Gonna Miss Korea

Blake and I have been saying goodbyes to students this entire week and are currently on our second last day of teaching. While we are over the top with excitement about going home, there are some mixed emotions with having to leave everything here. Our home in Korea has been such a stable, secure place for us this year. There have been challenges with adapting to a new culture, but it has been so good in many ways. We're now on the verge of unknown...once again. We are going home to live in the basement of my parents' house with no car, no job and no secure plans for the future. Our desire is to spend good quality time with friends and family for the summer and then come back to Korea for round 2. We are currently applying for positions and going through interviews and while jobs are a dime a dozen, the right job takes some searching. Round 2 in Korea will also involve bringing 2 of our close friends from Canada with us for the ride in Korea- which we are thoroughly excited about. We would appreciate your prayer over the job search- we desperately need wisdom and God's direction.

As of late, my mind has naturally pulled out of the Korean scene and I have been thinking more about plans in Canada and the differences in culture and how we're going to have to adjust.

Here are some things I'm going to miss (or not miss) about Korea. In no particular order...

1. First up...Couple Wear!

Korean culture frowns at public displays of affection. Therefore, a couple who desires to publicly display their commitment and affection for one another will wear identically matching outfits. They will often wear the same shirt, pants, shoes and even carry the same bag. This is extremely popular with the younger generation of adults and youth. Blake and I have refrained from adapting to this part of culture, but we did get our first set of 'couple wear' as a goodbye present the other day.

2. Friends! We've made some amazing friends while being here in Korea that we love very much.

We are also going to miss the friends we have made in really random places. Sometimes when you can't communicate with many people, you make friends with people in the oddest places. We are quite sad to leave our friends who own our favourite coffee shop. They speak a little bit of English and we have become quite close from all our visits to get our 'frozen caramels' -which rock the socks off of Iced Caps (I'm sorry to say). Unfortunately, we don't have a good picture of our owner friends, so I'm just putting up a picture of the specialty drinks.


3. Korean Food
I don't think it's going to take long before the cravings start to hit. One of Blake's favourites is bibimbap and is displayed below. I don't think it looks so appetizing, but you've gotta trust me on this one...it's awesome. Mixed vegetables, rice, egg, meat with red peper paste.

4. Crazy Driving.

Ok, so this one I am not going to miss at all. I feel that I've somewhat adjusted to the way things just seem to work with traffic. When the light turns green you IMMEDIATELY honk your horn to let the people ahead of you know that you're waiting. Cars swerve from lane to lane without checking blindspots or signalling and it seems that it's a matter of luck rather than any skill that prevents countless accidents. Most cars also come equipped with tv's in the front and people watch while driving. It's crazy!

Cars also park everywhere. Just put on your emergency lights and it lets everyone else know you're doing something crazy. You can park on the streets or sidewalk and everywhere between. People will place their phone number in the front window of their car to call you if you need to move- towing doesn't seem to happen.

5. Another thing that I won't miss is trying to avoid getting hit by scooters. Delivery people always use scooters because you can drive on both the road and sidewalks and seem to have the right of way regardless of where you are. They save on gas and get to the location very quick. I have to say I've never had the experience back home in Canada of being honked at while walking on the sidewalk. Delivery guys bring your food on plastic dishes and will return a few hours later to pick up the dishes that are left outside your door. For those uninformed foreigners who order food and then trash the dishes, it can be an awkward situation when the delivery guy comes looking for the dishes.

Below are dishes waiting for pick up.


6. Korean Fashion

Fashion here reminds me of what the early '90's would have looked like back home. I don't think I have ever seen a more unashamed use of rhinestones on shoes or frills and lace on dresses. A very common outfit for a girl is a baggy t-shirt (they love Mickey here) with spandex pants, big earings and high heels. High heels are a bit of a staple and they accompany even some of the most frumpy outfits. Blake and I have found it somewhat entertaining to watch how these girls do almost anything in heels. We were hiking a mountain and saw a girl doing the same in heels. This is one area that I was not really anticipating to be a problem when coming to Korea. I skimped when packing shoes thinking shoes were universal and I'd find some in Korea. However, I haven't found much that I like. Sorry...that's not strong enough...I hate the shoes here!

7. Sun Visers and Sun Umbrellas- The most fashionable item for Korean ajummas (that's middle aged Korean women with permed hair and flower pants) are sun visors. These come in all shapes, sizes and colours, but my favourite has to be the tinted ones that cover your entire face. It seems that women here are obsessed with keeping their skin white and protected from the sun. Younger fashionable women carry umbrellas. Funny how our obsession back home is with getting our skin tanned and dark.

8. The Challenge of Communication

I've mastered the job of ordering pizza. I think our conversation goes something like this...

Pizza Lady: Hello?

me: Hello, pizza, please, 1, Hawaiian

Pizza Lady: Yes

(She has our address come up on call display when we call so rhymes it off and it sounds right)

me: yes, thank you

We're actually not as bad as we make ourselves out to be, but we do enjoy the challenge of communication for the most part. It's such a satisfying feeling when you finally understand each other- I'm going to miss that.

10. People not understanding us

I think Blake and I have developed a bad habit of talking to one another in loud voices because not many people can understand us. Just yesterday we were walking down the street and Blake commented in not so much a quiet voice about how big the woman's hair was. Granted it was huge hair, but I think we've become a little blunt and loud- maybe we've absorbed more of the Korean culture than we thought! This may present a bit of problem for us. It's going to be weird to have people understand us again!