paths, either they were sleeping when we arrived or vice-versa.  But when I woke up to a noise in the middle of the night only to see a Korean man's face inches away from mine, it wasn't exactly my favorite moment.  He was just adjusting the window, but I was on the top bunk bed which made our eyes line up just perfectly enough to scare the bejesus out of me.  The worst part, however, was the variety of noises the men made while they slept - lip smacking and snoring that continued all throughout the night and left us with very little sleep.

Still with only a few hours of rest, we woke early to beat the crowd of strangers to the one and only bathroom and then headed towards the festival.

It was a nice, quiet, relaxing and almost uneventful festival full of apple wine tasting, apple pie making, a delicious lunch of BBQ and apples (including the consumption of our hot and ready apple pies) and an apple carving and eating contest that our little group dominated.

I love the little guy playing with Buddha's belly
it's very Pillsbury Dough boy.

Ancient Temple

Adorable child

Adorable Monk

Making pies!

Apple wine samples

Apple whiskey sampling

Stars of the show

(more pretty festival pics at the end...)


November 2

Trip to the pharmacy

The next day, I was slammed with a helluva Korean cold.  I had been feeling like I was getting sick for a week, but I guess the bad night from the snoring brothers and the long day outside pushed me over the edge.  I was absolutely bed ridden for about 24 hours.  The cold lingered for a week, hit hard Nov. 2nd and it's now Nov 24th as I write this and I swear I still have cold symptoms.  I'm no longer a lump of snot in a bed, thank goodness, but I'm definitely not 100%.  Turns out the cold was spreading through Korea and it hit a good percentage of us foreigners. Not only did it hit us once but for some of us it came around again before our immune systems had a chance to catch up.  While I admire the fact that Korean's don't "call in sick" and I've never had a student miss a day of school I also loath the fact that I am exposed to their illnesses while they cough and sneeze all over the classroom.  It can become a vicious cycle.



November 4-5

갈비탕

Back in the swing of things at the gym and out with my Korean coworkers to try 갈비탕 or Galbitang (Kalbitang?)....beef soup essentially.  The G and the K in Korean are pronounced almost simultaneous like they are the same letter "Gk" or "Kg" (yeah go ahead and try it, it takes some getting used to).

 

 

November 6

Thank you Mommy!

A happy day as I received the rather large package from my mother full of my favorites.  In addition to the candy corn I was thrilled to have, the variety of mac and cheese I missed, the tahini, matzo ball soup and latke mix I requested, she also sent me some essential items.  A full size towel, because they only have tiny hand towels here.  A pillow, because the pillows here are like rocks to me.  And some bras...because...there is a size limitation in SoKo.  Plus much more, including things I didn't know to ask for, like Parmesan cheese and pictures of family that I could fill my walls with.  I felt like a kid eating mac and cheese and snacking on candy corn for dessert (except I added spinach to the mac and cheese because I'm a grown up).  It was the touch of home I needed.


November 7
Another birthday with friends (shout out to Bryce!).  It's always a good time getting together for a birthday.  We had Indian food, something I hadn't had in a while, even before coming here.  It was better than it is at home, the first non-Koreanized version of ethnic food that I've had.

November 8
Girls night out...

Amazing burgers we had heard about and sought out.

Lemon flavored beer.

Finger condoms - for all your noshing needs.

November 9
Started with the most amazing English-style breakfast and then a trip to the local Korean traditional market.  Where I saw and smelled more than I bargained for.  Still I was able to find purple onions and get a good deal on tomatoes (not an easy task).

Before leaving that day a Korean woman came up to us, poked me and Elaina on the nose, saying something complimentary in Korean about them (a common occurrence for foreigners here - when they call you Pinocchio apparently it's a good thing).  She then roughly petted my hair, an even more common occurrence for me than getting schnoz attention, and turned and patted Elaina on the boob.  I can't explain that last one.  Just another day as a foreigner in Korea.

These little ladies sell the cheapest, freshest
produce around.  And they're kinda adorable.

Yep

Sting Ray anyone?

Baby Eels

November 10-16
Honestly not all that eventful up until this point.  It was a typical week with lots of classes, lots of lesson planning and lots of gym time.  Saturday night was a really great night out with friends that was definitely needed.

Downside - I came home minus one ATM card...

