Ding Dong!

I would like to reiterate my apologies for not keeping up, hopefully this the first in a chain of new posts...let's just keep it simple this time around.


So this woman just ran my door bell and looked super embarrassed when I opened the door, I figure there could be three reasons...
1. Ringing some random person's doorbell after 10 at night.
2. I got them big scary round eyes.
3. My naughty tank top that shows my shoulders and my chest.

I kinda hope it's number three but that's mostly because I'm still up and doing stuff and I'm sick of getting stared at.

In case I haven't mentioned this before shoulders are a bit of a no-no here.  The president (yes the new female one just voted into office) signed a law very early in her term to impose a fine on women who are too scantily dressed.  It was pretty loosely worded so shoulders (which are improper to show here) and super super short shorts (which everyone wears) could both be included.  Basically anything that makes someone else "uncomfortable" can get you fined about $45.

Hurray for progress, way to vote in the only non-progressive female who would ever run for office.

Now, because all I have are crappy translations in snarky "foreigner" magazines and websites I'm not sure if this applies only to females or to males too; those bedazzled ties really make me uncomfortable and they could make a fortune clearing those out of my high school alone...

Sorry the picture is pretty terrible, I just took a quick shot with my cell phone.  I wasn't planning on posting it.  But yes it's pink, flowery, and covered in rhinestones.

 

So some guy made a video showing the great variety of these ties...and it's from 2009 so this isn't just a passing fad...I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing.  So funny yet so so awkward.  I can't get the video to embed so check out all the shiny goodness here: Bedazzled Ties

As a last note I just want to point out that shoulders are ok in the US and other western countries  but super shorts are frowned at (especially the way they're done here) but shoulders aren't ok in Korea but short shorts are almost an expectation.  It's interesting how the two norms are totally reversed.  It's kind of representative of life here in general.

iherb

Sorry I suck at keeping up with my posts :(

So I want to tell you about this fantastic site 

First, they ship super cheap to Korea.  Shipping to South Korea starts at $4 and goes up $1 for each pound over 4, this will go up to 15 pounds.  So I ordered one of those big tubs of protein powder and some vitamins and it cost $8 to ship.  It only took about 4 days to get here.  I say "about" because it's currently Wednesday and it arrived first thing this morning, and I placed the order over the weekend so I don't know exactly when it was packaged and shipped. (Check out all their international shipping options.)

Here's what was the clincher for me, I was having problems putting in my address (part was my own stupidity, part was the system) and I got an actual response.  I hate when I ask companies a question and they pick out one key word and they copy and paste the FAQ from their website.  Thanks for absolutely nothing jerks.

But no, I got a real  answer from a real person.

So what did I screw up?
1. the "-dong" and "-gu" should go on the same line and I didn't realize this, I was originally told to put them on separate lines...I think this may be solely for sites like this but I really don't know.

2. Their website is originally built for the US so I had to put "Busan" in the "state" box.

So that's it and I got my package a few days later.  Sweet.

Oh, and if you're in the US they ship for free if your order is over $40.  Here's all the US shipping info.

Now if you are actually interested in checking the site out, you could be SUPER awesome and use my referral code. This gets you $10 off your first purchase over $40 or $5 off your first purchase under $40.  If you don't use my code I'll only hate you for a little while :P Really though, you should check them out with or without the code  WGB768 

So I'm a little behind...

So more than a month after my last post (sorry!)

I'm going to have LOTS of free time coming up...three weeks of deskwarming.  Woohoo.

But that doesn't start until next week, for now I'm just going to give you this picture and the site it's from:


This is from http://koreanstudentsspeak.tumblr.com/

I thought it was really interesting to look through from "I want to dream, not study"  and "Dokdo (or east sea) is ours" to "I love K-Pop".

Until next week...

Dunkin' Donuts

                                            

So I finally ventured into a Dunkin Donuts...and let's just say it's a little different.

