Meanwhile in Korea

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Yeah, I've always found eastbound is worse than westbound, too. Though I hear from a reliable source that age makes it worse regardless of direction. :(

Takes me less than a day to adjust westbound, the better part of a week eastbound. Thinking of going to England in the spring for another canal boat trip, so I'll be reminded...
 
Interesting to learn about life in Korea - I look forward to your posts jae. I was just coincidentally watching a documentary on CBC The Passionate Eye - titled "Changing Face" - about the plastic surgery industry in South Korea - mainly the Gangam area of Seoul. They were saying 1 in 5 south Koreans have had plastic surgery, and amongst those in their 20s the rate is 60%! Apparently it is imperative in the country to put a photo on one's resume if applying for a job ... so a lot rides on one's appearance. Made all the more interesting as the primary investigator of the doc is a woman from Britain who suffered severe facial & body burns as an infant - such a contrast.

Thank you Carolla. I've heard about the plastic surgery industry here. It's huge, but none of our family and friends (as far as I know, of course) have had it. I didn't know that about the photo on the resume. When I applied for work here, the potential employers all wanted photos, but I assumed that was just something commonly requested of foreigners.
 
Take a good poke at it @Jae ... understanding Don Quixote can be a pain on the onager ... a stoic following!

Perhaps a kick in the Pans ... the non intelligent option ... leading to flaming ... incendiary devices? We have the POTUS ... as bright illustration ...

Thank you Luce. South Korea also has an interesting president (guess he'd be POSK).
 
Sounds exciting and daunting at the same time...I realize you have an advantage coping with a different culture, with Yobo as your wife, but would love to hear how it feels to be "the foreigner". The good and any issues that crop up as time goes by.
Hope your first day is great! Do they celebrate Hallowe'en there?

Yes, Yobo is a real blessing to me. I think it would be a lot more difficult for me to navigate being a foreigner here without her. She's helped me find different kinds of stores, explained some differences in language nuance and behavior, etc. One of the things I'm finding hard here is to be constantly surrounded by a different language - on all the buildings, on TV, on all food packages, etc. I really must try to learn some Korean language.
 
When we went to China in 2005 (I'd imagine the time zone is the same as Korea or within an hour anyway) for whatever reason I didn't really have a problem with jet lag when we got there. It was when we returned to Canada two weeks later that my body really noticed it.

Had the same experience when I came to Korea for a two week stay six years ago and then returned home. This time, I'm feeling jet-lag here for sure. It may be age-related.

How was China? How long did you go for? Were you on vacation there or was your trip work-related?
 
Thanks for your posts about Korea. I would be very interested to hear about the teaching bit. My eldest just finished his undergrad degree. He is taking at least a year, perhaps two, off between degrees and is considering options. One of the options has been to teach English in another part of the world because it provides the opportunity to be paid while also seeing a bit of the world.

As I understand it, many people (including a niece of mine who taught in Georgia) do a year of teaching before settling down in Canada. I think, as you said, it's a great opportunity to learn about a different culture. It looks good on a resume too - shows that the person is open to trying new things and understanding different people-groups.
 
Do you know what they were including with that?
Ie. Botox, fillers, things that are moreso procedures and not necessarily full out surgery?
Can't say with certainty - the programme featured actual surgical procedures tho - eye 'widening', jaw shaping, but one also had some injections of fat to part of the face the person wanted to be more prominent (forehead).
 
Can't say with certainty - the programme featured actual surgical procedures tho - eye 'widening', jaw shaping, but one also had some injections of fat to part of the face the person wanted to be more prominent (forehead).
I did a quick search and the top 3 things that kept coming up were eyelid surgeries (creating the crease that Caucasian people tend to have), nose jobs and injections for skin whitening. So I'm guessing not all are surgical. Still the numbers are surprisingly high to me, especially with the eyelid surgery coming up as the most common procedure, which has a fairly long recovery time unless what's being done there is less invasive.
 
This coming Tuesday morning, I get to go for a blood test. I'll have no problem passing it - but it means I have to go without anything like cold pills & headache medicine for 72 hours.
 
I did a quick search and the top 3 things that kept coming up were eyelid surgeries (creating the crease that Caucasian people tend to have), nose jobs and injections for skin whitening. So I'm guessing not all are surgical. Still the numbers are surprisingly high to me, especially with the eyelid surgery coming up as the most common procedure, which has a fairly long recovery time unless what's being done there is less invasive.
I wonder if that is 60% of the women or both women and men? I don’t understand why they would think caucasian looks better than asian, what a sad world, where populations loose their self esteem.
 
Last night, Yobo, our oldest son, his wife and daughter, and I spent the night at a beautiful hotel in the Seosan countryside. As part of the evening, I tried soju for the first time - alone, and as a bomb shot (soju plus beer). I was feeling good. :)
 
I wonder if that is 60% of the women or both women and men? I don’t understand why they would think caucasian looks better than asian, what a sad world, where populations loose their self esteem.
My understanding is that it at least didn't start off that way - it was just a rare characteristic in the population that was seen as beautiful. Maybe Jae can comment more on it?
 
My understanding is that it at least didn't start off that way - it was just a rare characteristic in the population that was seen as beautiful. Maybe Jae can comment more on it?

Hmm... I'm travelling in the car right now with Yobo and our oldest son. They say that different people have the plastic surgery for different reasons. Yobo added that many Koreans also have plastic surgery just to look like more "perfect" versions of themselves.
 
I realized tonight that our Suwon apartment building has no 4th floor. It has B, 1, 2, 3, F, 5, 6. The Koreans avoid 4 in the same way that westeners avoid 13.
 
I realized tonight that our Suwon apartment building has no 4th floor. It has B, 1, 2, 3, F, 5, 6. The Koreans avoid 4 in the same way that westeners avoid 13.

Do they obsess over numerology as much as the Chinese? 8 is a lucky number in China so you get things like bidding wars over phone numbers containing 8s or domain names with a bunch of 8s tacked on. August 8, 2008 (8/8/8) was a popular day to do things like get married and the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was held that day.
 
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Do they obsess over numerology as much as the Chinese? 8 is a lucky number in China so you get things like bidding wars over phone numbers containing 8s or domain names with a bunch of 8s tacked on. August 8, 2008 (8/8/8) was a popular day to do things like get married and the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was held that day.

No - I don't think they do as much here in Korea. The only thing I've heard when it comes to numbers is that they avoid 4 (and possibly also multiples thereof.)

Oh, and speaking of numbers, they celebrate Nov. 11 as Pepero Day because 11 11 reminds them of their much-loved chocolate-covered sticks.
 
Oh, and speaking of numbers, they celebrate Nov. 11 as Pepero Day because 11 11 reminds them of their much-loved chocolate-covered sticks.

That's it, we need a Hershey day or something. Though I guess Valentine's, Halloween, and Christmas all come close to being one in terms of celebrating chocolate.
 
Then there is the fore and oppositional faith as it goes beyond the treize ...

Treize do have following shadows at their fete ...
 
Things I learned in class today...

...Kimbap is highly superior to sushi.
...Every kind of pork is delicious, save for bacon, pork chops and pork cutlettes.
...Physician assisted suicide doesn't exist in Korea.
...When one is sad, one should eat chocolate to become happy again. However, one shouldn't eat chocolate while enjoying sad movies.
 
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