Fun night...bad morning.

When I woke up the next morning from the night out and surveyed my disheveled tiny hand bag I was devastated to realized I had somehow lost my card at the bar that night.  My bus card was still there, about $7 in won was still there, but no ATM card.  Of course I wasn't too happy, but after an "ok you messed up, now deal with it" conversation with Itai, I got it together, called the bar owner and asked him to search for me.  He wasn't going in until 7pm that night so I'd have to wait over 8 hours for an answer.  I found my bartender friend on Facebook and reached out to him as well, no one turned in a card.  I couldn't cancel the card because the English department wasn't answering on a Sunday.  I couldn't even check my account because I had left my usb at work...

To explain: internet security in Korea is kind of a big deal here.  In order to sign into your account online they have to give you a "certificate" that you can somehow attach to your phone number, or a CD or on a usb.  I opted for the usb considering it was the only thing I could figure out at the time, and at this point I had no coteacher to help me.  With my usb at work, I had no option of checking my account.  Considering it was an ATM card, and not a debit card (thank you Citibank for not allowing me to have a debit card until I've resided in Korea for six months) I was 95% sure no one could get to my money anyway.

The bar owner texted me that there was no card in sight.  He offered to call the bank and cancel for me, but I didn't think handing out my account information to anyone was the best plan.  I took a deep breath, thanked him for his help and waited patiently for Monday morning to come.

Monday morning, first things first, I checked my account and it was all there.  My coteacher was swamped and unable to call and cancel the card for me until later that day because apparently it was a pretty involved process.  Due to our class schedule that day I would never make it to the bank before closing so I would have to wait until Tuesday, after school, to do anything about it.  I told her not to worry about cancelling the card, I would do it at the bank the next day.  My money was secure and I didn't need to put more on her shoulders on a busy Monday.

I came home semi-deflated with my head held low, listening to sad music and feeling disappointed in myself, despising my luck.  When I hit the top of the landing on the third floor I reached out to grab the doorknob of my apartment and caught a glimpse of something blue in the corner of my eye.  There it was.  My ATM was lying neatly on the step closest to my door waiting for me.  It didn't fall there, it was left there.  Someone found it and somehow managed to track me down.  This is by no means, an uncommon occurrence in this country.  That's Korea for you folks.  Not only do they not steal lost credit cards, wallets, phones, etc. but they take the time themselves to track you down and return it to you.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I had heard about this kind of thing happening, but I'm not sure I actually believed someone would do that until I experienced it.  Go Korea.

This brings me to the first item on my list of the...

"Yays and Nays of South Korea - Part 2"

Can get used to:

1. The incredible honesty and trust of the Korean people.  Clearly my story above is an excellent example of this kind of honesty but its seen all over Korean in different ways:

~During the apple festival we decided to leave early so we asked to get our stuff off the bus.  The bus driver, without hesitation, gave us keys to the gigantic bus full dozens of bags and personal items belong to others.  Never would have happened in America.  Not only is there a chance of petty theft and vehicle theft, but its a pretty big liability (it doesn't even seem like there's a word for liability in Korea).

~At the gym I see people leaving their cell phones lying around.  Whether its in the locker room, or across the gym, it leaves them with zero discomfort to have it out of sight.  They trust each other...because no one just takes things here.  In Philadelphia, I don't even feel comfortable putting a shopping back down at my feet even though I'm standing over it.  Because the possibility most definitely exists that someone could just run up and grab it from me.

~Most Korean cars have phone numbers on the dashboard so if you accidentally hit their car, you can call them to come file a police report...and they actually call.  I've been hit before in a parking lot in Orlando and no one even left a note...can you imagine anyone actually being honest enough to call me to come file a report if this system existed in America?

Fun fact:  the number is also there so you can call and say "hey dude, you're blocking my driveway" and they can come move their car. 

2. Cannot turn off the camera sound.  Keeping with the theme of trust, Korean phones will not allow you to turn off the sound of your phone camera.  In an effort to abolish upskirt photos and similar despicable and dishonest camera behavior they want everyone in the near vicinity to know that a photo is being taken.  What a brilliantly simple idea.  Although, if this was the case in America, it would probably be a lot more difficult for people to submit photos to the "People of Walmart" website.

