1. Fights are common, almost expected. Especially when Americans are involved.
2. Cops are almost never called...and you have to earn an appearance by the boys in blue.
3. If you do happen to have the cops called, they will try to calm the parties down, but will rarely take people to jail.
4. If someone IS going to go to jail, it will usually be the younger of the two...so since I am 28 and live in a college neighborhood, that most likely will not be me.
5. If I going to get in to a fight, at least let the other person hit you first...just to be on the safe side.
I like these girls style. Kathy invited me to a pub crawl they are having in my neighborhood tonight and I am trying to go. I have a LOT of homework and reading to do first, and even as I write this..I am only doing so because I needed a break. If I do end up making it...you can look forward to a nice update about it. (I didn't make it, but at least I finished my Stats reading for the week, as well as my Marriage readings)
Racism
Jeonju is a very traditional Korean city, and as such isn't as "foreigner" friendly as Seoul. Despite being a capital city (of this province), Jeonju only has about 300 "foreigners". When Korea started pushing for it's citizens to learn English, Jeonju wasn't ready for the influx of us...so there has been and continues to be a bit of resistance. Luckily, since I do live near a college campus I am a bit sheltered from the brunt of it...but I have experienced a little bit of racism while here. To be honest, it has been relatively mild compared to some people and it doesn't really affect me. Mostly I have just had random people walk up to me and tell me "Fuck you" or they will scowl at you while giving you the dagger eyes. Hell, I've even been refused a table at a restaurant and been charged more than what I should.
Of course, this is nothing compared to what my co-worker Spencer went through. He was literally attacked by a drunk Korean man. He was walking around our neighborhood with 3 Korean friends when a drunk Korean started yelling at him. He obviously had no idea what was being said, so they kept walking. The man followed, continuing to yell the whole way. His Korean friends tried to calm the guy down and get him to leave him alone, but he wouldn't. Eventually he rushed at Spencer and started swinging. Luckily the guy was drunk so I don't even think the guy managed to hit Spencer, but he said it was a pretty tense time. Spencer was later told that the guy was yelling that his father had died in the Korean war and that he didn't understand why the country was trying to learn English and that he disagreed with having American's living in the country to teach. I am not sure what his father dying in the Korean war had anything to do with Americans...seeing as we were HELPING the South Koreans...but what can you do?
A former teacher who will remain nameless once tried to get a hooker in Korea. Prostitution is illegal in Korea but is still pretty common. There are known brothels throughout the country, but the police don't do anything to stop it. So this former teacher went to one of these houses of ill repute and decided to try and see what he could get. Unfortunately for him, he was refused at the door because "This is Korea! We are for Korean men!". This of course has now been officially adopted by Spencer and Walter (and now myself) to be the appropriate response whenever something doesn't make sense. "This is Korea!" (to be said with an angry voice in a Korean accent).
In my class on Friday we had "Free talk" which means the students can talk about anything they would like. One of the students, by far my youngest (about 9) said that she wished she could get plastic surgery because her cheeks were too puffy and her skin was too light. I told her that as she got older her cheeks would be less puffy, and that her skin was just fine. This then transitioned over to talking about how Korean men only dated beautiful women and that is why a lot of girls are getting plastic surgery. Being beautiful is VERY important (as was explained to me...EVERY celebrity in Korea has tons of plastic surgery). So in passing I said "Well, maybe you will fall in love with an American man, I have yet to see an unattractive Korean, so I know my compatriots would feel the same way". This was of course met with head shakes because as I was quickly informed that marrying a non-Korean was unacceptable and very much so frowned upon in the country. Korea is a very conservative culture, and from what I was told, American men are too liberal when it comes to sex by Korean standards.
My Eyes
Out of the blue on Friday one of my older male students told me I have beautiful eyes. This of course made me laugh and I said "what?!". The rest of the class agreed that I had beautiful eyes, so I kind of hammed it up a bit by dramatically removing my glasses and telling the class how my eyes were as blue as the sea and by far my best feature. Imagine my dismay then when as soon as I removed my glasses the girl directly to my left turned her head away from me. I asked her what was the problem and she just kind of giggled and wouldn't look in my direction. One of the students then told me that she thought my eyes were too beautiful and that she couldn't look at me without my glasses on. So to make her more comfortable I put my glasses on and we continued the class. I was confused as to what that reaction meant so I asked another student in class and he just said "thats how girls are". I asked if she had a crush on me or something (I was still very confused) to which he responded "no, no, no, no, no...that's just how girls are". Pretty damn random, huh?
Oh, by the way....Korea is trying to replace me with a robot
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