The Cheese and Noodle Chronicles

This weekend, a large group of foreigners and I went to the Inter-Continental Hotel in Seoul. The hotel offers a buffet every Saturday for 30,000 won ($30) that consists of side dishes and alcohol. The best part of the buffet is the AMAZING selection of cheeses. For those that don't know, Korea does not have real cheese. They have the make-shift cheese like Kraft Singles, but other than that cheese is hard to come by. You could go to Costco and pay a fortune for a block of cheese, or go to the local grocery store and spend about $20 for a small container, but basically NO CHEESE! I ate about 3 plates of cheese and fruit (also expensive). Most of the other foreigners came for the large selection of all-you-can-drink wine, champagne, beer, and sangria, but I came for the cheese! It's safe to say that I ate my $30 worth!

Also this weekend, the weather finally became enjoyable. We were outside in long-sleeved shirts and not freezing our bums off! The snow is entirely melted and the cherry blossoms should be blossoming in the coming weeks!

An interesting thing happened today at the grocery store. I would like to share this with you because Korea is notorious for being kind and hospitable, but it's to prove that crappy people are everywhere in this world. I was with some of the other teachers and we were debating our future in noodles (because the noodle section is an entire aisle of choices) when this woman, maybe in her late 20s or early 30s, starts mocking us by repeating everything we say in a snotty voice. Now, I'm not sure if she was perhaps mentally challenged and didn't understand the concept of ears and that we can hear with them or if she didn't understand that we can in fact speak fluent English, but she was blatantly insulting us. We were not being loud or rude to anyone else, but we were simply examing the endless options of noodles ahead of us. I just wonder what goes on in the brains of people who would behave this way? One theory is that she is so ignorant of other people that she feels the need to put us down to make herself feel more superior. My other theory is that she is simply a huge B**CH. I can't decide which theory to go with, but I'm going to say it's a combination of both.

Even with that unfortunate incident, I do have to say that I encounter more good people than bad in Korea. It is really sad when things like that happen though. If I had just been visiting Korea for a week or so and something like that had happened, I would have a really bad impression of this country. Fortunatley, I've had plenty of time to meet some very cool people and make better assumptions about the rest of the country. Another sad thing is how ignorant people really are. Not just in Korea, but everywhere. This is the 21st century. We have more technology in this world than we know what to do with. Clearly, we can watch the news, go online, communicate with people across the globe and yet people still believe they are the only ones in this world. People still believe that their way is the right way and every other way is wrong. Many things in Korea are different. The way people talk to each other, the way people drive, the way people eat, etc. is all different. Does that mean it's wrong because I do it differently? No. Does it mean that I'm wrong for eating with my elbows off the table? No. Is it wrong that I abide the traffic lights when driving a car and Koreans don't? No. My final thought (I promise I'm almost finished ranting) is that if everyone in the world did things the exact same way, than what the hell am I doing in Korea? Why would I travel 6,000 miles and live away from everyone I know and love to go to a country that was exactly like the one I left?! The world would be "un-explorable" (not a word, but I'm making it one) if we all spoke the same language, drove on the same side of the rode, and all ate our food extremely loudly. Half the experience of taking this job is getting to learn a new culture! And despite the occassional b**tch, I'm loving every moment of it!

Over the Hump

I can't believe I actually get to say that I am already half-way done with my year in Korea! February 25th marked my six months upon arriving. Where has the time gone! I told everyone that time would fly and I would be home before you know it and here we are over the hump!

Time is an interesting thing though. Especially time in Korea. In one way, I want to say "Wow, I've already been in Korea six months! I'm already half way done with my contract! I can't believe it!" But on the other hand I want to say "It's ONLY been six months! I'm ONLY half way done with my contract! I can't believe it!" In a way time flies and I can remember so vividly my first night in Korea and the feeling of being awe-struck by a new place. In another way, I feel like I have been here for years and I am so comfortable with this new way of life. It feels like it has been such a long time and I have become fairly comfortable with this way of life, that I have almost forgotten the differences from home. My philosophy is that time feels so slow because it was the winter season and I stayed home alot during the months of December-March. Now that spring is coming, I think I will venture out more and spend my weekends exploring new places in Korea. I have a list of all the things I need to do before leaving:

-Go to Busan. This is a very popular beach city in the very south of South Korea.
-Do a temple stay. You can actually go and spend the night in a temple!
-Go to Cheongdam Dong. High end shopping!
-Jang Heung Art Park.
-Han River boat tour.
-Lotte World. Korea's version of Disney World.
-The Peace Museum in Soyosan Mountain.
-Go to Jeju Island. An island between Korea and Japan.

The list will keep growing, but those are the things I need to do in six months! So far in Korea I have been to a palace, a folk village, the War Museum, Seoul Tower, and other places. I've got alot more exploring to do though!

Update on school: The graduation went very well. When it's all said and done, there isn't much to stress about. The hours leading up to graduation were chaos, but afterwards was calm and no one had a second thought about it. The wedding I attended the previous weekend was very cool and very different from home! We showed up to the wedding hall and it was just this big building that pumped out wedding after wedding. On five of the seven floors there was always a wedding going on and they were so well planned down the very minute. We showed up at 1:58 and the wedding started right at 2:00. The bride walked down the aisle, bowed to her groom, they listened to a guy speak for 10 minutes in Korean, then bowed to their parents, and walked back down the aisle. There was no exchanging of vows, exchanging of rings, or kiss at the end. As for the reception, it was not a private party with just the weddiing guests, but rather a public party with all the wedding guests of every wedding that happened at the hall that day. We walked into a massive banquet room with a very large buffet. We ate, drank a Pepsi, saw the bride and groom for a split second, and left by 4:00pm. The overall feeling of a Korean wedding is how impersonal it was. There were no video montages, no pictures of the bride and groom anywhere, no toasts from family members or friends...just nothing. It was sit and watch a man blabber in Korean, go eat from a very odd array of food, and leave. BOOM: In and Out of a wedding in 2 hours. I do have to say though, the bride looked absolutely beautiful and they had alot of family and friends who came to be apart of their special day.

I hope all is well at home with my family and friends. I hope the snow melts soon and you have nice spring weather in no time! Love, Mal



The Bride's Family - The poor groom only had three family members there!



The massive buffet!



The bride and groom came to thank everyone for coming in Korean traditional hanboks.