"May 28, 2005
BEEN A WHILE
New information about the driving practices of the seemingly suicidal Koreans. Upon my arrival here, within the first fiew days, I have been warned on numerous ocasions and by numerous people, Koreans including, that driving the streets of Ulsan can be a risky business at times. Yes there are street signs, street lights and lines drawn on the pavement, all intended for the purpose of safe transportation to and from, but in reality all these precationary measures may as well not exist.
Well most of them at least. Ulsan has a number of rotarys, spread out through out the city and even though they are not as advanced and as convoluted as the Champs Elyse rotary in the heart of Paris sneaking its way around Lack de Tuimph with its five or so lanes of traffic that never seems to cease, they have awoken a new sense of respect in me. My employer has taken a role similar to a father when it comes to me riding the motorcycle. Weather it is out of a sincere concern for my safety or a concern for his business in case any injury should befall me and render me incapable of teaching for a prolonged period of time, he repeatedly reminds me to be safe while driving. The signs and lines out on the streets of Ulsan are more of a suggestive nature rather than something to be followed religiously as safety precautions on the streets. I believe there may litteraly be a third eye growing in the back of my head. You have to watch out for yourself and for others out there, and especially so on a motorcycle where you a more vulnerable targed as compared to a person sitting in a car.
Koreans may think that as drivers they are being assertive. Most foreigners know that the drivers are simply crazy and suck as drivers. I have witnessed some of the crulest jokes as drivers go here. The phrase "Only in Japan" has been very well adopted by me here once again. Only in Korea will you see a driver take a short cut down the full length of a sidewalk just because the wating for the traffic to pass got tiresome. Not to mention that in most cases red lights are really optional for cars and especially for motorcycles. I myself have started to addopt the habbits of the locals.
So now that I think I have ranted on about how bad the driving here in Korea is I would like to point out that in spite of all these negatives, there does exist a certain etiquette amongst the drivers. I have noticed a large number of cars turning off their head lights while stopped on the intersection at night. At first I thought it was an automatically built in system in the cars, meant to save energy, in some way unknown to me. Today I was informed that drivers will turn off their head lights while stopped at the intersection, so as not to blind the drivers standing on the opposite side of the traffic lights. HA! One concern I have about that is the amount of drivers, who upon their re-emergence from a temporary state of pause, forget to turn on the lights back on and continue to roam the streets unaware of their ghost like apeparance.
Another thing of etiquette is the use of emergency flashers. In Canada we use the emergency lights to say, "Thank you" for letting me in ahead of you or whatever. Here seeing flashing lights in the middle of a dark high way is letting you know that the car ahead of you is slowing down and going to stop. So that gives you an additional warning on top of the break lights, which I sincerely can appreciate.
So in the end, once again, we have proof that there is reason and organisation to all apparent chaos. So if you are a teenager with a messy room, don't let your mom tell you that your room is so messy she can not believe you can find anything in it. What seems like mess to some, is simply a cynical outlook on what is order, to others."
"May 29, 2005
THE QUESTION OF LIRICKS
Another weekend gone by. Today I had the pleasure to experience one of the most interesting half hours I have ever spent in a McDonalds. As difficult as this may be to believe the experience was quite interesting. Here I am sitting down after a couple of good hours of climbing, with my big mack combo and a chicken sandwitch, not to be confused with a chicken burger which apparently is a whole doller sixty more, listening to the music played over the speekers, which by the way here in Korea can range from soft jazz to hard rap as I found out, as Eminem starts to kick up with his liricks.
I could not remember the song very well at first, well the song yes but not the words and so I assumed it was a soft one, untill the angry white boy started cursing his mother fucking ass off! About ninety nine percent of the Korean population do not understand any English, the remaining one percent may know the odd words here and there, but obviously not enough to hinder McDonalds from playing uncensored Eminem tunes. I personally was enjoying it. The music was good and if it was up to me all McDonalds all across the world would be playing Eminem swearing his little ass off, while people enjoy their big macks and other snandwitch like creations."
"May 31, 2005
GYM DAYS
I went out with some people from my local gym yesterday evening. We stepped just outside of the gym into a beer bar named WA. It's supposed to be a western ice beer bar, I am not sure why it is supposed to be western. In my vocabulary a place like that is called a pub. Granted nothing really like an English or Irish pub but still a pub. My companions were three women and one of the two guys working at the gym, who by the way have no other replacements, and seem to be running the entire place solely by themselves. I don't know how they arrange their weekends of, if at all, but I have found out that the guy I was drinking with yesterday spends his nights sleeping in the gym because he can not be bothered driving back home and than to be back for 6am at the gym. Don't really know why it would have to be that early, since the gym opens up at about 9 or 10. So the curious thing I wanted to mention were the three girls. One is my age, 30, the other 28 and the third a year older than myslef, 31. The thing with Korean age counting is that the year people spend in their mothers wombs is counted into the whole age issue. So you are actually one year old at the time of birth here. Too my surprise, well more or less, from knowing the little that I do about the Korean culture I have learned to be expect these things, all three of the girls are married. The older ones have two kids, which by the looks have been concieved somewhere about 6 and 7 years ago, and the 28 year old one has been married for 4 years already. Now I am not the one to place any judgement on the age people should or do get married anywhere in the world, but to me a single 30 year old, this seems pretty old. The most striking thing is that these girls tend to kick themselves in the ass for having gotten married so early in the first place. Well that is at least the report I got last night. Most women, once married, remain at home and take care of the house. In case where a child is involved, I would say that on average about 99.9 % of Korean women automatically become housewifes. Is it good, is it bad, I personaly don't know. Never have and never will be a house wife, in the true meening of the term, but from what I hear being a housewife becomes a routine like so many jobs do, and in some cases not a very enjoyable one. Well bless all these curious cultural differences. What would we do if every one was the same. There would just be too much consistency in this world."