Take the Wine Train in Korea for the journey, not the wine

Two women on the Korean wine train enjoy playing games on board the train headed from Seoul to Koreans only winery in Yeongdong.

   Wine Korea offers an amazing cultural tour of the Korean countryside through wine. Hop on the Wine Train for an all day adventure with your friends or lover. Whether or not you are setting out on a romantic date or a booze train, guests of all backgrounds will truly enjoy their day being immersed into Korean culture.
    My man Paulo flew in from Los Angeles during the coldest Korean winter in history to join me on the tour. We arrived at Seoul Station on a Saturday morning in January completely exhausted because of the early departure. The train boards its passengers at 8:55am. You may choose between 2 cars on board: Red/White Wine Passenger Car: KRW 85,000 or Ginseng/Medicinal Herb Passenger Car: KRW 80,000. We went for the more expensive car the Red/White car which seemed to be more VIP in overall nature of the tour. The 5,000 won increase in comparison to the Ginseng car is a small price to pay when you see the comfortable interior of the train.

    So what are you going to do on a 12 hour wine train tour? 

A strange platter of Western food on board the train.

First you will enjoy a fun and wine filled journey to Yeongdong. The DJ/host in your train will provide a variety of games for entertainment during the train ride. Several of the games involved popping balloons, using smiley face stickers to attach your table members and the Korean version of rock,paper,scissors. Prizes are awarded for the game winners. The games were fun, however they were all conducted in Korean. Nothing was in English the entire trip, which resulted in a lot of laughing, staring and use of the word waygooken (foreigner). I actually recommend going without a foreigner group because the experience of dancing, drunk, adjumas (old women) was so enjoyable! Most of the wine was unbearable, so we stuck to the white wine which was kind of like a bitter version of Chardonnay.

The all you can drink wine doesn't have the best quality.

Once you get to Yeongdong and have a good buzz, you will board a short bus ride to Wine Korea for lunch. The food is a buffet set up of average Korean/fusion food. Overall, I would give the lunch rating a C. Pasta, Korean food, salad and cake are not my favorite combinations.You can have access to giant barrels of wine and drink as much as you want before re-boarding the bus for your next stop.
    After lunch there are a few stops at several cultural attractions. I really enjoyed this portion of the tour and my man Paulo loved learning how to play traditional Korean music. This took place at the Nangye Educational Center for Korean Classical Music Instruments. We heard professionals play music first and then all guests were provided with their own drums and were given a 30 minute music lesson.

Learning how to play Korean drums was awesome.

  From the educational center we walked across the street to see a colossus drum and spend time in a small museum. There were also bows and arrows for those to shoot that were less interested in the museum.
The next stop takes you to an amazing underground tunnel which serves as an old wine cellar for Wine Korea. Because all of the signs were in Korean and the guides only spoke Korean, I was unable to learn the exact details of the tunnel.

A group enjoying the wine foot bath.

Finally, you will get the chance to sit back and relax as you stick your feet into boiling hot baths of wine water. The water was too hot for me and took a while to ease into! You will also make wine soap during this portion of the tour. This all takes black back at the Wine Korea location where it will end with a tour of the private wine cellar and gift shop.
Don't worry the party isn't over yet. You will head back to Seoul playing plenty of games and relaxing as a sweet Korean guy plays music on his guitar and sings to you. During this time, my train was getting wild with the DJ and all of the adjumas and adjoosis (old women and men) were out of their seats dancing.

By the end of the tour my car had plenty of wine for the day as they danced wildly on the train!

A peek inside of the Korea wine cellar cave.

The tour takes 12 hours round trip from Seoul Station and is well worth the price for transportation, all you can drink wine, and food throughout the entire day. Play the foreigner card, and you will probably end up with a free bottle of wine to take home with you at the end of the day!  Depending on the weather and time of year the Wine Train has different versions of its tours. It may subsitute the music and underground tunnel portions of 4 and 5 above for a stop at the Geumsan Ginseng Town.
Foreigners do not have to pay in advance, but they must call Tel: 02-3149-3333 (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese) to book their tickets! Use the Korea Tourism Org's Website for more help in booking your trip!

 

Graphics on the outside of one of the Wine Train cars.

Excited passengers on the Korea Wine Train!

Outside of the winery on a snowy day. 

Inside the soap making room. My group failed so I won't show our soap!

A massive Korean drum outside of the music center.

If you have any questions or comments about "Take the Wine Train in Korea for the journey, not the wine" please leave them in the comment box below or email goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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Listening to K-pop on the lifts of Sungwoo Resort!

 

    About 1 minute up the lift, my fingers started tapping against the cold metal bar of the safety bar. My snowboard was swaying over fresh powder to the beat, and my lips starting humming the sound of "Can't Nobody" by the famous K-pop band 2NE1. Yes, to my astonishment there was K-pop music blasting on the lifts at Hyundai Sungwoo Resort!

