It's almost the end....

As a few of you may know, it can sometimes take me a few days or weeks to think through what I am going to write on my blog. Yes, there are plenty of entries that are just fired off in a few minutes, and there are ones that are simple recountings of the past weekend or whatever, or an excuse to post photos.... but then there are blog entries that I have reflected and ruminated on.

This is a combination of writing off the cuff as well as being something that's been on my mind for a few weeks.

I had planned to compare the experience of Korea to shopping at Tesco's/Homeplus... how you arrive to bowing and greetings, how everything seems just slightly different, how the food just isn't the same, with entire aisles in the grocery store containing nothing but rice, or pepper sauce, or live octopus in the meat section. I would have described the ladies dressed like cheerleaders who stand there with boxes of maxipads or shampoo and try to get you to buy insanely huge giftpacks. I would have written about men in white coats, yelling into badly tuned, crackly microphones about a sale on watermelon. I would have talked about special holidays, and the boxes of spam presented by women in traditional dress. There would have been something about the frustration of not being able to read a label, or of having a kid point at you and scream "Meeguk!" while his mother rammed her shopping cart into the back of your legs. I could have told you about the ridiculous music (gangsta rap in the grocery store, anyone?) or the fun "exercise time" when all the employees get together and do a mini-workout to annoying music. I could have talked about the great new foods I've discovered here: green tea noodles, green tea yogurt, flavourful apples, bags of baby bok choi, unidentifiable greens that became a staple of a lot of my cooking, as well as what I was missing: real cheese, real bread, cheap coffee. And then, when you get to the checkout, after all this wonderful service, including free things stuck to your purchases (a table cloth when you buy cereal, a set of bowls when you get instant coffee), you end up being pushed down the checkout aisle by a family buying nothing but ramen noodles, staring at what you're buying, while the cashier rapidly checks you through and there isn't even a bag boy.

All of this, in a nutshell, is Korea for me. Where you find a wonderful welcome, followed by noise and confusion, amazing discoveries, some embarrassment, but that, once you've paid, nobody is even going to help you carry your bags.

I would have written all that, and probably written it better, but I decided not to.

Instead, last night, after a lovely dak galbi meal with friends, followed by Ty and I posing for photos with a few of our favourite downtown business owners (the old lady who sells flowers, the bartender from Texas Moon, the dak galbi lady...), then a bit of soju, I jotted down a list of, well, I guess, advice for people coming to Korea -

This is to be taken with a grain of salt, or a shot of soju....

• Wherever you end up in Korea, be it Busan or Seoul or the far-flung republic of Jeollanamdo, spend at least one weekend away from your town. Get on a cheap bus and wander around the country. No matter where you go, you will find cheap accomodation, cheap food, and something wonderfully hidden. The places that have the best memories for me are the places I've found that were off the beaten path... or that took a bit of effort to reach. Taking a weekend or two a month to explore will also keep you from spending every Friday and Saturday night drinking with the same people.
• Allow yourself to feel culture shock without feeling guilty or evil about it. You don't have to apologize for not liking something that is unfamiliar... just don't spend all your time complaining about everything or you will alienate yourself from other possible experiences.
• TRAVEL. You are next door to Japan and China. You are a short hop from Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. A few more hours, and you're in Australia, India, Nepal... Get out there. Yes, you are probably here to pay off debts, but what kind of memories will that zero balance give you? The world is a big place, and it's the right time to discover it.
• Adopt an animal. Yes, it will be hard to balance your new dog or cat with your weekends away and your travel plans, but it's the one, true, concrete way that you can make a difference here. If you can't adopt, then donate your time or money to KAPS and their animal shelters. Also, answering the door with a big orange cat will keep the annoying daily visits from people who want to talk to you in broken English about Jesus to a minimum (Korean women seem to be very afraid of kitty cats).
• Leave the country, your apartment, your school better than when you came.
• Cultivate friendships with people you may not have had an affinity for back home, but don't make excuses for not being friends with people who may have different value systems. Just because you are a foreigner and living in a small town doesn't mean that you have to be friends with the person next door if you honestly don't want to.
• You're a teacher. That's why you are here. Whether you approach your experience as a simple "gap year" to make some extra money, or the start of a career, don't disrespect what a lot of us take seriously - our students, our classrooms, our lesson plans....
• Be kind to those who treat you right. Without the many people here who have helped me out, I would have been 100% lost. It *is* hard to get to a familiar level with certain Koreans but this past week, saying goodbye to people I've dealt with on a daily or weekly basis, has shown me that I will really be missed by a lot of the people in my neighbourhood... even if they don't know my name.
• Keep an eye on your contract, your money, your rights. Don't back down because you think it's the "nice thing to do". If you don't stand up for yourself when you are being cheated or treated poorly, nobody else will, and things will just get worse.
• Korea is uppy-downy world, as my friend Helen always said. There will be days when everything is wonderful and days when you would give anything to be able to leave. It's easy to say, "Just roll with it"... but it's not that easy. Remember the good (in a journal, or blog), acknowledge the bad (rant with friends), and keep in mind that you are entitled to both your negative and your positive feelings.
• Don't do anything (like eating a dog that has been raised in appalling conditions, only to be beaten to death in the name of male sexual power) that you wouldn't do back home.
• Love it, hate it.... just experience it!

End of lecture....

And yes, I will be following my own advice in a few days, when I arrive in Abu Dhabi....