Awesome Things

#1 Ho-dok. Grilled pancakes with the stuff that goes in cinnamon rolls put inside. Fantastic.

#2 Weekly markets. It's just cool and old school.

#3 Safety. Whatever problems Korea has it's very safe. Even as a foreigner I feel safe. I don't know if it's the lack of guns, or the familial cultural identity, or the self-policing, but I love the results.

#4 the KTX. Fast, clean, and cheap. Public transportation here pretty much removes the need for a car.

Some annoying Things

#1 Almost no one looks both ways before crossing the street. Really, did you miss that assembly in school? The one where they told you to look both ways before crossing the street. The one that keeps you and others from becoming road kill? The best time to avoid an accident is more than a split second before it happens.

#2 Mopeds. You know, vehicles should follow road rules. And you mopeds, YOU'RE VEHICLES. This means that it's insane (that's right, I said it, insane) to ride on the sidewalk, swerve in and out of traffic and generally do whatever you please.

#3 No lines. Really, no cuing/lining up, is really annoying. I know it's a balibali (faster faster) culture, but if you lined up it would actually make things go faster rather than everyone just grabbing at what they want. 
#4 People having only one skill. What happened to well rounded people? If you endeavor to know about the world at large rather than just your own skill than you can know if someone else is doing a good job and not just hope, because everyone is human and makes mistakes and it's good to be aware when mistakes are being made rather than just suffering through them.

#4 One word for many things but rarely many words for variations of one thing. This is actually just part of my frustration with Koreans thinking that English language culture is strange/odd/offensive/stupid. And yes I'm annoyed that certain Americans that I know respond the same way to other languages. Korean is a much vaguer language than English as far as I can tell. Annoying, but not offensive, so please stop treating English like it's ridiculous. It'll help keep me from feeling that Korean is ridiculous.

#5 Lack of facial expressions. How the heck am I supposed to know what you're thinking and how to respond if you don't tell me AND I can't read it on your face?!

#6 Lack of adhering to rules/consistency. Before I came to Korea I didn't really consider myself a rule person. No, I wasn't a rebel, but I didn't think order was that important to me. It is. Having rules that everyone follows unequivocally and knows makes life so much easier and smoother. Having all the rules be bendable depending on the situation is confusing and stressful and leads to slower function and chaos.

#7 Saving face. You now, I know that other cultures aren't more wrong than more own, just generally different, but this is something I'll never be able to accept. Anything that promotes people not being themselves, suicide, and lying is something that will always leave a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that this means I'll probably never marry a Korean.

After a month

I've been in South Korea for a month now. Hard to believe, I know.
The yellow sand has begun.
And I have a wonderful bike to get me around town.
I went to church in Sangju for the first time last week. That was interesting. Presbyterian. I'm having to adjust to different denominations in the same church. It's one thing to say "yeah, I'm happy that you're my brother/sister with different ideas" and another thing entirely to live with it.
The church is quite small (12 members, maybe) and they sit on mats on the floor. They all eat lunch together but from last year I figure that's normal.
Other interesting cultural occorances.
I got taken out by some of my sweet coteachers for doksomethingoranother, not dokgalbi, not dokbegi. Darn, forgot. Anyway, it's spicy rice cakes and kimbap. And, over the course of the meal I was informed that men will like me more if I get my ears  pierced and straiten my hair...because men find pierced ears and straitened hair more beautiful. It was definitely one of those cultural things that I had to take a second and step back for. I told them I thought guys often had different tastes in what they preferred and that maybe the magazines lied. They were quite surprised by this.
Other cultural things:
Principals asking favors of me.
Things not happening until the last minute and feeling like I can't prepare.
Working extra hours. Surprised? No way.

I found the local community gym. It actually looks quite nice and if I can force myself up at 6am regularly than I should be able to go work out.
Right now I have a headache, actually the hungover feeling is probably a migraine. Particularly because I didn't drink anything last night, or yesterday, or the day before.

I'm curious, what do you think of the social and cultural differences between different denominations and/or countries? How should they be responded to? How do you give grace to people you disagree with while still voicing your disagreements?

I'm back in South Korea

Well, I was planning to go to Seoul today. One really must visit Seoul as soon as possible once you arrive in Korea. It will give you the neccessary contrast. However, I didn't finish doing my weekly cleaning until almost 3. Largely because I played on the internet for a couple of hours. So, I'll go tomorrow.
I thought about going to Gumi but since I've never been there before I'd rather go knowing I'm meeting someone so that was out as well.
Instead I went to the nearest bike shop and bought a used bike for 60,000 won (roughly 55 dollars). The tires are new and the chain is good. The breaks also have good tread and it's clean. The back break is good though the front break is pretty mushy. I don't know whether I should tighten the break myself or take it back to the shop (which is also a bike repair shop) to have the break tightened. It has a basket and a place on the back for bungee cording boxes. It also has a little horn and it came with a lock. The handlebars were loose at first but I showed the shop owner and he tightened them.
I then rode to Emart where I bought a small plastic drawer for my socks, a pillow, a place mat, and some wall hooks. I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow. I haven't ridden a bike in probably two and a half years. Haha, I was rather embarrassingly wobbly for the first ten minutes or so.
I'll go to Seoul tomorrow morning. But, I can't spend as much because I chose to buy the bike today. I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

Now, for all of you who know me, and for those who don't. The tooth feels fine. I'm still amazed that I even had to have an emergency root canal. I spoke with some other EPIK teachers yesterday who also go to the same dentist and said he's very good and his prices are quite reasonable. I think reasonable is an understatement, they're fantastic.

Ah, yes, would you like to see where I'm living?
Well, it's Sanju. That would be almost-the-middle-of-nowhere-south-Korea, as opposed to Seoul which is everything-is-here-south-Korea.

My apartment complex. Well, not just mine. It is also home to another elementary school teacher, and three other EPIK teachers. There are a handful of families with children and many singles. Probably because of the size of the apartments. I don't think I'd be able to share this space with even a spouse. In defense of the families here, there are also two room apartments here. And, yes, you read that right, not two bedroom, two room. ^_^ Welcome to Asia.

This is the view of the town to the left of the apartments.

This is the view three or four blocks past the previous image.




I'll show my actual apartment in another post.

There was a prayer meeting tonight but I didn't know where or when so that was kind of out. There's also a party tonight but I was out last night and I try to make it a habit to never drink more than once in a week. Also, I'm waking up pretty early. At least with the bike I can get to the bus station in less than half an hour.