I don’t even know where to start. After getting back from Seoul last week Lucci, my friend John, and Lucci’s parents did stuff around Cheongju. We hiked to another peak of the mountain Songnisan, went to the old printing press museum in Cheongju, the cultural museum in Cheongju, and the mountain fortress just outside of town. It was really cool to see all that stuff. I’m actually glad I stayed in Cheongju for my first break; I feel like I’ve conquered here and can move on. I am hoping to go to China for the next break and maybe Japan in April.
Last week was really light in terms of work. Many of students are preparing for big tests this week, so last week I had half of my classes canceled. It was kind of nice, especially after coming back from a week off, but at the same time that’s 7 classes that I’m not getting paid for…wah waaah. Because of the lighter work load we also spent more time on fun stuff. We watched movies, went bowling, went out to the bars, and generally had a really good time. Thursday was Haley’s birthday and we went out to Buzz Bar to celebrate.
This past weekend I went with John to Busan to see the International film festival. It was a really cool experience; I guess it’s the biggest film festival in Asia so there were tons of people there. We got to see two movies (everything else was sold out)—one was really awful, about this Punk Rocker in Britain. It was so boring a lot of people actually were leaving early. It was shot in black and white so, I guess that’s what it’s claim was to being artsy. Everything else was flat—cinematography, script, acting (sorry, I’m just realizing no one probably cares about this). The other movie was Italian and it was really good-funny.
Busan is a really nice city, it’s close to the ocean and has a lot going on. John and I had western food all weekend, went to a western style bar, and visited the beach. We were the only ones in the water when we jumped in. Most of the Koreans were in parkas and sweaters—it was a beautiful day though, probably 80 and the water was warm.
This week looks like it might be light too. I had one class cancelled today and probably more as the week goes on. Hopefully not too many though.
Seeing as not much exciting is going to happen in the next couple months, I’m going to just write some random stuff about stuff I’ve noticed. I’ll put slugs at the top so you can decided whether to skip it or read it.
CABS
The cabs in Korea are really interesting. They actually have more power than the police in terms of the hierarchy on the road. On my first trip to go rafting, we missed the last bus from Daejon and had to take a cab to Cheongju (normally a 40 minute drive). We made it in 30ish. They driver was flying and all of us had some parts of our lives flashing in front of us. People move out of the way of cabs and with good reason—they’re pretty scary.
Cab drivers are really interesting too. Sometimes you get guys (they’re always men) that are really interested in you. They ask questions in Korean to which you can’t respond too. I’ve figured out how to say “I’m American, from Chicago, and I’m a teacher at a school in Boon Pyeong Dong.” They love that and then try to ask me other stuff and I just smile and nod. One guy I had read my fortune on my palm. He said I was going to be rich (Score!) and I’ll have 2 wives, I think. Some cab drivers are jerks though, they take you long ways and try to get more money out of you. One odd thing is that they don’t listen to women as well as men. If Lucci and I are in a cab with Haley, they will ignore her and listen to Lucci or myself. I guess that’s just the Confucian system.
Cabs here are also pretty cheap—it’s about 4 bucks to go from our apartment to the downtown shopping district and 6 to go to the college district.
CELEBRITY STATUS
One other thing that I thought was great at first but now is wearing on my nerves is kind of the celebrity status of Americans over here. I’m not saying people are crazy or anything, but especially in our smaller city, people don’t see many white people. As a result we get stared at, pointed at, and many school children will yell “Hello. Nice to meet you!” as they pass us on the street. One day Haley and I were walking home from Taekwondo and these kids were in this gymnasium. It was weird because the Gym had barred windows—anyway, as we passed be, the kids were like putting their hands through the bars and yelling “hello! Nice to meet you!” It was like a weird scene from a war movie or something.
This previous weekend at the film festival I think a lot of people thought John and I were actually legitimate celebrities. People were taking pictures of us and stuff. Staring at us in the subway. Haley and I especially are freakish over here with our blond hair. Haley and I were talking about it the other night and she said “yeah, I guess we’re really exotic over here.” I started dying laughing. It’s weird for a white bread farm boy to ever be exotic anywhere.
For the most part people are really good about treating us well, but sometimes it gets weird. For instance, today at lunch an old man walked by us while we were eating. He just kept staring at us. He tried to talk, but I communicated that I didn’t speak Korean. I did my spiel about where I work and where I’m from. When all that ended he just kept hanging around and staring at us. It was almost ten minutes he just kind of hung around us—he wasn’t poor or anything, he was just really interested. It was all right, but really awkward.
I guess that’s all for now. I’ll keep updating as I think of stuff.
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