Korean Gift Giving

OR: A mystery of the highest confusion.

There are many things I love about Korea. There are many things I dislike about Korea. And there are MANY things that confuse me about Korea. The way they give gifts is perhaps the most confusing of all.

Let me give you some background information. Gift giving is an important part of Korean culture around certain holidays. Unlike in America (and other western cultures), they don't really give gifts on Christmas and birthdays. Christmas is more for couples and I haven't really figured out birthdays. From what I've gathered, they are just not that important. Anyway, the important times for gift giving are the Harvest festival, Chuseok (which is like Thanksgiving) and Lunar New Year, Seollal (which is the new year on the lunar calendar, duh). Ok, and not only do you give gifts to friends and family but your place of employment also gives you a gift.

Now, the gifts. These gifts are completely ridiculous. Last year for both holidays, my school gave us a gift box set of SPAM. That's right, SPAM. The meat that comes in a can. That you can buy at the dollar store at home and is generally regarded as inedible, unappealing and just overall not an acceptable to give as a gift to anyone, under any circumstances. But here, SPAM is a primo gift. Not only do we get a BOX of SPAM, but it comes in like, this fancy gift box, with two bottles of oil (if you like it fried) and the box comes in a fancy bag. I had never tried SPAM before, but I've had it here and it's not the worst thing in the world, as I previously assumed. I would never eat it on my own accord, pay for it, or order in a restaurant, but I have fried it up per a boyfriend's request and when I ate it, it wasn't the worst. It also comes in kimbap, which is Korean style sushi, which I eat frequently, but you don't really taste it since there is a lot of other stuff in there as well.

So, since SPAM isn't the worst thing in the world and people gotta eat, I can see why MAYBE a little tiny bit SPAM is an acceptable gift to give. However. This year, for both holidays, we have received an enormous gift set of bath products. Ok, you're thinking, hey! Bath products are useful and lovely! Yes, they are. But, here's the thing. The most recent box we were given has SIX (6) tubes of toothpaste in it. It also has two bars of soap, two shampoos, two conditioners, and a bottle of what I'm assuming is body wash in the middle. Once again, in list form, for your convenience:

1 person=
2 bars of soap
1 body wash
2 shampoos
2 conditioners
6 tubes of toothpaste

In picture form, in case you're wondering what that looks like:

So much toothpaste

The fancy box for the toothpaste

WHAT?

I can't, I really just can't. I cannot ever imagine myself using that amount of bath products in one year. Especially since for the last holiday, we received, essentially, the EXACT same thing.

The sad part is, no one I know even uses Korean toothpaste. Word on the street is that it doesn't have any fluoride in it. Koreans do brush their teeth more often than most Americans I know, so maybe they actually do go through that many tubes of toothpaste in a year. All the kids brush their teeth after school (it's such a pain) and I frequently see people brushing theirs in public restrooms.

But, my biggest confusion is mainly just, why do I have this? These gifts from my company are going to foreign teachers. Maybe you think it's presumptuous and rude of me to think the Koreans should change their ways for their foreign employees, but it's not really that I want anyone changing traditions, but I really think they just need to stop and think about how much money they are wasting on these products that 95% of the foreign teachers at their company (which is 50% of the company) is not going to use. That is A LOT of money! I saw the SPAM boxes at the grocery store last year and the cheapest one is $45! Just seems like that money could be spent on literally anything else because giving us SPAM and toothpaste is basically throwing the money in the trash.

Plus, it's not just foreigners! My boyfriend just got THREE gift sets from his company and he is planning on giving away all of them. Here's what he got:

A huge box of "seasoned laver," which is dried seaweed and it's actually really good. He gifted it to me. I'm a lucky lady. 

Sadly, the laver is the huge kind (not the bite-size kind I like) and is really only good for making kimbap, which I've done once and never plan on doing again. 

What a fancy box!

FULL OF SPAM. I can't. 

Seriously, the boxes are beautiful. 

These are bottles of ginseng. I was told you mix it into water for a beverage, but it smells awful and I can't imagine ever drinking such a thing.