3. My overall safety.  It's safe to walk home at night.  Such a weird sentence to say for me.  I feel zero threat being alone while I wander home from a long night out.  Now of course, before my parents panic, I never walk anywhere with my guard completely down, even here in one of the safest countries in the world.  Living in Philly for over four years made me accustomed to keeping an eye on everything going on around me, not trusting the dark alleys, and opting for a cab whenever I need to get from A to B after the sun has set.  It is so ridiculously safe here that I worry by the time I leave I may soften too much and actually become trusting of mankind again.

4. Low cost of living.  I finally got to see what my monthly bills were for one solid month.  They came out to a grand total of 17,800 won which is less than $17.  A bottle of soju (Korean alcohol) - which can be easily shared among three people, costs about $1.50 - $2.00.  A fancy dinner out will run you $10-15 with drinks.  A standard meal is usually within the $5-7 range.  My friends and I even get a little miffed if we see anything on a menu that costs more than 10,000 won, or $10.  Because that is now very expensive to us.  Western food will cost you the most money while you're here.  A tiny pizza from Pizza Hut, and I mean tiny, is about $15.  Which is crazy to spend in this country for that little amount of food.  You could get enough food (and good food) to share with a couple friends at Home Plus (like the Target of Korea) for about $6.  I purchased Tasters' Choice coffee the other day and was mad that I had to spend $8 for it, completely forgetting that it costs about the same at home...but I haven't spent $8 on one single grocery store item since I've been here.  I stocked my fridge yesterday for about $22.  Seafood is especially dirt cheap.  What's not cheap...is beef...which brings me to...

Cannot get used to:
1. Where's the beef??  Beef is not common here at all.  Most likely because land space is not common here at all.  South Korea is so small you could fit it in the space between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Texas is almost 7 times larger than SoKo.  So with 50 million people in this country it's like taking every person who lives in the entire state of New York and Texas and squeezing them into that tiny wedge of Cali land I mentioned.  Hence, no room for roaming cows.  Not to mention the fact that this country is pretty much one giant mountain range.  So most of the beef that is available here is imported from Australia where land space is certainly not an issue.  Therefore, you can spend quite a pretty penny on some ground beef at the grocery store and finding a big slab of steak here is not easy (as I've mentioned before).  I miss beef.  I love beef.  I need more beef.

2. Yelling at the server.  Now this one is still super hard for me to get used to.  When you walk into a restaurant you're seated and then basically left alone unless you're ready to order or you need something.  In that case you are supposed to call out 여기에요 (yeogiyo) which means "here" or  처기요 (cheogiyo) which means "there".  So essentially you're saying "over here" or "you there" and for someone who's worked in the service industry, that feels absolutely atrocious to say.  I feel like a rude, entitled, aristocrat every time I do it.  It hurts to much to say that I end up shyly saying "yeogiyo" in a hushed tone and then wonder why no one can hear me.  I am relieved when I'm at a restaurant with service buttons on the tables, so I can get someone to come over without yelling across a crowded room.

3. Skin and bones pet stores.  I want to cry every time I walk past a pet store here in South Korea. Pet stores look pretty much the same as they do at home, and the types of breeds vary only slightly.  There is, however, one main difference: the little puppies in their 2x2 plastic boxes are absolute skin and bones.  It's hard to see.  Not only do they appear to be malnourished but I'm almost certain they are too young to be away from their moms.  I've seen cats and dogs sold on the street and they were even skinnier and younger (see a previous blog post for a picture, I'm not sure which one but you can find it, be self-sufficient) .  Apparently puppy mills run rampant here and the state of these little babies is quite common in all pet stores.  I don't like it one bit.

4. More paper product woes.  So I've talked about the many issues with toilette paper and the rare sighting of paper towels but I neglected to mention the insufficient design and supply of napkins.  If you order something "take out" (to-go), you will get two of the thinnest, tinniest napkins on the face of the earth.  You'll be able to properly clean off one finger with this kind of supply.  If you're in a restaurant you will see a napkin dispenser that resembles a tissue box.  The resemblance makes sense considering the napkins are about as thick as a tissue...actually probably even thinner than those quality tissues you can get at home.  I usually end a messy meal with a wad of balled up teeny tiny tissue-like napkins.  It's quite classy.



And now for your viewing pleasure, some more photos of a Korean fall...