    My friends and I couldn't help but laugh in astonishment, as this was the first time we had ever experienced pop music while cruising up the mountain to hit our first run. Everyone on the mountain was dancing to the beat, and the music was a great way to enjoy the day while snowboarding in perfect conditions.
    Never in my life have I experienced such organized chaos on the slopes. People had no idea what they were doing, and the lifts go so slow that you don't even have to strap into your snowboard or skiis. People were casually walking off the lift, a sight that one would never see in American or European ski resorts. And all along the journey, everyone is jamming to the latest hits like The Black Eyed Peas "The Time (Dirty Bit)"
    To learn more about Sungwoo Resort check out the full article "Snowboarding and skiing at Hyundai Sungwoo Resort in South Korea".

If you have any questions or comments about "Listening to K-pop on the lifts of Sungwoo Resort!" please leave them in the comment box below or email goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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Please stop smoking in my hallway and my elevator!

A letter to my neighbors to stop smoking in my hallway!

    Exiting the city streets engulfed by the polluted air of Seoul into an apartment or office building can sometimes be relieving. This is simply because the air quality is usually much better due to average heating and air conditioning systems. But lately, getting off the elevator in my apartment building is a source of enormous frustration. I enter into a hallway completely filled of smoke, and hold my breathe as a run all the way to the end of the hall and open my door as quickly as possible. But then once inside my apartment, I have relized that the smoke seeped in through the cracks around the door and I still haven't escaped!
    Why do I put up with this on a daily basis? The smoke is clearly from the two young girls that smoke at the end of my hallway next to the window. I have complained to them before saying "smoking anyeo!" no smoking in Korean, and all they do is laugh at me like I'm some stupid foreigner. Well I have news for you Korea. I'm not some stupid Waygooken. I have asthma for Christ sakes, and the pollution in Seoul is enough to deal with!
    So two days ago after returning from the gym to a smoke filled hallway, I finally had enough. I walked over to the window and left it wide open so the girls would have a freezing cold draft of air seeping into their apartment which is right next to the window. Secondly, I stole the hidden lighters by the window! The next day I did the same exact thing, and carried one of the lighters with me to work so that I would remember to ask a Korean co-worker to help write me a letter.
    The letter reads: Hello, please do not smoke in the hallway. The smoke comes into my apartment. Please use the rooftop or go outside. Thank you. I taped the letter to the window and returned all 4 of the lighters that I had stolen from the days before. It has only been 2 days, but no other lighters have appeared yet, and there hasn't been any smoke. But the sign was ripped down.

    I hope that this problem will be resolved, and that Koreans will have more respect about where they smoke. Most people would think that smoking inside an enclosed hallway is completely rude, and all of my students and Korean co-workers agree. The girls are simply lazy, and don't want to go outside into the cold, or take the effort to board the elevator all the way to the rooftop or downstairs. This story seems strange enough, until I consider the time that I was going to work and a man started smoking inside the elevator! He simply couldn't wait a lousy 30 seconds to light up, and so I had to suffer the consequences.
    Everyone knows that smoking is a huge epidemic in Asia, and Korea is no exception. I went to my class the next day, and to my irony had to teach an article about product warnings. The article was about cigarette warnings. We were brainstorming positive and negative things about smoking, and all the male students could come up with were positive reasons. Some of them included: relief from stress, a good feeling, looking cool, a cheap price in Korea, and more tax money for the government. All I can say is, "Lord help them!" and "Please stop smoking in my hallway and my elevator!"

If you have any questions or comments about "Please stop smoking in my hallway and my elevator!" please leave them in the comment box below or email goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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The top six funniest mistakes from English students: 2010

The number 1 mistake award goes to "I want to making love with you!"

    I always carry a little notebook to my classes to record funny things that my students say. Some of them are cute, and some of them are just flat out funny. Here are my favorites from 2010.

1. Making Love: "Ok class lets practice some of these gerunds." "I want to making love with you!"  Correction: I am falling in love with you! This guy was 32 years old and his name was Tango. There is no way that I was letting this one slide as I blurted out "Making love means sex!" This class was really close and were great friends so they simply laughed hysterically when I told them this. After the class I think the student felt bad, because he invited to take me to Burger King for lunch.

2. Doing work in the bathroom: "The girl was in the bathroom doing her work" "When she finished doing her work she did not wash her hands!" Correction- The girl was going to the bathroom. When she was finished using the restroom (going pee/poo) she did not wash her hands! My adorable low level Talk Time students made this mistake. No one taught them how to simply say, "I'm going to the bathroom!" This is simply a cute and endearing mistake that we all laughed over in class.

