So I haven't written anything in awhile because nothing too fascinating has occurred. And I don't have any photos to compliment this blog. I'll try harder next week. Promise. :-) The weekend before last I met someone who happens to be in the Broadway Asia rendition of The King and I. He offered me free tickets so I took him up on it and brought a friend with me. Pretty good! And it was neat to see someone I knew onstage. He was part of the ensemble so he didn't have a huge part, but nonetheless... The day after the play I tried to go hiking in Bukhansan National Park. It's a park that's on the north side of the city that encompasses some mountains and is actually partially within Seoul city boundaries. It's supposed to be a great place to hike but I couldn't find the bus that was supposed to take me there. Instead it turned out to be a rather frustrating afternoon. As a Korean would say: "Aish!!"
Last weekend was rather uneventful as well. I went to a neighborhood called Namdaemun. It's about five square blocks of open markets. They sell mainly clothes and food, but you can find a lot everything. Koreans are entrepreneurs at heart. I've been told that when someone doesn't know what to do with their life they just open a store. Consequently there are many duplicated stores. On my street alone, which is barely a quarter mile long, I've counted four barber shops/beauty salons, four convenience stores and thirteen restaurants. And that's just on my street! I guess these people who own their own businesses make a living despite there being so many duplications, otherwise they wouldn't do it, but they're certainly not rich. Consequently, there aren't too many big chain stores here. And ones that have tried to enter, like Walmart, end up failing. Though those that survive are extremely popular. Walmart had to pull out of South Korea last year which is refreshing, I think, because the E-Mart across from school used to be a Walmart. If I had to see that American conglomerate everyday, being on the other side of the world in Korea, I'd get sick.
Everyone is an entrepreneur though. Wrinkled old women sit on the sidewalk selling their lettuce and garlic they've grown themselves under the highway underpass. (When you don't have your own backyard, you use any available strip of soil you can.) Men go from subway car to subway car peddling the most random stuff: umbrellas, toys, knives, gum, bandaids, you name it.
Koreans work their butts off too. The lady who owns the convenience store beside our apartment is there everyday all day until midnight. No exceptions. And the people on the metro, you can just see how exhausted they are. All the people who get to sit down are usually asleep. And a lot of people work on Saturdays too. Several of the non-teaching staff members at our school come in every Saturday for part of the day. For what ungodly reason I can't imagine. I have no idea what they do that can't wait until Monday, but they're there, every Saturday.
I think Asians in general, and East Asians in particular, are very hard workers, which is why they are so successful. A lot of it has to do with them being a Confucian based culture. I've read that culturally Korea is the most "Confucian" country. Confucianism places the majority of its emphasis on hard work and education. And they do start their work ethic young! One of our preschool parents wants us to give the students--the 5 and 6 year olds--homework. We refuse. The children here already have no lives. We want them to keep what little childhood they do have.
I would hate to be a child in Korea. There is no summer break like in the States. They go to school year round with only one or two weeks off in the summer and the same during Christmas. They also go to school for half a day on Saturdays. On top of that they go places like my hogwan after school to continue their studies--so basically they go to school after school. How bad does that suck? All of my older students have at least one or two other hogwans they go to everyday, in addition to English. Plus they have sports and music lessons. The short of it is, when my students act up in class or don't do their homework, I generally let it go, because those poor kids are already in hell and I'm part of the cause
A hogwan, by the way, is a private school that specializes in teaching one subject-like English or math. They supposedly have some really odd ones though, like video game hogwan (specifically Starcraft) and Lego hogwan. Yeah. So I've been told.
On a different note...my summer is shaping up to be a good one! Next weekend I'm going to the beach in Busan which is in the south of the country. Two weekends after that I'll be going to the Mud Festival in Boreyong-it's a small town in the middle of the west coast. Then, two weeks after that is our summer vacation. My roommate and I are going to the southwestern part of Korea and Jeju Island. It all should make for a great summer and good blogging!
Phrase of the Day: Nail pope shee da! See you tomorrow!
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