The only place you can get any large drink, that I've noticed at least, is the movie theater.  And it comes with two straw holes to make fatty Americans feel like shit about themselves :'(

So we go to Dunkin' Donuts and like all other pastry shops it's self serve for any baked goods so you grab your tray and tongs and go peruse the selection, and you get fine choices like the banana doughnut and the Slimmy:

Wanna be slim?

So you bring your tray up to the counter and order your tiny drinks.  Now I love Dunkin' Donuts hot chocolate, especially mixed with the white hot chocolate...which they of course brought back the year I'm gone :(

Anywho, I order a cookies & cream hot chocolate because that just sounds amazing...turns out here they make the fancy hot chocolate with Godivas chocolate and steamed milk and....yeah it just wasn't the same.  And really not that good.  And more expensive then back home because it's a stupid fancy drink.

So yeah I'm really sad that I can't get a good cup of ANYTHING at Dunkin' Donuts because everything is weird and just wrong (not to mention tiny and expensive)

Luckily Angel's In Us is on the first floor of my building and they have some awesome stuff (amazing cookies and cream "blended ice drink") and Cafe Bene across the street isn't too bad.

Random note, Cafe Bene were the first with Christmas decorations up (before Oct 20th I think...) and the main one on the door is so fantastically terrible, it's this super feminine computer designed guy in a sexy Santa suit...I'll have to get a picture and post it later.

Luckily you can find Swiss miss everywhere so I can get simple awesome hot chocolate at home :D

International Shipping

OK, so you want to get stuff from home?

Well, here's what I've noticed.

1. Priority flat rate from the USPS is the cheapest way I've seen for someone to ship to you from the US.  It's worth looking into to see if there are other options but so far that's it.

2. There are sites here (like gmarket.co.kr) or you can order from sites back home (like iherb.com)
As for the giant sites like Amazon...well I don't suggest Amazon unless you have it shipped to family or friends and have them forward it.

Now instead of Amazon I'm going to suggest Overstock.  Overstock will give you the price in US or local amounts AND they will provide you with the EXACT cost of shipping, importing, etc.  And you pay all this upfront so you don't have to worry about a surprise fee later on.  I have not had a chance to use their services yet but I wanted to let you know. AmazonGlobal claims to have a unique service that estimates these...

Amazon...I'm a little upset about this service they have.  It's like the Super Saver Shipping back home, but global.  If you buy more than $125 worth of stuff they'll ship it for free....to INDIA.  They call the service "Global Saver Shipping"  That's like North Korea calling themselves the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...it's just a total freakin lie.  Hurray for India Saver Shipping!


3. DON'T use a forwarding service for packages.  You will have to pay a huge amount to ship it and you won't know how much until the service receives the package.  Not so bad for regular mail though...at least from what I've heard.

Now really your cheapest option is to find someone in the military to get your packages at their APO address, long live free shipping!

Teacher's Fees

Some schools charge a teacher's fee.  It covers the cost of snacks for the office, sometimes the dinners out...

Some schools charge 20,000 per month, some 30,000 per semester...it all depends on the school.  They'll then put the food in the office (where you get some) or hand it out at meetings (and then you're screwed).  Our teachers just bring in the food themselves to share.

My school apparently doesn't charge this but I was told I only got the first teacher's meal free, the rest I'll need to pay for.  Luckily my school doesn't do these too often.  

I know some people pay over 50,000 per meal at these...I hope ours don't get that high...

For the ladies, what to pack!

So we all get addicted to certain products and brands.  Obviously you'll want to take along some of your favorites but here are some things I wish I had known...

Well the first one doesn't really count.  Deodorant.  I knew about the lack of deodorant here, I had heard it in many different places.  If you haven't heard...well come prepared.

Clothes is another one you hear about a bit, in particular bras and shoes.  If you're above like a US size 8 or so you're stuck with just men's shoes.  They are starting to ship in some stuff through like H&M, or you can order online but those are your best bets.  Even Costco doesn't import US 9.  The largest you'll find anywhere here is 250, check out a conversion chart to see if that's in your range back home...

