Kimchi: a very hot dish consisting of pickled cabbage and red crap that Koreans seem to love and eat breakfast, lunch and tea.
We finally made it to Gwangju...it was a bit of a close call. We arrived at the international airport in Seoul and had just over 1 hr to get to our flight at the domestic airport, which is 40mins away by bus..so there we are trying to rush through immigration (but not trying to draw attention) - waiting for our luggage (tick tock). Nicole was made to come into the back and open my bag as the bag movers obviously confused my LCD screen for a bomb, this was in fact very funny as Nic had no idea what was happening and her Korean was not at that level to recognise 'bomb' 'terrorist' and 'open it now'.
After deciding we were not north Korean terrorists, we then picked up the tickets, got our very heavy bags onto the bus, all the time hoping it is in fact the correct bus...we did it...just we got to check in at about 9:10 for a 9:30 flight - I was a bit stressed, they didn't seem to care at all - LUCKY it wasn't JETSTAR I guess...then took a stroll to the gate...
It was such a short flight, literally 40mins we just seemed to be taking off and all of a sudden we were landing again - of course being the only non - Koreans on the flight we did draw a bit of attention....the phrase we learnt in BASIC KOREAN 101 "please don't stare at me" suddenly seemed useful...if we could only remember it..!
We were met at the airport as planned by the orientation co-ordinators and made our way to the Hotel...What a taxi ride it was...OMIGOD! "Red Light?, what red light" - we are in a taxi, you just beep your horn and drive on through the busy intersection...!! or..merging traffic "I am a taxi - as if I would let cars in ", we cut off soo many people, drove way too fast all this added to the fact that we were driving on the RIGHT which is really hard to get use to...but we made it in one piece.
The hotel was great - during the orientation breakfast, lunch and dinner was provided..
breakfast was western and lunch and dinner Korean..
1st lunch was interesting - there was a burner at the end of the table with a spicy soup, rice is served to each person, then there are about 10 side dishes eg. kimichi all of which looked very new and interesting...we found about 3 we liked and steered clear of most of the others eg. dried little fishes or spam..(I know spam, u know the stuff it is a delicacy over here and I think they think westerners actually like it)
We saw spam done in more ways that week then u can imagine - battered and fried, cooked in egg, disguised in the red crap...u name it
17 Crazy things about Korea (LAST UPDATED 16/11): ( keep an eye on this list...u never know when we might find something else to add)
1. Cherries and corn on (shit) pizza.
2. The elevators. First, they say they are 'good' for 13 people, well put 6 'white' people in one and the alarms start going off. Also there are no sensors on the doors and on numerous times they slammed shut on us.
3. The driving. How people don't get regularly run over is beyond me, though I like the concept of 'go through the red light if it is safe (seems safe)' and the driving 120Km in a 60Km zone in the middle of a city the size of Brisbane. Added to this is the custom to not put on a seatbelt as it is considered offensive to the driver as it shows you don't trust his/her driving. Full size busses making U-turns in the middle of busy bridges. Lastly, the traffic lights stay red/green for 5 minutes, though taxis are very very cheap.
4. The sauna, the sports massage, barber shop and the steam room at the hotel were just a front for u guessed it men's entertainment..... Before we knew this a group of us girls got together to go for a "sauna" - thinking well it would probably be separate sexes...We were greeted at the door man in a suit and looking at the prices > $100 we were thinking that must be some sauna!!! But he was quick to giggle....Men ONLY...we later found out - the sauna, sports massage, steam room and even the barber shop come with extras...!!
There are 2 types of rotating signs outside hair shops - if they look like pictures of hair/beauty etc then it is an actual hairdresser...If the windows are blacked out and it has a red and blue rotating sign then men only - and u can get a hair cut all right and what ever else u want..!?!
5. The bad dancing ladies used to promote the election candidates - and the trucks circling the block at all hours of the day and night with campaign messages....thank god elections were last Wednesday - no more campaigning..
6 Scissors rather then knifes are used at the table.
7 The common belief that if you sleep with a 'fan' on, you will die of 'fan death' as the fan will suck all the oxygen out of the room. (in bad Korean accent) 'oooh you sleep with fan on last night, you rucky to rive'
8 you must buy food at a pub or they will simply charge you for it anyway. And while you are drinking your beer, free watermelon and seaweed will be appear out of thin air.
9 A shit steak at the 'outback steak house' is AUS $40.00
10 'Pads' at supermarket are advertised by promotion girls, with a sample in hand, urging you to see how it feels while they try to sell you a double pack at a crazy price.
11 Nicole not being able to get her eyebrows waxed, but being told to use a razor
12 Children being wacked by their parents on the street (the issue of whether a child should 'smacked' is not really an issue here)
13 Everything seems to be a mixture of English and Korean i.e. milk labels where the name of the company and the product it self (milk) is in English but all other writing is in Korean. Indeed walking down the main street of Gwangju, you would swear your in Brisbane, other than all the Koreans walking around.
14 the skin bleaching ingredients found in many skin care products.
15 Napkins are not used in many restaurants, rather you wipe your mouth with a piece of single ply toilet paper that is found on your table.
16. working down the middle of the road is normal - St Lucia makes a whole lot more sense now..
17. The hilarious info- mercials on tv...we were laughing soo hard about to wet our pants at this particular one:
it's called the hula belt - well we made that up cause the ad is in Korean...u put on this belt and it has a wheel at the front - what u have to do is make the hula action to get the wheel spinning and it does wonders...the ad goes on...there are "fat" Koreans slaving away on treadmills, trying to do sit ups etc, then on comes a group of people doing the hula exercises....then a buff man and women doing the hula exercise facing each other....hula exercises involve a lot of pelvic type trusting....:) so there they are then it flicks to a granny doing it, kids u name it....after these hilarious few minutes comes the official seal of approval from some guy ( we think got his degree off a dot matrix in Taiwan) stamping that it is great...
The other exercise equipment we have named: the vibrating set of scales that wobbles your way to health...u can even get on all fours and wobble your arms thin, those old air swingers and the latest one the muscle stimulating fat burning pads that u stick to you and then come out toned and terrific....since there is no "today tonight" here I guess it will be a few more years till they are discredited in Korea...
Personally we are keeping our mouths shut....who ever said someone just learning the language can't understand comedy...we don't need to with these ads.
18. The announcements that come over the PA in our apartment, at any time of the day or night, eg. 7am, 11:30pm...the funny thing is we have no idea what they are saying...hope it isn't anything serious.
19. Korean teachers are obsessed with volleyball, just yesterday was the annual huge inter school teachers volley ball tournament, they have been training for weeks - how much volleyball can u really stand with your co-workers?
20. Complete lack of notice, feeling like an after thought a lot...especially when there is a schedule change at school. I was in the teachers room the other day, and my students come up to me at like 9:30...teacher English (now i know they aren't that super keen, cause English doesn't start until 9:50)....of course there was a schedule change i had no idea about, no harm done i guess...
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