The Way of the Waygook

Before I plunge into this first attempt at a serious post, please be informed that for all expats living in larger cities, this might not apply to you. So if you are currently living, or are moving to, a massive city teeming with foreigners then this probably isn't the way it is for you.

The first month in Korea I was utterly alone. When I visited a church my third week here, I was so used to speaking English to my students that I forgot articles such as "the" and I talked with my hands way more than necessary. I became desperate to find some other foreigners to hang out and talk with. Then just as my first month anniversary with Korea was around the corner, I met foreigners. The sun shone a bit brighter and there was a spring in my step. Three waygook girls walked down the streets of Naju saying "this is the best day ever," and "I love Korea!" 

See, when living in any foreign country, regardless of language barrier (although having one makes this even more so) having someone who understands your situation makes everything better. We might not have been friends on the other side of the world, but here we are brethren, kindred spirits tied together by many things. There is so much beauty in expat communities. It is beautiful, to show up at a bar or grocery store, see a foreigner, exchange numbers, and be at ease with a fellow English speaker. The expat community is small in my area and the Christian expat community is even smaller, so we search each other out; going to churches we don't know how to get to, ride buses unsure of their destination, all for the purpose of finding others like ourselves. We all came here with a similar purpose: to live a little freer, a little more scared perhaps, but we live a life that is different from everyone else we know, so when we see that little spark of recognition in a fellow traveler, we cling to it. Most of us can recognize the asshole who came to Korea to shirk responsiblity and drink/sex their way across the country so as to make a bad name for the rest of us. They're quite obvious let me assure you.

Finding a friend here is indeed finding someone very similar to yourself. We have sold our cars, houses, given away pets, said good-bye to every family member and friend to set out in search of adventure and what not. We can bemoan the fact that we miss our cats, are really craving a frosty from Wendy's, and when homesickness sets in we can have a cry together. (I am aware that this seems to be leaning more towards the female expat community and I apologize, but it's about to get worse.) This week, I was at a bar with some new made friends who are all female and single. For the first time in years, I was with women who made a toast to singleness and actually meant it. Now I'm sure as the months pass we will begin to curse the waygook men because they're all dating Korean women. And while we toss around certain derogatory names for men and wear scowling faces we will secretly forgive them because Korean women are so beautiful.

So here we are, expats coming together and greeting each other even though we are strangers. We live a life none of our friends back home can fully understand or grasp. We drink alone sometimes, and eat alone even more often. We leave behind our shy and introverted ways to seek out strangers who can become friends. There is something beautiful in this community of strangers that when I really look at, aren't strangers at all. This is simply the way of the waygook.

LG Family Day Festival

Korea is the land of festivals. They have a festival for everything, but I'm a big lover of festivals so I say right on. For example, in Gwangju they had the famous Kimchi festival two weeks ago, and this weekend is the Naju pear festival. We here in Naju love our pears...

I'm not really sure how normal companies work here in Korea, but at LG Chem in Naju, we have a Family Day Festival. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if it's some wanderlust still left in my eyes, or everything is still new and I'm on that "I live in KOREA" high, but the LGFD Festival made me fall in love with Korea oh so much more.

The day started out with it being extremely obvious that I was the only waygook there. Painfully obvious. More on this later. Tents were set up, endless dishes of strange food put out, soju and beer runnith over, and a painfully loud man with a microphone. Soccer games were played, races were run, and then came the group games. 250+ LG employees and family members were grouped into teams and the relay/unity races began. I was completely content with sitting under a tent nursing a beer, but no. Remember how I said Koreans are so kind? They want to make you feel welcome...accepted...and to embarrass the hell out of you. I joined the six legged relay race where we put a foot in some sort of rubber contraption and set about to run down the field and back. It was when we were doing our "Fighting"* cheer that the man with the mic found me. I saw it in his eyes, the recognition of a stranger. Oh for the love of god man just turn around and please oh please leave me...  I was forced to tell him my name, thus "Jennipa" was famous for the rest of the day.

*Fighting is a chant or source of encouragement for Koreans. They raise a fist to the level of their eye and say, "fighting" with all their might. I joined along and soon was saying "fighting" right along with them the rest of the day. Reason #79 why I love Korea. FIGHTING!

