Korean Observations....

What a week! I do intend to update the blog more than once a week folks, but this week has been a whirl of unpacking. First I would like to report that even the condensed contents of a 4,000 square foot home with 3 garage bays does not fit well into a 1700 sq foot apartment. We did an OK job of packing I GUESS, but we did bring too much crap and we had moments as we were unpacking of "seriously, no wonder our kid needs remediation, we must be seriously challeged to have brought such items". Like we brought the sky chair ??!? And 2 bikes WITH tag along trailers, PLUS kid bikes and 2 inflatable kayaks, 4 pfd's, and an extra thermostat? I have no idea how that last item made the cut and my salad spinner did not by the way. Did I mention we have no garage space? I mean where in the Sam Hill are we going to put the Kayaks?
We are now mostly done however, and the place is really starting to feel like home. My next update will be about the apartment, but for now we have more pressing matters to discuss. Like this incredibly bizarre culture and how I might begin to navigate it's pitfalls.....

So this update is going to be about things I have observed in my 2 weeks here. First of all I would like to report that American culture as a whole has gone incredibly soft folks. I say this because I am in a foreigners community and so far we are the only Americans. We have met New Zealanders, Norwegians, Nigerians, lots of folks from India, Brits, Australians, French, Croatians, the list goes on and on and so far they all seem to be on the same page. In the rest of the world ladies and gentlemen there are WINNERS and LOSERS and it's not about everyone feeling good about themselves all the time. Example: the mom's at the clubhouse organized some games with about 20+ kids and said the winner would get ice cream. And the winner got ice cream. And the other 19 kids had to stand there and watch him eat it. And they were OK with that because they didn't win. Wow.
While we are being all touchy-feely all the time the rest of the world is preparing kids for real life and it occurred to me several times this week that we have gotten so soft/lazy/entitled, that any one of these countries might actually be able to kick our ass if they got it into their heads to do so, and I'm not sure we could rise to the challenge anymore. Thankfully, none of these other countries seem to realize how soft we have all gotten...
Example 2. They have tests in school. In Kindergarten. Man, what a blindside THAT was! So while we have been doing "intuitive spelling" (just spell it the way you FEEL it should be spelled sweetie...) the rest of the world is actually spelling things correctly and testing kids on it and when I mention that we have never done that before because our school taught intuitive spelling they look at me like I have lost my mind. "Why would you want them to learn it wrong and then have to re-learn it later?" one Mom asked me. I had no good answer. Makes you think eh? I'm just sayin'....

It's incredibly safe here and there is almost no crime. The gals that I hike with said you could leave a wallet full of money lying on the ground and it would be returned to you if it had your name on it and if not it would probably still be sitting where you left it a day later.
They have these really involved outdoor exercise areas. There are machines that are attached to the ground like these:
They are all in good repair and work flawlessly. The thing that floors me is the unattached items like free weights, hula hoops, and other accessories that are lying around on platforms all around the perimeter of these exercising areas:
Keep in mind that these areas are not staffed or guarded. I have walked through some with only one or 2 people exercising and there is no one in charge of the area or in charge of putting everything away at night. It just all stays out and no one takes it or vandalizes it. Imagine this scenario in ANY town in the U.S. and ask yourself how long that equipment would still be there. In some places, mere hours and I would be willing to bet that in almost any town in the US anything not bolted down would be gone in a week.

Koreans love their food, and I guess they also like doing dishes (!?) because every meal is served on about a gajillion plates and bowls:
Again, non of this food is especially delicious by American standards, but it is interesting I'll give it that. They seem to like 1. gelatinous textures 2. Spicy things (to the point where you are left wondering if what you've just eaten might actually kill you) 3. Fermented foods (if it's good, bury it in the ground for like 5 years and it'll be even better right?) 4. Rolls with surprises inside! Not tasty surprises either, just surprises. I bought hamburgers at Costco but every time I try to buy hamburger bun-like rolls I am defeated by various unknown centers. I have taken to buying what I think is a roll one at a time and taking a bite right then and there because I just want BREAD DAMMIT with nothing in it. The best thing I've gotten was (I think) ham and cheese and the worst was some kind of fermented bean paste. Why anyone would pay money for the latter and eat it voluntarily is beyond me. I finally just broke down and bought some plain bagels for the hamburgers, I am hoping that since there is a hole in the middle that the bagels are indeed plain and not stuffed ring-style in any way.

Korean Parking:
I don't know what to say. You see this everywhere. How do you get out if you're one of the cars parked in the inner layer? I will take more pictures of this so you can see just how insane it gets. We try to park very strategically so it won't happen to us.

Finally, the one of the National Mottos seems to be "If you like something do it so much that you beat all the joy and fun out of it and then keep doing it." I don't speak Korean so I'm not exactly sure but I'll keep working on that one and get back to you. They don't put their kid in Tae-Kwon-Do on like Thursdays. If they have a hobby they go EVERY DAY. Now I was aware that older kids (10 and up) go to school, go home for dinner and then go to the Hagwan (extracurricular subject school) from 7 to 11+ pm for things like English, art, music, oration, you name it and THEN go home to do homework (when do they sleep??) But I had no idea how early this insanity began. One of Teddy's classmates (Teddy is THREE) does ballet. Her Mom asked if Sasha was interested. I said what day does she go? The mom proudly told me that her kid goes to ballet every day Monday - Friday from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. I said are you completely Bizeck in the head?!? Actually I didn't say that, but I wanted to. (I have witnessed this kid several times at about 3:15 in the afternoon yelling that she does NOT want to head out to Ballet.)
The result of all this education seems to be a society of extremely educated folks who can't come up with an original, creative thought to save their lives. Jeff said he tried to run a brainstorming session with the Koreans he works with and got crickets. He sat there flinging out ideas and they just sat there in silence. I go "you want to know why? Because their parents put them in Ballet at age 3 from 3:30 to 6:30 5 days a week!" I mean part of childhood is falling off your bike and building a crappy tree fort that falls down and then building a better one and catching frogs and getting lost and getting in trouble for some nonsense that you and your friends thought up and being DIRTY and begging quarters from the old lady down the street so you can sneak to the candy store without your parents knowing and being an unstructured dopey kid right?! Can I get an AMEN?
So there you go. If I pissed you off at the start of this ramble by knocking Americans, at least I finished it off by defending 'em.