Today is Day 30 and I only have 26 days left in Seoul! I can't believe my time here is over halfway over. This week we are making the final edits of our documentaries and presenting them Friday at a fancy closing ceremony. This means I won't get much sleep but the end is in sight! Soon I shall be able to enjoy Seoul with much less stress and obligations.
FYI: my Korean class will have one more week after this week and then I will have two weeks of internship.
Instead of telling another Korean adventure in detail, which I just don't have time for, let me briefly summarize some of my observations. I shall call it, RANDOM KOREAN THINGS!
To start off, I would like to dispel the notion you may or may not of heard - "Men in Korea are so gay." First of all, that is not a politically correct or polite statement to make, and second it is just not logical to group an entire population and declare them something like feminine. Korea is just like the US or any other country, everyone is different. Some people might be more feminine than others. Celebrities (male and female) may get more plastic surgery and wear more make-up than some may consider to be "normal", but regardless, that is not something I am here to judge.
Okay, I'm sorry if that became too serious all of a sudden, but I felt it was necessary considering some of my "Random Korean Things" might seem like I'm trying to support the "feminine Korean men" notion which is not the case. I've seen enough Korean B-boys and Taekwondo masters and whatnot to know that Korean men are some of the "manliest" guys I know. I just find some of the things I've seen guys doing here particularly interesting and different from what I am used to seeing back home. Okay. Thanks for understanding this. Now onto RANDOM KOREAN THINGS:
- THERE ARE MIRRORS EVERYWHERE. I don't know if it's because Koreans are particularly concerned with their image or afraid their face has changed in the last half an hour, but I find the amount of mirrors here disturbing. Every single bathroom stall I've been in each has it's own mirror on the door at about person-sitting-on-toilet-eye-level. So while you are doing your business you can stare into your eyes... and I just have no idea. Make entertaining faces at yourself. View yourself more. Something. This goes for dorm bathrooms, public bathrooms, ALL THE (women's) RESTROOMS. Even more startling, there are mirrors in every shower stall I've been in. The shower stall in my dorms each have their own mirror. When I went to 찜질방 (A place with public baths, saunas, ice rooms, furnace rooms, norebang (karaoke rooms), EVERYTHING) the showers next to the baths each had their own mirror by the shower head as well. I'm getting sick of staring at myself actually. By the time I go back home, I'm going to be a full-fledged narcissist.
- As you've probably noticed from my other posts, Korea is "random English word" obsessed. Some of the English is cute and make some sense, like this delicious restaurant/cafe called 스푼레이스 "Spoon Raise". But then there is an underwear store called "YES". Really? An underwear store.
With a bunch of YES all over it? Really?
Forget about getting a woman's consent before you knock her up, her underwear clearly says the
answer.
>.<
I want an underwear store called "NO". Or "Hands off". Or "Look at your life. Look at your
choices."
Or "WHAT. WHAT. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
- Silly things I've seen Korean guys doing:
At a Korean BBQ restaurant, two guys were sitting together analyzing something very seriously on
their computer screen, so of course I looked to see what it was...
They were looking at dresses. Like on a clothing store website, in the woman's clothes section,
looking at a bunch of pictures of dresses. What.
Maybe guys do this all the time, but I've sure never seen it. And I've certainly never seen it in public.
In a restaurant. What.
In 울산 (Southern coastal town) I saw a guy rocking heart-shaped sunglasses with white frames.
Nothing else about him was "feminine". He just owned those sunglasses.
I saw another guy with a floral umbrella (lots of Koreans (male and female) use umbrellas to block
the sun and not tan) I just don't see many guys with flowery umbrellas...
In a restaurant with lots of messy, delicious, spicy food, there were aprons for the customers. But
my friends and I didn't use them. And I honestly didn't see anyone else using one when we arrived.
But when we were leaving the restaurant I saw a table of five or so guys, all wearing these pink,
floral aprons while they were eating. It was a funny sight.
- Koreans hate bugs. Especially girls. Just about every girl I've met absolutely freaks out
when they see anything from a moth to an inchworm. I can understand hating mosquitoes. I
currently have three annoying bites on my feet. But what was once humorous is sort of getting
annoying... I mean. Aren't ladybugs cute? And butterflies pretty? It's too confusing.
- There are overly affectionate couples everywhere.
Everywhere.
EVERYWHERE.
I almost miss the overly sexual and inappropriate couples from the States because couples here are
always doing the ridiculously cute, lovey-dovey stuff that makes me want to barf and round-house kick
them apart at the same time.
Here's a couple getting stuffed animal prizes for each other...
And now back to video editing. I will have lots of stories soon about all the awesome people
I've met through interviews for this project. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
See you on the other side.
- 성냥개비 <----- This means matchstick in Korean... but the second half sounds like my
name Gabby. So this is now my "Korean name"
Doesn't it look just like me?
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