 I really don't think I will ever be able to understand these boxes. They are the just the epitome of wasteful indulgence and it's depressing. The saddest part is that it's not even cool stuff! I am all for a little indulgence and I LOVE getting fancy gifts but I am forever getting things I will never use here! I hate it! I absolutely hate wasting things (money, food, products, whatever) and I would seriously rather get nothing than keeping getting things that go in the trash. Sometimes I get gifts from parents at school that go to waste as well. It's usually food that I don't want to, or can't, eat OR something random like lipstick. Which is a nice thought, but I don't wear lipstick, nor did it look good on me, haha. People are forever telling me that I can just re-gift them but I don't have anyone to give them to! Most of my friends here are fellow foreigners that don't want it, I'm not going to mail it home and the only Korean people I know (besides my boyfriend) are people are work with, that would know I was re-gifting! I'm doing some research to find a charity to give it to, so we'll see what happens with that.

So anyway, that's whats been going on this week. We have a four day weekend starting tomorrow and I'm currently just sitting at home with my huge box of toiletries. I have been feeling like crap so I'm hoping some sleep will shake my severe case of winter depression. Fingers crossed.

Dream big people!

Puppy Cafe

Oh. My. Goodnes. I cannot believe I have lived in this country for almost two years and just now went to my first puppy cafe. It was THE BEST THING EVER. Basically, you go to a cafe, buy a drink and play with dogs for however long you want. SO FABULOUS. It made me want to adopt a dog SO bad! Or I will go back to the cafe every day for the rest of my life. 

The one I went to was near Gangnam station and was actually very big. There were dogs of all sizes there, and lots of different kinds. We bought a coffee and literally just sat there playing with dogs for like, 2 hours. THE. BEST. I also bought some treats, so then obviously all the dogs flock to you, which was amazing. However, most of them get bored with you if you don't have treats and not all of them were super friendly, so that was a little sad. I did, however, find a few that loved me just as much as I loved them so we hung out and became the best of friends. My favorite was the little brown one in the last picture, but he was having none of it. He didn't really like being touched and I had to persuade him with treats and have my friend snatch him up so I could hold him. We took the picture and then he squirmed off. I still thought he was the cutest, even though he was a total jerkface. Typical.

However, that little tiny one in the first picture did love me (he had on a sweater that said "Hug Me," so I did) and we hung out for quite a bit. Gah, it was just so lovely, I can't even tell you. For the most part, I love dogs, contrary to popular belief. Let me rephrase, I love most dogs, namely, small cute ones. And I really don't like dogs that are super slobberly. The slobber grosses me out. Also, once my step-dad had a boxer and I really didn't like that dog at all. God rest her soul, she was ugly as sin and super annoying. Anyway, it's really on a dog to dog basis, like most things in my life. I'm picky about pretty much everything, dogs are no exception. 

Point is, I loved most of the dogs at this place and now I want one of my own. Financially, logistically and realistically, this would be a horrible decision for my life right now. I am not poor, but I want to spend all my money on traveling, not vets and dog food. Plus I would have to figure out what to do with him/her when I do travel. I also don't always go home right after school and often get home around 10 or 11:00 at night, which would be terrible for an animal.  Also, my apartment is TINY. It's only one room, so that means I wouldn't have anywhere to put a dog if I needed a break from it, or if it needed to stop chewing on all my shit. So yeah, a terrible idea but man oh man, they are so cute and a little tiny puppy would make me SO happy. I might try to foster one and see how it goes. 

So that was my awesome puppy-filled Saturday. All the puppies you can play with by just buying a $6 coffee. YES PLEASE. Come visit! We'll go together!

Dream big people!

Vacay: a Recap

Last year I celebrated Christmas in a hostel in Japan, and this year was spent in the PHILIPPINES!!! Seriously, one of the best vacations I have ever been on! It was so fantastic. I actually enjoyed a lot more than my trip to Thailand. And I really loved Japan last year, but it was also freezing so it was super nice to leave freezing cold Korea and four hours get off a plane in a tropical heat wave. The miracle of flight. Gotta love it.
Anyway, everything in the Philippines, save some of the transportation options (and few AC units), was fantastic. The people were nice, the food was great and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We stayed in some shady hotels, but they were super cheap and when all was said and done, not that bad. We (my co-worker and I) got into Cebu super late Friday night and took a ferry to Alona Beach on Bohol Saturday afternoon. If anyone ever has plans to do the same, get your ferry ticket in advance if possible. If not, go early to the ferry terminal (1 seemed to be the best, even though some people said 4 and the taxi driver left us at 3) because there will be a long ass line AND there's a 98% chance the ferry will be delayed because, literally, every mode of transport we took while there was delayed for some reason. They are living on that island time, which is how I want to live for sure, but it's no good for thinking you are going to get anywhere in a timely manner. I was fine because I was on vacation! Also, we were smart and gave ourselves a ton of time to do everything. The Philippines is definitely not a place for someone that needs to be on a tight schedule or wants everything to go as planned. For example, my friend and I went whale shark diving (!!! more later) and the boat was scheduled to leave at 5:30 in the morning. We left more around 6, then the boat broke down, so we went to another island to change boats. 20 minutes later, we are on boat two. 20 minutes after that, we went back to the island because that boat broke down as well. 20 more minutes and we are on boat 3. I was fine, I was on a boat in the Philippines, what is there to be angry about? However, there was another girl on our boat (Swedish maybe?) and she was just the angriest person! She was SO annoyed about our boat changes and looked so grumpy the entire time. We never figured out what was wrong with her (maybe she had an appointment later that afternoon she needed to get to) but point is, don't go to the Philippines with a schedule or any sort of time constraints because you will be angry all the time. Even when you're on a boat, on a beautiful day, going to hang out with whale sharks.

