Koreans Are So Generous

As I spoke of before, Koreans like to touch each other. It's okay! They're pretty tough with each other too. You can think a serious fight is going on with hard hits. Next thing you see is the boys nuzzling with his head on his friends shoulder. Hard love.

Don't really make them angry though. They do know the national sport, Taekwondo. They have been know to put each other in the hospital. The police have to come to our school at least once a week for fights. The police come into our office, take their shoes off, and give the teachers a full bow. I think Denver Cops should do this, don't you?

Saturday, October 3^rd was Chusok, Korean Thanksgiving. It’s like Christmas here around that time. The malls are packed with people buying gifts for each other. You see people stressed out over the holidays just like back home. I got Friday and Monday off for the holiday. It was a much needed break. I got ginseng, onion juice, three loafs of bread, some pineapple, cake, and a laser pointer from teachers. I also got a few peanuts from a drunk guy in the subway for the holiday. Some old ladies by my house gave me some uncooked nuts too. It was gross.

Ginseng is huge here. A common gift to a boss is a bottle of ginseng extract. They run anywhere from 20 bucks to 100 bucks a bottle and more. The rare kinds are like gold.

It’s amazing how big health fads are in a country filled with drinking and smoking. I guess they counteract each other. I slammed my glass of onion juice with some teachers the other day for our health. Wow! Rather eat an onion, or slam cheap whiskey. Tasted pretty nasty.

In Colorado, when we think of raw fish, we think of little slices of sushi on a ball of rice. You don’t want to get too full unless you’re willing to spend over a hundred bucks. That’s not the case here! We had, “sliced fishy,” as they call it. All the English teachers went for some “sliced fishy.” We had an awesome view of the ocean. Plate after plate of raw fish sliced and piled high came out. We drank and ate for many hours. There was no need to even have rice. A sushi lovers’ heaven.

After a couple of hours of drinking, there was a big shouting match between some of the teachers. It sounded like a very passionate screaming match. It was okay I guess. We were eating in a private room at the restaurant. One teacher told me that this was needed as a way to get things out about work.

I think they were arguing over how they should go about punishing kids. There’s the old and new ways of doing things. To beat, or not to beat kids, that is the question. At one point, my boss told me, “Coming Monday, new responsibility for you. You will be in charge of punishment. Ok?” I agreed, but I’m sure glad that he forgot. A couple of students just went to the main office of education the other day to complain about the beatings. Now my school is in trouble, the English Department especially. Things are changing quickly here.

On a brighter note, I had a great celebration of my German heritage recently! Surprisingly to me, the Koreans have a great fascination with the German people. My boss told me that Germans are strong. I am German, so he believes I will do well at the school. Ok…

I recently met some German girls at Korean class. They were teaching me how to say my last name, Nebel, correctly. I still can’t say it like them. Pusan University actually holds classes in German. There are not too many Germans in South Korea, but there are a few Koreans looking to learn German. You can take a chemistry class in German here.

The girls informed me of a Korean Oktoberfest that they were invited to. The owner of the place found them at the university and asked them to join. I guess to make the whole Oktoberfest more authentic you need at least a few Germans.

We went to a huge German brewery bar. The place was packed with hundreds of Koreans on a Thursday night. We were seated up at the front for we were the only Westerners at the place. There was live music and lots of beer and German food. The place was not cheap. The owner let us eat and drink for free!

All of a sudden I felt a new sense of pride for my German heritage. Who would have thought it would bring me free food and drink! Many Koreans wanted to dance with us and get their pictures taken with us. They not only wanted pictures taken on their cameras, they wanted us to take pictures with them on our cameras. I was happy to do so.

Koreans like to provide entertainment while you drink. This night, we were only part of the festivities. There were dancing beer bottles as well as Koreans dressed like Germans. The band wasn’t that bad either.

I have had the chance to really get to know my new German friends in the last week. Last night was one of their friends’ birthdays. Here we are in South Korea, enjoying many beers with Russians, Germans, an Irishman, a Brit, some Americans, and of coarse some Koreans. After the bar, we headed to the norybong. This is Korean karaoke. We ended up singing the night away.

My Korean friend Jyoung is quite a character. A good man. I had class to teach at 7 in the morning, and he had to start his first day of Korean military boot camp at the same time. This is something that every Korean man has to do at a certain point in their lives. Like most Koreans, Jyoung has trouble knowing when it is time to go to bed. I myself am having trouble with this cultural problem. At 4:45 a.m. we realized that we could not try to go to bed. We would be in trouble if we did that. Here we are, German and English teachers and one Korean soldier, singing till the sun was up.

A Korean hangover potion is the only thing keeping me up long enough to write this right now. It’s called Morning Cure. I don’t believe there is any caffeine in this small drink. Actually I have no idea what is in it, but it works.

This morning I woke myself up to the sound of my own snoring at my desk. My co-teacher asked me to come with her. Of coarse my Western thought was that I was in trouble for sleeping. That was not the case. She showed me the sleeping room for the male teachers! It’s okay as a male to sleep at work if you need to. The room has a nice couch with comfortable pillows to take the edge off that morning hangover. I love Korea! They might not know when to sleep, but they do know how to take care of a hangover.

I can’t wait to sleep. Today I have no class, so I have lucked out. The students have tests to take. I have the whole day to prepare for classes. Of coarse, with this much free time there is always room for a nap or a little blogging.

Good times here in South Korea. I only hope I can go back to what is “normal” and not find life a bore. Every corner I turn is a new experience that I will never forget. Cheers from South Korea. Until next time, thanks for reading!

