Random Stuff

I just got to the PC bang (방 = bang and that means 'room') and the camera ran out of batteries, so the upload of media is unfortunately delayed, but expect it really soon. There have been a lot of things that have interested me, so I'm going to randomly outline some awesome stuff I have found here in Guri and Korea in general.

Television

By far not as crazy as Japan but still rather off the wall. In terms of commercials, almost all of them are very serious and do their best to convince the average Korean that they need a some slew of appliances or banking services by showing sexy faces and good photography. To grab the younger crowd they usually use hip hop. The only thing really to note is that many companies try to incorporate some English into their ads, and to a western ear it just sounds funny. The primary culprit is a Samsung commercial where, after all the fancy photography and such a voice just says, very slowly, "Beautiful ..... Wide" which makes us laugh. Another good one to mention is a mascara commercial with the motto "Eye be sexy". Anyway, the best thing to watch here is Muhan Dojeon, which translates into "infinite challenge". The show is comprised of 6 Korean celebrities (all comedians) attempting absurd and somewhat impossible challenges. Here they call it a 'variety-reality' show, as almost all of the show is unscripted. Mainly the pick a task, then attempt to do it while not taking themselves seriously at all. The result is something very funny in any language. Check out the explanation on wikipedia if you are curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Challenge
Korean baseball rock. There are way more errors, but because of that they take more risks. Bases are often stolen and there are many close calls. Games here cost from W3000-W10000 and you can buy a roll of sushi or a beer for W2000, making for a really fun and cheap outing. We hope to go soon. Apart from that, there is an action channel that plays bad movies and shows UFC all the time, and a few channels that play American reruns and movies. Kristi and I bought season 3 of Battlestar Gallactica for W15000, which was a steal. We also bought Pan's Labyrinth for W3000, but ended up getting a version that was Spanish with Korean subtitles, but you win some you lose some.

Driving

Depending on your view of things, you may say driving here is awesome, or dangerous. To quote my co-teacher as she was driving us home "In Korea, at night, if there is a red light and no cars are around, we drive through". Sometimes cars will drift slowly into a red light until they make it half way then they keep going. Buses will sometimes run reds and just honk their horns to warn others. Generally, vehicle drivers are much more comfortable weaving and dodging, and this is especially true to motorcyclists, who seem to operate by their own laws. Motorcyclists will drive between cars, use sidewalks and crosswalks, and when they can always disobey red lights. If you own a bike here, you simple do you own thing, within reason. Still, we have only seen one near accident, so everyone seems to be used to the chaos.

Food

I won't go into detail because there is a lot to talk about, but food here is pretty dang awesome. Korean food is all about balance, so typically a table will be set with many small side dishes to allow for a variety of food types (in cafeteria settings at school, we have dishes with many sections so we get about 5 things). You always get some sort of Kimchi, which I can luckily say I like. The cabbage variety still has a lot of crispyness, and is spicy to boot. Other varieties I've had are radish, cucumber, and, if it was kimchi, ginger root. Usually you will have many small vegetable dishes and a few meats, and almost always a soup. Almost everything is spicy to some degree, which is fine with us, but it can be overwhelming. I didn't eat much seafood back home, so the overwhelming use of tentacles is daunting, but slowly I am adapting. My co-teachers always comment on how slow I eat, but are always really impressed by how well I take to the food. They also make really good pizza here in Korea, putting Pizza Pizza to shame by always using generous amounts of cheese and wrapping your pizza box in a pretty bow.

Again, expect pictures to accompany the above quite soon. Thats all for now.

Justin