Oh Doctor!

Had a huge scare the week before my birthday trip in that I was really sick.( the cough is crazy!) Korea has wrecked havoc on my health at times, but at least the medical services are efficient and cheap.

The trip to the office itself takes literally fifteen minutes if it is not crowded... 25 minutes if it is. You basically check in ( and we have special foreigner "passport" type insurance cards so they even know to call us "Allison" and "Joseph". Then they take you directly back to the doctor within 10 or 15 minutes ( the longest I have ever waited was 10 minutes and the place was packed) The doctor speaks passable English and asks if I want my medication in Injection form (during which he smiled and make the injection motion towards his bum laughing as I can not shake my head no fast enough!) or pill form. Pills it is!!!!! Then he writes a perscription and it is back off to the check out... which is the same place as the check in.... then you cough up (literally in some cases) about 3,000 won ($2.50 people!) and you are on your way to the Pharmacy.

There you hand them the paper you received at check out and they take four or five minutes to fill your perscription, and then you will speak with the pharmacist about your medication and side effects which basically consists of him saying:

" This is anti nose, this is cough, this is sleep, these are achy, Drink water and no alcohol. Milk, only sometimes." - (I just skipped milk all together because I had no idea what he meant?!?!?!)

But then he sends you home with pre-measured and allotted medication which you take three times a day. It is already seperated with nice numbers on it so you can figure it out. Bless them because the last thing I wanted to do sick was get out the dictionary and see what each baggie said.

Too bad they give you enough pills to feed a small country for a month... and half a pill is in there too, that might be a psuedo claritin... not sure... but you have to drink about a gallon of water to get them all down.

But the best medicine of all was Joseph walking in the door with a pizza from our favorite place Pizza Maru, so I didn't have to cook that night!

Yeah!!!!!
OH!!! maybe that was what he meant by "milk sometimes...", I can have it sometimes, just cheese form?!?!?! still trying to figure that one out.

Thankfully I am feeling better these days.

Birthday in Seoul.

If you had asked me this time last year if I would be spending my 26th birthday in one of the largest cities on the planet I would have thought you were crazy. I was really lucky though that my birthday happened to fall the day after Buddha, so it was actually a holiday weekend. With three days to do as we wanted Joseph and I decided to really make a big trip of it because his birthday is unfortunantly on a tuesday so we will be working for that bithday, so it was a dual celebration and we each got to pick things to do.

We got up early on friday morning and got to the bus station to take our express bus to seoul about 8:30 ish and we didn't stop once we got there. We got dropped off at the bus station so we decided to head over to the Herb Hotel to get our hotel first...well it was under construction so we went to the California hotel next door which was a bit more expensive but very swanky! It was just as quiet as the Herb and they gave us coke in the mini-fridge. (Much better than the corn water drink we sometimes ended up with!)

behind the curtain was the widow which opened up directly to the Herb Hotel, but it was very quiet at night so if we get to go again we will def stay here again.

Very cool and mod computer, where I got to check all my cook facebook messages! (and write a few e-mails)
Nice bathroom, one of the nicest we have had, but the shower was even too low for me!

Complimentary slippers with the hotel name on it!

Our first mission after settling into the hotel was to find food, So since we had a really good experience last time and Joseph was craving some kebabs we headed back to Sunshine for a delicious lunch and some day planning with our guidebook.

The aftermath....

We found our way to a cool market place and we had to get a picture of the hallway of Fabric, I know Mrs. Kelly would have loved to see all the selection. We searched high and low for crystals for Irish dance dresses but found nothing...I wonder where they are hiding them.

food court with giant scary sausages .... we didn't eat here.

Then we found our way to the Seoul Folk Flea Market. It was actually really nice and totally indoors.
The whole place was PACKED with tons of artifacts and antiques, it was hard to see everything, but we tried our best.

"hey Joseph let's get a phone ok?"

Not sure why the pictures are blurry, but it was massive.

more stuff.

Big furniture too!

After the folk village we headed over to the Coex Mall and had dinner at on the Border, for both of us. We had a delicious meal and I totally forgot to take a picture. We also stopped by the bookstore and got a guide for China, as well as some cool magazines!

Because it was Buddha's birthday weekend as well there were these pretty lanterns all over the city.

Better picture of Joseph Admiring the lanterns.

May 22nd was the day we headed to Lotte World. I am sick that I forgot my camera. Here is a picture of the indoor part of the theme park. It was MASSIVE. It was also CROWDED. We probably rode about four rides but we had a blast just walking around... it was also attached to a mall so we had non-stop entertainment all day.

When we had enough of the rides and busy walkways we headed over to the Folk museum which was a great departure from the theme park and was very informative and not quite so crowded. This is the part I wish I had my camera for. There was a huge room filled with a million minature village people, houses, temples and lakes that must have taken at least four or five years to make. It was huge and really neat to look at.

We then went back to the theme park and unfortunately because of rain we missed our chance to go to the outside portion, but apparently the coolest roller coaster was closed anyway because of rain... but we went on a Jungle ride, an Egyptian ride and a ride about the adventures of Sinbad, and they were all AMAZING, and worth the hour waits we endured for them.

