Camping Korean Style!

This blog post could also be called Sapshido 2, since we went to this island last year for a service trip, but this year we went early to go camping.  This was the first time we went to an actual campground in Korea, before we just found a nice place on the river.  This time we had a site, a shower, a bathroom, a small store that sold ice cream and bottled water, and neighbors.  This is all very normal things when you go camping.  So, you are wondering, what is different about Korean camping vs US camping?

Well, it seems Koreans view camping differently than I am used to.  (Disclaimer: Please remember that all this is compared to how I (Margaret) have camped growing up.  This will affect some of the opinions about why you should camp, but I do at least have extensive experience with various styles of campgrounds.)
Anyways, Koreans like to sit outside and cook lots of food on their nice gas grills that they brought, then they sit at the table they brought, sit on the benches that they brought, and eat.  Then they lay back in their open tents and nap while the kids run around.  The campground was next to a nice beach, so between the large meals and the snacks, the kids went to the beach and the men went fishing or clam digging.  The wives, between cooking and cleaning up, would just nap.

What I have failed to mention is the most obvious strange thing about Korean camping.  The reason I have such detailed information on how Koreans camp, is because there is no space between sites.  Tents are set right next to each other.  You also have to bring everything because your site is a 12ft x 12ft square of ground.  That's it.  The one we were at didn't even have sites mapped out, you just had to squeeze it in where you could.

Each tent is on a separate site.  You can't see our tent, but its a lot smaller than the tents you see.

Camping was a lot of fun.  We spent the morning peering into tidal pools and finding anemones, and spent the afternoon hiking all the way around the island (it took about 4 hours).  After our busy day, we went swimming at the beach.

Now, the other difference between US and Korean camping is the idea that there is only one way to camp.  (The idea that there is a "best" way to do everything pervades society here and explains a lot about Korea generally.)  We stood out in many many ways, and this caused concern for some, and we got lots of strange looks.  It didn't help we had the site closest to the edge that everyone had to walk by to go to the store, cars, shower, bathroom, and beach.  Every time people would walk by, especially when we were cooking, we would get long looks out of the corner of people's eyes. 

One evening it started raining, and all the men grabbed their shovels and dug trenches.  We are assuming that they get all their camping skills from the military.  It didn't matter to them that we were camping on sand and the rain didn't even leave a puddle, much less be affected by trenches.  We had trenches dug for us, since we obviously had no camping experience or adequate camping equipment and were basically considered to be helpless foreigners.  After the rain stopped, we had a concerned guy come up to our tent who was extremely concerned that our trenches were too shallow and our tent too small.  He was also worried that we didn't have a lantern hanging up somewhere.  We tried to convey that we were fine, everything in our tent was dry, and we didn't have a lot of stuff because we carried everything there on our backs.  Seeing that we put our backpack on the bare sand, he gave us a lot of giant plastic bags to put our stuff in and our bags on.  He even put our bag of plastic bags in a bag.  It was all very nice, but it conveys how concerned they were that we did not bring a huge tent with tables, benches, and the kitchen sink.

So in summary, Korean camping is car camping with a lot of food and relaxing, but not in seclusion.  This may be similar to what other people do (though how you can go camping and not explore stuff is beyond me), but the two major differences is that the sites are closely packed and anyone who does things differently is considered very strange.

Our tiny tent with our tiny stove and our tiny "table."

Grading and Parking Garages

Even though we have lived in Korea for almost 2 years now, there are still little things that surprise me.  For example, the concept of tissue paper is foreign here.  Whenever I asked for it they started heading to the Kleenex. 

Two other little things have caught my attention.  Riley got his papers back from one of his classes, and they were covered with 0s.  It looked like he had gotten no points at all for most of his answers.  This was extra strange since he got 100 or greater on all of them.  We found out the a 0 is the same as a check mark here.  Xs still mean the same things, but triangles mean you get partial credit.

The other thing I saw recently is the amazing parking garages!  I don't know if this is a city thing everywhere, but the signs in the parking garage I went into were better than any I had ever been to before.  As you are driving around, each aisle has a little light up sign that tells you if there are any free spaces down that way.  If there is a free space and you turn to go down the aisle, you just look for the green light on the ceiling that indicates there isn't a car below it.  Once you park, the light turns red, and the aisle number goes down one.  This solves the drive around in circle problem common to most parking garages!  Alas, they have not come up with an easy way to remember where you parked your car.

Sam Gye Tang!

