I guess it's the rainy season now

There are three types of people in Korea...

... men, women and Ajumas. Or so some people say. An Ajuma is a very specific type of woman. Some people say it is based on if a woman is married or not, or if she falls into a certain age range. Perhaps that is true in the generic sense of the word, but the Ajuma is a very specific type of woman.

I think there are perhaps three sides to the Ajuma. On the one hand, you have to respect them. Korea's recent history has been rather compressed when you stop and think about it. Think about the Korea represented in M*A*S*H.

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Yeah, it was a TV show. But the Korean war was no laughing matter. It was three years of brutal war. Like the American Civil War, it was one country fighting against itself. 

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The Korean war ended in 1953. That means that the children who were born in its aftermath, and grew up facing the effects of that war are still very much alive. 

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They are very much in power in Korea right now. When the generation that is currently shaping policy and culture were growing up, Korea was a third world, war torn refugee camp. 

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Now it looks like this. Stuff like this is supposed to take generations, not decades. Seoul has become a major international city, and Korea is an economic force to be reckoned with. You can't go from rice paddies to Samsung in 50 years without some serious determination, hard work, and some major sacrifice. 

I sometimes (perhaps even often) get annoyed with the Ajumas, and their male counterpart, the Ajoshis, but I can't even fathom what it must be like for them to walk around Seoul as it exists today. I don't understand the kind of work and sacrifice that it took for them to rebuild Korea the way they did. And for that, they deserve a TON of respect. 

However, there is a second side to the Ajuma. Naturally, not all women who fall in the 40-60 age range are true Ajumas. But it's really easy to tell if you're dealing with a true Ajuma, or just an ajuma wanna-be. Take a look at some of these examples. 

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A true Ajuma will be fearless in her curiosity, contempt, or any other feelings towards a Foreigner (or anyone else for that matter). You should also note the tightly permed hair helmet, loud print shirt, and wheeled tote bag that are good indicators of a true Ajuma. 

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True Ajumas have more important things to worry about than being fashionable. She is very conscious about protecting her skin from the Evil Rays of Death from the sun. Note the large, often plastic, usually rhinestone covered visor and the brightly colored long sleeve shirt she is wearing. Also note the conflicting patterns on her shirt and pants. There is also the ever-ubiquitous rolling tote bag. 

One other important note about the true Ajuma. For reasons unknown to me, the true Ajuma feels like she shouldn't have to wait in lines, make room on the sidewalk, or veer out of her way in the slightest to accommodate anyone else. I've lost count of how many times I've been elbowed by a true Ajuma on the subway. Check out this video, around the 0:42 mark for a prime example of what the true Ajuma will do. 

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Just this morning, I was on my way to work, and this exact situation happened to me. There are helpful signs, stickers, plaques and arrows to remind people which side of the stairs and halls to walk on, and to walk in a straight line. A true Ajuma doesn't notice such things. Instead, she meanders and darts her way through the sidewalks, subways and store aisles of Seoul. I'd never seen anything quite like this before. The true Ajuma walks so slowly that you want to pass her. You wait patiently, until you see an opening, then just as you start to speed up, she darts (with all the speed and agility of an Olympian) to the very space you were getting ready to pass through. Once her objective is accomplished, she slows back down to an appropriately geriatric pace. At least, that's how it often feels when one is dealing with the true Ajuma. 

It would be remiss of me to come this far in our tour of the Ajuma and not show you what many consider to be the most endearing aspect of the true Ajuma. The true Ajuma and Ajoshi have quite a bit of free time on their hands, comparatively speaking. They like to go on trips and tours. Of course, since we are talking about the true Ajuma, it takes something special to spice up her trip. I would like to introduce you to the Noraebus.

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This is a normal bus that you can charter for your trip. It has seats that are moderately uncomfortable and that special smell that seems to come part and parcel with tour buses. What sets a Noraebus apart is the Norae part of it. It comes equipped with its very own karaoke system. Koreans love to do karaoke, but it's quite different from what you're thinking. You and your friends go rent a private singing room, and you can live out your squelched rock star dreams to your heart's content! I've heard its quite the experience, although one I have managed to avoid thus far. The true Ajuma loves to sing and dance on the Noraebus. Technically, it is illegal to stand up and dance on the bus, but the true Ajuma isn't stopped by such details. 

I recently had the opportunity to interact with some true Ajumas at their very best. I wrote several days ago about my trip on the Wine Train. The Foreigners were all together on one car, and there were lots of Ajumas and Ajosshis on the next car over. We were on our way home from the winery when this all happened. The train stopped at several stations on our trip back to Seoul. There was a tiny compartment with stairs to get on and off of the train in between our cars. At one station, both of the doors opened at the same time, and one of the Foreigner girls dashed over to the Korean car. We were all confused, but continued our conversations. 

