More Korean Signs

One of the first things we noticed when we arrived in Korea was the many funny signs in English. Knowing more about Korea now than we did when we first arrived, it's very surprising that some of these signs get put up. English is taught in schools as a mandatory subject from a very early age. One can only suppose that either the instruction is not very thorough or that they just don't care too much! The non funny and very confusing translations that are everywhere are a constant source of frustration for expats as they may as well just stick to Korean for all the help they give. Here is some of the funny and non-frustrating 'Konglish': 

 "It's where you go the morning after." (Credit to Mark for making the sign even funnier.)

The brunch place that creates the need for the cafe above...

You really don't want to go this way, apparently! The statement above in Korean is not as intense, the problem here is just a misuse of punctuation along with a mistranslation.

SO close to being inappropriate, although it is just a transliteration of the Korean letters underneath.

Although 'No Brand' is a popular discount chain for a lot of things (think Walmart or Target), the burger place needs a new marketing director...

An Irish pub in Busan, and one that's actually just clever, not accidentally embarrassing.

You can't miss this one, it's the only English language business name on the building. It's a coffee shop, by the way, nothing more (as far as we know)!

I think they meant to indicate that it's fast fashion?

And just to balance things out, this was next door.

This is one the just has to be intentional. There's a lot of these little 'motels' scattered around, many with suggestive names. They're not necessarily for illegal activities, it's just that in a multi-generational household (very common here) there's not a lot of privacy!

Air Conditioning Woes

    We have an air conditioning system in our house that is very odd. There are two outside units connected to all of the inside units, one for downstairs and one for upstairs. Each room that has an AC unit in it can be controlled separately, but all the units on one floor depend on their corresponding outside unit to work. This complicated system was put in place by a single company and no one except the lone technician working for that company can fix any problems we have. It usually takes several days to get this guy to come work on our system and for one miserable week last July he was on vacation while the upstairs (bedroom) AC unit stopped working. There was, apparently, no one else in the whole country who could understand the system. (That seemed very fishy, but it's not our country or our language so there wasn't much we could do.) An added layer to this complication is that the power to the outside units is controlled by the management company for the neighborhood. They turn the power off for every AC unit in the neighborhood at some arbitrary date in the fall and won't turn it on until May at the earliest. The same is also true of the heating. Last fall our upstairs AC stopped working again, but since it was close to the turn off date the management company refused to call the technician. 

    Knowing that it was already broken, last week we contacted our realtor, who is the intermediary between us and the management company. We asked to have the repairs completed before the weather got too warm. Doing this (we found out) would require briefly turning on the power to the system to confirm our AC was still not working. However, this was apparently too much to ask. The management company again refused to even touch the power button until 'sometime in May', no date given. When this arbitrary date comes around we won't even know, and when it does happen we will have a broken AC unit that still needs to be fixed. 

     It is very hard to understand the reasoning behind this system. It may have something to do with the very hierarchical structure of Korean society. Those at the top control everything they can and those at the bottom just have to deal with whatever the managers decide. It probably also has to do with the Korean tendency to never spend any more than they absolutely have to. This means that things like ACs and heaters are never used until everyone is actually suffering from the outside temperatures. Our lease dictates that the single lump sum we pay each year will cover our rent plus any and all utilities and repair bills. Nothing comes out of our pockets at all related to house expenses. While it sounds nice in a way, what it means is that any money that doesn't absolutely have to be spent is not spent and the only leverage we have is to not renew the lease for the following year until certain conditions are met. This system is only true for civilians, however. The Army people in our neighborhood (who are the vast majority of the neighbors) do have to pay their own utility bills each month. Why they have to fall under the same system I cannot fathom. It must be due more to the cultural hierarchical thinking and not as much to the money-saving disposition. 

    It can be very interesting and enlightening to live in a foreign country and learn how other people live and view the world. In this case, however, I can't find much to admire and find the whole thing ridiculously aggravating!