So yea, the whale sharks were awesome. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. They are called whale sharks because they are these huge sharks that only eat plankton and krill and don't have teeth. So they're sharks, but with whale characteristics. They are really huge and it was actually really scary at first. Also just hilarious because it's the Philippines and they are not as strict about safety, so they were literally like, ok here are the rules: don't touch the animals, that's all. Then they make you put on a life jacket and ask if you're a good swimmer. If you say yes, you can take off the life jacket and get in the water. If you say no, they're like, are you sure? Ok, stay in the boat. Then you get in the water and they throw food close to you so the sharks get all up in your business and you end up touching them because they swim into you. It's pretty awesome. Best part, the 3 hour boat ride, the diving and renting an underwater camera all ended up costing about $50. My taxi ride home from the airport in Korea was twice that. Just as a point of reference.

I highly recommend Alona Beach, should you ever get the chance to go. It was so beautiful! Great weather, friendly people, really laid back and super cheap. The kids run around singing Christmas carols, trying to get  you to give them money, but they usually just wander off if you say no or ignore them. Or, if you do give them money, they sing a cute little thank you song and move on. Also, there are people trying to sell you things, but not quite as intense as Thailand. Plus, unlike Thailand, the people usually just move on if you say no and don't make you feel like you just ruined their lives by not buying anything.

Actual Cebu City was a little more sketch than I was expecting, but not too bad. I never felt unsafe or threatened. Filipinos seem pretty chill and everyone we met was nice, but not in a creepy way. I also felt they weren't trying too hard to scam people, which is how I felt a lot on Thailand. Anyway, both lovely places but I would rather go back to the Philippines, if ever given the chance. That's not to say we never got scammed. For instance, we went "island hopping and snorkeling" (2 islands) and at the first one, they were all, oh the big boat can't go over to the snorkel place, you have to take this other smaller boat (our friends), and also you have to rent the snorkel gear, it's not provided like we implied it was. Here is our other friend, you can rent it from them. But oh well, because it was seriously like $4 to do both, so you deal.

We also ate really good food while we were there. Lots of grilled fish and just really good, simple grilled meats and veggies, which I love. While I was there, I was all, look at me, I'm so healthy, I've been eating veggies and grilled fish all the time, I probably lost weight. Then I got home and put on my pants and was all, nope, definitely didn't. Actually probably gained weight. You're probably assuming it was because of alcohol but NOPE. I hardly drank...I actually don't really enjoy drinking on vacation, seems like a waste to spend a day hungover. It was from all the bread I conveniently forgot about. Most of the hotels had free breakfast and they all gave us like, 8 pieces of toast and I ate them ALL. I love bread and also pretty much everything else made my stomach go crazy. So yeah, so much for that theory.

Anyway, can't say enough good things about the trip. There were a lot of little annoying things, but I try to keep it cool on vacay. However, I did get really angry at the very end of the trip, when we were at the airport. We checked in, and were about to go though immigration and we were told we first had to pay a terminal fee. I don't recall ever having to do this at any other airport, but maybe my memory fails me. Anyway, it was just super annoying because there was NO mention of this anywhere in the airport, or at the check-in counter. We had to pay one at the ferry, but it was the first thing you did when you walked in. Also, they only took cash. It was only like $10, but I didn't have enough Pesos left because I had just spent most of the cash I had left in the airport because I didn't want to take Pesos home with me! But the real kicker...they took American dollars, and my friend had a $100 bill. But the stupid woman was all, oh this one has a tiny rip in it, we don't want it. Also, we don't have change so you'll have to go ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE DOMESTIC TERMINAL to get change and/or go to an ATM. OH MY GOD, I was so angry. Like, what are you even talking about crazy lady?! Not having change is the biggest lie I've ever heard. I had been going with the flow with all the other ridiculousness while there, but this I couldn't deal with. Thank goodness my friend asked if they accepted Won AND I also had enough Won for both of us, because I was seriously about to scream at this woman. So we made it through and got to immigration, where we made it to the front and then they're all, oh? You didn't fill out the paperwork? You don't see that sign in the back corner of the room? You need to do that. ARRGHHH. Best part? Did't even really matter because the flight was delayed an hour. So then we missed the last bus in Korea and had to take a cab for $120. And to think I was upset about the $10 terminal fee. Silly me.

