Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

The longer we are here in South Korea things that initially shocked or disgusted me seem less shocking and disgusting. When we first arrived, walking down the streets with the putrid smells rising from the manholes and live sea animals churning water in buckets made me cringe. Now, I rarely notice the smell and the buckets are just commonplace. I’m sure this is completely normal. I would worry more if I was still fearing what new terror lies around the next crook of the alley.

It’s hard to explain how different things really are here. It may seem that we dwell on the fact that things are different when writing posts but trust me if you were here, in our shoes, you would be thinking and dwelling on the same things. I keep wondering when I will get over the differences completely but I don’t think that will ever happen. I have 25 years experience in Western culture and less than a month in the East. I think the gap is too wide to bridge in the one year we plan to be here.

When I spend time out and about our town there are so many things that I notice as being quite different. Here are some of them:

1. I may not be taller than the average Korean man but I am more muscular. I am not generally regarded as being muscular. This is a good difference for me.
2. Koreans who work labor jobs do not appear to labor very hard. Today I saw a delivery man with a padded cape covering his back. I wondered what this was for… until I saw him pick up boxes from behind him and lean over to carry the load on his back. This makes me feel foolish for carrying things in front of me leaning backwards at an awkward angle.
3. Korean men are very fond of each other. The touch each other a lot. I would never touch a man the way they touch each other. It’s not sexual touching, but to me it looks like homosexual touching.
4. Children hit each other a lot. The harder they smack the more they laugh. If someone were to hit me like that I would be upset. I think these children think it is fun to be hit.
5. There seems to be very little embarrassment here. You can run down the escalator giggling like a school girl; dress in MC Hammer pants, wear ridiculous shoes that don’t fit, wear gloves, cover your forearms with spare sleeves (not attached to your shirt), wear a visor (preferably one that flips down over your face like a welder’s mask) while also wearing a surgical mask; be as loud as you like anytime, anywhere; or you could scream “HELLO” or “GOODBYE” or some other random English words to any foreigner as you run away. I could not bring myself to do any of this without feeling some sort of shame.
6. Korean t-shirts are very random. They have a lot of English words on them. Sometimes a shirt has so many words on it that you can’t read them all. Usually these words mean nothing when strung together. The ones that do mean something usually mean something very funny to a native English speaker.

Examples:

• “Take Me To The Strippers” with picture of aliens and flying saucer – worn by mid 30’s / early 40’s woman at Starbucks
• “I Fart” with picture of donkey kicking it’s hind legs into the air with a gassy cloud coming from it’s hind end – worn by mid 30’s lady at local bakery.
• “Make Love Not Abies” in big block letters taking up entire front (I did not make the typo) – worn by young child at English teaching school.

There are all kinds of other examples of things that are different but these are some of the most memorable for me.  It is nice though that foreigners and Koreans have an unwritten agreement to be allowed to stare at each other and wonder about what the other is doing.  I use this to my advantage when I want to study their habits like a cameraman would do for a documentary.  I rarely find myself with a camera to disguise my stares, but it’s okay.  They stare at me just for being here, I have learned to accept it.