Venturing to a "Suburb"

This past weekend, two of our Orientation Coordinators (OCs) took a group of us to a "suburban city" to get out and explore. Cheonan can only be considered a suburb by Korean standards, as the country has around 500,000 people.

We took public buses to get there, which was interesting. It was a little less than a 2 hour trip, and cost about $6.90 one-way. So transportation seems pretty cheap. When we stopped in Cheong-ju to change buses, I used the restroom. To my surprise... there was a hole in the floor where a toilet should be... For your viewing pleasure, I will now present a non-Western toilet:

um. what??

So. The people in the bathroom probably thought I was some kind of crazy person for taking a picture in the stall in a public restroom, but it's all good :)

Next we made it to Cheonan. First, we had lunch at a Korean restaurant where we sat traditional-style, on mats on the floor with our legs crossed. I had curry!

They gave us sooo much food! All for $7!

Then, we went to the mall, which was very interesting because the escalators were in the middle and all the floors and stores just sort of ran into each other. There were no defined hallways like in American malls. One minute I was in GAP and then I took a step and ended up in some random store.

Our group split up then, and I ended up with Phebe, an ETA who's already been in Cheonan for a year, and who will be renewing her Fulbright to stay for the 2011-2012 year. Phebe took me outside the mall to wander the streets a little. This was my favorite part. Phebe is really fun and nice, and we visited all the smaller Korean stores, where everything was much cheaper! I got an umbrella for $3, shoes for $10, and socks for $1 at a random stand on the side of the road.

There were a lot of stands on the sidewalks, some of them selling food, other goods, and even services like tarot card readings. I also saw a Burger King, a KFC, a Bennigans, and several pizza places! I noticed that all the buildings in Korea, in both the rural and suburban areas I've visited, have a millions signs plastered all over them, especially neon ones. It seems they cover almost all the free space on a building with a sign. Exhibits A and B:

The buildings directly across from the mall.

You can just see some street stands.

The whole time we were wandering around, I kept an eye out to see if anyone was staring or surprised to see a foreigner, but I didn't notice anything. Then we all met back up for dinner... So I'm standing near the entrance to the mall with two of my Korean-American friends, and I hear this really loud "Hello!" right behind me. I turn around, and some random middle-aged lady is pushing her 6 year old daughter to me and insisting that I speak to her. The kid just stares at me and starts blowing bubbles with her spit while the mother is pushing her and trying to get her to speak English. The silence just dragged outttttt. It was so awkward. English is a really big deal here, and parents really push their kids into taking extra English classes so they can succeed, because English is a sign of wealth and power in Korea. So I think some lady was just trying to get someone to speak to her kid in English for free for five minutes, because English tutors are ridiculously expensive.

Then we had samgyapsal for dinner, or Korean BBQ. It was really good! There's a BBQ grill in the middle of the table and you  put the meat right on it and cook it yourself. As always, the meal was accompanied by many side dishes. It was really fun!

BBQ and some side dishes.

Great food and great company!! L-R: Anthony, Lucy, Paddy

My roommate, Erin, and I!

Lucy didn't want to take a picture lol

After dinner, we caught a bus back to Jungwon and I got to studying for the quiz I had bright and early that Monday morning. Classes are going fairly well, we've been learning how to do self-introductions and polite introductions, since manners, greetings, and first impressions are everything in Korea. I just need to keep studying the vocab. It's really not like Spanish, where at least I knew the alphabet and I could spell most words and then connect them back to English a little better. This is difficult because I'm learning a new alphabet at the same time. And sometimes it's hard to hear the difference between some of the sounds so that I can spell a word correctly.

Well, back to studying hangukeo (Korean language.) Annyeonghi-kyeseyo!! (Good-bye!)