Traffic Tickets: One Year Later

New traffic cameras are going up all the time, and it turns out that the signs alerting you to the traffic cameras are put up significantly later than the camera itself. The result being, I got another ticket. The same problem we had last year is still a problem. By the time we actually get the ticket (which goes to the U.S. and then back to here) it is a day or two before or after the due date. 

This time, having learned from past experience that it's really nothing to worry about, I put off paying the ticket for a while. Well, to be honest, I actually forgot about it altogether. Until I got a notice in the mail that my car was going to be impounded in four days!! This seemed rather extreme and out of the blue, to say the least. It turns out that Koreans have greatly increased their follow-through for traffic violations. I asked a Korean friend to confirm the translation of the ticket and she did. She also said that this kind of ticket is "a little serious" and has to be paid at the police station, not the bank as we normally would. Yikes!

On the advice of my brother who previously lived here, I first went to the U.S. Army police station. They took a look and said the reason I got that notice was that for some reason Korea doesn't recognize my car as a foreign car. It turns out there had been some mix-up in the registration of my very American car. It's a Toyota and no self-respecting Korean would be caught dead driving a Japanese car. I shouldn't have gotten such a notice, and even if the Korean police had attempted to impound my car, first of all they wouldn't be able to find it because the address associated with the car is a U.S. address and secondly, they would have just contacted the American Army police anyway since I am American. So that was no problem. However, I did still need to pay the ticket. Some very nice Korean-American policemen gave me directions to the nearest local police station and off I went.

Crime is extremely low here in Korea and as a result the police stations are quite small. I circled the block a bit, but finally found the station tucked away behind some other government building. One of the younger officers spoke very good English and first explained that I could pay the ticket there but it would involve a lot of paperwork so it would be better to go to the bank. So I asked about the impound notice. That involved a good bit of discussion and a few phone calls (maybe to the Army police?) but I was finally given an account number and told to show that to the bank in order to pay the ticket. So off to the bank I went.

At the bank the receptionist took a look at my papers and new account number and told me that everything looked fine. I got in line and eventually paid my ticket. As I was leaving the bank the receptionist told me, "actually you could have just come here, I don't know why you went to the police station." (!!) So a whole lot of hassle for a problem that really wasn't a problem and for a ticket that was only about $35. I should probably figure out the registration issue at some point, but that will involve the Army bureaucracy and will take forever. I'm not feeling super motivated to spend a whole day in that black hole. Better to just try to avoid getting another ticket. However, seeing as it's a foreign country with traffic rules no foreigner ever seems to quite grasp, the chances of that seem rather slim!

Food Waste Bags

One of the best things about Korea is how well they deal with waste. Recycling is mandatory and they also require that you put most kinds of food waste in a separate bag, which you can purchase from any grocery store. The waste is collected and then converted into animal feed. 

This is a food waste bag that can hold about one liter of food. They also come in two liter sizes, and restaurants have their own kind too. I keep a bag in the freezer and add food until it's full. Then you take it down to the trash drop-off spot and put it in a specially labeled trashcan. 

My Filipino housekeeper told me a really funny story about these bags recently. There was a newly-arrived Filipino lady to our area who had been told about these bags, but only that they were 'food bags'. So this lady packed her lunch into one of them. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but on this particular day she ate her lunch while on the public bus (a faux pas in Korea, but she didn't know). She pulled out her bag and started to eat. The Koreans on the bus were horrified! They immediately started handing her money and any food they had with them. The Filipino lady was so confused, she already had a nice lunch. With the language barrier no one could explain themselves, but everyone involved had a good story to tell when they got home!

Local Excitement: We Have a 7-11!

