Random Musings

- Self-Conscious Koreans -

In my travels around the Korean countryside, whether it be train or bus, I have found many Koreans, especially the younger generations & even more specifically, the girls/women are immensely self-conscious. I was on the train to Pohang one weekend and this group of three college aged girls sat across the aisle from me & for over an hour they took pictures of each other on their smartphones & digital cameras. Sure, there were a few breaks to fix their hair, add some make-up or adjust their garments but it didn't last more than a minute or two & then, without fail they were back at it....giggling & snapping away like they were on the set of some glamorous photo shoot for Vogue.

It's pretty common to see many Koreans wearing glasses as well. And I'm not talking simple glasses, they're usually big, wide, black frames which are thought to make the face appear more narrow & oblong rather than wide & more flat. To me, though, it almost seems to have the opposite effect.

Jumpsuits, bedazzled ties & dress shirts & cargo/fishing vests seem to be necessary attire for the older generation Korean man - either in an effort to show a strong fashion sense or simply get noticed by the ladies. I've also been keeping a very unscientific calculation in my head & I think about 87.4% of all Korean men smoke cigarettes, couple that w/a rough estimate of about 94% crazy, middle aged alcoholic men & you've really got something to hang your hat on....not sure if it's the pressures & stress of life as a male (providing for your family, excelling in school, actually getting a job after so much time & money has been invested in your education since elementary school) in this culture or simply to be fashionable, hip & relevant amongst your peers but regardless, these guys suck 'em down like it's their job!

As for young Korean men, all I can say is extremely metro sexual. 

It seems this is the mindset of Koreans across the board. They want to feel pretty, look good & get noticed by the opposite sex - which I suppose is common the world over - but it just strikes me as something of an overdone obsession amongst Koreans. What the hell do I know, though!

- God The Mother -

There is an entire sect of Christianity which wholeheartedly believes that, although there are only a few vague references to a mother figure in the Bible, that there is an actual God the Mother who just so happens to live & roam freely in Korea. Sure, it's completely plausible that the mother of Jesus Christ is alive & well, living a fully important & prosperous life right here in the midst of modern day Korea.


Even harder to wrap my mind around is that she has hundreds of thousands of followers all around the world who drop plenty of money & sometimes sacrifice their life savings for a pilgrimage to merely be in the presence of 'The Heavenly Mother'....although she has been kind enough, given the tremendous amount of technology we have these days, to personally spread her message to various other parts of the world. The 'church' has over 400 branches in Korea & nearly 2,000 spread across the globe in 150 countries.


In one of my earlier blogs, I talked about a couple of the ladies who did their best to persuade me to join them for a service as they showed me all sorts of 'solid evidence' as to the truth of her existence. They even had a DVD that 'refuted' much of what science, history & common sense have proven over the many years of our existence.

Sure, Catholics seem to revere Mary as the mother of Jesus, she certainly isn't identified as divine in her own right. I mean, seriously, I find myself believing very little in the true value of organized religion but this is almost getting to the point of ridiculous....Scientology, God The Mother, Flying Spaghetti Monster (alright, that one's actually pretty funny in the entire premise of it).  Look around, people hate, kill, stereotype & persecute others based on things like religion. Humans have fought wars for centuries based on 'my god is better than your god.' I get it, people need something to believe in but seriously, how far is it gonna go? 

For some light reading, check this out:


THE God The Mother Homepage


Another God The Mother Homepage


Wiki - God The Mother

- American's embarrassing the country all over the world -

I understand a majority of ESL teachers over here are recent college graduates, many from the states & w/recent grads remains a bit of the rebellious, overzealous & boisterous ambitions of youth. However, either I'm just getting older or this next generation of Americans have been inundated w/far too much reality television, 'extreme' lifestyle thoughts & a simplistic desire to be uniquely different (which ultimately seems to propel them into a subtle majority). 

Either way, I have seen some truly annoying, ridiculous and embarrasing actions out of my fellow Americans....loud, obnoxious, rude & entitled behavior that simply makes our entire country look shallow, pompous & downright silly.  Just because you can be more annoying & childish than some of the low level elementary school children you teach, doesn't mean it's OK. By dressing like a completely colorblind & fashion handicapped moron doesn't allow you strut around town acting as if you are a gift to all those having the unfortunate luck of being in your presence. Due to the fact you are drunk, riding the subway in a big, foreign city during the middle of the day doesn't allow you to disrespect the fine people of the country you're a guest in while cursing like a sailor on shore leave! 

I can understand these actions to a certain level (not condoning, just realizing the reality of the world Americans live in)but something I painfully have trouble accepting (no matter how much I respect the military & what they do to protect our rights & freedoms) is the actions of the US military personnel as they get some free time off base. More often than not, the ones I've seen in public places are generally loud, arrogant, rude & idiotic - running up the wrong side of an escalator, brushing past Koreans as they confusedly make an effort to get out of the way; cutting in front of elderly Koreans as they hurry to board a train or bus; failing to offer those same elderly Koreans a hand as they struggle to load their luggage onto said bus or train; acting loud & entitled while causing a scene on the trains & buses. The worst was a couple of military guys defiantly berating a Korean mother and daughter as they politely attempted to sit in their seats, even though the military guys were raising hell & insisting they didn't have to move, even though they weren't their seats (most of the time passengers w/last minute tickets don't have seats but if they find an empty one, they'll sit until the actual ticket-holder arrives). 