After some relaying it was time to eat. About five different women came up asking me (gesturing with their hands) to join them when finally one of them just grabbed my hand, led me to her table, opened my chopsticks, and kept putting food in front of me. Again, I disobeyed my mother and ate stuff that I didn't recognize. (I would later find out that it was pig feet and squid with veggies). I did recognize chicken and stocked up on that. I have no idea how Koreans stay so thin because they could all out eat me. But the food they eat is super good for you supposedly. At least that's what every Korean has told me and they don't have obesity problems here like in America, so I'm going to listen to them.

I might have been a foreigner, but everyone welcomed me to their table, called my name from across the tent (thanks to the man with the mic). It was as if I really was a part of the "family" in LG Family Day. Love. This. Country.

Then each team in the company had to perform in front of the crowd. I am on the General Affairs team and was asked to join. Hells yeah! What do I have to do? I'm sorry, did you say dance to a song in front of the ENTIRE company? Hmm...how do you say "hell no, I respectfully decline" in Korean?

Reason #80 why I love Korea: dressing up and acting a fool is totally ok. Here are some pictures from other groups so you can get my full meaning.

A family act.

Group of guys whose main objective was to hide their crotch. I think.

Horse, chicken, and black man masks. 

After all the dancing and comedy acts, my team was announced winners and I'm not sure if it was because I was on the team or we were actually that good. We did rock though. Fo reals. White girl can dance.

Everyone went home slightly tipsy, with full bellies and parting gifts. Check out my winnings below.

Travel sized toiletries, ramen, soap, and toothpaste.

LG made toothpaste that is. 

Also, if you followed the link from my Facebook that said something about pictures of me, then do you really know me at all? If you thought I would put up pictures of me dancing in an outfit to a choreographed dance then you are sadly mistaken. Thanks for looking! But I feel kind of bad so here is the dance we did. It's a KPop song by Orange Caramel and the dance you see...I know every step because I rocked it.

Apartment

Finally, now that I have internet access in the apartment and have acquired necessary appliances, such as a fridge and microwave, you can view pictures of my apartment. Now, for those of you looking to move to Korea, my apartment is not common. I have a two bedroom while most people in larger cities have studios. So don't get your hopes up. If you'd like to see what a more modern, more common city apartment just look here.

Bedroom 

Bathroom

Notice how there is no shower curtain. There is a drain that lines the outside of the tub that helps maintain flooding on the floor. It doesn't, however, help with the flooding on every other surface. Also, it is rare to have a tub in Korea. Most places just have the adjustable shower head. 

Living room

The little closet like room all the way in the back to the right is my "laundry room".

Kitchen

I waited two weeks for that fridge and it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. See how there is no stove? No baking. This could be good for my health. No brownies for a year. Must. Stay. Positive.

The second bedroom. There's nothing there, but here's the door to show it exists.

Entryway

The black and gray striped thing on the side is a screen that you can pull to the side in the summer to let cool air in and keep bugs out.

Peephole

Inconveniently placed

Welcome to Korea.

The Way We Drive and Survive

Korea is a country filled with fantastic people. Cashiers at grocery stores are polite and help you count out money, when you have no idea what is what; they offer to help you find your bus without being asked. Most of the younger people in my city practice their English by saying "Hello!" as I pass by and my adult students write notes in Korean for me to give to bus or taxi drivers so I won't get lost. Seriously, Korea is the land of ultimate kindness*. Koreans are the hardest working group of people I've ever seen and are extremely respectful of customers, clients, and elders. They are organized and are diligent at their job.

*Note, there are still mean people in Korea. Don't be disillusioned.


So it is something of a mystery as to what is going on with the roadways in this country. Now, I am not generalizing and saying that all Koreans are bad drivers, because I have seen (and lived to tell the tale) of some God awful driving in the states and in South Africa. But Korea is a land filled with roads and highways where one prays heavily before entering. All travelers call on Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Edward Cullen, whomever they worship. The first ride I took in Korea, on the day I arrived, I had never clutched my seatbelt so hard or thought I was going to die so many times in the span of 10 minutes.

The government could have saved their money and not painted yellow and white lines on the road. Really, what is their purpose? The roads aren't any prettier.

Sidewalks are not just for pedestrians who have chosen life instead of imminent death. Oh no, we are joined by bicycles, skaters, deliveryman* on mopeds, and cars...still in Drive.

*Deliverymen have surely made a deal with the devil as they drive anywhere where there is space, risking life and limb to delivery rice and noodles. In traffic, deliverymen will often drive in between the cars bumping side mirrors along the way. 


