Today was my last day so I wanted to make it count. Sadly I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I asked one of the receptionists, Jeonbuho, for advice. Even though I didn't know Jeonbuho very well personally, he insisted on being my own personal guide for the day. How kind is that!?
I waited for him to finish work at 12, and then we headed out in search for some traditional Korean markets. We walked past all the touristy places and then had lunch at a place I would have certainly missed if it weren't for him. Jeonbuho insisted on buying my lunch as a farewell gift. It was called Zzajangmyeon and it was a Chinese dish with Korean sides. It was delicious, filling and only 3500 won ($4). During this time, I kept asking him about Korean culture so I could confirm or debunk some of my working generizations. Here's what I've found out:
1) Koreans are all incredibly hard working. A business man working for a company like Samsung can easily expect a 6am - 8pm work day. Even kids will typically go to school and then go to first after school care then second after school care leaving them to finish at 11pm. Jeonbuho reckons this is the main cause for Korea's high depression and suicide rate because the inflexible working hours leave no time to develop socially. He also thinks its especially bad because the large working hours don't equate to more productivity; workers will typically sit patiently at their desk for several hours doing nothing if they finish their work early.
2) about 50% of Korean women and about 20% of Korean men have plastic surgery. It's quite typical for a middle class family to reward their daughter with a nose job or eye job as a graduation present. Unlike western cultures where there are several different ways to look attractive, Korea has just one and everyone tries to live up to this standard by trying to have the same chin, eyes, nose and personality. Hair colour is the only acceptable form of individuality.
3) Korea is advancing technologically faster than its culture can keep up. Smart phones are everywhere and computer gaming is not only acceptable, its encouraged in men. Atheism is growing too which means young men, which would have otherwise involved themselves in the commilunity through religion, are becoming increasingly socially distant. Women are still somewhat subservient to men and less likely to work full time even though their are equal employment opportunities. The major family decisions are still made by the father. Marriage is still very traditional; the divorce rate is low and many couples will only get married when they have enough money for a house and family. This is a problem for the younger and poorer generation, who are likely to simply remain unmarried till their mid 30's.
4) all Asian hair is the same. It's beautiful and long in the 20's and 30's then starts to thin out in the 40's. By the 50's and onward all women will have hair which looks kinda like a weird afro.
OK OK OK that's enough about culture. What did I do then? Oh yeah, Jeonbuho showed me the apartment he was staying at with his sister. The only furniture was a tiny traditional dinner table with no chairs. No desk, no computer, no beds. Jeonbuho was studying neuroscience and was running his own English teaching company in between working part time at the hostel so there were books and clothes all around the apartment. Upon leaving he tried to offer me a jumper as a gift. I honestly couldn't accept it after seeing how little he had. I think he was a bit offended by that. After that we walked to the world cup stadium where he told me his ambitions in life; he wants to find a western girlfriend, leave Korea and find a cure to Alzheimer's.
We split off when he had to go teach English. I went back to the hostel and met a group of Australians from Sydney. We all got drunk, ate Indian curry for dinner and went to a busy bar. They were all aged 21 except for one bloke who was only 18.
It was a good end to an amazing trip.
Oh yeah, the young Aussie managed to lose his passport by morning! It turns out that on other nights out he'd managed to lose his credit cards and his phone too... He reminded me of me when I was young.
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