Tak-Won-Do

Today, we went for a Takwondo lesson. It was tiring sia. And it didn't help that I think I didn't do the kicks well enough. Haha. And I fell twice. Me and my big butt and centre of gravity manz.

Me in Takwondo garb.

Cute Korean kid and his antics. The Seong Sae Nim kept asking his kiddie students to demonstrate various Takwondo moves for us. Of course after the Takwondo lesson, the kids strengthened my resolve to not have any - they started making a helluva noise and kicking a soccer ball here and there and everywhere. Rahz.

Camera shy.

Okay, thought that I should blog about the major differences between Korea and Singapore that I have observed this past month. No offence meant.

1.) Korea is rather particular about the differences between nam zha (male) and you zha (female). For example, the laundry room for male and female is separate and males are not allowed to step into the female section of the dormitories and vice versa (this is a very serious offence and you can be expelled from dorm), so most of the couples here meet in the student lounge or the minimart, GS25 (which is not opened 24 hours dammit). The men here also know their status in society. It is still a rather patriarchal society. During War and Society class, the male students openly declare that we should start war on another group because they have more male students in our group and was thus guaranteed a victory. This is something that we will not often hear from a male student in Singapore, I think.

2.) Language. OMT. Communication is often a hassle. I think my non-verbal skills have improve tremendously. Sometimes I think it's because our English has no accent, causing them to misunderstand us or something. And it doesn't help that my Korean is like baby standards and English is not needed here.

3.) Korea is a rather hierarchical society, where a lot of things are based on age. Like even if a guy is one year older than you, you call him O-Pa (for females) and Hiong (for males - see even basic names are segregated between females and males). And usually the O-Pa takes charge of several things. An O-Pa is someone who is stereotyped to be always reliable and to always take care of others. Oh, I beat an O-Pa by the way, because he irritated me - that's considered extremely rude.

4.) Food. They love Pab (rice) and kimchi. I'm sure some of us love rice and kimchi too - but I'm sick of rice liaoz and I never liked kimchi. I think the biggest difference is that rice is a side dish for us but a main dish for them. But foodwise, everything is still tolerable.

5.) Concept of Beauty. Their concept of beauty is so extreme that plastic surgery on the eyes and nose is not considered plastic surgery and it is normal. Everybody does it. Haha. I thought of doing some surgery to my nose this month, since they claim it is dirt cheap here. And Korean men (or maybe all men in general, I don't know. The world is warped) just want their girls to be pretty, regardless of whether it is fake beauty. And I guess it helps that beauty products are extremely affordable here. I wanna come back and buy more. Sigh.

6.) Korean beer is AWESOME! Hite and Cass are awesome, I tell you. I love the light taste, so unlike Tiger. And they drink and drink and drink some more. It's embedded in their culture.

7.) Fashion (for ladies only). They are into baggy shirts now, I don't know why. And Killer Heels. And gladiator type sandals. And permed hair, with bangs. Nobody wears havianas here.

This is all that I can think of at the moment.

8.) Couples. The couples here are rather cute (rather touchy too). They go to amusement parks in their identical tees and they wear hairbands, with animal ears on them. Both the guy and the girl (I can't imagine forcing JW to wear a mickey mouse hairband). And in the Korean dating game, girls rule. I guess that makes sense since they won't have a good time after marriage (making kimchi at 6am x.x). They have a lot of occasions to celebrate like Rose Day etc. Also, the 15th, 30th, 100th and blah blah days are really important to Korean couples and the guy would have to prepare surprises on those days or risk the wrath of the gf. Mostly, the guys pay for everything during dates because they are usually older and earning. There are also a variety of dating places for couples, amusement parks, etc (so unlike Singapore x.x). You could even go to Seoul and it won't be considered leaving the country (can someone talk to my mum, please?) It's good to date in Korea.

Anywayz, I don't mean any offence as I said earlier and I have grown to love and live (somewhat) the Korean culture. Will definitely miss how the O-Pa-s take care of everything, the crazy shopping, the cheap beauty products and samples and definitely the beer! And oh yes, PNU and my awesome Korean buddies.

4 more days till I see you again.

Till ROTI PRATA, HOKKIEN MEE, ZI CHAR, CARROT CAKE, stupid hot weather and flats and havianas.