There are some interesting facets of Korean schools (elementary at least) which I have neglected to mention, and since I have had more time than usual this week (because of becoming sick due to my jam-packed last week so I stayed home Monday from Korean lessons and yesterday from practice to rest and sleep...booo) I have had more time to organize my thoughts and jot things down. I'm actually not even sure if I have mentioned any of these before but I will say them again just incase.
One interesting aspect in which Korean schools differ from American schools is that they don't have bells. Instead of bells to begin and end school and classes, they play music...it is very interesting. It was weird to me at first and took me a little time to get used to it, but now I really enjoy it. I especially enjoy the music which is played at the end of school at Allak, which is the instrumental of "Moon River"...it is SO relaxing, and is a great way to end the day :) At Dong Sang, they play a lot of classical music. I can't remember exactly which but I know I have heard a few Beethoven songs upon entering the schoolyard. I love it! (I should get them to play the Kreutzer Sonata..although the mood of that song may not be appropriate...a little too exciting...) Also, another very interesting thing that happens at Korean elementary schools is that after classes, the kids clean the school. They also bring all of the lunch...stuff...to the classrooms for lunchtime (the kids eat in classrooms - so some teachers eat in the classrooms with the kids, and the others, like myself, eat in the teachers' lunch room). But after school, a few kids come into each class and sweep and sometimes mop. Some kids sweep/mop the hall...I haven't intensely speculated the exact details of the cleaning so I'm not sure what else they do...but I think this is great too. And the kids don't seem to mind (they have been doing it all along though so it doesn't seem strange to them).
Now I'll mention a few things about Korean culture that I think I have neglected to mention that you may find interesting. First - this is something to which I still haven't completely adapted - hand gestures used to get people's attention/call them over are not the same here as they are in America. Not only that, but the gesture that we use is actually offensive when used here. Say you and a friend are in a store and you want to show them something but they are too far to see. In the States, we would probably say 'hey, come look at this!' and wave our hand in the following way: with an extended arm, palm facing up, and fingers curling upwards towards our body. In Korea, you might say the same thing, but that gesture is never used, because here, that gesture is only used for calling dogs. ... (Sometimes I still do that in class by mistake but by now at least I can correct myself quickly...although I am obviously trying to phase it out...). The gesture used here is extending your arm, and with your palm facing down, curling your fingers down towards your body. Very similar in description - only one difference - but in practice, it feels much different and is difficult to alter. I just thought that was very interesting. :)
Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before - but for many services that we would tip in the States, we do not tip for in Korea. For example, we do not tip taxi drivers - even though when I take a 10 minute taxi ride it ends up being less than 3,000 won...(around $3.00...or it used to be before the exchange rate decided to ruin our chances of saving half of what we earn...now that taxi ride in the US would be less than $2.50..) but my point is, instead of paying probably at least $7 without tip for a 10 minute cab ride (at least in New Haven), I pay a third of that without the added tip here. So that's pretty sweet. Also, we don't tip in restaurants...so our 4,000 to 7,000 (7,000 won is considered expensive) dinners (on Saturdays we often get lunch for 1,500-2,000 won at this great noodle place..haha) end up being anywhere from $3.30 to $5.40. Yup. Sweetness. Although, some of the places are more expensive. We went to get salbi and Sangupsal (sp?) last week with my three tutors :) and that ended up costing 37,000 won - but we got sangupsal (pig), rice, drinks (maybe soju I'm not sure but certainly at least water, which I am not sure if they charge you for), and with sangupsal comes lots and lots of vegetables (and they refill your vegetables for free) and rice (usually rice comes with the meal but I don't remember if rice came with this...ack, I forget)...but then we got galbi afterwards so that was like a whole other dinner. So basically we got 2 dinners each and beverages for the 'expensive' price of about $30.70 - for 4 people...and galbi is ridiculously delicious. Ahh Korea :)
Hm. Ok. Something brief that I forgot to mention about last weekend. So the toilets here - I think I may have mentioned before that many of them are the squatters - which, I am all for (although many of them don't have toilet paper - so most people carry that around with them - but probably about half of them do have toilet paper so often I don't have any with me when I need it...yay...) - but last weekend I had an experience which left me a bit...jaded (maybe jaded is too strong a word...). So I was at Haeundae Beach, we had just finished our swim, and we were preparing for our run. I went to the bathroom to change, and I went into one of the stalls with a squatter. (WARNING: this is about to get a bit graphic so avert you feel so inclined.) Let it be known that while often these stalls are relatively clean, sometimes there is...pee...all over the floor. You know - people miss - no one is perfect...but sometimes its like you just walk into a stall where everyone decided to ignore the fact that there was a place to aim...ANYWAY. This stall wasn't necessarily like that, although the floor wasn't completely clean. And the stall did not smell wonderful either, because...(graphic)...the engineering of the toilet is such that - say it is about 3 feet in length - about 2 1/2-3/4 feet is completely horizontal, and then the last 1/2 - 1/4 of a foot is a hole where everything is flushed. But the water pressure is very very low, and sometimes things...get...stuck...yea. So that was my stall. ANYWAY. I am changing...trying to ignore all of this (which I was doing relatively well) - changing out of my bathing suit and into my running clothes...and I take out my socks - apparently a little too carelessly - because...they dropped right into the toilet. Now, my previoulsy clean, white socks are multi-colored (more tri-colored than bi-colored...), the opposite of clean, and 100% NOT minty-fresh. Since I don't have a plethora of socks here, I actually contemplated (for at least a minute) taking the socks out and putting them in a quarantined part of my bag (hoping such a place existed - I do have many pockets but most of them are already occupied...). But after retrieving them and realizing their actual state, I instinctively hurled them into the trash. Sad. And kind of disgusting. But interersting! Haha.
On a completely unrelated note (actually not completely...) I saw a boy a few days ago running down the hall after lunch with a HUGE (like tennis ball size) red stain in his crotch - it looked like a quality spaggheti stain (maybe it was kimchi...?)...it was FANTASTIC. And he looked so happy and ignorant (I don't mean that in a bad way at all, I mean it in a great way). Hahaha. I think that was the day too that I dropped something of the sort on my tan pants (his were tan too) and I tried to wash it out and left myself with a large wet crotch-area - which is worse - and I didn't even get the stain out...I should have taken his roll-with-the-punches approach (or 'hey - I'm a kid and don't give a crap about being dirty even if it looks like...haha like I don't even know what - approach). Anyways. That was fun. I was laughing for a few minutes about that. I felt kind of bad because I am a teacher and I shouldn't be laughing at that stuff, at least in public. But I am too immature... oh well. There are worse things you can do in life than laugh at an 8-year-old's stained pants... :)
Life's pretty sweet. :)
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