My second day here and it's still raining. Maybe we're still in the rainy season? Yesterday Sungah and I went to a mall, saw lots of Hello Kitty shops and merchandise with misspelled or misworded English. (I saw something about "fuming flowers in spring.") We hung out with some of her guy friends that night, and they took me to a bar for some soju (Korean liquor) and beer. They taught me some the drinking customs, such as pouring with two hands for someone older and one hand for younger. We also played some drinking games, like this game where you peel the ridge of the soju cap back and whoever flicks it off first makes the person next to them take a shot. There's also a number on the bottom of the soju cap, so one person sees it and the others have to guess while the first person says "higher" or "lower." Whoever guesses it first has to take a shot.
Turns out I'm 21 here...pretty sweet. I'm not exactly sure how the Korean age system works, but it starts counting when the baby is conceived, so the baby is born at 1 year old. Then at every new year everyone becomes a year older, regardless of their birthday. I was born in Dec 1988, so I was 1 when I was born and then a month later when 1989 started I turned 2. That's why now I'm 21.
I'm not feeling as much of a culture shock here as I did last time I came. I now know what to expect with manners, food, etc. Although there still are some surprises. For instance, we've been eating watermelon a lot, and everyone here eats the seeds. I feel kind of rude spitting them out onto the plate when no one else does, so I've been trying to eat them, but it feels really weird. The other food customs are kind of what I expected, a bowl of rice and different banchan (side dishes) to eat with it. There aren't certain foods for certain meals like we have in America (such as cereal for breakfast.) They seem to eat the same types of food for every meal.
Today I'm going to get a straight perm for my hair (it's really cheap here!) and Sungah's going to give me a tour of the local elementary and middle schools. Once I get more pictures I'll start uploading, but if you're curious I still have my pics from last time up on Facebook.
안녕!
Turns out I'm 21 here...pretty sweet. I'm not exactly sure how the Korean age system works, but it starts counting when the baby is conceived, so the baby is born at 1 year old. Then at every new year everyone becomes a year older, regardless of their birthday. I was born in Dec 1988, so I was 1 when I was born and then a month later when 1989 started I turned 2. That's why now I'm 21.
I'm not feeling as much of a culture shock here as I did last time I came. I now know what to expect with manners, food, etc. Although there still are some surprises. For instance, we've been eating watermelon a lot, and everyone here eats the seeds. I feel kind of rude spitting them out onto the plate when no one else does, so I've been trying to eat them, but it feels really weird. The other food customs are kind of what I expected, a bowl of rice and different banchan (side dishes) to eat with it. There aren't certain foods for certain meals like we have in America (such as cereal for breakfast.) They seem to eat the same types of food for every meal.
Today I'm going to get a straight perm for my hair (it's really cheap here!) and Sungah's going to give me a tour of the local elementary and middle schools. Once I get more pictures I'll start uploading, but if you're curious I still have my pics from last time up on Facebook.
안녕!
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