The Movies.

A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided to catch a movie at the local cinema (Korean pronunciation: chin-e-muh). It was a Sunday afternoon and the movie was on its last leg (all English movies are played with Korean subtitles). So, in Korea you are assigned seats when you pay for your ticket. In fact, you choose by pointing to your desired seat on a computer screen. We picked our seats, grabbed some popcorn (it's only 2 dollars for a large size) and went to find our seats. Well, being foreigners we are automatically slightly inept- we couldn't find our seat number on the tickets so we decided to just down. Being that it was an empty theater, besides the family of 3 sitting in the front, we didn't think this would be a problem. Oh, we were so wrong.

5 minutes after we sat down, two women came in and we immediately realized we were in their seats. But since the theater was empty they didn't mind too much and just sat in front of us.
Then 10 minutes into the movie, as the theater is pitch-black, three more women came into the theater.

They started talking to the women in front of us, and I was able to pick up enough to understand the following:
women who walked in late: "You are in our seats."
women already sitting: "No, the foreigners are in our seats, so we just sat here."
women who walked in late: stare at foreigners. realize it would be pointless to tell us to move since we most likely don't speak their language.
all women: "korean korean korean, foreigners, korean korean korean, where are we going to sit? korean korean korean, they are messing with the social order of our culture, korean korean korean, stupid foreigners".

Now I understand there is a system. And that we completely disregarded it. But at the same time, the theater was COMPLETELY EMPTY! Couldn't the women just sit in front of us, beside us, behind us, at the other end of the theater?

No. They decided to sit near their assigned seats. So, two sat next to the other two women and one sat next to us.

If you were to take a picture of this theater it would look something like this....
3 Koreans sitting in the front of the theater.
4 Korean women squeezed next to each other at the middle of the theater.
2 foreigners and 1 Korean directly behind.
And 200 empty seats.

Korea and Education

Below is a link about recent suicides that have happened in South Korea due to grades and examinations. It's bleak. And these kind of stories are too frequent in S.K., which has one of the highest suicide rate among students in the world. Here's a quote from the article:

"South Korea as a whole ranks first among O.E.C.D. nations in suicide and is routinely among the leaders in developed nations. Subway stations in Seoul have barriers to prevent people from jumping in front of arriving trains, and eight bridges in the capital have installed closed-circuit suicide-watch cameras."

Feel free to read the article.

And if your not feeling up for it, at least say a prayer.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/asia/23southkorea.html?_r=1

Some Korean Facts...

• The Korean Police do not carry guns. However, the ADT Security Guards do.

• During the 'sign of Peace' at Mass, Koreans bow to one another rather than shake hands.

• As a foreigner in a small city (especially a blond one), you will most likely be stared at, pointed at, and talked about. It's a real confidence-booster, let me tell you.

• After a few months you start to crave Kimchi.

• In motels they don't offer you individualized soaps and shampoos; they place family size bottles and unwrapped, used soap bars for your use.

• Squat toilets are still in use.

• Emergency 911 is 119 here.

• Stopping at a red light is a mere suggestion.

• You pay for your grocery bags.

• Pizza and pasta is served with a side of pickles or radish because Koreans need to balance the softness of the food with something crunchy.

• McDonalds has delivery.

 

A few weekends ago I went to the Jinju Zoo. A very small attraction hotspot but an entertaining one nonetheless.
Being it Korea and all, there were some interesting sights...

First, it's completely legal and socially acceptable to feed the animals processed human food. In fact, the pens were littered with chips and popcorn. Follow the link below to see some monkeys begging for some Korean snacks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IooNv_vlF8

The biggest attraction was the tiger. Not because it was a tiger. But because apparently a while back, the tiger was suffering from a emotional illness called loneliness. The solution? Throw a dog into the same cage to keep the cat company. And now they live in peace and harmony while being oogled by Korean tourists.