Sunday we were heading back to Geoje but we got a later bus so we could so some last minute stops before we left. We decided to go to Olympic park to see where the held the Olympics in 1988. It was amazing still.

You have to have a map to help guide you around the area.

Love those rings!

Our hair looks terrible because it was so windy, but I figured I had to include this one!

The flame is still burning.

A cool painted dragon on the wing of the big structure. the Korean word for Dragon is "Yong".

And really no place is complete without the Lotteria (see Lotte owns everything) it is basically like your typical MacDonalds, but with seafood on the menu.

Monument with all the flags of the countries that participated.

Another view so you can see all the buildings that have popped up around the park.

A race course for kids, I was wearing sandals so I didn't feel too bad that Joseph beat me.

We love museums so we went up to the Olympic museum... they had hands of people but because I am not korean I had no idea who they were.

Me and the tiger who was the Mascot of the 1988 Olympic games.

Shhhhhh, I was not supposed to take pictures inside.

They had a huge model of the park itself.

Different angle. It is very wooded, and very beautiful.

Mr. Slow had to read EVERYTHING.

But he did find where they spelled Korea with a C, so I give him his Museum credit.

They also had a ride, that went every hour, and we luckily hit it at just the right time, so we went on a loggin adventure is a very cool motion simulator ride.... not sure what it had to do with the olympics but we were just happy we didn't have to wait in line.

We then took a self guided walking tour of the grounds. Saw some art structures.

Park area.

One of the buildings in which they held the olympics.

More of the park and cool art structures.

Close up.

Swimming is the most popular event.

Close up.

The Complex also had a train going around the perimeter.

You could also rent these bicycle cars and jet around.

We went to Quiznos for lunch because we could not find another Subway like in the main section of Seoul. then we got back on the subway and made our way to the Bus station.

We got there early so we went for a walk around the area and found about 10 restaurants we would like to try next time and saw this cool over pass on the highway, you can actually walk through a waterfall!

We had a great time celebrating our birthdays, and had a great time in the capital city. With less that four months to go and lots of warm weather ahead of us we still have many adventures to go out and experience.

Saving Face

After living in Korea for over 7 months, you start to understand the cultural differences more… mostly because they are in conflict with your own cultural ideals. At this point I still cannot claim to be an expert on the subject of Korean culture, far from it in fact, but I can draw from many of my own experiences. I decided to divert a bit from the usual Picture post blog and go a bit more in depth to the lifestyle that I have been living here.

I had a great conversation with Dani last week, we kept going over how it is so hard to explain to people back home exactly why living here is sometimes so infuriating… Not including the language barrier, the chopsticks or the excessive amount of carbs in the diet…( that was expected) the culture and the people encompassed by it can sometimes get you down. It is, however, not easy to explain why this way of living is so in conflict with my own lifestyle. I finally came down to one conclusion. Two words make living in Korea hard… but understanding them can make it easier to bear.

Saving Face.

In America this just basically means covering for yourself and maintaining dignity, but in Korea it is part of business, friendships, romantic relationships and family life. Due to the heavy Confucian beliefs Koreans are all about traits like
persistence, perseverance, respect for hierarchal relationships, concern for saving face, and respect for tradition. But as I see it saving face in today’s society can sometimes seem like displacing blame if you are from outside the culture. Nobody likes to be embarrassed or look foolish but part of the Korean nature is they don’t want to see ANYONE embarrassed or look bad or ever, even if it means shoving the blame where it doesn’t belong.

Take for instance my experience. I have been teaching the 2:30 America class for over a month with the new Level 1 book. I handed the books out the first day, and about a month and half later we were about a third of the way through the book when One day in class one of the children tells me “ oh teacher, no book today”. This happens sometimes since they have a different book for the days the Korean teacher works with them, so no problem, I went and made a copy of the pages and gave them to the student for the class. The next class the child still is missing their book, so I make note of it in the daily report that “so in so didn’t bring their book for the second time”…which is when the Korean teacher punishes them by taking away a star. Well that didn’t happen.

The student, so afraid of losing a star, tells the Korean teacher and their parents that “Allison teacher never gave me a book”... ok

So the Korean teacher approaches me and asks me why I never gave the child a book…. My answer “ I did, a month ago, when I gave out all the books, I think that particular student must have lost it” which is replied to with “ Well the child and their parents say you didn’t give them a book”….ok

Why would I forget to give a book to one child in the class, and if I did why did it take the kid a month and a half to figure it out… honestly. We were already 7 or 8 units in from the previous month, and suddenly the kids stops bringing it because I never gave them a book. That makes no sense.

Now this is where the face saving comes in. I am lightly reprimanded for not giving the child a book, because nobody is brave enough to tell the kids parents that the kid lied, ( because I gave the kid a book) So in order to keep the kid from being embarrassed or the parents from realizing their kid lied and really lost the book, they order a new one, and I end up looking incompetent.

Nothing is more infuriating. But that is what happens when you are the foreigner on the bottom of the social hierarchy chain…

It runs deeper than that. Koreans hate to say “no” or “I don’t know” so if you ask a question, if they are unsure of the answer… rather than be uncomfortable and look unwise they will LIE and tell you something that MIGHT be true, just so you don’t get uncomfortable and they can get your off their back without looking foolish.