We live in a neighborhood that was built on two lots in a small farming village. We're not quite in the middle of nowhere, but compared to where most people live in South Korea we're pretty isolated. My family medicine doctor was flabbergasted when she discovered that the closest physical therapy place to us was a 20 minute drive, and the closest pharmacy was a 10 minute drive. When we moved in, there were hardly any shops nearby and the ones that were closest were not very useful. So when we saw that an empty building at the end of our street was being converted into a 7-11 it was very exciting! 

Convenience stores are a significant part of Korean culture. You can get what you would expect: drinks, snacks, some prepared foods, but also things you might not expect: socks, underwear, makeup, some basic medicines, alcohol, hot water for your cup noodles (similar, but way better than, packaged ramen), baked sweet potatoes and tables to eat and drink at. Convenience stores are actually popular hang-out spots in the evening, and a decent lunch option during the day. 

Here is our new 7-11 on its opening day. You can see many flower pots and a big flower arrangement out front. These are gifts given to new businesses to wish them good luck and prosperity. There is a picnic table out front to the right, and on the far left of the building is an enclosed porch with four more tables to eat at. Later in the day when the weather got warmer the porch doors were opened and people were already hanging out!

Jeju

We also visited Jeju, an island off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula, during our brief freedom to travel. Jeju is a volcanic island (all volcanoes are dormant now) and because it's rather far south it has a bit of a tropical feel. It's very accessible by plane or ferry. This time we flew and it was a super easy trip. We drove an hour south to the closest airport, flew for 45 minutes, and we were there!

Although the people on Jeju are Koreans and speak Korean, they are somewhat separate from the rest of Korea so they have their own dialect of Korean (not very understandable to most Koreans) and many different customs. These statues are everywhere. They are stone guardians.

Our guide told us that Koreans like to stack stones for good luck. Simon enjoys stacking anything, so he joined in!

Volcanic rock coastline.

Jeju's aquarium is much bigger than Busan's. Here is the kids's touching pool. It was big enough for a whole school of some kind of fish! You could also purchase a packet of fish food for 500 Won (about 25 cents). 

The sandy beaches on Jeju are mostly created for the tourists. This is a rocky beach with some very interesting tide pools. We didn't swim, but Simon and I both slipped in and got wet feet.

Another beautiful view of the rocky coast and volcanic formations.

These are squid drying in the sun. These were hanging on a fence along a main road. I'm not sure how people know whose squid are whose, but stealing in Korean is very unusual, so they're pretty safe to just hang there.

This was a life-size maze. Simon had a lot of fun finding his way through (we think he cheated some.) The maze place was also a cat sanctuary and you could definitely smell them!

One of the three waterfalls on Jeju. This was the only one that was accessible to a four year old.

There's a type of hybrid fruit grown on Jeju called an apple mango. They were just out of season but we managed to find one in a grocery store. Our guide said she'd never had one because they were too expensive. I paid about 14,000 Won for this one, which comes to about $12. It was very tasty, but probably not worth the price for a single piece of fruit.

 

Busan

In June the health threat level was lowered and we were allowed to travel within South Korea. Our first trip was to Busan, a port city in the far south of the peninsula. Although there is a super-fast train that could get us there in two hours, we decided to drive because we really haven't seen much of Korea at all yet. The drive was about four hours, mostly through the mountains. It was very nice!

As you can see, the city of Busan is built right up to the water's edge. They do have some problems with flooding during monsoon and typhoon seasons, but land is such a scarce resource in Korea that I suppose they feel they don't really have any other choice. 

This is Haeundae Beach, the biggest beach in Busan. We were here early in the season, so for that reason and because of COVID, the beach was fairly empty. Normally during the summer people are packed in quite closely.

Haeundae and Busan from an overlook on the other side of the inlet.

Most Buddhist temples in Korea are built high up on mountain tops, but the temple in Busan is built at the bottom of a cliff. This temple is to honor a sea deity (from what I understand, although that doesn't seem quite right as Buddhism doesn't have gods as such). To get to the temple you have to go down more than 100 steps.

These are representations of various gods from the Chinese zodiac. The boxes in front are for collecting money people give to the gods in exchange for answers to their petitions.

