2013년 6월 19일 수요일

More Funny Things That Happen Daily

While most of North and South American's can be known as sun worshipers (guilty..), here in my new home, being tan is a less than desirable trait. Fair skin in Korea (and most other Asian countries I believe) is a sign of wealth. It doesn't mean you're particularly rolling in the dough, but you have a good enough job to not be a laborer who works outside all day, every day. This thought goes way back , but conflicts with the newer idea that if you have money then you can afford to go on beach vacations, ultimately leading to a tan. That's where things get tricky. Koreans combat this in a funny way. Long sleeves on the beach is a norm. Possibly one of the craziest things to me, because I do love a good tan. I just can't imagine traveling all the way to a beach (80% of the reason I love the beach is the sweet tan I get!!) just to sit in a long sleeve shirt, sometimes pants, inside a tent or under a huge umbrella. Oh! and the visors these people wear! It's almost always older women, but man! Those visors are big enough to shade a quarter of the beach you're on! And they aren't even just worn on the beach. These larger than life visors can be seen anywhere the sun is shining. These people don't play around when it comes to the sun.
Benchwarmers, anyone? 
Some of these visors can be accompanied by something I can only compare to a beekeepers uniform. Here I am, breaking the law by wearing a tank top, and the lady next to me on the bus is showing nothing but her eyes. I'm talking visor, shade thing attached to the visor, long sleeve, pants, tennies, and gloves! and it's like 80+ degrees plus more humidity then I ever knew was possible! I don't understand! It's so humid and muggy and all those other words that mean the same thing!

Similar to an older Korean woman's outfit on a midsummer's day.  All you need is hot pink, bright purple and  a sparkle/lace umbrella. 

A lot of Koreans really do wear shorts and short sleeves, I'm being a little dramatic, but there really is far too many still dressing like it's winter in order to protect their skin! Another example which is mind blowing to me for some reason, is the Korean who decides to wear a short sleeve, but puts on separate sleeves that go from wrist to bicep, making your short sleeve and automatic long sleeve, except the sleeves are made out of Under Armor type material, so they're skin tight and look SO uncomfortable. What's the point of throwing on the short sleeve if you're just going to cover up the skin that's showing with more sleeves?! 

While Oklahoma is finally coming to an end to the awful tornado season (I'm hoping!), crappy weather season is just beginning here in Korea. Monsoon season has begun, and is in full force until the beginning or middle of July. In girl language, that means constant ugly hair and no point in wearing make-up because it runs off as soon as you step outside. It's more muggy and humid here then anything I've ever experienced. Yuck! It's out of control!
With that being said, I'm going to name this Umbrella Season. I personally find umbrellas really annoying and have never owned one until I came to Korea. (and I only have to here because I don't have the luxury of a car, so walking in the rain is a bit obnoxious. My umbrella is not making the 6000 mile journey back home, that's for sure!) But lets take it back to the protecting the skin thing for a minute. Korean women (usually older women), remember the ones in the full, head to toe sun shielding outfits? Well, they also bring out umbrellas in the sun! Korea is a very crowded country, making walking space limited in some areas, and giant umbrellas don't help the situation at all. But now, these ladies are using umbrellas when it's sunny out too?! Gotta hide as much as possible! I can always tell how the weather is by looking out my window and observing the little ladies outside. If it's a normal, waterproof umbrella, it's a rainy day. But if it's a flowery, lacey, sequiny umbrella, it's a beautiful sunny day that I would be taking advantage of if I had a pool.

Another thing that I don't understand is that hospital patients just wander the streets near hospitals, saline drips in tow. I've walked by the coffe shop next to the hospital by my house more times than once and have seen hospital patients wheeling in their drips, ordering a cup of coffee only to sit in the coffee shop and enjoy it for a little bit before heading back to the hospital. Why are these people running around the streets?! It's also very common for a ton of them to be down in front of the hospital taking a smoke break or walking across to the convenient store and getting a snack in their hospital uniforms. It really grosses me out for some reason. haha I can't even go in that coffee shop because I feel like only sick people go there, when in reality, these people look completely fine. haha it's the strangest.

