The Cultural Divide, Part III

Hug me.

Touching in Korea is a sensitive subject (lol, sorry!). You are, of course, allowed to touch people of the same sex, but touching someone of the opposite sex is usually a no-no. It's really quite common to see people holding hands with their friends, leaning on each other's back or shoulders, putting their hand on their friend's leg, or linking arms as they walk down the street, but you won't see Koreans hug each other. To them, hugging is pretty much reserved for children, special occasions, or only to be done in private. You don't hug your friends. Well, the other day Mi Hyang told me that she was incredibly shocked when she ran into Courtney in a restaurant and Courtney hugged her in front of all of her family and the company Courtney was with. She said her daughter gasped and her son exclaimed, "Wow!! Omani (mommy)!"They quickly got up and left, embarrassed. She then told me to let Courtney know that hugging isn't okay, but followed that by telling me I could hug her. Craziness. I learned two important lessons from this conversation: 1. just don't hug people here, and 2. if you must, hug only your closest friends. I'm glad that Mi Hyang sees me as someone she can hug. I feel honored.

BFF (best friends forever)

All this week I've been battling the lonely heart blues. It's hard being here and not having anyone to really talk to. Most people don't have the English skills to talk about serious subjects, so I often find myself limited to conversation about breakfast--quite unfulfilled. However, after a significant amount of prayer and reflection last night, God showed me something I had completely missed. I have been perplexed and frustrated that whenever I ask my swimming buddies to hang out they say they can't, they're busy, or they need to rest. It seemed to me like we had really hit it off! Now I was beginning to feel like maybe I was bothering them or maybe they didn't like me as much as I thought they did, but then God showed me it was neither or the two. Koreans just don't make friends the same way Americans do. For them, it's a long process, there's no rush. For us, we can't wait to see each other again! Really, isn't it great when you meet someone you really hit it off with and you two do everything together for a month or longer? You may see each other every day or every other day!! But for them, once a week is good enough. Even if you have an instant connection, they're still not in a hurry to know everything about you. So I've resigned myself to waiting. Yes, I do have some great and promising connections here in Korea, but it will take more time before I can make a best friend. I've read that it may take Koreans 6 years to develop a close friendship... Let's hope that things move just a little faster for me!

Teaching do's and don'ts...

Apparently I've freaked out a couple students at the boys school by my odd behavior: one day I stuck my hand in my pocket while teaching and another day I was chewing gum. My co-teacher had to warn me later that such actions were offensive and inappropriate for teachers. What a bummer! Two of my favorite things--gum and pockets--and I can't have either of them in class!! Argh.

God bless socialism...

One of the greatest parts of a socialist economy is the free garbage service and the lower electricity rates. Nobody has "garbage" cans for their individual apartments but instead there are "garbage poles" which are basically light poles where everyone piles their trash. The pole are everywhere--almost every other light pole is a trash pole. The benefit of this is that there isn't any loose garbage laying around and the streets are generally pretty clean. Now, the electricity. I don't know how it happened, but my electricity bill for the last month totaled $8. I love Korea. Why can't things be like this at home?