yesterday Jacob - who is the head of all the foreign teachers - took the other new teacher and i around the city to the places we would use the most. starting off with the shopping district. it was huge! good thing i didnt pack too many clothes because i plan on spending some time there. they have "western" music playing all the time but because the majority of store owners there dont really know our profanities you can walk by stores playing hard core rap music only to find this little old korean woman trying to sell you socks with kittens on them. they also had an abundence of street food there. most of which i couldnt make out what it actually was but it all smells delicious.
one thing to note about korean fashion is that couples tend to dress alike here. so in displays they would have a bra and pantie set for a woman....and matching boxers for the man. and most come in this set that you are to wear with your beloved. i dont see that trend coming west anytime soon.
from the shopping district we went to a place wher eyou can find anything electronic that you may need, as well as many many pirated dvds ranging from disney cartoons to soft core porn. after that place (already forget the name - they all still sound the same to me) we went to itaewon which is one of the two foreign districts here. theres a hardrock cafe, many starbucks, burger king amoung many other european, thai and greek food places. i quickly learned in the resturant that we ate at that sometimes they confuse push with pull. and after almost breaking my nose going for a push i always test the door out now. we had some pad-thai which was good but no bigdoor thai like back home, ill have to see how it compares when i go to thailand and test out the real stuff.
we headed home after that and i had a few hours to rest up before i went out again that night. a few of the teachers and i went back to iteawon for an open mike comedy/music thing. it was full of foreigners which made me forget yet again that im in korea. im looking forward to spending more time in that area because there are so many people from all over here doing the same thing i am. we took a cab home - which is super cheap here, actually all transit is. taking the bus costs about 70 cents depending on how far you are going, where as in oakville it was 3 bucks!
today - monday - everything is pretty much closed because of lunar new year so i just wandered around my area again, got lost a few times but found some amazing places along the way. there was one playground which was constructed on a hill and just massive which is impressive because of the density of the city. also found a bakery which is apparantly a chain here "paris baugette" which is the only place with brown bread. but its super expensive, about 3 bucks for 5 slices of bread!
a few of the teachers and i are going out for korean food again which i believe may be the barbeque again. this week ill have to get on joining the gym, im feeling a little soft from all the food so far!
korean culture tidbits...
4. age here is kinda messed up. when you are born you are 1. there is no 2 weeks, or 6 months. youre one year old. and on new years (jan1st) everyone turns one year older. so technically your korean age could be 2 years older than your chronological age. you still celebrate your birthday but you dont actually age.
5. suicide rates here are super high. on most of the subways they have suicide plates which make it so that unless there is a train there you cant get onto the tracks. there is apparently also a mountain or cliff in busan (a city down south) that is famous for suicide deaths. here is it usually because of money or if you have disrespected someone. again could be depression but they dont recgonize that here. ... i should have brought my thanatology course book here and taught them a thing or two
6. every male in korea has to serve inthe military for a minimum of two years. they have no choice in the matter.
7. couples. as i mentioned before couples here tend to dress alike. they also give each other couple rings after the first 100 days of dating. some start this trend within the first few dates with things such as matching cell phone charms and later on go on to matching panties and tshirts.
8. cell phone decorations. i dont really remember seeing many people over the age of 12 with those things you loop though the hole on your cell phone. here i have yet to see one person ( other than a foreigner) who has one. and they arent little. some are these huge stuffed animals. even the old ladys who are texting on the subway have some sort of trinket on their phone.
9. since space is valuable here in the city they have many space saving things for cars. one is this rotating drive way out side of my school. it makes it so you can back up your car and then it will rotate your car around so you can drive out. they also have this sort of ferris wheel for cars. a car drives in then it will rotate it around so another one can get on and so on...
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