It embarrasses me tremendously & I usually can't even bear to watch as the bystanders look on either mouths wide open, amazed at what happens to be transpiring or simply shake their heads in disgust while turning away. Sadly, I often find myself reacting the same way....who teaching these people how to act? Have they no sense of decency?

Chuseok

Traditional Chuseok feast set-up

Chuseok (pronounced chew sock) is the celebration of Korean Thanksgiving. Basically a four day weekend, although it's Mon/Tues off rather than Thurs./Fri, which I've always been a big fan of, probably due in large part to Wed before Thanksgiving is always the busiest bar night of the year, which means great money for the bartenders!!

Another look at a Chuseok set-up, just not as fancy

Regardless of the backwards approach to four day weekends, Koreans are certainly good about making the most of their time off, not to mention, teachers are usually given a few gifts from not only the directors or the schools but also from a few of the students or their parents. Most are simple, functional items the teacher could make good use of on a daily basis, i.e. toiletry gift sets, juice gift sets, seaweed gift sets, etc. One of my directors gave me an intriguing black rice vinegar drink set made up of three bottles of mixed berry juice and a fourth bottle of honey flavored juice. He knows I like pomegranate and berry juices so he thought I might like this as well. He warned, me, however, not to drink it straight and that I should dilute it w/about 50% water or milk. After a few more questions, I was able to surmise that it wasn't your basic fruit juice but rather a kind of rice vinegar wine and apparently pretty potent. I have yet to bust into the liquid goodness as I've been busy making my way via train and bus around the country on my days off (weekends).

I got one bottle of the honey & three of the berry (both on the far left)

As Chuseok happens around the time of the fall harvest, it offers Koreans the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor (or at least used to when it was still a highly agrarian based country). The real Chuseok joy, however, comes from the opportunity to do a couple things.

First, families gather together at the house of the eldest male relative, usually the grandfather but if they have passed on, then it's the responsibility of the eldest son to open his home (and his wallet) for the occasion. There is a plethora of food options, mostly fruits, vegetables, fish, bulgolgi (meat) & traditional dishes like rice, kimchi, dried squid or octopus & songpyeon (a very chewy/rubbery crescent shaped rice cakes steamed on pine needles).

Songpyeon - rice cakes

Secondly, the day is spent catching up w/family on recent happenings, stuffing themselves w/food & most importantly, consuming large amounts of beer, alcohol & rice liquors....have I mentioned drinking seems to be a favorite past-time of most Koreans? These all day benders lead to much laughter, revelry & reflection regarding the year that's been as well as an offering of thanks to the relatives who've come before them and struggled to provide a better life here on the peninsula.

Finally, it's a big day, financially for the kids, as each child receives money from the adult males in the family. To my understanding, most of the money is usually put into the child's bank account to be spent on something later, most likely education/college. It was pointed out to me the benefit of having multiple kids is big on days like this as they can rake in some pretty good loot. I had a few students tell me they made b/w 300,000 - 500,000 won (about $300 - 500). Although, like both my directors pointed out, they tend to have to fork over quite a bit of cash, yet they each only have one child, so they don't have near the haul at the end of the day as their counterparts. Plus, they're both the eldest men in their families, which means spending about another 200,000 - 300,000 won on food & drink for the day. I guess there are times when it's good to be the middle or youngest boy in the brood, huh?

Kids seem to be the big winners, at least financially, during Chuseok

In case you'd like to further educate yourself on Korean Thanksgiving - Wiki Chuseok Link

Chuseok for me, however, didn't consist of a family bender or gorging myself on an accumulated cornucopia of the local harvest. Rather, I opted to make my way to the highest point on the southern side of the peninsula. My plan was to delve into a few days of hiking and pseudo-camping in Seoraksan National Park but getting there is a little more tricky than the ease of hopping a train. I had to catch a bus & ride for five relatively uncomfortable and cramped hours to the northeast part of the country. The forecast called for cool, cloudy fall weather w/about a 30% chance of showers on Sunday. Since the morning bus was already filled up when I got to the bus terminal Saturday morning, I found myself relegated to the afternoon trip & arriving in Sokcho fairly late on Saturday night. This still would have given me a couple good days of hiking & maybe some nature based transcendental enlightenment!

Fall leaves of Seoraksan National Park

After it was all said & done, though, my holiday adventure was pretty much a bust. It consisted of about $100 in travel expenses, 13+ hours on buses, a couple nights 'camped out' under a stretched awning covering a small stage in a park along the East sea coast in the small fishing village of Sokcho. A steady stream (downpour at times) of falling rain over about a 60 hour span and a few hours waiting for 'the bus that never arrives' at various city bus stops in Sokcho (for future travelers, it's lucky bus #7) to take me the 15 - 20 minutes up into the national park to at least see what trouble I could get myself into.

I stayed relatively drive throughout the endeavor but remained fairly frustrated at the wasted opportunity to get anything accomplished on the hiking side of things.

Hiking made easy, Korean style

Needless to say, I never made it into the National Park. I never had the opportunity to do any hiking, at least not in the traditional, natural sense, as I don't consider hiking/slopping around Sokcho for a couple days in the urban flatland while doing my best to avoid as much of the constant rain as possible, much of an the experience I had in mind. Thus, it appears, my misty mountain hopping will have to wait a few more days/weeks/months but regardless, I'm still looking forward to the adventure & sights of Seoraksan....even if it isn't until after the snow has started to fly.

Misty Mountain Hop?

**All photos have been lifted from various sites around the web, so I can't take credit for any of them.