YAY! Yonsei and whatnot

So today (er, yesterday. it's 2am right now) was my second day of school at Yondae. I'm taking 3 electives and a beginner's Korean course. The three electives include a comparison of east asian cinemas, an analysis of Korean society and cinema, and a Korea through ethnography class. They all sound interesting, but the ethnography class is stumping me for the moment. Since it's all basically based on freelance field work, I'm not sure what to research. Good news: only Korean class has given text book assignments thus far. Grand total is approaching about 100,000 won for texts (i.e. course readers and Korean books) (also means that it's about 80 USD).

So I was going to make a summary of the excursions and random experiences in chronological order to make up for long lost posts from the past few weeks, but I think I'll just cover some culture shock things.

1. Traffic-- Rush hour is unpredictable. It can happen at any time. Drivers use any space possible to further themselves toward their destination. This includes the sidewalk.

2. Personal space does not exist. You're in the way, you get pushed. Or nudged. Or whatever. Examples: I was on the subway. An old man wanted to sit in the empty seat behind me. He cleared the way by just proceeding to push me further into the aisle. Quick, simple, no one gets hurt. But I don't see why communication is out the window. Second, we were taking a group picture at the tea house and figuring out our arrangement. An ajumma thought I looked out of place so she just grabbed my shoulders and pulled me over about 1.5 feet. I've come to see this as normal to be so close to strangers. They call it "jung."

3. People are way nicer than you'd expect. So far I've had many "conversations" with people that spoke no english, but were willing to help. Examples: when I couldn't pick out shampoo at Home Plus (omg, I must elaborate later), when I got lost for 2 hours getting to a place 15 minutes away from my apartment, when I couldn't find a screwdriver to make my cupboard (the maintenance man took it further and just made it for me =]).

4. Korea doesn't know what day it is. Except restaurants seem to know it's Sunday and close up around DMC. But what I mean is that people go out and drink or eat or club regardless of the day of week. There's always something to do until at least 5am any day of the week. Oh, and jimjilbang is open 24/7 (also another topic to elaborate).

5. Korea has no trash cans. Just piles of trash bags here and there. But recycling and energy saving are a huge deal for in-home sorta stuff. Perplexing, no?

6. Korea doesn't have a concept of sketch. Good restaurant markers could be a neon sign that points to a random floor of a random building, or as little as "the red door by the corner." Restaurant prices are hit or miss it seems. But JunJu was the absolute best prices. We got samgyopsal for about 4,500 won each (==pork slices grilled on the table, eaten in "sanchu" or lettuce leaves with "bap" or rice and kimchi of sorts). Buuut here it could run for 15,000. Depends on where you go. And also how many people you eat with. Food gets complicated. If all else fails, retreat to 7/11. That was a bit of a tangent, but anyway, most of Sincheon and Hongdae appears to be one giant alley. No sidewalks for the most part, esp in Hongdae, and the food stalls and shops make the streets seem like one giant, permanent fair. Pictures to come.

7. Eating or drinking while moving is not a social norm. We ran late and ate our sandwiches on the bus today and got a few funny looks.

8. Also, Korea is obsessed with waffles, Baskin Robins, and Micky Mouse.

Elaborated topics:

Home Plus--Korean wal-mart. It has a full grocery store, bigger than most I've been to in the US. It has a department store on top. School supplies. Furniture and storage. A massive display of children's pillows (which I am SO tempted to raid). Makeup. 23 dollar laundry detergent that goes down to 13 bucks if one gets the Home Plus card (which I need to do soon). It exists in the World Cup Stadium. That gives you an idea of size.

Jimjilbang--Fun once you get over naked people walking around all over the locker room. I didn't partake in the bathhouse part of the shindig, but I did use the hot rooms, which are REALLY hot. Like 45 C hot. Maybe more. I'm still getting used to celsius and metrics. Makes the skin a lot softer though. This place is open 24/7. You can sleep there. Prices go up from 6 bucks for entry to about 9 once it gets late. But you can definitely stay all day. And yes, there is an ice room too. We stalked some Japanese kids playing cards in there last time. It was fun.

But I definitely need to sleep. I shall update again soon.