Some Things I Find Funny and Weird, and a Wedding

In Taiwan, they called Cameron a Submarine! (They meant to say he looked like a Marine, or that he can swim (he had flippers on his backpack.))

The trash trucks play Beethoven’s 5^th while they slowly go around Green Island. You think, “Ice cream is coming!” No, it’s just smelly Asian trash… Everyone knows to run out and throw their trash in the truck when they hear the beautiful music down the road. Good idea actually.

Taiwan and Korea love Beethoven! Taxies, trash trucks, door bells, and school bells; Beethoven.

Korea loves dogs, but they eat them too. “Delicious!” This is not a common thing. They don’t throw dog in to be cheap. Men usually eat dog. If someone eats dog, they might eat it on special occasions to gain power, and strength from the dog. Would I eat dog? I would if asked to. Why not? Just cause we love dogs, we can’t eat them too? One must let go of cultural fo-pas.

It’s okay to eat fast, stuff your face, and make lots of noise while eating, but God forbid you fill your own drink! Everyone fills each other’s drinks, and with two hands.

I watched my mentor teach an English class. He was speaking English to the class, and I thought it was Korean! They really do need native speakers.

Koreans love to spit! They’ll spit anywhere. In the subway, in the classroom, anywhere. I was checking out this girl in the subway and she turned around and hawked a lugee! Wow. At first I would tell my kids not to, but it’s a free spitting country. They can do what they want.

It’s so loud in the mornings! I wake up to a loud speaker every morning blaring, “I’ve got onions! I’ve got cabbage! I’ve got potatoes! I’ve got lettuce! Cucumbers, apples, fruit!” This is all in Korean of coarse. I thought it was communist propaganda or something at first. This is followed by the lady with her cart chanting something. I don’t know if she’s praying, selling nuts, or crazy!? There’s always the guy that wakes up like clockwork with a roar, a snort, and the hacking of the morning lugee as well.

Koreans make a hissing noise when they are thinking. A, “shhhhh, hmmm.” The men growl a lot. A big meal is always followed my many, “Hmmghghgh.” Hard to put on paper. Everything deserves a growl. Sitting, burping, satisfaction, and taking a shot to name a few. I will demonstrate sometime if you would like. I myself am becoming more vocal.

Koreans are not scared to touch each other. I told my boss he is a strong hiker, so he asked me to feel how strong his legs are. Yes, they were strong. When men are happy to be hanging out with each other, they hold hands. Women hold hands as well. I asked this Korean guy if he would like to meet some American girls. He was excited to do so. He grabbed my hand and we ran together to meet the girls.

After many drinks, a good friend is always a good crutch. The drunk guy puts his arms around his friend so that they can fall together, or hopefully stay on the feet. Western men freak out about this. There is no homophobia here. Why not bromance with your fellow brothers.

Koreans have names for their streets, but they don’t use them. If you need directions, you better have GPS, or a good map illustration.

The cops are so nice to me. Not sure if it’s the same for Koreans. I was asked to get my picture taken for my “Green Card,” Alien Registration Card. I said that I could find it by myself. Wow. Whoops. They drew me a map of roads to take by foot. It took a whole sheet of paper. Miraculously I found it. The picture was very nice. They took the time to air-brush me into Korean beauty. They made me whiter and with red lips. So nice. On the way back, I asked a cop, “Is Keum Jong High this way on the left?”

He replied, “Oooh, no, no, no! In!” Oh! My first ride in a foreign cop car. How nice. Now I didn’t have to walk. They did a U turn. They started driving for miles in the wrong direction.

I kept on saying, “Keum Jong High School. This way?”

“OK, OK, OK!” They dropped me off across town at some random other school I had never been to. I decided to not argue with the cops, it’s usually a good idea. Crap. I had class in 20 minutes. I didn’t have a phone, I didn’t bring the schools phone number with me. I had no idea where the hell I was. I walked for a good hour.

I’d ask people, “Keum Jong High School?” They kept directing me back to where the cops took me! I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. I decided to ask for the subway. I knew I could find my way back to school if I started by the train. Eventually I made it back. Come to find out, there are two schools with the same name. I had to learn to call my school, “Kum Jeung Jeon Ja Kong Go.” This means Kum Jeung Technical High School. They took me to the un-technical school I guess.

Korean weddings are awesome! My friend Diana took me to my first Korean wedding. It was her co-teacher’s friends wedding. We didn’t even know who they were. Someone told us it is important to bring a gift. We forgot. We put some money in an envelope and tried to give it to the wedding party. They refused to take it. I was going to write on the envelope, “To whom it may concern. From the foreigners.” Just kidding. The ceremony was 23 minutes. I timed it. They pump weddings through this hotel all day long. They even post the alloted time on the way in. There was no signs or mention of God. Considering the fact that we can not speak Korean, who really knows. Then, it was eat’n time! Everyone flocked to the buffet line. It was the best buffet line. It had four rows of food. This included, raw steak, cooked steak, shrimp, smoked salmon, sushi, etc. Salmon and steak are a delicacy here. There are no salmon in Korea, and not too many cows, if any. The quickest wedding ever. Some people were dressed up while others you could tell were there for the food. There were drinks there as well. Since it was Sunday morning, we didn’t hit the drinks hard. There’s no dancing or real partying that I am aware of at the weddings. After we ate, we left. If you get a chance in life, check out a Korean wedding.

Here is some Korean street art near my house: