Culture Shocked

Well, I've been home for almost four months now and it has been a very good experience so far. I have to say that I am very proud for having acclimated back into the culture so quickly (although I wasn't gone a very long time). My plan landed on August 30th in Tampa after a delay at LAX, where I got a nice airplane voucher and a stay at the Crowne Plaza. Eleven days and three car trips later I had a teaching position and five days later a new apartment.




I've made friends pretty quickly and explored many areas around the city. I'm also only an hour away from college friends if I ever miss them. I've come a long way from my post-college days when it took me almost a year to acclimate to Jacksonville (only an hour and a half away from my college town). I think that my mind set this time around has helped a lot, not to mention the experience of packing an moving that living abroad in South Korea have given me.

I work at a great school, with great colleagues and staff. My students are very different from the students that I taught in South Korea, (I teach Reading to mainly ESOL students), so I have to use more class management techniques. Some days are very long but it feels good to be able to talk with my students about different things, not just how many exams they have or which university in Seoul are they going to get into once they graduate. I also very much appreciate the culture and humor that my students bring into the classroom, I've really missed that.


                                               

It's not all bliss though, after almost three and a half years abroad I felt that it was time for me to leave since there was nothing else in R.O.K. keeping me there. And I probably would have stayed there longer if I were a bit younger. I have days when I miss Korea like crazy. The worst are the weekends, when I sometimes wish that I could just hop onto a bus and be in Seoul. Going to West Palm Beach, Tampa, or Orlando it's just not the same.

I've been committing the cardinal sins of reverse culture shock of keeping in touch with friends abroad and with friends who has also lived abroad. I don't really have time to travel around the state because I have to take classes for my ESOL endorsement which happen every Saturday from November until April.

                               

You're also advised to cook Korean foods, there are two restaurants near by and since I always let my significant other cook for me, there is not a lot of cooking that I get done.

Another big change from teaching in Korea is regular teaching hours and benchmarks, lots of them, along with Common Core, and data, LOTS of data. Although, I've gotten pretty good at the data part so far :)

My day usually starts at 5 A.M., I get school around 6:41 and most days don't leave until 4 P.M. Because I always get my grading done the same day (good habit to have).

So, life is good being back home, there is snow or deathly lethal ice to walk on :/. Most days are good, but I still get down once in a while. Good thing I got my Ben and Jerry's ice cream to dip into while I reminisce of times past.

Hello Hello Kitty!

One of the most peculiar things about moving to Korea, or Asia in general is the amount of 'cutsie' stuff you around you. It is a mecca for all anime, Hello Kitty, and other characters. I remember when I first got to Korea, I used to see ladies in their 40's and 50's with huge Hello Kitty or animal shaped smart phone covers. I used to be like "really?".

But, as any good little way gook would do, I finally gave in and picked a character that I would become obsessed with and so, I picked Hello Kitty. Why, you ask? well, one day during a ski trip in December 2010 some friends and I were coming back from a ski trip and we stopped over at a convenience store called 'Family Mart' (it is called C U now). And right there I saw about one-third of a shelf entirely dedicated to Hello Kitty stuff.










                                                                           My Hello Kitty i-phone cover and headphones

There is HK everything including Eva Air (which has remodeled itself with a HK theme) and there is HK Cafe.There are many in fact, so we picked one in Hongdae, near Hongik University, right in the middle of the popular university area.

Flight attendants ready to take off with on Eva Air

After reading two blogs online, I was quite lost as to where the location was, but then we met two girls on the street who we followed to the HK cafe. It was really fun, one of the girls was from Texas and she was short and cut with a long blonde braid. She told us that she had visited four HK Cafes and that she had also flown through Eva Air. And she added that she 'LOVED HK'.

After walking for about 15 minutes and discovering the new H&M in Hongdae, we finally made to the cafe.

 


As we walked in, we were flooded in with pink and HK icons everywhere. Joe, went upstairs to find a seat because we would not order if we did not have a seat. Next to the counter, we found a myriad of HK desert items to order. From HK shaped waffles, to candy bars, to HK shaped ice cream cakes.

As soon as we had seats we ordered. Each of us had a waffle and a coffee, (except for Joe who had an americano and Chris had hot chocolate). The boys ordered regular waffles, I ordered a banana chocolate waffle, and Behlen ordered a caramel waffle. The snacks took about fifteen minutes to prepare, while we were waiting, we found some nice couches and snapped our cameras away.

The food was alright, although our waffles were too well done and tasted a bit stale. The coffee was alright. Also, I have tasted better foam, but I got the coffee mainly for the HK icon on top of my latte.

 

Banana chocolate waffle (top) and HK latte (bottom)

After we ate, we promptly got up to give out seats to many groups that we waiting to take our seats. Amongst them, groups of giggly college-aged foreign girls. Although, I probably could find a better place to spend W15,000, it would never replace the fact that I went to a cafe dedicated solely to HK ^^

HK coaster

                                                              HK water jug

       Directions:

• Take Line 2  to Hongik Univ. Station. 

• Go out of Exit 9 and walk one block towards a busy intersection

• Make a left on the intersection, you will be facing Hongik Univ. entrance

• Go up the street, you will pass Mister Donut on your right and H &M on your left. 

• Go about four streets and turn right after the Taco Bell into a bust street filled with clothing stores

• Hello Kitty Cafe will be on your left

 

Where is your Rooster?

So, it has been a week since I have been back from the Philippines and after having acclimated myself to minus weather, I have decided to write a bit about my trip.