Well, I'm down to 42 more days left in little 'ole Gunsan. Even though I'm going to miss a lot of things about Korea, I'm pumped to get back and start up my old life again. I also have a ton of activities planned the first couple of weeks I get back, so that's not helping the countdown go any faster! My mom gets here in 10 days though, so that's exciting. I can't wait for her to see all these funny things. For those of you who aren't visiting, I'll attempt to get pictures of some of these crazy things so you can have a better understanding of it all.

-Kyla

2013년 6월 4일 화요일

Soju, Beer and Clown Cars

I'm pretty sure that if I lived in Korea for the next twenty years, I'd still be amazed by things every single day. Here are a few that have happened to me lately.

My co-teachers birthday was last Friday, so what better week to do a birthday lesson than when we have an excuse to have a birthday party?! I bought her a cake and it had to refrigerated so I took it down stairs to the teachers workroom/vice principals office to see if I could store it there before class. They said yes, so I go over and open the fridge up. What did I see? Well..have you ever been to a fraternity house and looked at their fridge? It basically looked like that. Rows and rows of nothing but beer and soju (Korea's super cheap, 20% alcohol, liquor). My elementary fridge is more stocked than a liquor store! Who is drinking this crap! Now I see why so many teachers hit the workroom after lunch. hahah jk.. I've never seen anyone drinking it at school, but it's there so it belongs to someone.

Okay, now remember the days of Super Kids Day? Or whatever you school called it where the students do relay races and games all day outside? Well Korea has a similar day called Sports Day. I say similar, because there are a few differences. The biggest one I can think of is an example from one of my friends. This is a true story, ya'll! At my friends school, there were 3 other schools involved in their Sports Day. My friend had to drink a glass of beer with each of the principals at this Sports Day. So while the students are running around playing, the principals and my friend, and probably other teachers, and sitting on the sidelines drinking beer. In the middle of the day. At a school function. Korea, you crazy!

Another crazy thing, on field trips, teachers bring ice chests. What's in the ice chests? Beer and Soju. Not sandwiches and juice boxes for the little kids, but beer and liquor for the teachers. haha At least they aren't sharing it with the kids, I guess. (I assume... lol)

Okay, enough about that topic. On to ambulances and fire trucks. I feel like I've mentioned this before, but it deserves the spotlight again since I've now seen this firsthand. I wish I would have video taped it on my phone but I was too busy standing there dumbfounded to do anything but stare. Okay, let me paint you a picture. We're at a four way intersection. An ambulance AND firetruck are at a red light, about five cars back. No one in front of them are moving, or even acting like they hear the obnoxious sirens that are right behind them. The traffic on the intersecting road is going like nothing is happening as well, obviously. Eventually, enough people in the ambulance line go right on red or just straight up run the red light. (Red lights don't mean much here. If there's an opportunity to go, you don't look at the color, you just go!) So finally the ambulance is at the front and inching his way out into oncoming traffic. The cars that have the green light are STILL not stopping or even acting like this huge ambulance is about to pull out in front of them. All of a sudden, the ambulance rolls down the passenger side window and shakes this little red lightsaber looking thing at the on coming traffic. That was their attempt at making those cars stop. Luckily, there were no more coming so they got to go, but I was just in shock! Clearly there was an emergency, but no one cared. If I need to be rushed to the hospital, throw me on the back of a fried chicken delivery moped/motorcycle thing and get me to the hospital! Those things know how to maneuver that traffic.

I swear there are no rules in this country! Except one that I know of, actually. You can be fined (I think it's 50,000W, which is about $50.00) for showing your shoulders or cleavage in public. So silly!

Okay, I know I've talked about carseats before and carseats are a subject close to my heart in America too, so this just breaks my heart. Buckle those sweet babies in, and do it correctly! There's no need in losing a babies life because of it being strapped in wrong. But in Korea, it's not uncommon to see a tiny baby (so small it can't even walk) riding shotgun on his mom's lap, along with the dad and two other toddlers all in the front of this single cab truck. That's entirely too many people in one tiny car, and three of those five people should be strapped in to a carseat! I've seen this too many times, and every time it breaks my heart. Especially since I've seen how they follow driving laws (or lack there of). The other day, I saw this tiny baby, probably 6 months, being held half way out of the window at a stop light in the back seat of an SUV. This is not the time to be letting your tiny baby sightsee around Gunsan! What if a car rams you from behind and your baby flys out the window!? Come on people, use your head!

