This week marks a month and a half for us in Korea and we hope that our friends and family (those who still read this blog) can tell from our posts that we are happy, healthy and settling in nicely. We really feel like we have hit the lottery with our jobs and with the life we lead, but we would be remiss to say that there is not a whole lot about our lives here that we also find aggravating, perplexing, frustrating, exasperating and just plain backward. The following post is a bit long and no one should feel pressured to read it word for word. Mostly it has just helped me work out some of my confusion and frustration and understand that many of the problems I have come across in these two months are bigger than myself and thus beyond my control.
Read on
So, Greg and I have been in Korea almost a month now and I think we’ve covered most of the basics—the good, the bad, and the ugly—in terms of things that can induce culture shock here. One thing we haven’t discussed, and which definitely deserves it’s own post, is the music. From what we can tell, 1999 is alive and well here. Yes, Koreans LOVE their pop music. Every time we are at Lotte Mart, or walking past a small shop with its doors open, it seems like we hear the same four songs. Lately, even in school, our kids have been singing and mimicking the choreography from a few of these songs. For example:
Read on
Last weekend we decided to break up the routine and venture out do something interesting. While we both agree that our jobs don’t really demand the kind of time and intellectual rigour we were used to in college, it is a 9-5 job (or 10-6 to be more specific) and by the time the final bell rings we are usually too tired and hungry to do anything but head for home or to the nearest cheap restaurant with co-workers for dinner. So after 3½ weeks, I hadn’t been out of Suji and was desperately wanting to explore. Thus, we were happy to learn that Sunday, September 14th was a major holiday in Korea and we would have Monday off as a result.
Read on
A countdown of the strangest (to our foreign eyes) things we’ve discovered about Korea:
- Trash bags are extremely difficult to find here in Korea. Greg and I looked up and down every aisle at Lotte Mart and Sing Sing Mart. Nothing. Finally (one whole week later) Greg got the brilliant beyond brilliant idea to ask one of the TAs at school and she was kind enough to write something in Korean on a sheet of paper. The rough translation of this message read: Read on
