I went to a dinner party at a couple from New Zealand's apartment. All the guests were American, which turned out to be approximately 15. It was sooooooo refreshing to be in a room full of what I know to be "normal". It was pot luck style with only western food. It was heaven. Although I love Korean food dearly, I welcomed the seaweed & rice free meal. It was also nice being in a room full of people that I could not only understand, but also read all the body language without question. Does that make sense? I think being in another culture, it is a double wammy of not being able to speak or understand the language, but also being constantly confused by body language. I don't think I ever realized how dependant I was on body language until I was completely immersed in this culture. I know a lot of you are far more well travelled then I am, but it is kind of an epiphany for me.
Anyway, back to the dinner party: There was a girl who walked in and said, in an exasperated tone, "So get this, I was hit by a car AGAIN today!". Which, my first question was, "AGAIN??" I have met more people who have been hit by cars in Korea. In fact, I have only heard of one or two people in my life, ever being hit by cars, prior to coming to Korea. Initially I was surprised that so many people here have been hit by cars, but after experiencing the real Korea for a few weeks now, I am now surprised that more people are not hit by cars. My biggest goal for my stay in Korea is to NOT get hit by a car. I know my goal should be something like, "educate and touch the lives of the children", but nope, not mine. It is to safely cross the street.
Another reason I don't want to get hit by a car here is because when you do get hit by one, depending on the severity of the situation one of two things will happen: If you are conscious, and don't appear to be mortally bleeding, they will simply stop, make sure you're not dead or dying and then drive off. Two: if your case is a little more severe, they might pick you up, possibly causing you more injury, throw you in their vehicle and drop you off at the hospital (which is better, I guess, than taking you somewhere to hide the evidence). I suppose the gesture is nice, but I for one, would rather have trained medical professional move my dying body off the street and transport me to the hospital.
My current favorite activity in Korea is to sit in coffee shops and watch what is going on outside. It is the perfect alone activity, while enjoying a GOOD cup of coffee and not the instant stuff I am drinking at home. I am such a coffee snob now, that I even turn my nose up at my home brew. The other day I was in one of these shops at a busy intersection. I saw 2 motorcycles drive by w/ 2 passengers. One was a dad, who had a helmet on, with 1 child of about 3 years in front of him and a child of about 7 behind him (both w/out helmets). There was another with 3 teenage boys, all without helmets. There are tons of scooters & motorcycles here and not surprisingly so, a high amount of motorcycle death & injuries. At this particular intersection, as with most intersections in Korea, it does not matter who has the STOP sign or the YIELD sign. What matters is who is aggressive enough to nose out into traffic first, causing everyone else to stop. Those are pretty much the rules of the road. It even applies to red lights on occasion. It is madness here. Okay, I will stop blogging about the traffic here. I am just shocked on a daily basis.
Oh wait, I have one more thing to say: On facebook, one of my "friends" posted today, "No, it does not make me feel better that my Taxi driver is watching T.V." I died laughing, because the night my taxi was going 140 in a 65, he was watching T.V. too. It was awful. But, that just adds one more element of excitement to it all (personally not my flavor of excitement). Now, I will stop.
The boys here like to beat the crap out of each other. They are constantly practicing Taekwondo and knife fighting. We were forewarned that we would be taking away more razor blades than we ever imagined. And, I didn't believe it, but it is true. These kids whip out razor blades on each other to practice their knife fighting skills. What gets me about this behavior, in typical kid fashion, is that they are surprised that someone got hurt. Seriously???? How did you not think kicking someone in the face w/ your foot would NOT give them a black eye? Today, one kid was on the ground with a massive bloody nose due to the effects of taekwondo, with blood pouring all over his pants & the floor. My co-teacher just shrugged her shoulders, like it was no big deal. I guess she is a little more used to this behavior then I am.
Anyway, back to the dinner party: There was a girl who walked in and said, in an exasperated tone, "So get this, I was hit by a car AGAIN today!". Which, my first question was, "AGAIN??" I have met more people who have been hit by cars in Korea. In fact, I have only heard of one or two people in my life, ever being hit by cars, prior to coming to Korea. Initially I was surprised that so many people here have been hit by cars, but after experiencing the real Korea for a few weeks now, I am now surprised that more people are not hit by cars. My biggest goal for my stay in Korea is to NOT get hit by a car. I know my goal should be something like, "educate and touch the lives of the children", but nope, not mine. It is to safely cross the street.
Another reason I don't want to get hit by a car here is because when you do get hit by one, depending on the severity of the situation one of two things will happen: If you are conscious, and don't appear to be mortally bleeding, they will simply stop, make sure you're not dead or dying and then drive off. Two: if your case is a little more severe, they might pick you up, possibly causing you more injury, throw you in their vehicle and drop you off at the hospital (which is better, I guess, than taking you somewhere to hide the evidence). I suppose the gesture is nice, but I for one, would rather have trained medical professional move my dying body off the street and transport me to the hospital.
My current favorite activity in Korea is to sit in coffee shops and watch what is going on outside. It is the perfect alone activity, while enjoying a GOOD cup of coffee and not the instant stuff I am drinking at home. I am such a coffee snob now, that I even turn my nose up at my home brew. The other day I was in one of these shops at a busy intersection. I saw 2 motorcycles drive by w/ 2 passengers. One was a dad, who had a helmet on, with 1 child of about 3 years in front of him and a child of about 7 behind him (both w/out helmets). There was another with 3 teenage boys, all without helmets. There are tons of scooters & motorcycles here and not surprisingly so, a high amount of motorcycle death & injuries. At this particular intersection, as with most intersections in Korea, it does not matter who has the STOP sign or the YIELD sign. What matters is who is aggressive enough to nose out into traffic first, causing everyone else to stop. Those are pretty much the rules of the road. It even applies to red lights on occasion. It is madness here. Okay, I will stop blogging about the traffic here. I am just shocked on a daily basis.
Oh wait, I have one more thing to say: On facebook, one of my "friends" posted today, "No, it does not make me feel better that my Taxi driver is watching T.V." I died laughing, because the night my taxi was going 140 in a 65, he was watching T.V. too. It was awful. But, that just adds one more element of excitement to it all (personally not my flavor of excitement). Now, I will stop.
The boys here like to beat the crap out of each other. They are constantly practicing Taekwondo and knife fighting. We were forewarned that we would be taking away more razor blades than we ever imagined. And, I didn't believe it, but it is true. These kids whip out razor blades on each other to practice their knife fighting skills. What gets me about this behavior, in typical kid fashion, is that they are surprised that someone got hurt. Seriously???? How did you not think kicking someone in the face w/ your foot would NOT give them a black eye? Today, one kid was on the ground with a massive bloody nose due to the effects of taekwondo, with blood pouring all over his pants & the floor. My co-teacher just shrugged her shoulders, like it was no big deal. I guess she is a little more used to this behavior then I am.
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