Silly Season

So. Election season. Or, as my friend Eric calls it, "silly season." And I thought that elections brought out the weirdness in the US.  Trust me when I say we got nothin' on Korea.

Imagine: trucks that patrol the streets all day long, the faces of Korean politicians plastered on the sides, sometimes making hilarious facial expressions or hand gestures, blaring campaign speak and crazy Korean music out of makeshift speakers.  Want more?  Add to this the spectacle of dancers on the trucks or robots that bend at the hip.  Not good enough?  How about a dude with a bullhorn on the corner dressed like Superman?  Still too lame for you?  Let's try bouncy cartoon characters that sing catchy little theme songs on a giant portable video screen over flashy images of the local mayoral candidate in the style of some music video from the Disney Channel or Nick Jr.

My Birthday Week

Well, I've had better.  And I've probably had worse.

The thing that sucked the most about my 27th birthday?  Having strep throat or tonsillitis or whatever the hell.  Being sick blows.  The thing that rocked the most about my 27th birthday?  Realizing that I have a lot of really great friends all around the world who love me despite sometimes not understanding why.  I know I shouldn't attribute too much to the Facebook birthday greeting since everyone under the sun gets inundated with messages on their birthday these days, but it still meant a lot to me to read so many things, some of them really genuinely nice, over my (2-day) birthday.  It also drove home to me how many friends I have scattered all over the globe, watching messages stagger in as May 26 began in totally different parts of the planet.  It gave me a warm happy feeling that helped make my illness infinitely more tolerable.  I felt really lucky this week.

Relationships in Korea

So I've alluded quite a bit to the odd state of affairs in Korea when it comes to romantic relationships.  Since today is a weird Monday where every class is getting canceled at the last minute and I'll only end up teaching once during last period, I figure now would be a good time to write some thoughts down.

Korea is definitely a country in transition, from traditional to modern.  At least 75% of my students, when surveyed recently about their family histories, said their parents were introduced through a matchmaker.  Today's youth, however, are increasingly meeting their significant others at university or through a job and the changes in relationship dynamics seem to cause a lot of friction between the older and younger generations.  A lot of the older relationships are more akin to business transactions than marrying for love.  The man and woman were put together because of their family or educational backgrounds; men are permitted endless numbers of affairs and the woman doesn't care so long as she has a nice apartment and gets to raise a family and spend the husband's money.  (Meanwhile, it is illegal for a married woman to commit adultery, which... don't even get me started.) 

How To Have Fun For (Almost) Free!

This weekend was my last weekend as an excessively poor man and I still managed to have a great time.  It's refreshing to have fun without spending much money and it gives me a good feeling about my ability to save the money I need this year.

As it stood at the end of the school day on Friday, I had less than 100,000 won left to my name, with my first payday looming closely on Monday's horizon.  On Friday night, Mr. Lee drove us into Seoul (only 45 minutes instead of 2.5 hours on public transit!) to meet and have dinner with Danny, my predecessor at the high school.  This was definitely the least fun part of my weekend, since Danny turned out to be a total jackass douchebag.  He  definitely came across as, in the words of my new friend Chris, a classic LBH ("Loser Back Home").  Korea is full of LBH.  They come to Korea because at home, they suck, and here, they are unfortunately considered significantly cooler.  So then they stay for ages because they know their lives are infinitely better here than they ever could be in a country where people refuse to tolerate their crap personalities. Anyway, Danny is a big old LBH, and I felt bad because Mr. Lee clearly hoped and thought that we would become best friends.  I was asleep in my uber-cheap hostel by 12.30.

Pointing Out The Flaws

So one of the most interesting character traits that seems to run through most of the Korean population is the tendency or willingness, nay, vigor with which Koreans like to flag up the flaws of others.  It is pretty startling the first time you have someone casually tell you to your face that you have bad skin or a fat head. And wow, does it happen a lot.  It's probably one of the things I hear foreigners comment on the most when discussing the things they like the least about living in Korea.  It's difficult for us to deal with because it just seems so rude.  What's hard for us to accept is that it simply isn't.  On the contrary to it being rude, it's actually seen as a sign of forthrightness and honesty.

A Tough Day

I really have some punk-ass students.  Today was the first day I co-taught the 1-4 class with Mrs. Jun and many students were bright and enthusiastic, but too many others were just awful.  I have never seen anything like the behavior here!!  One male student kept flipping off Mrs. Jun and just chanting, "Shut up, shut up, shut up," and she didn't really do anything at all.  It's like what you imagine teaching in Compton would be like after watching Dangerous Minds or something (except you don't have to worry about getting shot).  The level of disrespect is just mind-boggling.  I don't know how I will ever get used to it.  It's depressing to realize that there isn't a single day I can look forward to having NO "bad classes."  M-F respectively, I have 3, 1, 2, 2, and 3.  That is 11 out of 21 classes that are "bad."  And a lot of the "good" classes have some individual bad students.  It gives me a headache and a stomachache and makes me want to go home.