In the past weeks I've traveled to Busan, had fish eat the dead skin off my feet, went to Jinju for a few hours to check out a lantern festival, traveled to Seoul for the 60th anniversary of Fulbright and also attended a conference in Gwangju.
I think I have hit the point in my stay where I can still take pleasure in festivals and enjoy the new places I visit, but at the same time the "newness" has worn off and I can tell you exactly what kind of chicken soda cups the festival will be serving up and the booths start to look the same.
One thing about Korea that makes me fascinated is the hype and importance that is given to events that probably don't deserve that type of attention. For example, we practiced for hours at a time for the Fulbright song that plays for approximately 2 minutes and the audience wasn't even able to hear us over the piano. Keep in mind the the performance was prefaced with a 7 course dinner with included WINE and thus many of my chorus companions had to focus more on the act of standing than on hitting the F Flat. But an overwhelming amount of importance was put on the song during the practice. Epic Fail.
Another illustration of this phenomenon is that my school had a relay race with another school. The race lasted exactly 2 minutes and 4 seconds but the event began right after lunch (noon) and when I had to leave at two forty the students were still anticipating the race. There were camera's, the students wore shirts that were especially designed for the event. A troop of 4th graders danced in age-inappropriate outfits to age-inappropriate songs using ...you guessed it, rather age-inappropriate moves. A band came with drums and they had moved the students around the field and positioned them in probably 4 different location. If this had been done at my school in Glendale, someone would have started a fight and maybe 40% of the students would have ditched. The Korean students managed to keep up their enthusiasm and do and re-do the wave until the principal was satisfied with the way it looked on camera. So the ability for a small relay race to turn into a 3 hour event WHILE STILL MAINTAINING CONTROL is a miracle that can only happen in Korea.
One of the presenters we had at a conference told us of the cycle that one goes through when entering a new culture. The honeymoon period is the first, everything is new and exciting, then comes rejection, there is a fourth one but I do not remember it so we will pretend there are only three. I think I have past the honeymoon and I do not foresee myself rejecting very much about Korea, but there is a stage of frustration that certainly comes on from time to time. I still don't know how to work the bus system efficiently and have to spend 30 minutes on the internet figuring out where in the world i have to get on because even though most things in Korea make very logical sense having a bus stop at each bus stop apparently does not. Another thing that Koreans do not like is having street names. I have no clue about where I actually live street wise and rely on the note that my hostmom wrote for me the first week I was here that tells the taxi drivers where I belong, it is like an adult doggie tag.
This weekend I have felt a surge of restlessness and my patience was tested. I have not had this frustration due to a lack of control of a situation in quite a while. I unfortunately let it get the best of me and had it not been to a stop we made in a beautiful park I would have been spitting hellfire at the next person who crossed my path. However I escaped the weekend with a super cool free new jacket that is perfect for traveling, presents for my parents and another trip to the VIP area at a club. There is still a slight resignation of gripe lingering inside me and though I have talked it out and now typed it out, it seems there is only one way to release the negative energy--get pierced. I can clearly link the need to do something impulsive and edgy when I have an internal knot that no deep breath can untangle. Right now the frustration is coming from my inability to do things myself that I would have been able to do in America.
SO MOM, Do not hate me, but I am getting either dermal or something else in the ear. :)
Off to some Kpop dance class and a 5k run.
No comments:
Post a Comment