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 5th 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:
No comments:
Post a Comment