It was a beautiful weekend in Jinju. The sun was out and there was actually warmth in the air. My friend Megan and I had just set out on our bikes to relax by the riverside with our books and chips and salsa (a rare treat here, and our mutual birthday present to one another), when our other friend rang to ask if we'd like to join him and his Korean friend on a little outing in search of dinasaur fossils and a lotus pond. Relaxing by the riverside, maybe a nap in the sun, would have been a perfectly enjoyable afternoon, but dinasaur fossils and a lotus pond?! Even better.
We took the bikes home and jumped in the car, our first stop to search for fossils. We had to stop a handful of times to ask the locals where to go, and had to turn our car around double the number of times. We finally found the spot and parked the car, but never found the fossils. Instead, we opted to sit on some rocks on the river and devour our chips and salsa.
Next stop, lotus pond. We found this much easier than we did the fossils. (Have I mentioned that EVERY SINGLE car in Korea has a GPS on its dash? I can't decide if Koreans should have no excuse to get lost, or if they've sadly lost all ability to navigate without the aid of technology). But, turns out, the lotus flowers don't actually bloom until July or August.
Damn, 0-2. Luckily the company was good :)
Megan's coteacher was performing a ballet dance of sorts that evening at Jinju's arts and cultural hall and had insisted that Megan go watch. So, the four of us walked into a huge auditorium full of women in their 50s to watch the show, which turned out to be part of the Jinju Girl's High School reunion. So there we were, three waygooks (foreigners) and a young male Korean university student standing in the back amidst hundreds of middle-aged Korean women at their high school reunion. We got a good laugh as we watched a slideshow of photos meaningless to us, but likely very meaningful to many of those women, and a music performance by a group of alum. Then it was Megan's coteacher's turn to shine on stage in her baby blue tu-tu. What a riot.
The day couldn't have been any less random or any more enjoyable. We topped it off by going out for a burger and fries and a local burger chain (that's a step up from fast food). It was my second hamburger since living in Korea (my first one being at the local McDonalds; it had been YEARS since I'd eaten a hamburger at McDonald's, but sometimes here I crave non-Korean food).
My weeks are full of unanticipated delights like these. Moments, interactions, or outings that make me smile to myself and think "I love my life." Korea has been good to me and I can only hope my last 7 months bring as much joy as my first (almost) 5 have.
That's not to say there aren't things here that, get on my nerves, so to speak. The majority of times these things don't bother me, but on the occasion that I'm a little extra irritable that day, there are things that can be mildly annoying (or rather, things that are just different that what I'm used to).
Maybe it's because Korea has one of the higher population densities in the world. Maybe it really is just a cultural thing. But, to someone from a Western culture where it's considered polite to move out of the way for others and impolite to step directly in front of others, Korean people seem oblivious to the people around them! I can be walking down the sidewalk and people won't notice that there is somebody who would like to get by. People will stop on a dime when they're walking in front of you and not even know that I'm behind them wanting to continue moving forward. People will step out in front of me and just stand there, blocking my way, and if I put a hand on their shoulder or back there's only a slight chance they'll move--and only a few inches at that, if I'm lucky. I know this doesn't stem from true oblivion, and I certainly don't blame individual people for this because I know it's a cultural, country wide phenomena. But it can be so damn frustrating at times!!!
Also, nobody says "excuse me" here. It goes hand-in-hand with not moving out of peoples' ways, I suppose. This, however, doesn't bother me so much as the act of not moving for a passerby. I just find it interesting.
Coming from a place where pedestrians always have the right-of-way, it's a difficult adjustment to make in the land of pedestrians NEVER have the right-of-way. I've never been so alert in my life when it comes to crossing the street in a small lightless intersection... or parking lot, or small sidestreet, or alley. HOWEVER, there is one thing that warrents pedestrians the complete right of way. This happens at the real crosswalks where there are lights and a green man appears giving pedestrians the right to walk freely into the street without (too much) fear of being run over (apparently Korea has one of the highest rates of traffic accidents, or traffic-related deaths, or something like that--mom, you didn't just read that).
Don't even get me started on the driving. Not only does it appear to the non-Korean that people don't obey a single rule on the road, but taxis, motorbikes and buses will run red lights all the time (and I'm talking after they already come to a full stop at the red light--they just decide to go on through it before it turns green again). If a car is going to run straight through a red light without stopping, they just lay on the horn to warn everybody that they're coming through. Cars will be parked anywhere--on the sidewalks, behind other cars, you name it. Most cars here are left in neutral and have the cell phone number of the owner on the front dash in case they've blocked a car in and somebody needs to move a car or call the owner to move the car.
Plastic surgery and vanity. Yep, that's right. Women--and many men--are constantly checking themselves in car windows or on their cell phones, pulling single strands of hair into the perfectly desired position. Women always pull out hand mirrors so they can check their appearance and apply a new layer of makeup. I've seriously, no exaggeration, witnessed young women and girls look at themselves on their cell phones for a solid five minutes straight, no interruption. I don't understand it, but it's part of the culture here so I have to just go with it. Generally speaking, Korean men and women alike always look nicely groomed and are well-dressed. Name brands are a big deal here, as are t-shirts and sweatshirts with writing on them, so even when somebody is in their 'sweats' they look good. It's not quite like back home, where I wear my sweats and look like I just rolled out of bed (which most of the time I probably did).
And the plastic surgery--I've heard on several occasions that high school girls will get money for their graduation gift that is to go toward getting plastic surgery on their eyelids. SO MANY young women have had this surgery to create an extra fold in the eyelid. I've seen many a young woman--even high school age--walking around with an eye patch on that can only mean one thing. And it doesn't just stop with the eyes, but now we're talking the same things found in American women.
Appearance just seems to be one of the most important things in Korea and sometimes it makes me feel like a slob, that's all.
I know we have our own vanity issues back home, trust me. It's just interesting to find a whole new set of insecurities in women that don't exist to the same extent back home, as well as think about those that exist in America, but not here in Korea.
Being a woman can be tough (sorry, I just watched a bunch of incredible women put on the Vagina Monologues in Jinju so I am feeling not only empowered but also a bit like lashing out about how it's such a man's world... stopping now).
I think this is a good place to put a halt on my boring tendancy toward verbosity...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment