With the warm weather have come many a "wee beastie" as my Scottish colleague would call them. I've managed to keep most out of my flat, but I've had a few bites and to me that always means summer has properly started. I dunno what it is about my blood or scent or what but bugs just love me. I'm currently dealing with at least 5 mosquito-esque bites and a large spider bite on my arm. Don't get too concerned though, I manage to get through this every year. At camp in America I had 3 spider bites at once and my wrist was double it's normal size, but the nurse didn't seem at all worried so it's fine. Unfortunately there aren't any exciting compensations like Spiderman got....
I made it to a football game a few weekends ago and saw Holland beat Korea (only narrowly though). I was most excited when Kuyt came on as a sub as he was the only Dutch football player I could name off the top of my head that was actually there. Van Persie's injured and Man U's goalie-guy (a-ha, Van Der Mar, just remembered!) wasn't around. The game was alright, but it was the stadium that really impressed me. Despite so much concrete it's rather magnificent, especially at night. During the national anthem of Korea a giant flag magically flew up a stand at one end of the pitch. It waved and jiggled from side to side and then, at the song's conclusion, vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Wonderful things they do with technology here. Also, and I'm not sure whether it was done on purpose, there did seem a bit of a slight with the anthems. Disregarding the giant flag (it is their stadium after all) the Korean's got a woman to sing the Dutch song, rather feebly, and then a strong operatic bass man to sing the Korean song. Lovely way to say "We're real men and you're a bunch of girls," I thought. Didn't help SK in the end, they lost.
A word on drinking here, for those interested. The most popular alcoholic beverage is Soju, a clear rice liquor that tastes somewhat like sweet vodka. It's pronounced So-jew (I think the Koreans say it with a fairly short "o", but I tend to say it slightly more home counties-esque) It's not too bad, but at 20% it has a bit of a kick. It is drunk in shots, not sipped, and that accounts for a fair amount of drunk men and women wandering the streets of my little town. They drink as they eat (being in a bar and not ordering food is rather bad manners here, but at 6 pounds for an unwanted snack I generally break their rules) and it's a polite custom to refill one another's glasses. John and I once got conned into paying a fiver for some dried and charcoal heated small fish that came with mayonaisse. We didn't ask for it, it just turned up like a free snack (popcorn or little hoola hoop type-things are generally given free in bars), so we assumed it was free. When we went to pay for the bottle of beer we'd each had we got a nasty shock. That's one place we won't be going to again.
So anyway, because it's drunk in shots while eating a lot of soju gets drunk and jolly quickly too. There are also some rice wines here but I tried one a few months ago and really didn't like it at all, so I've yet to try another. They do have beer, including Cass Hite and OB, all of which taste exactly the same. It's rather fizzy beer and not great, but Hite also produces an "export" beer called Max Prime (yup, what a name eh?) so I tend to stick to that where possible. Euorpean and other good beers can be bought but they are comparitively expensive. Since I've been here I've treated myself to two glasses of Hoegarden (twice the price of a normal beer here) and a bottle of Kingfisher (3x normal beer) because curry without Indian beer just ain't right. I get by though, but I'm really desiring a pint of Budvar. The wine here is also expensive and not too special, so that is something I don't get much of either. Boo-hoo.
For your own knowledge the Korean for cheers is "kum-beh" (beh sounds like bay) and it is said in rather an excited "hoo-ray" sort of manner. Aside from that drinking manners include special rules for pouring drinks. The most confusing for me is when to poor for others, when to hold your glass, and how many hands to do it all with. I once offended a guy by using two hands when pouring him a beer. Apparently that was an uber-polite way of doing it, and by that time he considered me a friend. Fairly soon after that someone else I was with used two hands to serve me! Very confusing, so I stick to being uber-polite. If I'm going to be wrong I'd at least like to be consistently wrong. If you see what I mean. As well as hands there are other social rules to deal with. Read this and decide for yourself if you could manage to remember and put into practice these rules (remember, you'll probably have had a few drinks alreasdy when you have to do it).
- When drinking in a group, pour for those of higher position or age first, then in descending order.
- When someone of higher position pours you a drink, it is considered proper to turn away from that person when you then drink it.
- While drinking together, others may pour drinks for you to drink, and you should accept these offers.
- It is not good to be too assertive in encouraging someone else to drink what you would like to pour for them.
- As it is considered rude to refuse to drink altogether, people who do not ordinarily drink alcohol should say "Please pour me just a little," and allow a glass to be poured for you. If the other person continues to encourage you to drink, it is at this point you should tell them that you do not ordinarily drink alcohol, which will not come off as being rude.
It's not easy...
I've been making myself do a few extra touristy things recently, like wandering around streets selling "authentic" stuff, and going to the odd museum. Last weekend we went to the War Memorial Museum and it was very good. They have big arrows that show you the best way to go around and it means you circle the floors moving up and up. At first there was too much information to take in but as we kept going I began to understand more and more about the war. The front line changed dramatically quite a few times and only a city called Busan, on the south-east coast, managed to escape being occupied by the North Koreans at all. When the war began the readiness of the North's army far outweighed that of the South. In fact, the South had few ships, no aircraft, and very little in the way of big guns and even actual man-power. If it hadn't been for the UN the South would never have been able to fight back as an official army. That's right, I said the UN. It wasn't just the Yanks, as I'd always tended to assume, but an alliance made up of a dozen countries. Britain sent 63,000 troops alongside the USA's 480,000 and others. 37,000 Americans dies, 1100 Brits died. Sounds sadly familiar doesn't it.
The museum was informative, and outside we got to look at some planes, tanks and rockets, which is always fun. It was rather strange watching little kids playing on tanks, because they'll be recruited to do mandatory national service when they get older and be in an army that is technically still at war. My town has a large SK army base nearby, and soldiers are always seen in and around town. It's not uncommon for our school to be buzzed once or twice a day by a fleet of helicopter gunships. At first I was excited by this, but it has now become a mundane interruption to classes. What that says about my life here I don't know!
The other exciting thing recently was watching part of a Korean movie being made in town. As John and I walked home from school we noticed a crowd of teenage girls taking pictures with their phones and getting autographs. We then watched them film part of a scene, something to do with a girl with an eyepatch and a policeman's uniform dragging some boy along a street. It was being filmed right next to a pizza shop we go to, and they almost prevented us from going and getting pizza! They didn't though, and you never know we might be in the far background! It's not very exciting, but if you want you can see a short video I took with my camera on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rpLGmJT7B8
Well, that was a long blog wasn't it. Stay tuned for some more ramblings coming your way soon!
Oh, here's one more photo. I like messing around with setting on my camera and this one is courtesy of "Night time". Enjoy.
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