Catching up on things

• Well, I knew I need to write a quick blog entry to state some Korean experience I either forgot to post, or just didn’t have the opportunity to post yet. I want to be as caught up as possible so I can make sure to report on my upcoming trip to China. I know I didn’t post about my trip to Japan, nor my 3 weeks working with my sister in Korea, but I'm really going to try my best to make my next post a China adventure post.
• Last weekend I went to my friend Young Jae’s wedding. This wedding was not held at a wedding hall; instead, it was held in a Catholic church. Because the ceremony is much longer then the ones in a wedding hall, about half of the guests stayed in the buffet instead of going upstairs to sit though the church service. I watched the beginning of the service, then joined my co-workers at the buffet, and then went back for the end of the service. It was interesting because I was raised Catholic so seeing beer and soju at a church event was something I’ve never come across. Also, they had a great vending machine that distributed ice cream! There was no beer, soju, or ice cream vending machines at American Martyrs!!!
Normally, when someone from work gets married, my company orders one of those huge bouquets of flowers and sends them to the wedding hall. But Catholic churches don’t accept these bouquets; so instead, my office donated 4 huge bags of rice. As we were carrying the rice into the church I was thinking, “What are we going to do with this; throw it at the bride and groom?” Nope, it’s actually a donation that the church will use it to feed the poor. Pretty great huh? Way better then giving flowers!
• I saw a great show on TV the other day. It featured probably some celebrity dad and his two sons, one a toddler, the other maybe 3 years old. They were at one of my all time favorite locations in Seoul…the dog café! They showed all my favorite dogs running around as usual. The toddler was having a hard time because all of the dogs were much bigger then him. But then his dad carried him over to a woman who had brought her own tea cup sized dog to play at the café. The little toddler liked this dog, he tried to feed it a dog treat but the dog wasn’t interested in it so he tried to feed it to the lady instead. Ahahah! I was in tears I was laughing so hard! It was so damn cute and funny!
• The other night, Hye Jeong and I went Duty Free shopping. There is one whole floor of the Lotte mall that is Duty Free, and is open 24 hours! Since we are going to China this weekend, we thought we would do a little shopping.
After shopping we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant. We ordered a salad and a pizza to share. The salad was really tasty; it had a citrus dressing with slices of tomatoes and mozzarella. After we had eaten 3/4ths of our salad I noticed something very scary. It was a GUMMY!!!! “Ah, waiter, there’s a fly in my soup, no wait, make that a huge freaking spider in my salad!”
When Angela and I worked at ET Camp this summer we learned that gummy meant, SPIDER!!! That’s right, there was a huge “porch spider” as Angela and I affectionately named them after noticing so many living on our porch, in our salad.
Of course the staff apologized and took the salad off our bill. They also gave use drinks and 20% off our pizza. Maybe I should start bringing spiders to all the restaurants I go to! It’s a good way to save money on your bill! (Just kidding, you all know I like spiders so I wouldn’t kill one to put in my salad even if it means free or discounted food.)
• Tonight I went to Dongdaemon Market to do some more shopping. It was a shame I couldn’t take Angela when she was here this summer, but good thing she is coming back this winter so I can take her then. I was able to take my parents shopping here when they came to visit. My dad said, “You’ve seen one shop, you’ve seen them all.” That’s because Dondaemon Market is a bunch of malls with different tiny stalls all selling basically the same things from clothes to bags and jewelry. This is the place where you buy your knock offs and can haggle for a deal.
For example, I wanted a wallet and when I asked how much it was Saturday night, the guy said 28,000. But when I came back tonight, a Wednesday, the price was down to 18,000 and I further haggled it down to 13,000. (Note to self: on the weekend come to see what the selection is, because there are a lot of people, you are less likely to be accosted by over eager venders. Then, come back during the week when its pretty empty and go straight to the things you want and avoid browsing!)
My main goal for going to Dongdaemon Market tonight was to get a camera case to protect the lovely camera Lucas got me for my birthday. So I found a nice Chanel-style camera case that I was able to talk down to 14,000. Once I gave him the cash, he took the camera case and cut a little tag on the O to turn it into a C. Then on the zipper charm he used a pair of snippers and clipped the metal O turning it into a C as well. So now it looks just like the Chanel camera case from the Duty Free shop! Another money saving opportunity! And this one doesn’t involve spiders : )

