Lazy Girl

So, here I am, on the other side of the world, and my parents are still yelling at me! ;) So I have been really bad about updating this, sorry about that. I know you all hang on the edge of your seat waiting for another update from me! Hah, truth be told, I don't really think this place is that strange. Maybe its just me, but it is a lot like NYC, just with a few more Asian people and its impossible to get a veggie burger here... at any rate, I do have some interesting things to report on.

Korean Age
Article #2 on Korean Culture

Its pretty often that I get to ask someone how old they are here. I interview new students to gauge their English ability and help set them up with the right kind of class. I typically ask them how old they are... however, every time the answer the question I have to follow up with "Is that Korean Age or Western Age?" In the western world, when a baby is born we say it is zero years old. And one year from the day the child was born we say they are one year old, and so on... this sounds like a pretty good way to do age, and it never occurred to me that in other countries they may do it differently. Needless to say, here in Korea age is recorded differently. I just want you to pause for a minute and think about other ways to do age... think about it, and then you can see if you came up with something close to the way they do it here. Still thinking?

In Korea, when a baby is born, they say it is one year old. Then at new years they say the baby is two years old. And every new years from that point on the babies age goes up a year. This means if you are born on December 31st on January 1st you will be two years old, even though by western standards you are only zero years and one day old. This doesn't seem to make much difference once the person is in their 30s, but I have students who tell me they are 17 years old, and the kid is only 15... and when I tell people I am 27, I look really young to them, since 27 in Korean Age (or KA as we write in the files) could mean I have only been out of the womb for 25 years. So when I am complimented on looking young, I don't know if it is because I actually look young, or just because people who are 27 actually are pretty young...

ChuSeok
Article #3 on Korean Culture

Oh well, its interesting. So, I have a lot of free time right now. We have vacation for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The holiday is called ChewSuck. But most Korean people will write 추석 or ChuSeok, but I don't think most westerners will pronounce it correctly if it is written that way, so I changed the spelling for you guys! Anyway, they typically call it "Korean Thanksgiving" but it isn't a lot like the American Thanksgiving. In America its just a one day event, but in Korea ChewSuck lasts for 4-7 days depending on the person, how much time they have off and what their responsibilities are.

First they have to clean the graves of their ancestors. This is generally done by the first son of the first son of the first son in a family... depending on how many generations are currently alive. They cut away about 4 or 5 feet of grass on all the graves they are responsible, for most people this takes about 2-3 hours depending on how much help you can bring with you. Only the men should cut the grass, but the women can help carry it away. They need to cut the grass because part of the ceremony is going to the grave and doing a full bow, like in the picture below.
Most women do not like this holiday because it is a lot of work. They have to help with the grave clearing, but the men do not help with the food prep. They eat many different dishes so there is a lot to cook. They are pretty much busy for 2 days just cooking. Only the men can perform the bowing ceremony, so most families will keep having children until they have a male child, or else there will be no one around to pray to the ancestors. Korean people believe that the ghosts of their ancestors return to Earth on this day so they can be honored by their living family members. For this reason most Christian families do not participate in ChewSuck since Christians do not believe anyone would come back from heaven. ChewSuck is not a religious holiday, it is a traditional culture holiday, so there isn't a true religious conflict here, so some Christian people may still pray to the ancestors today. The Christians who don't participate in ChewSuck tend to take a nice long vacation or trip somewhere with their family, since they still don't have to go to work.

So, basically everything is closed today, except for the few places that advertise about being open 24/7/365. Since I live in Kangnam, there are actually a lot of places that fit that bill. I do kinda feel sorry for the people who have to work today, since this holiday has a lot of important meaning for ones family. It is a much more personal holiday than our Thanksgiving.

Us Ex-pats don't do anything special today, just hang out and relax! I am lucky enough that one of John's students gave us a bunch of really good food that we can cook up today so we don't have to live off of BK fries and Pringles today! Ok, thanks for reading. I promise to be better at this in the future, even when nothing happens I will report the mundane!

Love ya all. BTW, check me out on Facebook or Myspace... I know you can find me with my real name on Facebook, not sure how to find me on myspace... I try to hid there cause a lot of my students on my old job use it... but my pic is a bunny rabbit!