As for bras, I've seen up to a 36C at Gap in Shinsegae at Centum City...but that was only one.  The majority are 34B and under.

Other clothes (shirts and pants) are hit or miss, you'll have better luck with shirts though.  Slowly people are gaining weight here so they're going to have to start catering to more people.

Tampons. I've seen one small pack in a convenience store, and some Playtex at Costco.  That's it.  Come prepared.  As for pads and liners, I came prepared with enough to last a while so I haven't had to buy anything locally yet but if I find any good or terrible ones I'll let you know.  I've heard Poise is good...and is apparently not for old women like it is back home...but I haven't personally tried them.

They have some really good skin care here as well as many familiar brands from back home.  If you need to use a particular soap obviously pack a lot otherwise try out some of the soaps and masks they have available here.

Shaving supplies for women are rare.  The men's selection is much better so if you are ok using men's products then go for it.  They've just started to get in Venus razors, they have them at Home Plus and a few convenience stores.  I haven't seen any shaving cream though.  I didn't look too hard for it but I was told you won't find it anyway so expect to bring some or use soap, conditioner, or the men's kind.

As a side note, one of my girls kept going "teacher clean-ie" and hitting her arm, basically she was surprised that I shaved.  I don't know why but I'm assuming between that and the fact that there are no women's shaving supplies...that women here don't shave their arms.  But don't give up all hope!  Laser hair removal is apparently very cheap here.  I'm planning on getting it done so I'll let you know how it goes.

Taxis

I figure it's time I explain the business with taxis.

FIRST they are insanely cheap.  Like the base fare is 2,200 (roughly $2USD) and that goes for at least the first few minutes of your trip.  A ten minute ride usually costs under 5,000.  When I moved it was about a half hour to forty-five minute rid...and it cost less than 20,000...pretty sure it was around 15,000.  It's been too long, I don't remember.

SECOND they are bat shit crazy.
Like completely insane, especially late at night.
So the subways shut down at midnight, considering the bars and clubs are open until 5AM, that's pretty early for them to stop running.  So if you stay out late and don't want to catch the first train in the morning you're going to need a taxi.  Now they have an overnight surcharge...of about $.40.  Yeah, that's like forty cents...(not EXACTLY sure but it's definitely measured in pennies not dollars.) w/e.  Anyway it's late and you've gotta take a cab or pass out on the streets till 5, so you wave one down (either a regular wave or usually Koreans will do the 'limp wrist' wave, palm down and wave them over).  You climb in and give your destination.  If you speak no Korean and never memorized your address then you can ask them to call the translation services so you don't end up in the wrong place.

Now the reason I'm specifically saying overnight is because this is when the real insanity happens.

Last weekend it was raining and our driver was doing like 80MPH...then 90MPH in the tunnels...I couldn't believe how fast he was going and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it.  And for some reason my friends still laugh at me for buckling up in these death traps...

THIRD...well this kinda goes under the insane column if you ask me...
They watch tv while they're driving.
EVERY SINGLE ONE has a tv mounted in it somewhere, about the size of an ereader, and they watch the news, dramas, anything.  While they're driving.  And let's go back to the second point of them being bat shit crazy.  Yeah it's pretty damned scary.  To be fair some will use the tv as a GPS but for the most part they know they city and really don't need it...so why not use it for something like, oh I don't know, catching up on your favorite show while driving around passengers?

Dumbasses.

I'm sure I could find plenty more to say about them but these are the important things.  Cheap, insane, stupid.

If you haven't figured it out yet, they totally think they rule the roads here...and considering they pass cops no problem, they kinda do.

Emergency Flashers (and other car oddities....)

So when you're walking around you really need to be careful because the drivers here are absolutely insane. Like death wish insane.

For some reason they think that putting on their emergency flashers gives them the right to do ANYTHING. They use them to back up, to turn, to pull in and out of places, just ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE.  So you never know where they are going and what they are planning to do and because they've got the flashers on they're invincible so they don't look and they don't care and you'll have no idea what they're doing.