Crossing the sidewalk is another time in one's life when it is possible to see his own life flash before his eyes. A traveller crosses himself, looks heaven ward, and then straight up hauls ass across the street. Even as that little green man lights the way, reminding us that it's ok to cross the street, we know he is lying. Cars don't look at the picture show on the side of the road, nor do they pay attention to the light show in front of them. Green, yellow, red. All the same, if there is a person on the road then maybe, perhaps, they'll think about slowing down. Maybe. Perhaps. Old men and women dash across the street begging they won't be hit (no one is safe, age will not deter a taxi driver), mothers clutch their children as they run as fast as their tiny feet can pound the pavement. Making it across the street is like making it to the Holy Land in the Old Testament.

To ride in a taxi is to say good bye to all you hold dear. They love to punch the gas almost as much as they love to punch the brakes. They floor their little car forward only to put, what I imagine as, both feet on the brake to come to a screeching halt in front of a crosswalk. Think Harry Potter in "The Prisoner of Azkaban" as he rides the Knight Bus. Upon entering a taxi, a passenger looks frantically for the seatbelt, rips it across his stomach and pulls it tight. Riding a bus is almost the same experience except...no seat belts, sometimes not even a seat. A surfer on the North Shore has nothing on a person standing up in bus in Korea. I mean, I personally give you a round of applause. Well done. Oh, and usually size has something to do with who you pull out in front of. Unless you want MACK stamped on the back of your car you generally steer away from 18 wheelers and large moving vehicles. Not quite the story here in Korea. Girth and width have nothing do with fear on the roads. Tiny little smart cars are not afraid of some Huge Ass Bus coming their way. 'Fraid not friends.

 It is quite certain, that when one enters the roadways of Korea he is surely staring death in his ugly concrete colored face.

The J.O.B.

When I first started applying to jobs in Korea I figured I was going to join the masses of ESL teachers who are abused at their hagwons. I was going to fight "the man" for my vacation, my overtime, all the while being cursed at in Korean by small innocent little monsters with toothy grins. See here

I longed for a public school job where there is respect, loads of vacation, and morals, (monsters still included). The children wasn't what scared me. I was a high school teacher who had broken up fights, been afraid to come to school because of the pyscho emotional zombies called teenagers, and had taught students with criminal records longer than you can imagine. No, I wasn't worried about dealing with children. It was the job I was worried about. Alas, fate smiled down upon me and handed me the golden job, much like Charlie entering the Chocolate Factory, I waltzed into LG Chem.

I teach five classes, two adult and three children. My first class is an adult class at 8am. I have six students on roll. The second adult class at 12:30 has four on roll. The adults are taking the class so that they may pass the LAP test and become promoted within the company. Most of the students are men, who are too shy to speak, or so I thought. More on that later.

The kid's classes are at 2:30, 3:30, and 4:30. Fifty minutes each and with a total of eight kids in all. Pause as teachers around the world throw rotten fruit and curse my good, amazing, fantastic, out of this world luck. Going back to America to teach will never be the same. Ah Korea, the land of awesomeness.

Now the kid classes are a little different. They are held in one of the apartments at LG complex which makes things seem less...official. The children don't really take it seriously and the previous teacher pretty much let them do what they wanted. Enter JENNIFER TEACHER. I'll let you know how it goes.

Working for a company such as LG is pretty fantastic. Take last night for example. The previous teacher had a going away party that the big boss paid for. We went to Outback Steakhouse. When I say we I mean me, the other teacher and ten Korean men. If I thought I was stared at before, I had no idea. I'm not really sure I want to know what people thought when they say a foreign woman with 11 men, 10 being Korean. After the party, there was the after party of course. About six of us went to a bar in Naju where I watched the Korean men drink, while I sipped my lone beer (it was a weekday!). We stayed out until 11. One of the guys? Maybe. It's all part of the culture. By participating I was being accepted into their world. I learned a great deal about Koea, the respect for elders (a junior at the company, cut up the bosses meat and we all stood when he stood), the closeness of friends, and how much Koreans love to laugh and enjoy each other's company. Ah Korea, may long you stand.

What are you looking at?

The thing that has taken the most getting used to isn't the food or the language barrier, nay, it is the always constant staring. I had heard about this before I arrived, but had never expected so many eyes focused on me. Some described it as if they were movie stars. Those people have a serious ego issue. I do not feel like a movie star, instead I feel like...well... a foreigner.

