That's because, it's midterms-time, and after having completed already 4 exams earlier this week, there's still one more to go tomorrow. Marketing, which is usually my thing. Not so this time. Not that it's hard, I'm simply astonished by the extent to which all these smart people, of whom most probably never actually had to bring a product to market, manage to squeeze common wisdom into countless tables & models. These can then be learned by heart and reproduced in the exam by the aspiring marketing managers of the future. Awesome. I still don't believe that Marketing is a science, and even if i score an A+ tomorrow (which I consider unlikely) it won't make me a better Marketer in the "real world".
This being said, I feel much better, and because I don't want to bore you with school stuff, I will quickly switch topics and try to give a summary of what has been going on the past month that I have been too busy (too lazy?) to write:
First, there was Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving. That was awesome, and consumed 2 entire days. We (this time that's 2 American friends & me) went to visit "halmoni", that's Grandma, of one of these friends. At her place in the far south of Seoul, we spent the whole friday making traditional pancakes, and ground-pork-stuffed peppers (yummy! spicy!) and sesame leaves and a multitude of other traditional dishes, which we ate in total 5 times, in a row.
As much as I like Gimchi (by now I even am on friendly terms with Korean breakfast) , that was a little intense.
Well, back to Chuseok-Friday. Chuseok is absolutely dedicated to family. But there wasn't much family, so there also wasn't that much to do. We watched some korean cook-shows on TV, and all were about making dokk , the traditional rice-cake, or Gimchi (surprise!) . Even though I still find it a tad bit hard to follow what they're saying, that was entertaining. So are korean TV commercials. These are usually very loud, colourful and giggly.
A smiling face, a product and two thumbs up. If that works, why go to Marketing class at all?!
It was an early night, because we were about to have an early day on Saturday, the actual Chuseok, as well. And when it was bedtime, I got another fix of korean culture. Because I was the only girl in our small group of 3, I got my own private sleepover with halmoni, who'se small house only has 2 rooms. God forbid a girl sleeps in the same room as the boys! 유럽 안이에요! (This isn't Europe!)
The next day, we had the aforementioned dishes for breakfast, met up with some more family, and drove for about 2 hrs to the graveyard, which is the thing to do at Chuseok, very much like Austrian Allerheiligen. They look rather like parks, with the graves just being small hills with a stone. There, the Koreans among us had a little prayer and paid their respects to the ancestors. Then we had a picnic, right next to the grave. After that, the whole day was spent pretty much just laying in the grass, taking short walks on the beautiful countryside and eating.
What else happened since my last entry.... ? Oh, Jeju of course. This island is located South of South Koreaa and is the biggest of all the Korean Islands.
It's famous for it's tangerines, sex-museums and Grandfather-sculptures, which do look a little bit like grandfathers, but if you have a vivid imagination, you might have other associations as well. Jeju Island is also where all the korean honeymooners go.
But this was not the reason of my Austrian friend Nicole and my visit. Instead, we were attempting to stretch summer (which was slowly coming to an end by the middle of october in Seoul) a little further. We were quite successful in doing so, I guess:
The first day we arrived in Jeju-si, the capital, we weren't too thrilled by the sights there. Maybe that was due to actual lack thereof (except Yongduam, the dragon head rock, in front of which every, every korean person has to have their picture taken at least once in their lifetime), or due to us being a bit tired from a fun night out in Itaewon the day before.
Nevermind, the next morning, spirits were up high again and we decided to rent a scooter for 3 days, which doesn't cost shit there. On this supercool scooter, we surrounded the island on the beautiful coastal road. Nicole was driving, and I was sitting in the back, taking pictures of the amazingly blue water, ricefields which are surrounded by walls of volcanic rock to shield them from wind, and the women who were collecting kim (seaweed) and spread it out on the streets to dry.
By sunset, we arrived in Seogwipo, a town in Southern Jeju, where we spent the following two days, which were beyond awesome. Our wonderful host took us to the main sights (mostly waterfalls), snorkling in a bay formed by volcanic rock, a nocturnal bikeride and even a night swim at one of the beautiful beaches.
Having accustumed to the laidback lifestyle of the islanders really fast,we found it terribly hard to leave this place, and return to busy Seoul on Monday.
Before we did so, another fun thing happened. I guess I mentioned before, that the friendlyness of Koreans towards foreigners is sometimes outstanding. So, when we were walking through Jeju-si trying to find the airport bus, a car pulled up, opended the window and the driver handed us some candy. We laughed so hard it hurt after he left.
Speaking about friendlyness, just a couple of other anecdotes that occurred to me in the past month:
When we had trouble finding the Rent-a-scooter-place, a friendly local whom we had asked for directions told us to hop in his car and took us there.
Another one, who spoke English , invited us to the temple at which he lived and gave us a small, free guided tour.
Also in Seoul, stuff like that happens:
When I broke the heel of my shoe one day, I took it to the little shoeshop which is right on campus. The old guy who fixes shoes there is usually very busy, since all the girls wear high heels and these break all the time. I asked him whether he could fix my shoe and how long it would take. He said "3000 won, but it'll take a long time". That in itself is contradictory, cause somethingg that takes long shouldn't cost as little as 3000 won, which equals about EUR 1,70. Still, I left him my shoe and picked it up after class the same day. As I handed him the 3000, he looks at me, unbelievingly, and gives me back 2 notes. So, I got my shoe fixed for 55 cents, and he could easily have taken 3 times the money, cause I'm an ignorant weiguk, but he didn't.
From that I conclude, that Korean shoemakers are more honest than taxidrivers. These overcharge you all the time, or take you for unnecessarily long rides around the city, trusting that their foreign customer is not going to make use of the free interpretation that is offered in these taxis to do anything about it. Strangely, with Chinese taxidrivers I didn't have these experiences as much. Or maybe it's just harder to notice the fraud, cause it's much cheaper anyway.
Another time, I was on a bus, having just done some grocery shopping. I was standing, holding my 2 heavy bags. Suddenly, an ajuma or middle-aged-woman, gets up and offers me her seat. I refuse. She urges me to sit down, and I do, feeling slightly awkward, cause it's not common in this culture that elders stand up for young people. Either I look really old, or she was just very friendly, to not just take my bags on her lap, which apparently is a korean custom, but to make me sit down, and mutter friendly-sounding words at me.
There have been many more of alike incidences, but I don't have the time right now to further elaborate. I'll try to take up the habit to write once a week again, so this is to be continued - next week.