Other than that, everything was fab...here, enjoy some pics:

Seriously, so beautiful. Can you deal? 

I rode on a motorcycle for like, 2 minutes and it was glorious. Should've done more of that. 

Mariah Christmas and the beach? HEAVEN. 

Dream big people!

2014: The Year of Travel

2014 is off to a FANTASTIC start. Here is how I rang it in:

First, my friend I went to a random Japanese restaurant, where we got curry chicken nuggets, french fries and free fish cakes. YUM. 

Then we ordered this, thinking it was alcoholic since it said "Sparkling Cider" on the menu, but it was really just $4 apple juice. So then my boy came to meet us and we made him smuggle in soju. He was very concerned about this, since bringing in outside beverages is "illegal." Don't worry, no one went to jail.

 

That meal sucked, so we went to a second meal, of galbi, which is always a delight. 

When second dinner was over, it was still only 11 and my friend wanted to go home since she was sick, so she did. The boy, like most Koreans, think it is fun and romantic to go to norebang (karaoke in a private room) with just two people and that is what he wanted to do. I personally think it's awful and really only enjoy it when I'm drunk and with at least 6 other people, but I figured I should start the new year being nice and agreeable, so off we went. Plus, it was either that or go home. 

He's really into it. 

Seriously. I'm trying to be cute and he's all, I'm trying to sing, woman!

New Years isn't really a big thing here, so he wasn't concerned about the countdown. So I forgot about it and didn't even realized it had passed until we were 5 minutes into 2014. But whatever, I'm fine with it. I'm old now and things are awesome so far. Then I sang "Crazy" by Britney Spears and had a grand ole time, sober and all. 

Then, Thursday I went back to work and guess what!? It actually made me REALLY happy. I mean, how lucky am I that I actually enjoy going back to work after a holiday? I loved seeing my babies and co-workers, and I can't lie, I like having a schedule and things to do. I had 5 days off when I got back from the Philippines and too much down time makes me hella lazy and then I get restless. Feeling good these days. 

I've also decided this year is going to be the year of travel. I know, you're thinking, Jacky, you traveled a lot last year, what on earth on you talking about? Yes, you're right, I did and it was awesome. However, this year I want to take advantage of ALL the holidays and go somewhere awesome for every one. I also want to plan ahead because last year I did everything last minute and that was stupid. Planning for Buddha's birthday NOW, who's in?!

Speaking of last minute, I am not off to the greatest start on that, but I'm working on it. I thought I found an awesome deal on a trip to Hong Kong, but I had the dates wrong so that was all wrong. Then I tried calling Ethiopian Airlines and it turned into such an annoying hassle because they have the WORST customer service. You suck, Ethiopian Airlines. Kayak, you do too! Quit telling me there is a $200 flight when THERE IS NOT! Doing it pretty last minute is a stupid, and expensive thing to do since the entire country has vacation, so tons of people are booking flights. I stayed up until 5 am Friday night trying to find a ticket on LITERALLY every single airline that flies into Hong Kong, but EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. was sold out. So working on a new plan. Boo. 

But for some good news, this year I have already acquired two things for free that I was thisclose to purchasing. A coat rack and a kettle, if you're interested. I also found a pair of pants that actually fit me in this country! Granted, I feel like a fatty because it was the largest size in the store, but whatever. We'll also see how they hold up because last time I bought pants I thought fit, they actually stretched out too much for me to wear.  Also, this weekend was awesome since I went to a PUPPY CAFE (more in a later post) and cleaned the hell out of my apartment. Feeling so accomplished. Joining the gym tomorrow and am going to make the most out of these last 8 weeks with my babies. I also bought a kindle and a super cute case for it, as well as a new passport and phone case for like $8 on ebay. Who knows what the future has in store! I seriously can't wait. 

Dream big, people! 

(a break between songs)