Lots of things have changed. I've since moved to Busan, South Korea. I've been here for close to 2 months now and I still feel culture shock strongly once in a while. It's challenging to live here, but perhaps it's too early to tell right now. I'll give it more time.
So now I'm a student of the korean language and it's really interesting so far. I enjoy learning new languages, but my grasp of it is still so rudimentary, I can't have any form of decent conversation with a local. As such, I'm pretty much friendless in my city. My classmates are all well and good, but most of them are Chinese chinese. They are friendly but if you're not chinese within a big group of chinese, then you're not one of "us". You know...?
Anyway, I really hope to meet some like-minded people and talk about similar shared experiences in korea and things like that, or I'll go crazy in a matter of seconds. On the same topic, I'm terribly homesick and also missing my old life back in Japan. I've finally adjusted to my lifestyle there, enjoying socialising with familiar people, but I've cleverly uprooted myself and arrived in South Korea.
People assume that because you're Asian, you'd understand the culture more and fit in more easily than a real westerner. I doubt that's the case because sometimes I truly resent this overpowering confucianism-based society. It makes existing difficult because of how mindful you must be of your own behaviour around people, especially older people, because they expect you to be polite and to adhere to their cultural rules.
For example, I had many run ins with his family. For examples, I didn't know what to say to greet a family member when they left or arrived home. I decided to do a friendly "byebye" but that didn't go very well down with his father. He said that it was unacceptable. Oops. I was trying, but I think saying nothing would have been better.
Then we had a family meal together at home. BBQ meat and soju, yay! I happily took the soju bottle, give it a fancy swish around and thumped it hard at the bottom to shake it up. I was pretty much proud of myself for being able to learn this trick from S's friends, but again his father was like ZOMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?!!? So I guess it was a no-no. I can't do that with elders, only with my friends apparently. Oops X2.
Another time I was called to S's house to meet his cousin who was going to get married. We live about 5 minutes away so I just threw on anything close by. It was also sweltering hot in mid-summer, at mid-day. Without a thought, I went to S's place to meet his cousin. Who then showed up with her husband, her dad and her mother-in-law-to-be. TOO MANY ELDERS TO MEET. Her father then commented that my tank top looked like a PJs because it was too form fitting. My skirt was deemed inappropriate as well because it too short and fitting. When we got home, S commented that my outfit was truly inappropriate. Thanks for the post-event advice. It had been terribly useful. I was really upset at the difference because attire really wouldn't matter in Singapore, especially what I was wearing. But it reflected badly on me in South Korea.
There was one more minor attire incident which pissed me off immensely about all these strict unwritten rules about attire. I was planning to wear my sports attire - a nike tank top and a pair of FTB shorts to walk about an hour to the bike shop and also drop by the supermarket nearby. S stopped me and demanded that I change out into normal t-shirt and shorts. So the million dollar question was WHY????? By my logical standards, it's THE BEST attire for a walk. Plus I look good in that. So his response was this - NOBODY IN KOREA GOES TO THE SUPERMARKET IN SPORTSWEAR. YOU WOULD BE SEEN AS A CRAZY IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woah woah woah. So basically 80% of the population (especially of those 40 and up) wear outdoor brands (for mountain-climbing, hiking etc) go to basically anywhere. But it's basically unbelievable and impolite to go to the supermarket in sportswear. MY MIND IS COMPLETELY BLOWN. I couldn't stand how ridiculous all these rules are like about attire. Why is everything such a big deal?
As you can see, I still have a lot of emotional dissonance to deal with. We'll see. Watch this space. I hope to check in again soon! In the meantime, I'll have to post some photos to make up for all the missing photos in my past posts. I wonder what went wrong.
In Korea, it's perfectly fine to sit by the roadside to relax. This is especially popular with the 아줌마(clone-like middle aged korean aunties with permed hair and loud voices).
Midday in bustling Nampodong market (near Jagalchi fish market)
colourful Gamcheon Cultural Village
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