Inside the main temple building. I'm a bit unclear what exactly happens here, but you can see food donations laid out. If you look closely, you can see a box of Choco Pies towards the right. Choco Pies are and extremely popular snack here. So much so, that they have been used as black market currency in North Korea.

This village in Busan, Gamcheon, started as a refugee village during the Korean War. The invasion by the North Koreans never reached Busan, so many people ended up here. The houses are built so close together that the roofs of some houses are the parking spots for the houses just above. In more recent times, the people living here have aged or moved on. But because it is such an important historical site, the government is hiring artists to paint and use the old houses for other purposes. This is also a very popular site for filmmakers.

The decorations on one of the houses in Gamcheon.

We took a sky car over one of the other main beaches, which had a fun park at the other end. Lots of dinosaurs! But also some nice walking paths and snack shops. 

 Busan has a small, but very nice aquarium. Here is the touching pool for kids.

Arm Surgery Part 2

My surgery was scheduled for March 23rd. It could have been a bit sooner, but since I wanted to do an outpatient surgery I needed to have an early time slot. Early is, of course, relative. In the States I have had early surgery times that required a 7am arrival time. Here early meant a 9am arrival time. This was a bit trying because I had to fast from midnight the night before, and we usually get up around 5:30am. I was SO hungry and thirsty! And, unfortunately, the surgeon was a bit delayed. So I didn't end up going up to the operating room until almost 11:30. In the meantime, I was prepped by the nurse in the outpatient ward. In Korea hospital-wear is pants and a shirt! Definitely an improvement over the standard hospital gown in the U.S. 

I was hooked up to an IV and tested for an antibiotic allergy. Since I was fine, I was given a prophylactic antibiotic in my IV along with the usual bag of fluids. My sister-in-law's parents, Jackie and Steve, kindly agreed to meet me at the hospital and drive me home afterwards. Jackie was a nurse in the U.S., so she was super helpful to have around to help with communication. However, we were having such a good time chatting while we waited for the surgery that the nurse kicked her out. We were, apparently, being too loud. Fortunately, my turn came soon afterwards. I wasn't given any other medications before going to the operating room and I actually had to walk up there myself with the orderly. The only thing he did was show me the way. I was responsible for my own IV pole which was super surprising!

In the OR I was put on a gurney and given a warm sheet. Two nurses spent some time trying to figure out if I was allergic to any medications, and I finally had to write them down myself once I figured out what they were saying. Then they moved me into the lobby of the operating room, and left me near the entryway of the recovery room. I waited by myself for about 20 minutes and watched patients being wheeled into and out of that room. At one point I tried to sit up because I was super uncomfortable laying on the hard bed. Then someone came over to tell me that was dangerous, and that person stayed with me for the rest of the time. I was then wheeled into the operating room. On the way we passed several other operating rooms with large windows in the doors. I didn't really want to see what was going on inside, but I didn't have much choice!

I got a really good look at my operating room, because unlike in the States I was left wide awake while they did a bunch of preparations. When they finally did try to put me to sleep I had trouble inhaling the gas through the mask. I was pretty anxious at that point and couldn't breathe deeply enough to make it work. So they put something into my IV and that was that. 

Unfortunately, the philosophy behind pain management in Korea post-surgery is to give the least possible pain medication. (I've asked around, Koreans don't understand this policy either!) Since I don't get as much relief as expected from those kinds of medications anyway (a genetic thing) I was in pretty bad shape. After a double dose of what they had (I found out later all it was was liquid Tramadol- not very effective for me  in the best of times) I was sent down to the outpatient ward. I still wan't doing very well and the nurse who was transferring me from one bed to the next actually hit me on the back several times when I was having trouble moving myself. I didn't understand that at all! Jackie was allowed to come sit with me at that point and I begged her to get them to give me something else for the pain. She managed to talk them into it even though they objected, and I was given yet another dose of Tramadol. Ridiculous.