Well while we're on cars...I don't think I've mentioned the headlights yet.  I've been told it's to save gas, but really I have no idea.  They drive with no headlights.  Like they'll turn them on occasionally but they usually forget because as soon as they get to a light they turn them back off.  It's so strange and everyone from taxis to mopeds will do it...I just don't understand...

I know I haven't mentioned the mirrors.  Maybe I'm just behind the times but I thought that most side mirrors on cars were made so they would move and you could tuck them in if you wanted or they'd give if someone hit them...the cars here have automatically retracting mirrors.  Like way over half of the cars, and I've just never noticed this on any cars back home.  Sure I've seen people tuck them in but I don't remember them being automatic...and my teacher said that was "nothing special".  I wish my car had lots of "nothing special" features...like speakers.

 And brakes.

Poor old thing, we've had our ups and downs...and well it may be down permanently now (I've only been saying that for the last 5 years or so...)

The end of EPIK?

So it's official, I have no job next year :(

There are MASSIVE cuts and only 5 vocational high schools will have foreign teachers.  I'm already starting to mourn the loss my job and I'm only 3 months in.

I have no idea what is happening to the EPIK program.  There are rumors all over the place but it sounds like it is essentially disappearing.  I might still try to stay on, but I'll probably be moved to an elementary school, or worse a middle school. I'll have to move for my second time here, and, well there's a lot of other things up in the air too.

I know some people that are starting to look for university jobs but with this happening that market is going to get flooded and I don't expect to have much of a chance there, especially because I don't have my masters and won't have time to get it before next summer...and there are pros and cons with those jobs too, some people love them but a lot of times you take a pay cut and...well it just is a whole different can of worms.

So I'll sit in limbo for the next 9 months and we'll see what happens.

Engrish

So if you don't know about it there's actually an entire site (well probably more than the one but it's the most well known)...anyway this site is all Engrish.  And mostly hilarious.

The Korean government was actually giving away money (well...tourist gift certificates but whatever they're good a lot of places) for like 50,000 a pop (about $45USD).   All you needed to do to get this money was to take a picture of a government posted sign and report it with a correct supplied.  Afterwards they went through and fixed all the signs, but they wanted to make the city more tourist friendly (and they're still working on that...).  So you still see Engrish, just (typically) not on any official signs.

So one of the most painful Engrish things I've seen was on a shirt.  Now the reason it's so painful is because they were SO CLOSE to having a proper sentence, even if it was a little strange for a shirt.  Then they just lost it at the end...

"If you have the time and the desire to leave feedback it would be appreciated and hello"

So. Close.

For a good time: Engrish.com

Police are second to none...except taxis. And pedestrians. And red lights, and....

So one thing that's very noticeable is the police and their lack of authority.  On my first day in Busan I saw a taxi cut off a cop and I was completely shocked.  Now I see it and I'm amazed but not even remotely shocked.

I asked my co-teacher if people are supposed to pull over for cop cars, and he said "I don't know the right saying for this...they are second to none?"

So yeah, cops should have the right of way, but they don't.  At all.

I've seen them stop at red lights, stop for pedestrians, as well as get passed by taxis, motorcycles, mopeds, and regular cars.  I guess the only things I haven't seen pass them are pedestrians and buses.  But pedestrians are slow and buses have their own lane so they don't count.

One morning I got up and traffic was backed up as far as I could see in one direction.  Obviously something must have happened, likely an accident considering the crazy drivers here.  So a fire truck comes through with its lights and sirens on...and sits at a red light.  Then it starts going...and sits in traffic.  Instead of driving down the wrong side, or people pulling over, it just SAT THERE with everyone else.  That's a slight lie, once they saw the cluster f*** in the intersection they went on the wrong side for a minute to get through then pulled back over.  Really they can't get caught at two red lights...

Piece of advice, don't get seriously hurt in Korea, you'll never make it to the hospital in time.