There is a soup that you are supposed to drink here in the summer.  I know, I was skeptical about soup in the summer, but this soup is so delicious that it is worth eating any time of the year.  The original Korean calender had 24 months, and on the first day of the three hottest months, you are supposed to eat this soup.
Ok, the English name is Chicken Ginseng Stew.  You get a whole little chicken in a bowl with rice and ginseng.  The chicken is stuffed with garlic, a chestnut, and a jujube.  The soup is supposed to give you energy to face the heat of the summer.  The protein and ginseng are energy foods.  However, the soup just made us really full and happy.  This is a recipe I will definitely try to make in America.

Delicious Samgyetang!  Your own personal chicken in a bowl.

Happy Feet!

There is a health trend in South Korea that took us a while to figure out.  It has to do with your feet.  Apparently, if  you treat your feet right, the rest of your body will follow.  For instance there is a type of clay that is good for your feet.  They make long trails of it to walk on barefoot.  Its supposed to cure you of indigestion, diabetes, memory loss, and various other diseases.  Its supposed to be the clay that cures you, but I suspect the long walks have something to do with it.

The next foot treatment feels really good.  Here is a picture of us on one.  Riley is in front just wearing socks, and our Slovenian friend Anton is next.  He and I went on it barefoot.

Riley and Anton healing their bodies with their feet.  Its a foot massage path!

It feels so good!  Its a path of smooth rocks that vary every now and then with different sizes and styles of rocks.  You just have to look out for sticks and insects that may have fallen, but they are usually kept pretty clean.  You can find simple ones in lots of small parks, this one was a little more extensive because is was near a tourist spot.  You can see the sign on the right of the path that shows you what part of your foot will affect what part of your body.  All your body parts correspond to a section of your foot.  I'm not sure how true all these feet things are, but they sure feel nice on your feet!

Health Check!

So, before we go back to America, we wanted to have a complete check up in Korea to make sure we were doing ok.  I scheduled a "Plus" health check which was the middle-sized package.  I wasn't allowed to eat for 8 hours beforehand because of the blood test and the endoscopy.  I showed up at 9 in the morning, and was told to go to the locker room and change into the clothes I would find in the locker.  It contained a comfortable linen pants and shirt.  I also had a pair of comfortable sandals to wear except they were for Korean feet.  I had to go to the front desk and ask for bigger shoes.  The lady tried to find me some bigger women's sandals, but I ended up getting men's sandals.  They fit perfectly.
Then the testing began.  I went from station to station getting my height, blood pressure, muscle mass, hearing, blood, and heart checked.  Besides the blood test, all of the exams were automated.  I was hooked up to various machines holding metal things or covered in suction cups.  It was all very quick and efficient.  Then I went to get the extra stuff done.  Vision, chest x-ray (standard to check for TB), and abdomen ultrasound.  I wasn't really expecting the abdomen ultrasound.  It was strange to have someone looking at my kidneys, pancreas, liver, gall bladder, and spleen.  It also tickled.
Then was the endoscopy.  Endoscopy is a horrible experience, if you've never had one, but the nurses were very nice and efficient.  As soon as it was over, I got to go over and see nice color pictures of my stomach.
It was a whirlwind of tests, I barely had to wait for anything.  I haven't gotten the full report back yet, but I am healthy as far as the immediate tests go!  But even better, the whole thing cost $120 without insurance!

Why so many Koreans get their PhD

Koreans are crazy about their college degrees.  More than half of young adults have a college degree and you almost have to get a masters to work in a company.  A high number also get their PhD.  Since Riley is just getting his master's degree, many people ask him why he is not getting his PhD.  His fellow Korean graduate students are all getting their PhD, why not him?
We just recently discovered the answer to why Koreans almost expect everyone to get the PhD if they decide to get any graduate degree.  It lies in another aspect of Korean life.
Many of you may know that South Korea is still currently at war with North Korea.  In day to day life this fact does not affect life very much.  However, every South Korean male is required to do 2 years of military service.  This is dreaded by most of them, and from their stories it doesn't sound like much fun.  Lots of physical labor and strange tasting food.
So what does this have to do with getting your PhD?  If you get your PhD, you only have to do 4 weeks of basic training.  The mystery is solved!  Of course this doesn't apply to Riley, but I think its a subconscious aspect of life now for South Koreans.

Something I never expected

One of the most fascinating things about Korean life, is how much of it is influenced by the western world.  You really have to go to specific places to get souviners because in regular stores anything decorative can be found in America.  Most things try to look fancy by having random English writing on it.
Even though I knew about this influence, I was still very surprised by something we saw at a festival a few weeks ago: a jazz saxophone band.

They were pretty good.  Most of the Koreans just sat still, staring, but a few of the older men and women were really getting into it.  I thought the surprise of finding out Korea has saxophone bands was the end of it, and then they started to play "Play that Funky Music, White Boy."  It was awesome!