After a couple of hours I was allowed to drink some water. Shortly after that the surgeon came to see me. He was really happy with the results and so excited about it that he whipped out his phone and showed me pictures he had taken mid-surgery! I normally don't mind seeing things like that, but something about it being the insides of your own body and also the leftover nausea from the medications made it a bit hard to look at. He said he had given me some prescriptions and he would see me in two days. Jackie went to pay the bill and pick up my prescriptions from the hospital pharmacy. She also got me a yummy mango yogurt smoothie from the hospital coffee shop. Then she helped get me dressed, put a face mask on me, and we were on our way home.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and found out I was given, no exaggeration, TEN prescription medications to take at home! Most of them were pain-related medications, although two were for "digestion". I couldn't believe it. Why in the world did they withhold so much in the hospital and then give me such an excessive amount when I left? I was, however, much more comfortable once I got some of those medicines in me. My husband made me some scrambled eggs for dinner and I was off to bed. 

Although it was not a pleasant experience in the least, I am grateful that I was able to have the surgery. I wasn't functioning well at all beforehand, and the surgeon fixed several issues that I had dealt with for a long time. On top of that, if I had been in the States at this time I wouldn't have been able to have the procedure done because of the Corona virus. Korea didn't need to put off non-urgent procedures because they had done so well keeping on top of things before people got to the hospital. There was no worry that hospitals would be over-crowded. 

So much of this experience was different than I was used to, but I am not sure whether it is because of the social medicine or because of cultural differences. It's probably a bit of each. I am very interested moving forward to see how they deal with rehabilitation after surgery. So far I am just supposed to keep taking my medicine and not do too much!

Stories from my Filipino Housekeeper

Since sometime in October we have had a housekeeper come once every two weeks to do some of the heavier household chores. I met her at the grocery store on base because she liked the flowers I had picked out and started to chat. Her name is Rose and she is married to an American contractor. Her English is very good, although not quite fluent. Not for lack of trying, however. Rose is extremely talkative. Although she usually works only for about three hours, I'm always exhausted by the time she leaves! Since she's been coming here I have learned a lot about Filipino families and way of life, about being married to a black American man, and about her previous adventures before getting married. Here are some of the random things she has told me:

Just before Rose was born the current baby of the family (a boy) died of an illness. Rose's mother was very disappointed that she turned out to be a girl and decided to give her away to some friends. For her first seven years of life Rose was raised by two sisters and their brother. By the time Rose was old enough for school her mother decided to take her back and send her to school. It seems that Rose and her mother never did have a great relationship, which is understandable. However, Rose is grateful that her mother sent her to school. And family loyalty meant that when her mother got sick Rose paid for the treatments. That's why she took up housekeeping here even though she doesn't need to work. She wanted to pay for her mother's dialysis treatments back in the Philippines.

Her mother passed away a couple of months ago, so now Rose is continuing to work to help pay for her sister's son's upbringing, since his father won't claim him. The parents are not married and actually the father is married to someone else. Rose thinks that the father will eventually claim her nephew as his son because his other children are all girls. The father will need a son to pass his property on to since it doesn't seem that girls inherit.

Rose is careful never to criticize me openly, but she does leave strong hints that I am not nearly strict enough with my son. When she was growing up it seems that beatings were regularly given in her household. There was even an incident when one of her older sisters sneaked out of the house and all of the other seven siblings were beaten for not stopping her. Rose seems ambivalent about these beatings. She thinks her father had every right to give them, although of course she did not like it. She has stopped short of recommending that I do the same and seems to be unsure whether it really is the best way to treat children. She doesn't have any children of her own, so she hasn't had to make the choice for herself. But she likes to tell Simon that if he behaved the way he does in her father's house he would never do it twice! (Since her accent is rather strong I think Simon hasn't really understood her, thankfully)

When Rose was 21 she decided to leave the Philippines and work abroad. Although this is a very common thing for young Filipinos to do, at least one of her (American) uncles tried to discourage this plan, worrying about her safety. If you ever meet Rose you will understand why this would never actually be a concern. Rose is extremely strong, practical, and capable of defending herself!

