It doesn't look like much

I guess I've just been desensitized by the mass media. We talk about how there is too much violence on television, but I don't think I will ever feel blahze about witnessing violence in real life. I've discovered that money is a different story. We so often see suitcases, briefcases, and wads of cash that are enormous...I never put in perspective how much money a briefcase could hold. Until today.

For a full 20 minutes today I was the proud owner of $44,o00 in cash. In Benjamins. It was fabulous. I thought briefly of taking it home, taking the wrappers off, and just throwing it all over the floor for pictures. I have a feeling that my money would not have been accepted if I had just stuffed it back loose in a bag, so I nix'd this plan. These pics are much more mundane, but still cool if you ask me. Before I got to the bank I was envisioning the briefcase full of cash...I mean $44K is a lot of money; it should take up a lot of space. Alas, I could have put the entire sum easily in my purse with the rest of the nonsense I keep in there. I cannot imagine how much money it would actually take to fill a briefcase.

And what new and bizarre government scheme is this you ask? Why am I toting around $44K? Don't worry, I haven't sold myself into slavery or started selling drugs. This is how they do rent here in Korea. I give two years worth of rent to the landlord upfront. Again, in a quirk of government excess, the taxpayer is getting screwed. Koreans pay all this cash upfront, but it is called key money, and at the end of their lease, they get the majority of it back. The landlord gets any interest from investing the money while he has it and keeps a portion of it, but the American government frowns on taking their money back. I don't get the money and neither does uncle Sam. The Koreans get to keep it. You can imagine how much they love having American renters.

No funciona bien

No doubt the differences in culture here have tripped me up, but I've been stumbling over the goverment bureaucracy almost as often. Today I discovered that even though I have been getting pay stubs, I have not actually been getting money. Maybe an elaborate IOU? I'm not sure what that would say about the financial stability of our government. We are trying to find where my pay has gone and restore it to its proper home in my bank account, but I have my doubts. Meanwhile, I will have the opportunity this week to take about $45K in CASH to the housing office to give my landlord. Don't worry, I won't have to go off base, so I will remain surrounded by barbed wire and men with guns. I have to say though that the rent system here is totally nuts.

The people here don't always make very good sense to me either. I sort of believe that all the weirdness would make much more sense if people actually thought they could explain to me what they are doing and why. For example, in Seoul, we went to a store that said everything for $10 US dollars. We were short on Won so this was great...except when we tried to pay, the lady didn't accept dollars. Then we got in a Korean taxi that is only supposed to accept Won...but he wouldn't take ours. He took some Won but insisted on a dollar. I'm not sure what that one was about, but in the end I don't think we paid him enough even though we had plenty.

Meanwhile, the government can't afford the $30 bucks it would take to send the sped team overnight to work with a special needs child for a whole school day. They do however want the team to go in different cars on different days instead of all together which would potentially cost them hundreds of extra dollars. And the most brilliant scheme of all is TDY. When we went up to Seoul, Amy and I split a room for two nights, and the total cost of double occupancy for two nights was less than a single occupancy for one night that I booked for my training. Same hotel. Same accomodations. The difference is the contract the govt has with the hotel allows the hotel to charge the max possible for a room when the govt pays for it. Your tax dollars at work.
Sorry for the rant, but I am a bit frustrated.

The bright side is that I'll eventually get used to this, and I won't be so disappointed when things don't work very well.
:)

38th parallel universe

It will relieve you to know that I am not allowed to actually visit North Korea. While tours are available, as an employee of the US government I could lose my job if I chose to take that opportunity. So I went on a tour of the DMZ instead.

It is completely surreal. There is a whole little complex built specifically to maintain what is called peace. This peace is accentuated by the armed guards in Taekwando angry stance staring across less than a football field at each other every day. As tourists, we were not allowed to point or gesture; in some places we couldn't even turn around. The area has beautiful buildings and lots of trees. It really looks rather pleasant except for the fencing with mine markers hanging from it.



The tour itself took us past Freedom village where a group of South Koreans live and farm right next to the DMZ. They are not allowed outside of their village after dark and have to be completely locked in their homes by midnight and live under the protection of the military. There is a huge monetary insentive for the folks to stay there, but I'm not sure why the governemnt wants to keep them there other than bravado.

The North Korean bravado is of course even larger in scale. Just across their border they built paradise village or something like that. It is supposed to show the South how idyllic life in the North is so they will want to defect, and if you aren't convinced by the visual impressiveness of the village, don't worry. They are also broadcasting propoganda from there as well. The ironic thing is that not a single human sole actually gets to live there. It's just for show.



We also went into one of the tunnels that the North Koreans dug with the goal of a stealth attack on Seoul. It was about a mile long and 73meters underground. I could not believe the amount of work that went into just that one, and there are at least three others that they built and more suspected that haven't been found.

The strangest part of the tour was the movie. It was in the museum at the tunnel, and we assumed that it would be a historical film, but it was propoganda too. It started with a little girl walking through a wartorm area and crying as bombs are going off and it ended with the little girl frolicking in a DMZ that has been turned into a park/ecological preserve. It left you with the comment that the DMZ is a symbol of peace and unity. I'm not sure if that was a grammar mistake or just complete delusional thinking.

I am left wanting to read more about Korean history to have a better understanding of what all I saw. History gives so much more perspective on things. Especially when you can't understand the broken English of your Korean tour guide and the American soldier who is accompanying you speaks so rapidly and in such substandard dialect that you are returning to the Korean with broken English for clarification. That was hilarious.

Korean sountrack

In my travels, I don't think I've ever stayed anywhere long enough to notice how different it sounds. Like the flushing toilets that were our soundtrack at a small restaurant in Venice, some parts of the sound here are more pleasant than others.