3. I'm bad at drinking:"I don't drink, I'm bad at drinking." Numerous Koreans think that they have an allergy to alcohol because their body turns bright red when they drink. This is not a little pink, its full fledged Mc Donald's color red. Therefore many of my students say in class "I'm bad at drinking." They come up with this sentence because they are almost ashamed that they cannot drink, as drinking is a big part of Korean culture. They mean by this that their bodies are actually bad at drinking. I find this quite hilarious, because in all reality no one's body is meant to withstand a six pack of Coors Light or a bottle of soju!

4. Husky voice: "Teacher Carla, is this correct?" "Teacher Marie has she always had a husky voice?" Correction: No correction, I have always had a deep, husky voice!" Everyone that knows me understand that I have a raspy surfer girl voice. My students have never heard anything like it, and so they all always ask strange questions about it, and often compliment me with other weird sayings like "Your voice is really sexy."

5.Feeling me up:  "He was feeling me up!"  Correction: He was sizing me up! Of course my students couldn't possibly know what the idiom feeling up means. But there was no way I could possibly explain this one in class, I had a group of severely awkward students that couldn't even talk about dating with straight faces! So instead of correcting them in class, I let this one slide to save the embarrassment.

6. Reggae hair: "That guy has reggae hair!" My fellow San Diegan co-worker happens to be African American. He also happens to have dreadlocks. Unfortunately, Konglish is so advanced they even have a name for dreadlocks by simply referring to people as having reggae hair. I find this mistake flat out funny because they took the Reggae genre of music and applied it to hair. Would you ever say to someone, "I like your K-pop hair," or "I like your jazz hair?"

If you have any questions or comments about "The top six  funniest mistakes from English students: 2010" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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A cat-angel man and an Irish Priest sing at Christmas Mass in Myeong-Dong Cathedral

A cat-angel joined the choir at Myeong-Dong Cathedrals 2010 Christmas Mass.

    Nothing could stop squeals of laughter from both children and adults as the cat-angel appeared during Myeong-Dong Cathedrals Christmas Day Mass this past 2010 Christmas. Towards the end of the English Mass held at 9:00am, about 12 altar boys and girls joined together to sing "My Christmas Tree" in English as a special treat for foreigners in Korea.
    The group looked particularly beautiful in their white altar clothes, and their red reindeer antlers showed off their Christmas spirit. Everyone in the church was genuinely excited, and many people brought out their cameras to take live video and pictures of the group. One of  my students is the main altar girl for the mass, and I couldn't help but snap a few photos of her with those cute antlers on her head!

The altar girls were having a hard time not laughing!

    The singing was going great, but then suddenly a man entered from behind the group wearing a cat-angel mask. Everyone started laughing, even the small choir as the man enjoyed his solo. The mask was complely absurd looking, and as you can see from the picture it is a hybrid between a cat and an angel. Whoever gave him permission to wear that costume in church had a serious sense of humor!
    We thought the fun was all done, but then the Irish priest joined in and sang a solo during the last two lines. His deep voice clearly had not been used in a while, and right after the song he announced with his thick Irish accent "the last time I sung I was drunk, and the next time I sing I will be drunk!" Everyone raved with laughter, and I personally was relieved to see his funny Irish personality revealed after such a serious mass about helping the homeless.
    Myeong-dong Cathedral is one of the only churches in Seoul that offers English Masses. But be prepared for unusual circumstances at special services around the holidays! You just might just see another mixed animal costume and a cool Irish priest in the future.  To learn more about Myeong-Dong Catheral visit "Enjoy Myeong-dong Cathedrals Gothic architecture and attend an English Mass".

If you have any questions or comments about "A cat-angel man and an Irish Priest singing at Christmas Mass in Myeong-Dong Cathedral" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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A commercialized Korean Christmas

A Christmas photo stop in Myeongdong outside Migliore.

Christmas in Korea is just like America's Christmas, but on steroids. The entire concept of Christmas is turned into a giant commercialized frenzy for the month of December. My students explained to me that they go on expensive dates with their boy/girl friends and that it is a much bigger deal than Valentines day. Take for example the 5 course dinner offered at the JW Marriot in Seoul witch is a steep 200,000 won!
    Going to class every day and listening to my students talking about Christmas was a bit depressing at times. Some of them would say things like "Well I'm single, so I'll just stay home and watch movies and be sad all night!" Christmas here is more about dating than anything, most of the Koreans that are religious have a small celebration like a dinner, or go to church and that is all.

Pagoda and YBM competing with each other.

    Although there is a sad side to Christmas in Korea if you are single, the decorations throughout Seoul are simply magnanimous. Everywhere you look there are Christmas lights and trees. The YBM headquarters in Jongno put up their giant display of lights, and about a week later Pagoda (YBM's biggest competition) threw up five times the amount of lights on their small building in Jongno!  Check out some amazing pictures around Seoul and from my Christmas party this year.