One of the first places she worked was in Saudi Arabia. She was employed by a company that provided housekeepers to Saudi families and businesses. I am not totally clear about the timeline, but I think the first place she worked was in a private household. Everything went fine for a while until the husband of the house took a fancy to her. She did her best to avoid him, but one day she caught him in a compromising state while ogling her. She left the house, went directly to her employer and told them she needed to leave. Thankfully they agreed and she went back to pack her things. She informed the wife that she was leaving and the wife begged her to stay and even started unpacking her suitcase. Rose was having none of it. She told the wife exactly what her husband had done, grabbed her stuff, and walked straight out the door.

At another point Rose worked in a kind of orphanage in Saudi Arabia. She said most of the kids there were not actually orphans but were illegitimate children. When I expressed some concern for the children being left in an orphanage she did not understand. Where else would they go? Obviously the parents could not keep a child in such a situation (obviously...)

Another employer Rose had in Saudi Arabia wanted to marry her. She would have been either the second or third wife of this man. She did seriously consider marrying him and even converted from Catholicism to Islam in preparation. For some reason, however, this plan fell through, and Rose returned to the Philippines. When her father found out she had converted he put his foot down. He was NOT going to have a Muslim living in his house. So Rose prudently re-converted back to Catholicism.

Rose's education seems to have been somewhat less than adequate. Perhaps it emphasized English over other subjects. She also has no problem dealing with money and budgets, but seems to have never been taught anything about science. She was amazed one day when she saw white flowers in colored water on our counter. It had never occurred to her that this was how flowers sometimes had such unusual colors. Quite a revelation! She has little concept of medical issues and distrusts almost everything doctors do or say. She herself never takes any prescribed medication, although she does at least help her diabetic husband manage his blood sugar. And she made me some excellent ginger root tea when I had pneumonia.

Last week Rose spent a lot of time telling me that she doesn't think cancer exists. The doctors may say someone has cancer, but what's really happening is organ failure. Lung cancer? No such thing. It's just someone's lungs starting to fail. There's so much to be said against this idea I couldn't think where to begin so I just nodded and smiled. Needless to say, she does not seem to think much of my work in philosophy. I get the impression that she views it as a hobby of the rich and not worth anything in the long run.

Although I find her company exhausting, I am always very entertained by her. She is a loving and caring and loyal person, if a bit rough around the edges at times. She has done amazingly well with her life considering the many obstacles growing up in poverty has given her. And she is most definitely the strongest person I've ever met!

Corona Virus Part 4: Dealing with Boredom

Here in South Korea most things have been shut down for almost a month now. Schools are closed, any large gatherings have been canceled, and people are staying away from coffee shops and restaurants. Most of this is true for the army base, but we are allowed to go to worship services once a week as long as we don't shake hands, socialize too much afterwards, or hold any extra-curricular activities. The stores are also open on the army base, but they have started checking IDs at the door to limit who goes in and out. Movement and temperature checks are still being held at all the gates before we can go it.

So what can you do at home all day with a four year old? This is some of what we've been up to: 

First time flying a kite!

Lots of walks outside in the (almost) spring air. Some trees have baby leaves now!

The house is cleaner than it's ever been.

Final painting of our volcano

Playing at friend's houses

Volcano with paper mache drying

Constructing the volcano

Seeing how white flowers change color in colored water

We check the flowers very regularly!

Playgrounds aren't off limits, but we are careful to sanitize our hands afterwards.

We're on our second time through the whole Peppa Pig series!

Lots of coloring and painting

And LOTS of new books!

A new outside toy!

And some early spring planting. We did sunflowers and peas today.