The next thing I know, she comes back and starts getting her friends and more and more people start going to the Korean car. When the doors opened, there was a lot of music and laughter coming from the Korean car, so my friends and I decided to go check it out. When we walked in, we discovered that the Koreans were having a lot more fun than the Foreigners... The car was FULL of dancing Ajumas and Ajoshis. There was one Ajuma in particular who was quite excited to see so many Foreigners all in one place, and she was quite insistent that we dance with her. Thankfully, the Ajuma dance isn't difficult, and somewhat resembles a 6th grader trying to dance. 

As the song came to an end, and I started to head back to my car, the Ajuma decided that we should have a picture together. And that, my friends, is how this picture of me with a true Ajuma at her best came into being. 

A Little Train Travel

A few weeks ago, some of my friends and I decided to go on a tour of the countryside. There is this guy who puts together trips for foreigners and he advertises them on facebook. When I went to the Bull Fight Festival, it was with his tour group. One of the trips that popped up on my newsfeed that sounded pretty awesome was something called the Wine Train Tour.

I started to check it out, and this train is a normal commuter train between Seoul and Busan (basically the northern part of the country to the southern part), but there are a few special cars attached to the end. There was a ginseng car, a white wine car and a red wine car. We were booked on the red wine car, I think.

The basic idea is you get on this train that's all decked out with wine themed decorations, and they do a wine tasting on the way to this winery in southern Korea. After we got to the winery, there was lunch and a wine spa treatment, then we went to a traditional music performance. On the train on the way back, they also gave us some more wine.

Korea is not known for it's great wine, so I definitely wasn't blown away on this trip, but it was definitely nice to get out of the city a little bit and try something new! The people on the train were really friendly, and I walked away with some new acquaintances!

I had two travel companions -- Steph

and Rachel!

They served some snacks with the initial wine tasting. It wasn't quite your normal snack selection for this kind of event. There were orange slices, some sort of strange fake cheese bread, saltine and ritz crackers, and small squares of American cheese, still in their plastic wrappers. 

Instead of normal seats, there were these velvet-esque sofas with tables set up. 

We rode past lots of rice paddies, but its too early in the season to clearly see the rice shoots. 

At lunch, there were four different kinds of wine you could sample. The wine was kept in these giant oak barrels with a spout on them, and you could fill up the tiny bottles to share with your table. 

These were like hot tubs, only they were filled with the liquid that's leftover from making wine instead of water. It felt lovely!

These were the overflow foot baths. 

The tour guide told us that if our legs didn't turn a little red from the wine soaking, we should immediately go to the hospital. Thankfully, we were all safe and red. 

There was a wine cannon!

and some baby pianos. 

There is a $50,000 bottle of wine in that locker. I love wine, but I can't imagine paying that much for a single bottle. 

They had these really cool tea pots, but they were like $150 each. So I contented myself with a picture of a tea pot instead of an actual tea pot. 

"It's time to get drink.
So as not to be the martyred
slaves of time,
Get drunk:
Get drunk without stopping!
On wine,
on poetry,
or on virtue as you wish."

Aside from the obvious moral problems with this, it was pretty funny. It was hanging above one of the walkways to the cellar.

At the musical instrument museum, there was a GIANT drum. Like, it was 20 feet tall and weighed 6 tons kind of giant drum. 

There was this statue of a really famous ancient musician, but I don't remember what he was famous for. I guess it's true what they say -- life imitates art ;)

The Adventure Continues

I found out today that the university I interviewed at last week has offered me a position! I'm quite excited about this new job and the new opportunities that it will provide.

There's quite a lot going on in the next two months. I have to finish my semester here, teach two summer courses, find a new apartment, move into said apartment, I'll be visiting America for a few weeks, and then coming back and starting the new job on August 25th.

Shortly after I settle into the new semester at the new university (henceforth known as SSWU), I will go back to the other side of the desk, and start an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL through the University of Portsmouth.

It's been quite a year here in Korea. I've definitely gone back and forth about if I wanted to stay for another year. In the end, I find that I'm not quite ready to leave this place. I'm just starting to feel like I'm settling into the rhythm of life here, and I'm excited to be able to experience it more fully next year!

The goal for this year was basically learning how to survive. The goal for next year is going to be exploring more of this massive, giant city I call home. Hopefully, there will be more adventures and other blog-worthy things coming up in the next round of things!

A Note To My Fellow Teachers

I love so many things about teaching. I love that moment when a light bulb comes on for a student and you can see them understand a new concept. I love reading the notes that they write to me and hearing their stories. I love the opportunity to build relationships with people, and hopefully influence them in positive ways as they prepare for this crazy thing called life.

Yes, there are times I wish I didn't have quite so many lessons to plan, or quite so many essays to grade. Sometimes I think I'm going to be buried with a red ink pen firmly in my hand. I have problems with my school administration (which I understand goes with the job) and that sometimes interferes with my relationship with my students. But it's still worth it, because I love teaching.