It is interesting to me that the Korean commercials are just as likely to use Greenday or Kings of Convenience as they are to use a Korean artist. Some of the commercials even use English dialogue. I'm not sure who exactly they are targeting...

And so while you hear pop artists between tv shows, it's a totally different ballgame in the stores. While shopping I've had the joy of singing along to I've been working on the railroad and other classic children's songs. I've also started to realize that even though I don't understand the song lyrics, I can recognize Korean boy band music, teeny bop artists, and cheesy love songs. That apparently transcends language. And clubs? I'd think I was state-side if it wasn't for all the black hair instead of the blonds.

The other thing that's new to me is street noise. I guess anyone who has lived in an enormous city will be familiar with the honking and the traffic noise. In Korea, they are constantly building, so construction noise is huge here too. And there's lots of people noise, but it is unique here because the children knee-high and up walk everywhere at all hours by themselves. Alot of the street noise I hear is kid noise: laughing, squealing, yelling, scampering. It's actually kind of fun. What is less fun is the very acceptable habit here of hocking up loogies. I'm getting quite tired of the noise that makes, but any small boy would probably be thrilled at the amount of spitting that goes on here. I also can't forget the sound of the language. It is much more lyrical and gutteral than English. It can sound really pretty and quite coarse all in one conversation and I still have no clue what they are actually trying to say to me. That is still high on my goal list though!

The Gaylord of Korea

Can you believe I've alreay had my first visit from the states? My friend Keith (Beth's hubby) was in Seoul on business so I went up to spend some time with him between meetings. It was rather humerous to have a visitor and still know absolutely nothing of the language or the cities, but we had a good time. He was staying in Lotte World hotel, which ended up to be a bit of a challenge to find since there are actually several Lotte hotels in Seoul.

For the non-Nashvegans out there, Gaylord is the brand name that adorns all the major architecture in Nashville. We don't know who he is, but he sure owns everything. In Korea that would be Lotte. Lotte has multiple hotels, department stores, a Korean knock-off of Disney land, and even his own brand of cider. Who knows what else Lotte has that I haven't run into yet. Lotte World was my favorite though.

They had the equivilent of Cinderella's castle, the log ride, the pirate ship, and any number of other generic theme park attractions. We didn't go in. There's no need when you can see most of the park from the hotel and even experience the exasperatingly long lines vicariously from the hotel lobby. We did check on ticket prices which landed us in this weird Korean disney vortex where women dressed in pink stripes and white gloves (sans mouse ears) were standing in funny glass tubes and gesturing about something. They were probably also making announcements in Korean, but we couldn't hear them because the Korean version of "It's a small world" complete with helium voices and synthesized music was blaring over the PA system. We retreated rapidly. I can only imagine that the tube ladies were actually begging to be rescued or put out of their misery.

Overwhelming opulence

I travelled to Seoul again this week for a training, and it was a little easier this time to navigate the trains and taxis. I was definitely more prepared for that part. Unfortunately the base hotel was booked, so I got refferred to a cheaper, off-base Marriott. No problem I thought. It's just for a night. So it's pretty late, I'm pretty hungry and tired, and the taxi drops me off in front of the hotel. I didn't see the name of the hotel on the outside of the building, but we had called the hotel for directions in Korean, so I figured we must be in the right place. Until I walked in and immediately felt under-dressed and totally conspicuous. I could just feel the sweeping staircases and marble pillars asking each other what the little street urchin thought she was doing there. ha.

A quick trip to the reservation desk revealed that yes indeed, this was my lap of luxury and I had a room reserved! Gorgeous marble bathroom with huge garden tub, mints on the pillows, and super soft robes and slippers. mmmm. But before I took advantage of the bathtub, I needed some grub. I did not realize that the majority of people dining in the hotel restaurants would be wearing suits and cocktail gowns, so I took my happy butt downstairs in my T-shirt and flips. Luckily I ran into the only other american under 30 also wearing a t-shirt and we had a killer steak dinner on par cost-wise with Ruth's Chris. Your tax dollars at work!

The moral of the story? Always have a cocktail dress on hand when you go to school trainings because you never know where the government will put you up. And take a bath. It was lovely.

Just "Friggs"n great.

I knew I was in trouble moving to a place where the language frowns on l's and r's with a name like Claire, but I never dreamed they'd just rename me for their convenience. :)

Last week I managed to tie up all my loose paperwork ends. I've researched my health care options, gotten my ID and ration cards, signed my lease and opened my bank account! I should now sort of function here. Except I can't use my ATM card. After waiting for over a week, my card arrived, and Griggs style, I am the now proud owner of a debit card for some one named "Chaire" I guess it was just asking too much for them to give me both the r and the l. Oh well. A quick trip to the bank and a few apologies later I have restored my identity, but I still have to wait another week or so to actually be able to access my account. ha. Don't worry. I kept Chaire for the laugh factor. It's pretty great.

I had a chance at the apartment inspection to take some pictures of my new digs, but I still won't be able to move in for a couple weeks. It'll look even better with my stuff in it...when it gets here. :) And speaking of apartment, I have an address now, and I have a Nashville phone number that rings right here in Korea! I'm just a local phone call away!

It hasn't been all business here though. Last night the teachers hit the downtown. We shook our groove things for a good four hours, and the girls I went with were totally fun. We aren't as cool as the locals though. They apparently stay out till daylight, but we only made it till 3 before we had to stumble home exhausted to bed. The nightclubs we found played predominately american music, and had a pretty great mix of Koreans and foreigners. Apparently the mix isn't always quite so good, but we lucked out. It just so happens that the flag football world championships were here this weekend, and the ballers were out in force. Italy and France were our favorites. Wahoo!!! Too bad the camera didn't fit in the tiny going out purse, or I'd post some pics of them too.