Which usually ends up making trouble for the non-Korean speaker. Like for instance searching for an hour for a bus station in the wrong direction in Busan because we had the misfortune to ask someone who didn’t know either.

The crucial thing that saving face is up against is the concept of respect from a Western sense. Respect for my time, and my intelligence.

In the West, we strongly adhere to the idea that the highest measure of respect to show a person is honesty.

Americans can seem so friendly to other cultures because they engage in many "face-saving" activities in ways that Koreans do not. Take for instance how we deal with strangers. I grew up in a place where you hold the door for someone coming in behind you, give compliments, and do your best to help someone even if you don't know them. Something simple like smiling at someone as you pass them on the street does not happen here. Koreans are taught to withhold emotion at all times and even cover their mouth when laughing…But things I consider just simple consideration for another person seem lacking here. I have had the door slammed in my face at the bank, been pushed in the butt with a shopping cart to move and not told when a co-worker was leaving the workplace forever until 10 minutes before she left.

I sometimes don’t understand why a whole society of people cannot just stand by what they think, and if necessary, SAY what they think. I feel like those we hold in the highest esteem we show respect by being honest and giving opinions when needed or asked.

Though to the Koreans, Honesty is often in conflict with relationship-preserving or face saving actions. They believe to make someone close to you feel bad for any reason, even with honesty is considered rude and hateful. Americans simply trust that our good friends will not be hurt by our outright comments because we respect them enough to tell them the truth.

( Hey sorry, you have lettuce in your teeth!)
There is, however, some irony here in that, from an Confucian perspective, Americans can often seem cruel to those close to us (friends and family) or appear that we take close relationships for granted with our honesty. Go figure.

So there you have it, East vs. West…. I can see both sides… and I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I think there is a fine line between honesty for the better, and honesty just to be mean or make someone feel foolish.

Next post, My birthday weekend in Seoul!

Quirky Korea

I am glad to know the shared experience of being "A whitey" is not lost on other people living in the country... I kid you not... looked up the Roketship blog and not ten minutes later walked into the bathroom and experienced the SAME thing.... Here is the lovely cartoon so none of you miss out on what made Ali scream loud enough to wake the dead... and possibly scare a few Koreans!

Yeah a blast of FREEZING cold water right in the kisser, and all down my shirt and pants...

OHH OHH and the best part...

I was totally ready to go to work, just wanted to "wash my hands"!

NOT ANYMORE!

Joseph wanted to take a picture of me looking like a wet rat, but we were running late so I had to go to school with wet hair.

fabulous.

Gwangju Photonics Festival.

May 1st the weather finally let up and gave us a few really nice warm days, so we took the weekend vacation to Gwangju to see the Photonics festival. The trip was lovely and we got to see alot of cool Korean takes on what Light means to them. Very interesting.

Our first stop was to secure a hotel and this place was cheaper than most that we stayed in but it was still pretty posh. I had to get a picture of the bathroom because there was actually a seat warmer ... I had no idea how to use it but you could tell it was on!

They also provided us with toothbrushes, toothpaste, face mask, bubble bath, facial wash, razors and q-tips all in a cool blue pouch. The motels also provide shampoo, hair rinse and body wash but those they store in the bathroom... now if only they would give you something bigger than a hand towel to dry off with.. Luckily we don't take showers if we only stay one night, but we did use the toothbrushes!

After dropping off all our stuff we headed to the subway to make our way to the festival.

Yeah, it was NOT crowded at all.

The park itself was really huge, and totally surrounded by apartment buildings. The fountain would move along with the beats of the music blaring all over the park.

They had lots of exhibits about light and also a rock climbing wall. It was HUGE. We had fun just standing around watching this guy get to the top.

Another side of the park.

This was the huge building we watched a 3d movie in. It was hard to tell what was going on since the movie was in korean... it was also bad because they let in way more people than they actually had space for so joseph and I ended up sitting on the aisle steps with little kids sitting on our feet, and little kids kicking us in the butts...

They had all kinds of tents selling everything from toys, boomerangs, doughnuts and hats... pretty much anything you wanted.

This was one of the cool exhibits we could take a picture of with our camera.

I wish I could own this piece, it was really neat it would change color every few second, but slowly so you felt like the sun was rising and setting... very neat.

Lightbulbs filled with wishes for the future.

I felt like I was walking through a light bright!

Lawn furniture made out of flourecent bulbs.

this structure was called "the eye"

So Happy to see some flowers finally. Yeah Winter is over!

Towers in the park at sunset.

Joseph under the expo sign.

The flag that helped us find our way.

The city was fairly large, and we were one of three other white people we saw that day... Must have been pretty interesting to the Koreans too because we were stopped a few times for people to talk to us and show off their english skills, or to take a picture with us. Kinda weird when all you want is to find a bathroom, and someone is telling you how much they admire Kennedy... "yeah yeah yeah, me too, where is the toilet?" (because they don't say restroom, and have no clue what you are saying if you do)

All in all it was a nice day...