It all started on Saturday morning, as I boarded my flight to Manila. I was very tight on time and almost missed my two flights. Once, I was on the flight to Legazpi on Cebu Pacific Air, I won a Cebu Pacific orange organizer in the in-flight trivia game :)

Then , I made my way down to Maicon hostel and walked around a bit town. Since I am not a good focus of attention, I decided to split to Donsol and stay in at Amor Farm Beach Resort. There I took a firefly cruise and went diving twice for whale shark, but unfortunately did not see any :(

The Jeepney, most popular method of transport

 View from Amor Farm Beach Resort

                                      Restaurant at Amor Farm Beach Resort

I stayed at Amor for three days and nights, I finished reading three books and had time to get over my horrible sunburn (because being from Florida does not keep my super white skin protected from the sun :( )

 

Irene Opdyke's Memories of WWII, Unbroken  the incredible story of Louie Zamperini, and Freakonomics

If you ever get the chance, read Unbroken (before it gets turned into a movie by Angelina Jolie), it's the increible story of a man of incredible strength, who competed in the 1936, was stranded at sea for 47 days and then lived two years as a POW in the harsh hands of the Empire of Japan during WWII. And the man is still alive and going strong at the age of 94.

 This is Louis Zamperini with the author of the book, Lauren Hillenbrand

Manila, ila, ila, ila

On Wednesday morning I left Donsol for the airport in Legazpi, having little cash I left I scarfed down three plates at the buffet near the airport, I made it to the Pink Manila Hostel. It was a nice place to sleep, but clean and with a pool and awesome view of Manila. Chrissy the owner was super nice and friendly, I met so many nice traveler in two days, it was awesome!

There I met a fellow local traveler named Ash and we headed into the caos that is Manila. Composed of several neighborhoods together, Manila is raw, dirty, smelly, big, and awesome all at the same time. As you walk the streets, you can anything from coconut water, to head massages, to new (?!) or legitimately stolen cell phones.

As I as telling Ash about my life in Korea, he told me that he had met some Korean travelers at the Killing Fields in Cambodia,where they were posing and taking smiling pictures (with the peace sign of course) near the death sites. Not being new to people posing inappropriately with skulls and bones of people massacred (well I do live in Korea), Ask and I made it our mission not to pose smiling next to solemn monuments.

 

Solemn pose next to a monument commemorating the Battle of Manila during World War II

 

 But then I found this monument of Filipino-Korean friendship and so I had to pose appropriately

And this monument of a native Filipino freedom fighter which was built with funds from Korea

 

     This is me at Intramuros, the old part of the city built by the Spanish settelers after the arrival   of Juan de Legazpi, the Spanish 'governor' conquistador on the Philippines (Las Islas Filipinas)

                                            So, what about the cocks?

Well, cockfighting is one of the most popular sports in the Philippines, so it is only natural for everyone to have a rooster in their houses, including everyone in Manila. It was quite weird waking up to a rooster crowing at 5 am in a huge metropolis. But hey, why now? 

After getting back to Korea, I had a girls weekend in Seoul with Candice, Maria, and Amanda and I as finally able to go back to my sweet, sometimes confused favorite little rodent,where he gifted me with one of his many trance modes

                                                                       Moose Trance

Imelda Marcos and her shoes

So, as I will be taking off to the Philippines in the next couple of days, I decided to write a bit about the history of the country with a focus on...beanpasteness of course!

Since Asia has it's share of tyrannical regimes (Khmer Rogue) and bloodthirsty dictators, I decided to focus on a regime that is remembered something else other than blood or tiny prisons.

The year is 1965 and the new president elect of the Philippines Ferdinand E. Marcos stand tall and proud next to his wife and former beauty queen Imelda Marcos.






Imelda, a member of the politically prominent Romualdez family, she soon took power with her husband, putting together organizations such as Philippines Heart Center, Philippine Lung Center Center, and Philippines Cultural Center. She also secured the Miss Universe 1974 pageant in Manila.She negotiated oil deals with China and began family planning programs.

Unfortunately, all of her little accomplishments did not little to outweigh her MEGA beanpaste accomplishments: flying privately around the world for million dollar shopping sprees to New York and London, sending a private plane to Australia to collect some white sand from a beach, buying $51-million dollar apartments in New York, and owing a private art collection of 175 pieces by the most prominent artists ever such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Canaletto. Crazy? yes, and what was Mrs. Marcos response to all of this? "it's my duty to be some kind of light, a star to give guidelines (to the poor)."

                                                                    Guidelines, eh?

                                      3,000, 1,060, or 7,500?

After declaring martial law for years, attempting to assassinate opposing party members, and abolishing the 1935 Constitution, the Marcos fled the Philippines. When people stormed the Malacañang Presidential Palace what they found was, well, MEGA beanpaste. Imelda's extravagant collection included 508 gowns, 1,000 handbags, and 1,060...(no one knows the real amount) pairs of shoes!

 

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING....

                                                                    OMG!!!!!


After Ferdinand Marcos died in exhile, Imelda eventually came back to the Philippines, where she resides today and where she has semi-successfully ran for public office. Her shoes were put on display, to show the extravagance of the Marcos regime. And Mrs. Marcos came back later, to explain which pairs of shoes she wore while visiting which dictator.

                                                           CONCLUSION

Even though the Marcos regime was marked by cruelty and extreme poverty, we will always remember it for...shoes! I guess there have been worse things to remember your regime by....