Culture Shock

Well, let's see. I actually have a few mildly interesting things to update about. First things first, I successfully ordered my first delivery food. It may not seem that amazing to you, but trust me, I know maybe one or two Foreigners over here that could actually do this! That's not to say that I did it well, but the food appeared about 10 minutes after the call, so I call it a success! On the down side, I ended up with two giant bowls of food and decided to devour them both within minutes of their arrival. So off to the gym I went (for the third day in a row - thank you!) And after attempting to work out with the worlds fullest stomach I stopped off at the bathroom to be HIGHLY disappointed with my gym membership. Their toilets are... dun dun dun.. Squatters.

What are squatters you ask? Well, it's essentially a hole in the floor. Yes, a hole in the floor that women are supposed to somehow aim their shit and piss into. Not only is this highly disgusting, but also very ironic that they exist in this country. Korea is known for it's technology and I kid you not there are toilets here that have heated seats, multiple buttons, shooting water in different temperatures... and then there's the squatter. Now, you may think this isn't that big of a deal, just pull down the trousers and aim, but you obviously don't know me that well. And those of you who are lucky enough to know my inability to squat pee (ie we've been drunk in the middle of the boonies before), I'm sure you can vouch for me when I say, it doesn't work. I have to remove all articles of clothing below the waste, socks included, and pray to god it doesn't get all over me. This squatter epidemic in Korea has made for some very uncomfortable times. Anyways, luckily I only live a few blocks from the gym so I opted to go home early so I could use the toilet comfortably.

Enough about my toilet habits. After taking a shower and blow drying my hair on a Friday night I decided to see what my buddies were up to. By doing this I knew that I would probably fail at my not drinking plan, but c'mon, I'm young and what else am I supposed to do on a Friday night? So I headed to bong-song-dong (that's the name of the neighborhood, funny eh?) and met up Fliss at a Sashimi restaurant. Unfortunately I was deathly full from my delivery food that I couldn't take part in the delicious ALL YOU CAN EAT sashimi (raw fish) for 20,000 Won. What I did take part in was probably 15 bottles of Soju between 6 people. Yah, uffda. On the plus side, I got to meet another native Minnesotan, who actually knows someone I know back home and some more cool English speaking Koreans. Of course, after 15 bottles of Soju the only logical thing to do is hit up the local Noraebang, which can be found like every 15 feet in Korea. I must say I LOVE going to Noraebang's with Koreans because they actually know the words to all the Korean songs I hear everyday and it's fun to try to sing along while I slowly read the Korean on the TV. I've decided to add a little YouTube clip of the top K-Pop songs of 2009. I was positive I wouldn't start liking this crazy pop music, but nope. I'm addicted. There are some goodun's on this, so check it out!

Now, onto the real adventure of the weekend: Osan. Or should I say the 7.5 hour trip to Osan which is only 3 hours away because we got lost all over this damn country. Yes, let's just say my dear friend Holli had a trip planned for us to hang out with her cousin at the military base, yet forgot to write down the actual place we were going to so we took a 3 hour bus to Suwon, a 1 hour bus to Sadang, and two subways totaling 1.5 hours and the other hours just trying to figure shit out. Not to mention I was highly hung over after the night of Soju and Noraebangin'. But, all in all, it was a pretty good night and actually probably one of the more interesting experiences here. Why? Because I was literally culture shocked by my own culture. This area in Osan called Songtan was absolutely FULL of Non-Koreans. It was so weird and also kinda refreshing. This area was highly Westernized and I couldn't get over the fact that we were all there together. I think most people back home don't realize how homogeneous Korea, and especially Gwangju is. I mean, I have plenty of Non-Korean friends here but it's because we have 3 bars that we all go to, otherwise we NEVER see each other during the week. I saw a white person at my gym and I was literally FLOORED to see them. So being in Osan was very interesting in good and bad ways. Plus side, it was easier because everyone knew English. On the down side, I wasn't special anymore =[ Haha, I know, but I kinda like being special just for being American here, it's so easy! Anyways, as can be expected we ended up in a Noraebang that night. I don't know what I will do without this miraculous invention of the Noraebang, but I don't have to worry about that for another 9 months. That's right, starting tomorrow I will have been here 3 months. I can hardly believe that's it! Well, it's off to play some cards, sorry no fun videos or pictures, maybe soon!