Day 25!

I just realized that today is my 25th day in Seoul and I haven't been blogging as much as I've meant to. Long story short: I could not be happier. I absolutely love it here. I'm making new friends every time I go somewhere and having an awesome time learning about this country. I love my job, my students, my coworkers and having my own apartment. The Latin dance here is amazing! I wake up every day more excited to be here than I was the day before and I am often too excited to go to sleep at night. I feel so lucky to get to be doing this (and I can't believe they're paying me for it!!).

Below are some things I've been meaning to blog about but haven't had the time for:

Koreans Are Very Helpful

I’ve been super busy exploring Seoul every day with my new friend, Jacqui, from Canada. We mastered the subway system right away (because it’s easy) and we rarely get lost when walking around (that’s, obviously, thanks to Jacqui because I can barely find my way to the end of the tiny street I grew up on). We did get lost trying to walk home (from very far away) around 1:00 a.m. the other night and there was no one around to ask for help for a long time. Finally, we saw three girls biking and I decided to “ask them for directions,” even though we obviously don’t speak the same language. But surprise! Even though almost NO ONE around here speaks English, the girl we happened to ask is an English teacher. Even though we told them not to, they got off their bikes and walked the rest of the way with us, stopping every once in a while to check their iphones and make sure we were going the right way.

Koreans Are Healthy (for the most part)
1. The food here is AMAZING. You can go out to eat and get a very healthy and filling dinner for less than $5.00 and everything is delicious. My friend and I already have a favorite place where the owner knows us and our “usuals.” I would feel fat about that, except that what I order is vegetables and really healthy rice. (Side note: The food she makes is so good that I even like the kimchi she serves with it which is really saying something for me ‘cause I typically hate that stuff.) Tonight when we went there for dinner, she taught me how to pronounce the name of my favorite dish (which is called yangpunibibimbap, by the way).

2. When I want to take a jog, I go to a park near my apartment that has a large track around the perimeter and I am never the only one there. There are always tons of Koreans….walking the track. I dodge the businessmen who stay healthy by lapping the track at snail-speed while smoking cigarettes on their lunch breaks and the women who mini-step in their high heels around the track, carrying umbrellas in order to stay out of the sun. They all must wonder why the hell some white chick is running on the track...and IN THE SUNLIGHT!! They probably think I’m the weirdest creature on this planet...but whatever. It's nice that we can all...umm...work out? together.

My Experiment:

I spend quite a bit of time walking through the streets here and the majority of people completely ignore me but there are a few who stare as well. Neither type of person really bothers me, but I’ve always loved the friendliness of places like Mexico where everyone says ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’ or whatever to everyone they see as they pass each other in the streets. I’m used to at least acknowledging the fact that other people exist when I see them so I do the whole eye contact combined with that close-mouthed half-smile thing and sometimes I even throw in a slight head nod to be polite. When I first got here, I realized that when I did that people either looked at me like I was crazy or looked away very quickly and awkwardly. I started conducting an experiment and smiling at literally everyone I passed just to see how many people acknowledged me and how they would react. It’s been an ongoing experiment since then and, while I have no concrete numbers, it's really entertaining to me. I’m going to continue it and I’m sure I’ll come up with some sort of final theory in a few months.

아무도 그것을 말하는없는 경우에도 모든 이름은 영어로되어 있습니다

One of the first things I noticed here was that the names of the majority of the businesses and restaurants here are in English. However…no one around here, including the people who work inside these buildings, seem to speak or understand more than three words of English. As far as I can tell, it makes about as much sense as it would if I titled all of the sections of this blog in Korean for you English speakers. (By the way…the above title means “The names of everything are in English even though no one speaks it,” according to Google Translate.)

Traffic Lights Don’t Matter

Just the same as in pretty much every other foreign country I’ve been to, traffic lights here are pretty meaningless. I learned the night that I got to Korea that you will almost die every time you cross a street unless you wait at least five seconds after the light turns red for the people running the lights. But it goes beyond that. Not only do tiny, fast cars go speeding through intersections a few seconds after the light turns red, but I often see even the city buses driving under the red lights when it is as far away from their turn as it possibly could be…and they act like it’s completely normal.

The Kids Are Adorable

Yes Erin, it's true. But it's not just the little babies. Today my friend and I went to visit a palace, where I had my first taste of real Asian architecture and it was incredible. We got a free tour by the smartest little 12-year-old I've ever met in my life. He volunteers 5 hours of his time every other week on Sundays to give tours of the Deoksugung Palace, in order to teach foreigners about his country. Are you kidding me? I never would've thought to do something like that...especially when I was 12. He was so professional and adorable and he was able to answer every single question we had. He spoke perfect English because he went to Canada to study English for three months...I didn't ask when but I can only assume it was around the time he hit double digits. I can only hope that one day I am as smart and awesome as that kid (although, unfortunately, I know that dream will never become a reality for me).

In the picture above I'm with my friend Jacqui from Canada and our adorable little tour guide! :)