All of the relational aspects of this job make teaching one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done. But from time to time, something comes along and it just knocks the air out of me and leaves me unsure how to proceed. One of those things happened yesterday.

During the course of the day, a young woman came to my office. She seemed a little more shy than normal, but she came over to my desk and we started talking a little bit. After a few minutes, she told me that she was so excited, because over the weekend, she had made friends with a foreigner. She was so happy that this foreigner wanted to talk to her, even though her English is only middle level.

Of course, I think it is wonderful when students actually work to use English outside of the classroom, and I was happy for her. I started asking her questions about her new friend, and that's when I started to get that terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

This foreigner had found the young woman on facebook and tried to be friends with her. He then found her on a popular messenger service and started talking to her on there. She was having trouble understanding some of the messages, so she asked me to read them. This man was calling the young woman things like "dear", "cutie", and "honey". He was asking about her friends, and if she could introduce him to her friends. He wanted her to send pictures of herself and her friends. He was constantly asking her to call him so he could hear her voice. He was trying to get her to come to his apartment so he could cook her food from his home country. She came to me on a Tuesday, and he found her on facebook on Sunday.

I tried my best to explain to her why it was inappropriate for him to be calling her pet names, ask for pictures and introductions, and invite her to his apartment. I told her that she shouldn't talk to him anymore. I told her to come back and talk to me if he wouldn't leave her alone, and I would talk to him and make him understand. I told her that I would be happy to introduce her to other foreigners if she wanted to have some foreign friends. She seemed to understand everything I said, and she said that she wouldn't talk to him again.

This situation is so difficult. It seems like the culture between Korea and America is so different on this point. In America, I don't give my phone number to everyone I meet. I don't text people I don't know well. If someone friends me on facebook and I don't know them, I immediately ignore their request. It seems like people more readily give out their phone number and engage in relationships with people in Korea. It is normal for professors to put their cell phone number on the top of the syllabus. None of my students have ever abused that, but they do send me texts and call me when they have questions or need clarification. Maybe it has to do with individualism vs. collectivism, but I certainly don't understand any of that well enough to comment on it. What I do know for sure is that this was a terrible spot for this young woman to be put in, because she had absolutely no way of knowing that this man was trying to take advantage of her.

It is easy to complain about all of the strange things that happen to us as foreigners in Korea. I get really tired of the stares, the assumptions that I can't use chopsticks or I don't like spicy food. I often feel like I'm some sort of freak side show, rather than a real person with real thoughts and feelings. It's annoying and sometimes inconvenient for me. But there's a much more dangerous underside to this fetishization of the foreigner.

So many young people in Korea have grown up watching Western movies and TV shows. They see Western models on the subway ads. They listen to Western pop music. They get some very strange ideas about what Western culture is, and how it is supposed to work. They don't really understand how Western culture should work, which in normal circumstances would be more than ok. The vast majority of Westerners (myself included) don't really understand how Korean culture works. But every once in awhile, some creep comes along and preys on that cultural misunderstanding to try to  manipulate a situation to get what they want.

I know that lots of English teachers in Korea feel like they aren't "real" teachers. They feel like walking tape recorders, or a magician who is expected to conjure up games which a) entertain the kids, b) please the parents, and c) magically imbue English fluency. As we all know, every school in Korea is different. All of those things may be true for you. What I do know is, regardless of our lesson plan restrictions, we do have the opportunity to educate our students about other things.

Korea is rapidly becoming more multi-cultural. Yeah, it probably doesn't look like New York, London, Toronto or Sydney's multiculturalism. But it's coming. We have the opportunity to teach our students about our culture. About our interactions. About what is and isn't ok to read in text messages from a random businessman you've never met. We can equip our students with something more powerful than perfect English grammar. We can give them the tools to know when something isn't quite right with their interactions with a foreigner, and hopefully, we can help them realize that foreigners aren't all movie stars and don't all act like movie stars. Maybe, just maybe, we can teach our students to see past our small heads, big eyes and funny colored skin and see that we - the foreigners -- are no different from the Koreans. We are good and bad, selfish and selfless, and we need to be evaluated as people rather than a Hollywoodized phenomenon.

To my fellow teachers in Korea -- what do you think about all of this? How can we help our students learn the boundaries of culture so they can have some form of radar to detect creeps like this guy?

The Trick Art Museum

Last weekend, I went to the Trick Art Museum with my friend Moon. It is another great, interactive museum in Korea. The whole thing was full of optical illusions and interactive paintings. It's definitely someplace you need to go with a friend and a camera! We had so much fun playing with all of these different poses!

What a good way to take out some aggression after a busy day at work!

We always knew Van Gogh was crazy, right?

"The Blind Leading the Blind"

Moon is a Forensic Accountant, so this picture was particularly appropriate ;)

I guess the accounting police finally caught up with Moon. 

This has got to be the ultimate Wet Willy.