Oh, Korea

• This is blog entry is called, “Oh Korea!” because recently I find myself saying this phrase a little too often.
• Oh Korea, why are your women afraid to grow muscles? I saw an advertisement for what looks like ace bandages, but much tighter, to put on your arms and calf muscles to prevent them from growing. I also know that it’s also quite popular to perform such surgeries as severing the calf muscle, or sculpting (removing) the thigh muscles so they are thinner. Oh Korea, why?
Dad and I were talking about a Korean TV show that pits a Korean girl pop group against professional or semi professional (college) athletes. They then compete in physical challenges whereby the Korean pop girls somehow always win!?!?! The girls in the pop group are muscle-less twigs, and yet the fit athletes always fail the challenges. Why Korea, why do you promote the anorexic look over healthy fit bodies? What must the parents of these athletes on TV think of their children? “See, if only you had less muscles you could be successful! This volleyball /swimming / softball etc. is no good for you! You’ll never get a husband with calf muscles like that! We need to sever those muscles immediately! Then you can be a winner like the girls in the pop group!”
• Oh Korea, why is it okay to dress in drag on TV, but not to be a transvestite?
I’m confused, if you are a guy it’s okay to dress in drag if you are being filmed for a TV show. However, if you dress in drag because you like the way you look, or feel, then you are just wrong and shameful! As long as you dress up to imitate someone else, it’s fine, but don’t you dare do it for your own enjoyment! It is only for the entertainment of others you sick weirdo!
This all started when I went to see Rocky Horror the musical. I was so surprised that the audience seemed to be okay with the drag issue. Then I remembered that as long as it’s for entertainment it’s fine! Put it on stage or in front of a camera, anything goes!
• Oh Korea, why do you make employees sit in ranking order at the office? I know I’ve talked about this before, but it has never really impacted me until recently. I had been working on my own for 10 months, but now I work with a team of 3 others, soon to be 4 others. Well, the configuration of chairs used to be 3 desks on the right, and 2 desks on the left. But because of this highest ranking bullshit their needed to be 3 desk on the left, and 2 desks on the right. This is because the highest manager needed to sit by the window and for some reason only one other person could be in front of him, not two. So the desks had to be disassembled and reassembled on the other size.
Now, we had to go through all this hectic moving so that we could be in ranking order. But I’ve been with this company for a year and the new employee hasn’t started yet but she will be sitting behind me. A whaaaaa? Okay, truthfully, I will let it slide because you guys thought I was leaving in October. But I gave up my desk drawers for my manager because his desk didn’t have a set. And I ordered a new set of drawers a month ago when we moved. Still, no drawers to this day, yet sitting right behind me, in an empty desk, for an employee who isn’t even here yet, are a set of drawers not in use, and I am still waiting for my drawers to arrive!!! “Oh no, you can’t have those drawers, they belong to Ms. Kim.” “Well, why couldn’t I have used them this whole month while she hasn’t been here, and when my new drawers arrive she can have those ones?” “Oh no, because those are Ms. Kim’s.” Oh Korea, your killing me here!
• Ok Korea, why are your weddings so staged? I know I’ve gone over this as well before, but the bouquet toss at a wedding is ridiculously misinterpreted. This weekend was Hui Kyung’s wedding. Just like the other weddings I’ve attended, we needed to stage a photo where the girl who is scheduled to get married next (literally the next weekend in this case) gets to catch the bouquet. And we toss it over and over again to her until we get the right picture. Nothing new here, what is new is I asked what the girl was suppose to do with the bouquet now that she has it. I was told that the bouquet is dried out and then 100 days after the wedding of her friend, she is supposed to burn the bouquet. Yup, apparently it brings good luck to the bride and groom. I asked if you the bride and groom have to be present, like it’s some big ceremony, but nope, ya just burn it on your stove or however is most convenient for you. You can call them and tell them you burned their bouquet but they don’t have to be there to get the good luck, and you don’t have to call them if you are too busy. Oh Korea, why are you so strict when it comes to some traditions, and completely nonchalant about others?
• Oh Korea, why are your dress codes so confusing? So I’ve talked a lot about short skirts and wearing high heels to go hiking, but just when I thought I had the Korean dress code figured out, my assumptions about dressing up for a wedding were wrong. I mean, weddings are a big deal in the US. We dress up for the occasion. In fact, I was scheduled to go to two weddings this month, so I borrowed two dresses from Vicki. I mean, I didn’t want to buy new dresses for these wedding, but I also know how fashionable the Koreans are so I didn’t want to wear the same clothes I wear to work. I was really surprised that my colleagues came to the wedding wearing the same clothes they normally do! Guys in the same suits, girls in the same dresses, I mean, yes, Koreans are always dressed up during the week, but I figured weddings would mean you have to dress up even more than average. Oh Korea, really, I’m puzzled by the dress codes sometimes.