But the real reason I brought this up is because of what I saw leaving the gym the other day. Again, I was too awestruck to videotape it, so I'll just have to paint the best picture I can. You know the clown cars where the clowns are stuffed in the car, then they all get out of the car and it seems like it's a never ending train of people exiting this tiny car? Well I witnessed that in real life, except substitute the clowns for tiny, 2 year old, adorable Korean babies. And substitute the clown car for a van. A van that possible holds 8 people, maybe 7. I'm talking a normal, everyday family caravan. Not one of those huge economy sized vans that the Duggar's or John and Kate, Plus Eight need to haul around their absurd amounts of children. I first got distracted by this situation because of a couple of tiny two year old Koreans in matching uniforms. That's just something you can't help but stare at! So cute! So then, more and more keep climbing out of this van and attaching themselves to the little line of kids in front of them! Obviously  I just stopped and stared at this for a minute. Actually, I stared long enough to count the number of kids that got out of the van. You know the game where everyone guesses the number of marbles in a glass jar and who ever is closest wins? Well if we were playing this game and you guessed sixteen two year olds and three adults in one normal sized seven to eight person van, you'd be right on the money! If you're lacking in the math department, like myself, let me just show you the totals. One van, we'll say eight seats, just to give them some help, and NINETEEN people. Yes, the two year old Koreans are smaller than my right leg, but that doesn't give you a free pass to stuff them in a van like a can of sardines and drive for who knows how long to take them to a movie! Oh, the things you see!

One last thing that isn't really about Korea, but is totally Korea's fault. I, Kyla Brown, can not access Target.com anymore! WHAT!!! Yes! I know, I'm so sad too. I like to browse occasionally just to see what cute sandals and other things I'm missing out on (I know, that's like putting salt on an open wound, but I can't help it) So I go on there a couple of days ago only to find that it says Access Denied! What in the world!? How is my access denied?! I'm a Target VIP customer. I keep Target in business when I'm in the country, and would to continue to support them from 6,000 miles away if I knew how to write my address in Korean! hahaha So I shared this sad news with my friends and Emilee claims she can still get on their website, so I'm not sure what's going on, but it makes me very sad and I hate it. Only 56 more days until Target and I can reunite and I can restock my wardrobe from head to toe!

Okay, thanks for listening to my ramblings! Tomorrow is Virginia and Emilee's birthday, so we're doing some birthday things tonight, and heading to a beach down south for a few days! I'm sure I'll only be filled with more interesting stories, so stay tuned!

56 days!

-Kyla

2013년 6월 2일 일요일

Hey! I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feelin' 23!!!

It all started on Friday when I got a birthday package from Kelsey!!! What a great start to a birthday weekend! Mail is the best, but birthday packages are just the icing on the cake! lol See what I did there?
Birthday presents with instructions! that's exciting! 
And its contents. All of my favorite things!
It was also my Korean co-teacher's birthday on Thursday, so all week in class we learned about birthdays and months and ages, and then Friday when Hyungkyung came to class, we surprised her with a birthday cake and cards from all the kids and I taught them American birthday games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. It was such a success! I was too wrapped up in it to get pictures though :( I only got one of my kids playing balloon volleyball. lol
The birthday girl, her cake, and some of the 3/4 graders! 

Balloon Volleyball! 
 I'll be honest though, I was a little skeptical about my birthday in Korea. Besides the birthday package, it got off to a rough start when the beach trip that I planned ended up being cloudy and a little chilly. The weather said it would be cloudy until the afternoon, then sunny from then on, but it didn't get sunny until about 5pm, which also happens to be the time we pulled back into the bus terminal in Gunsan. lol So the beach was a no go. But we found starfish and other unknown sea creatures and people watched for a while, so it wasn't a total waste.

