So, Halloween in Korea. Well, the truth is, they don't celebrate Halloween in Korea. They know about it, but they don't really know about it at all. All they know is that it is a holiday where people dress up. But the student council at my school decided that they were going to throw a Halloween party this year (in honor of Alyssa and I, but also just for the students)
Well, they did their research well, because it was an awesome Halloween Party, and very American. Except for the Karaoke contest and Arm Wrestling contest. And most of them dressed up, and some of them went all out. It was so much fun ^^ There were different activities in the different rooms, and you could go on this "scary" walk around the school in the dark, and people jumped out at you. Similar to stuff people do in America. There was also face painting and all that stuff. I'll upload pictures to facebook! And they really went all out in their decorations. It was awesome :) Alyssa and I contributed candy that we bought at Costco.
This week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of today (Thursday), I didn't go to class xD Instead, I joined the art teacher and a small crew of students (the ones who don't want to go to class, there are about 6 or 7 of us), and built the stairs all day for those days. We started working on the stair a long time ago, but we didn't crack down on it until this week. So instead of going to class I have been laboring and playing with cement. But it's really wonderful, because I get to spend the time chatting in Korean. And while in class I am "the foreigner", when I am laboring I am just another set of hands. And I'm pretty good at it too xD Now if only I could be as good at knitting as I am at building stairs....
One of the girls got our school involved in this project where we knit hats for babies in Africa, so this week half the kids have been knitting 24/7 xD I'm bad at it T.T
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The Dog Cafe
So, I did a lot this weekend. But the point that I would like to highlight with this blog post is what I did on Thursday with my friend. The dog café.
We didn’t have school on Thursday and Friday this week, due to incoming Freshmen orientation, so I went home with a friend to Seoul for a few days. She knew that I loved dogs, and she likes dogs too, so we decided to go to this dog café in Myeongdong. Basically what it is, is a mediocre café that serves you a drink, and you go and sit at a table, and around the room that is the café there are 20 dogs wandering around. Some of them are cute, some are not, and at the beginning they show you the dog “menu” which has all the names, and they tell you which ones are dangerous to pet. Why they have dogs that are dangerous to touch in a dog cafe, I will never understand.
Anyways, about 20 minutes after we got there, these two dogs start fighting. I know dogs, and I know when they are seriously fighting, and these dogs were getting at it. They had to be pulled apart, but it was seriously chaotic because all the dogs were barking and going crazy. It was normal though I guess, none of the staff seemed to care.
This is where the dog lover in me comes out—this is absolutely not an okay establishment. The dogs live 20 to one room that is about twice the size of my bedroom in the states, and they never get out. They relieve themselves right there in the café, where it is not only not sanitary for the dogs, but also for the people who are enjoying their drinks only to find that a dog is peeing by their chair.
The dogs don’t all get along; they fight with each other—making it dangerous for not only the dogs, but also the people in the café. And all the dogs are fed in communal food/water bowls, which just gives them reason to fight.
And also, the dogs get NO rest. One of the dogs came up to me and I pet it, then it jumped up on my lap and slept for an hour. They are constantly being harassed by the people in the café, who seem to not care at all (and don’t know how to pick up a dog—if you don’t know how to pick up a dog, don’t improvise). That is one thing that I have to mention, is that Korean people have a completely different perspective on dogs than Americans do. It is not uncommon to be walking down the street and see a dog chained to a fence on a chain that is like 3 feet long. They just don’t care about dogs here. So in reality, the lives that the dogs are getting at the dog café are better than the alternative lives that they could be having. But both are sad. I will upload pictures to my facebook--it is being really slow to upload them here.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
What's new
Starting last weekend, my host family was not able to host me anymore. So, as of this Monday, I have been living in the school dormitories with the rest of the second grade girls. While I was a little surprised and concerned at first about not having a host family, I am so excited to be living in the dorms. But, as I know others in America are still concerned about it, I’ll share about my first night in the dorms.
Monday night, the nuns took Alyssa and I to get Chicken. We had a chicken party ^^
Then, we dropped Alyssa off at her apartment, then went on to Jochiwon. While Sister Camilla talked to my host mom for about an hour, Sister Noella and I finished packing my stuff (I had packed it all over the weekend) and we just hung out and joked around. Then we left, and on the way back to school we picked up a bunch of ice cream.
I’ve been sleeping at school every Wednesday, so this wasn’t the first time for me to come to stay there for a night. But still, when I arrived on Monday night after getting all my stuff, I walked in the door with the nuns and the girls were all like “Emma!!! Welcome to Pada!!!!” They were all really excited I was there, which made me feel a lot better. Since my host family situation pretty much made me feel like nobody wanted me, having all the girls is wonderful. Anyways, they had cleared up a desk for me, and my own little closet/wardrobe thing.
The way it works is that there is one main room (called Pada—or Beach in English), and two small rooms for the 2nd year girls. Pada is the room I live in, and it has a common area, bathrooms, 2 bedrooms and a shower/laundry room. Every night when we have reading/diary time, all the girls come to Pada, even the girls who live in the other two rooms (Star and Sky). In the 2 bedrooms at Pada, 5 girls live in each room. In the two smaller rooms, 2 people live in one and 3 people live in the other. We have our desks, and at night time we lay our blankets on the floor and sleep there.
9:00pm every night is when the girls are supposed to be back in the rooms, and 9:30 is cleaning time. Then, at 10:00 we have reading/diary time, and on nights when the best teacher is in charge of us, we all sit around and each talk about our days, or some other topic. Last night, we turned off the lights, lit candles, and had time for everyone to talk about something they are sorry about doing. It was very stereotypical big emotional confession time, but it was very nice.
So, since last night was my first night here, the nuns had me bring ice cream as sort of a “I’m moving in—here’s a gift” sort of thing. So after our group time, we all went into one of the rooms and ate ice cream and bread that the teacher had bought for us. It was so much fun J Then we all sat around and chatted until 1AM, when I finally went to bed.
Being here is so much less stress than having a host family. I’m sure I will be sick of having no time alone every once in a while, but it’ll be alright.
Also, the weekends here, everyone goes home. I obviously don’t have a home to go to. So I’m still not sure how that’s going to work. But other than that, all is well!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Andong!
This weekend I went with friends to stay with her mom in Andong, which is known as the Cultural Capital of Korea. Right now the annual Korean Mask Dance festival is being held there, so I saw a lot of mask dancing! It was really interesting, and I had a really good time with my friends. We also went to the Ha-Hoe village, which is like the Connor Prairie of Korea, except people still live there. Anyways, I have a lot of pictures, so you can check them out on facebook or by using this link:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150741123720162.722388.539770161&l=8a7d1f31eb&type=1
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150741123720162.722388.539770161&l=8a7d1f31eb&type=1
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