Korean School vs. US School

As you can imagine, there are quite a few differences between Korean schools and schools in the United States. I'm sure I'll notice more as time goes on but here are a few I've come up with so far.

-Uniforms. In the US very few public schools require uniforms. Here, most of them do. The uniforms at my school seem to vary. There's one that looks more like a typical school uniform (white button up shirt and gray pants or skirt) but then there's another one that's basically a sweatsuit. The sweatsuit one looks really comfortable actually, but it also tends to remind me of a prison outfit.

-Punctuality. Unlike at US schools, the bell isn't law here. When I student taught, it was imperative to be in the classroom with everything set up and ready to go when the bell rang. Similarly, the students were expected to be in the classroom, if not sitting down and ready, or they could get a grade reduction. Here, the teachers don't even get up and start walking to class until a minute or two after the bell rings. Then, they start setting up. I haven't seen a student scolded for being late, and I wouldn't be able to scold them even if I wanted to because, honestly, I don't even know what late IS here. It's not that people here don't care about being on time though. Whenever any of the teachers tell me they'll be somewhere at a certain time, they always are. I guess they just have the power to decide when they want to start their class.

-Hair and face. The other day, a teacher asked me if girls wore makeup in middle school in the US. She was surprised when I told her they did. Here, they aren't even allowed to wear makeup to school. Also, they aren't allowed to dye or curl their hair. I'm not sure what the reason for this is. I'm thinking it might have to do with decreasing bullying or cliques, like making it so that you can't tell who can afford expensive hair procedures. Also, it might be to reduce distractions in school; making it so that school is only for learning and not a place to go try to impress people. These are all just speculations though, I really don't know for sure.

-Boys and girls. Up until very recently, public schools in Korea weren't mixed gender. Even now, some mixed schools don't have mixed classes. My school is completely mixed, with boys and girls in the same classes but some people are surprised when I tell them this.

-Er...punishment. Corporal punishment isn't against the law here. I haven't seen anything too outrageous but they'll sometimes smack students on the back or like grab them by the arm and pull them out of the room. Also, if a student is falling asleep, they might have them stand up in the back of the room.

-Hallway behavior. The kids are basically insane. This is one reason I'm having difficulty deciding whether I think schools here are more or less strict than back home. The students will literally run around screaming at the top of their lungs, dragging each other across the floor, etc. I don't think that would have gone over well at my middle school, but I also think other students would have judged anyone who acted like that. I think in the US, students are determined to act as "grown up" or "cool" as possible.

This is getting pretty long, so I'll stop here for now. Although I do have a lot of time on my hands today. There are no classes because of the typhoon but teachers still had to come.

Artist: 2NE1

Song: Go Away

Album: To Anyone

Released: September 2010

UIC Reunion in Daegu!

The title of this post kind of suggests that a bunch of people from UIC came to Daegu. Really, it was just Sandy and me but I think that's good enough. Sandy is studying abroad in Seoul this semester and this past weekend she came down to Daegu to visit. I've met a lot of great people since I've been here but it was still really nice to see someone from home.

Sandy and me at E-World

By the time Sandy got to Daegu it was almost 11pm. We walked around the city for a little while and eventually settled on a place to eat. We basically got a variety of fried foods, which was fine with me. As a group of Korean men left, they started saying random things to us in Spanish. I'm not sure if they were drunk or if Sandy and I looked Hispanic to them...

The next day we decided to go to an amusement park in Daegu called E-World. I don't know what the E stands for. The park wasn't as impressive as any I've been to in the US but it was fun because it was new to us and it had some things I've never seen before. Such as this...

Pedal Roller Coaster at E-World

The view on the roller coaster shortly after I stopped recording.

There was also like a mini zoo. It was part petting zoo, part regular zoo. There were some animals you could pet and feed carrots, and others you couldn't touch. They had a really random assortment, from farm animals like sheep and pigs to more exotic animals like a monkey and chinchillas. 

There's this huge tower at the park called Woobang Tower, the tallest in Korea. One of the attractions of the park is that you can pay extra and basically zipline from up on the tower. We really wanted to do it but, for some reason, it's closed until March. I'll still be here, but Sandy might have to take a trip back :P. We did go up and check out the view, however.

Woobang Tower and the view

From the tower, we rode the sky tram thing back down to the park entrance, which gave us a good view of the park.

E-World

Once we had seen and done everything, we went to get something to eat. We chose a Korean restaurant and had samgyupsal (pork) lettuce wraps. When we got back to the area where I live, Sandy wanted ice cream (as always), so we got Baskin Robins before she left. Overall, it was a really good weekend. Next time, I'm meeting Sandy in Seoul!

Artist: Girls' Generation and Super Junior

Song: S.E.O.U.L.

Album: Promotional Single (None)

Released: December 2009

Partying in Korea: Can you keep up?

Last weekend was our first weekend in Daegu, so we decided to check out the nightlife downtown. We had two separate groups: one that was coming for dinner and one that was coming after dinner. Well, we had way more people than we anticipated show up for dinner (I guess that's what happens when you put something on Facebook) so we ended up splitting into a few different groups. In my group (which was basically Class 3 from orientation, we split up again for dinner. Half of us went to a Korean BBQ restaurant and the other half went upstairs to a Western bar called Traveler's, where we all met up again after dinner.

After dinner, we got cocktails in a bag at this really small place that's basically just a stand (which is fine, because you can carry around open alcohol containers in Korea) and then we ended up at ANOTHER Western bar. I hadn't really planned on coming to Korea only to hang out in the exact same types of places I could go to at home, and luckily, I wasn't the only one. Another girl from my orientation, named Annie, also wanted to get a little more involved in actual KOREAN nightlife. We walked around for a while and eventually decided on the club that had the longest line: a place called Monkey (MK). We went in and it was completely packed. One of the biggest differences between this place and clubs back home was that EVERYONE was dancing. Even boys, and not only just if they were grinding on a girl. Also, the DJs had more interaction with the crowd than I've seen at clubs in the US. There were about five of them on an elevated platform in the back and they would yell things out once in a while. The other people in the club were really friendly. Some of them don't mind pushing you out of the way if they're trying to get by but I think that's just the way they do it since it's so crowded. Aside from that though, we were each given glowsticks on two separate occasions includung a small group of girls that we danced with for quite a while. They even passed us their drinks when they were sharing them. (It wasn't sketchy or anything, Koreans share EVERYTHING.)

 I didn't take this picture but it's a pretty accurate picture of what the streets looked like.

We were at MK for about three hours before we left. It was after 3am and the club wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. It was just as packed as when we walked in. I heard a lot of clubs here are open until like 7am. I haven't confirmed this, though, so I can't say for sure. After wandering around and finding some snacks, Annie and I made it back to the Western bar where everyone else had been. Many of them were still there so we talked to them for a while. Then, Annie went...somewhere else and I went home in a cab.

When I got back to my apartment, my feet hurt, my ears were ringing and it was around 5am. But it was totally worth it.

I can't say I necessarily LIKE this song...but I can't really do a post about partying in Korea without it.

Artist: PSY

Song: Gangnam Style

Album: PSY's Best 6th Part

Released: July 2012