We got back to Gunsan and started getting ready for a night out on the town. I put on my new party dress and Laura and I met up with everyone at one of my favorite Korean restaurants and had dalkgalbi! It was amazing, as always. That'll probably be my most missed dish when I get back to America, so hopefully I can find a good Korean restaurant that serves it in the city.

After dinner, we went to our favorite bar, TLC! I was promised a free fire shot  from my favorite bartender, Billy. (He's the one who does the fire breathing trick in the video!) We hung out at TLC for a while and played some darts. As always, TLC was a good time, but we wanted to try and venture off to a club we had heard about called SL. (I know..so many letters...lol) So we get in a taxi and he takes us to SL. We get there and head straight to the restroom. After that, we go to the front door only to be told they just closed! It was only 1:20am! That's like 5pm in Korean bar/club times! Bars and clubs don't usually close until 5am or later, so we were completely shocked to see that they were closed so early. Knowing me though, I pulled the birthday card and they said, "Oh, birthday! You can go to the bar!" hahaha Score! So I go in and he tells me I can only have a beer. Yuck.. so I got it and we shared it between the four of us and danced in this empty club for a couple of minutes. We were clearly not wanted there though, and can take a hint, so we left and stopped at Lotteria (basically a Korean McDonalds) for a little midnight snack, then called it a night.
My sweet lady friends! 

Before the fire! 
During the fire! Sometimes little things like sparklers make me wayyyy too happy! haha


This was a magic trick. I eventually wrote my name on a card...then...
BOOM! This was on the other side!!! SO FUN! 
And here he is now...Don Harva AKA Magic Man! 
Billy! Now known as the fire breather! (the one in the video!)
Dragon boy! 
Today when I woke up, which was my actual birthday in Korea, I was feeling pretty sad. I just wanted to be in America doing America things like going to Target, eating Mexican food and a snowcone while laying out next to the pool. Then, Laura came over and surprised me with a beautiful, delicious birthday cake! After our little snack, we decided to go explore the lake/park by my house. What a gem that little place is! I'm so sad it took me four months to discover it!

Story break... Happy four month anniversary to me and Korea today!!!  Four down, two to go!

So we walked around this beautiful park and saw lily pads and lilies, coy fish, a ton of cute Korean babies and a rock wall! I didn't take my camera so I didn't get any pictures, but next time I'll document it for you guys. It was such a good find. I'm glad I found it before my mom got here. I can't wait to show her! (26 days until she gets here!!!!) It was such a nice day outside today, so I was happy to get out of my house and explore! Afterwards, Emilee came by and brought me a whole tub of my favorite Baskin Robbins ice cream and my birthday gift. These girls know me too well. lol She also brought me birthday gifts from Virgina and Lizzie.  I am just so happy to have them all here. Days like this make me sad to be so far away, but I was lucky enough to have these sweet ladies treating me like a birthday princess all day! We topped off the day with a restaurant we call "The Cheap Place". Clearly you can tell how wonderful it is by it's given name. lol It's another place I'll have to take my mom. Nothing's better than delicious, cheap Korean food!!


Birthday face masks! and my favorite Korean gum, some TLC money, and a Korean chocolate snack! 

Beautiful and delicious birthday cake! 
Birthday Dr. Pepper!!! YUM! It's not as hard to find in Korea as all the blogs I read before I came here said it was, but it's still a rare thing, so I was extra excited for this! 

ICE CREAM! 

Favorite fruit chews and granola bars! 
I'd say overall, it's been a great birthday. I celebrated 22 on the beach in Destin last year and 23 on the beach in Boryeong this year, so I'm excited to see what beach I have in store for next year. I also celebrated my birthday for entirely too long, which isn't technically possible I don't think, but since Korea's 14 hours ahead of America, I'm celebrating my birthday in Korean time and American time!! I've also gotten a ton of Facebook birthday wishes, so those are much appreciated and keeping a smile on my face!

Who knew that when I was 22 I would move 6,000 miles away and teach English to some of the cutest little kids in the world? Here's to making my 23rd year even better! Cheers! I can't wait to see what 23 has in store for me.

59 days and counting, people!

-Kyla