Now I live in Naju, which is kind of a rural area with a population of 110,000 people (that's rural in Korea). Most have never seen a waygook (Korean for foreigner) except on television and almost none have spoken to one. Walking around in Naju means a starefest. Put your sunglasses on and your ipod in. Just pretend you're a movie star. That worked for the first day, but after that it didn't work so well. Trying to blend in is beyond laughable. I am a 6 foot tall waygook in a world of ajhummas in broad sun hats and the cutest Korean children known to man.

Take for instance my trip to the grocery store earlier this week. People literally stopped their carts to let me pass. And they stared. One little girl came around the corner and stopped as she looked up up and up then got a huge grin on her face as she saw it was a waygook. She then ran off "Omma Omma" (momma momma) then came back with her mother in tow so they could both look, no, stare at me. That was kind of fun. But most of the time I just feel uncomfortable and hurry past anyone looking staring at me. And they don't smile. They. Just. Stare. I am a Southern for crying out loud. I need you to smile at me as you walk past!

I've had cars slow down in the street, people walk and turn around so they can see every side, I mean I've had it all. However, I cannot judge. Yesterday in my walk into town I saw a foreginer and I stopped and stared. Then he saw me and we both stopped, smiled, laughed, and went our own ways. Seems this country is rubbing off on me.

A Stranger in a Strange Land

* Note to all readers. The spell check is not working. Do not judge. I am paying for this internet and must be quick.

I'm not going to lie, I thought my Mother was going to break down at the airport and then cause us all to cry, but I'll have you know that she didn't shed a tear. However, when I waved to my family after going through security, I turned around and started bawling. Seriously people stared. I boarded the plane with no tears on my face though. Then my plane almost crashed. There was a time when every passenger was lifted off their seats and surely would have hit the overhead if not for the seatbelts. I expected those yellow oxygen bags to come crashing down and I selfishly thought, "oh my god, I'm not going to make it to Korea." I did.

The flight over was awesome. No really. Asiana Air, you're the shiz. No one was sitting beside me and I got to sleep spread out. Then came the food. Korean food equals yum. However, my mother's strong advice to not eat anything I didn't recognize went unheeded. Sorry Mom, I have no idea what I ate, but damn.

When I landed in Korea, it was like every Korean was smiling and I thought everything was beautiful. That cloud, that road, that trashcan. Everything was like a dream come true. My recruiter picked me up and drove me to the Gimpo airport where I flew to Gwangju. With my heart still singing, I was picked up by my employer at the Gwangju airport and then we started driving. Now, I was already a little scared that this had all been some scheme to get me in the sex slave world and I was nervous about driving in the dark with an unknown man in a strange place. You know that scene in "Finding Nemo" where Marlin and Dory are following that light that turns out to be the uglist scariest fish ever? Marlin says "good feeling gone" and at that moment riding in that car I couldn't agree with him more. We drove through the "military" district. Fantastic. I didn't die. I wasn't sold into the sex slave trade. But I was still terrified. The lines on the road are just for decorative purposes and those flashy light things? Red means the same as green. Apparently.

I arrived at my apartment at around 10pm. I had been travelling for 24 hours and just wanted to sleep. You will soon see pictures of Naju and my apartment when I get internet in my apartment. For now it's just me in the PC Bang (internet place. why it's called bang I don't know).

There have been times in the last two days where I've questioned what I've done. I can't speak the language, I've already lost three pounds due to the fact that I have no idea what I'm eating and don't have a refrigerator in my apartment, and I haven't had a conversation in two days. Everyday is a challenge. Situations I never would have expected have come my way. How the hell do I ride the bus when I can't read the sign as to where I'm going.  Is that cereal? Awesome, I have no frig, therefore no milk. Forget it, I'll eat it with my hands. But whenever I walk out my door and into this Hangul (Korean alphabet) decorated world I get this rush, this sense of endless adventure that is unexplainable. It puts me at ease and I know without a single doubt that I have made a great decision. The person that got off the plane is evolving into someone who is learning the true meaning of travel. Overcoming my fear of embaressment and the fact that no, I don't know all there is to know. I am a traveller. A lifelong learner of all things strange. A person who is a stranger in a strange land and is ok with that.

I can't understand you

To all my loyal blog readers...keep waiting to read about my eventful (and I do mean eventful) trip over to Korea and first impressions. But for the first impression pay attention to the title.