As a final note let me point out that this was in the morning, while I was getting ready for work.  I didn't try to grab my camera at first because I figured there was no way I was going to catch it...well I did miss it at the red light but this was a solid two minutes after I first looked and saw it.  When I finished getting ready and went downstairs about 5 or 10 minutes later it had made it to the front of the building (my apartment is on the side...).  Congrats dude on gaining about 50 yards in 5 minutes!

Skinny Koreans?

So if you've read anything about Korea you've probably run across this idea that all Koreans are these super skinny people. Let me dispel this myth for you.

There ARE fat Koreans. Now this is the exception rather than the rule (unlike in the US) but they are out there.

Actually I've even seen quite a few that would be in the "obese" category. This morning I saw something I NEVER expected, I saw a morbidly obese Korean.

I'm talking Biggest Loser size, maybe even a bit bigger than most of the women. Although you do see this in the US, almost frequently even, it really was a surprise...I think they were staring at me more than her though :(

Now there's a few reasons this size is rare but unfortunately a big reason for it is suicides. The bullying here has FINALLY started to get attention and they're trying to prevent suicides but they are still too common.

Now WHY did it take so long? Well that's a long complicated story and I'm sure I don't even know most of it but, from what I've seen already, I can tell you that they hold themselves way above everyone else (especially western countries). To think that THEY could be at fault for something like suicide? Never.

So fat? Yes.
Bullying? Yes.

Luckily my school doesn't have any serious bullying (at least that I've seen) but I've heard plenty of horror stories already from other teachers. Something to consider if you're thinking of coming over.

Now the new question is, where do these bigger women go shopping? I need more clothes!!

Gas

So I was sitting in my apartment the other day and my doorbell rang...so I look at the camera and I have no idea who it is.

I open the door a crack and this woman is like pushing her way into my apartment and I have no idea what she's saying. Finally she looks up and realizes I have no idea what is going on and says, "gas, you gas"...

Sure...

So it turns out our gas lines get monthly inspections and she was there to make sure I had no leaks or anything.  Good news, my apartment isn't going to explode the next time I light a candle.  Sweet.

Always, CocaCola

I love this, and it's far from the only one...What is wrong with this (really dark) picture??

Did you get it?

Give up?

I don't know why but there are a ton of Coke machines that have no Coke...but they're stocked with Pepsi...

It's the little things in life :-)

How Koreans are taught to write in Japanese

So when we learned Japanese they had these pictures to remember the Hiragana and Katakana (The two alphabets) http://www.heyladyspring.com/2011_09_25_archive.html
Like these for English speakers:

SO if you can't figure it out they use pictures where the Japanese character fits over pictures where the English words sounds like the character, or something to remind you of it...

And well...here's the Korean take on those sounds... take a look at "hi" ...top middle, in case you missed it.

And this is why I'm afraid of bugs...

These are the spiders that are outside my classroom windows.  They are HUGE.  

Scroll down for another fun one...

And after class one day I hear a bunch of screaming, about this guy on the wall.  One of the construction workers came along and very un-ceremoniously killed him which sent them running and screaming...fantastic fun.  PS Praying Mantises are also HUGE.

Hurricane Sandy

I just can't get over this!

....???

....Man Clinic?   For sad peppers?

Shopping Carts...yeah. Really

So this is what the shopping carts are like here...a few differences.

One: the wheels.  Rather than having two front wheels that spin for steering, all four wheels spin so you can pull you cart sideways to get out of peoples way...pretty convenient.

Also, notice how they look chunky?  Those are magnets so when you're on an escalator (like in the picture), your cart doesn't roll away.  This is like an airport escalator on an incline, not stairs.  Very convenient put kinda slow.

The other real difference is on the handle, notice the box on the handle?  Yeah, you have to put in a 100 won coin (about 10 cents) to get the cart to unclip from the others, then when you reattach it (so they know you return it to the right spot) you get your coin back....and let me tell you people are pretty serious about that little coin, I've never seen a cart in the wrong spot.