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
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