Pagoda cannot fit anymore Christmas lights on their building.

Outside of Myeongdong Catholic Church.

A nativity scene at Myeongdong Church.

Crazy light structure outside of IBK bank.

A beautiful Christmas tree outside of Myeongdong theatre.

A woman taking donations and ringing the bell, just like Salvation Army in America.

A shoe store advertisement wishing you a happy walking?

Former YBM students wearing matching Christmas sweaters at my Christmas party.

A group photo at my Christmas pot luck dinner in Jongno.

If you have any questions or comments about "A commercialized Korean Christmas" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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Lust in my officetel gym

A average morning in my gym ended with a sexual fiasco.

    Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever pictured myself in the situation I was in this morning at 9 am. I understand that Korea's culture can be harsh for those in sexual relationships. Most Koreans live with their parents until they are married, even if they are grown adults at ages 30 and higher. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the creation of love motels, which are pretty much serviced by young Korean couples. Some of my first weeks in August 2010, were spent in a love motel, and trust me I was the only guest there during the day. So here's the story:

Love motels are only the beginning. Courtesy of Luke Martin.

    At 8:40 am I entered the gym of my officetel apartment building. No one was in the gym, and so after turning on all of the lights and I hopped on the treadmill. About ten minutes later, the mirror in front of me revealed a young girl, probably in her late twenties entering the gym. She was dressed up with high heels and a cute Korean style dress. Wait a minute? Why would this girl be entering the gym all dressed up for work? Well, maybe she left something in the stretching room yesterday, or maybe she works in the Korea Cyber University (which is in my building) and just wants to take a nap.
    She headed straight for the guys stretching room, which was directly behind a wall that blocked my view. I thought it was peculiar that she never turned on any lights in the stretching room. And why would she go in the guys room, instead of the girls? Well maybe she likes to take a nap on the mats just like the office tel maid does sometimes, I thought to myself. There have been a few instances where I thought I was alone in the gym, but then suddenly the maid emerged from the guys stretching room after taking a long nap. One time I was even singing loudly to a K-pop group 2NE1, when the maid revealed herself and stared me down in the treadmill mirror.
    After playing out every possible scenario in my head, even the one where the young girl is accepting drugs from the officetel maid, the real office tel maid entered the gym at 8:50 am. She headed straight for the guys stretching room where she usually takes a nap, and immediately she started cursing vibrant Korean words into the room. She was clearly pissed off about something and immediately ran out of the gym and down the hallway where she started yelling at some office workers in a rent-able office room on the floor.
    Meanwhile, I continued working out casually with my eyes plastered to the mirror in front of me. Two minutes later, I saw the dressed up Korean girl exit the guys stretching room and she was not alone. A tall sexy Korean man followed right behind her with an ashamed and bright red face.
    There are no guessing games as to what was going on in the male stretching room that morning! Clearly they had met up to do the deed, and the fact that I was in the other room walking on the treadmill was of little importance to them. I guess the love motel was getting a little expensive, so by using my officetel's stretching room they saved a few hundred won a month.


If you have any questions or comments about "Lust in my officetel gym" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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Opinion: Understanding Korea's drinking culture

A standard hite ad located in the Korean subway.

    "Teacher my religion is alcohol!" Yes, a  mature male adult from my school blurted this statement out in perfect English while in class one day! Of course I am so used to the culture here now, that a statement like this would not boggle my mind. Neither would witnessing 2 drunk girls fall asleep on a sidewalk at 3 am and watching no one do anything to help them. Nor would watching men stumbling and hiccuping on the sidewalk at 10am in the morning.  So what is the Korean drinking culture like, and why is it so different from Western culture?
    In short, drinking in Korea is not a shameful act. And you can pretty much picture all of Korea like a giant Las Vegas; you can even drink on the streets. In fact there is no such thing as alcoholism here. Many of my students and Korean friends have never heard of such a thing. After explaining the definition of alcoholism to my friends, some of them replied "This must be a made up story."
    I agree that alcoholism is a proven psychological and sometimes physical addiction to a substance. But I can also understand why Koreans don't believe this is a true disease. Why you may ask? Because drinking is such a useful skill in Korea.

Korean drinking games are a staple when hanging out with good friends.

Drinking can be useful for many things in Korea, including some of the following:

1. getting a job/making a business deal- Going out to get pissed drunk with a potential boss or business client will definitely help your chances at getting hired or making a deal in Korea. In fact, you should never reject another drink from your boss. Many of the older generations in Korea see drinking with colleagues or partners as a time to bond and form true relationships. If you end up puking on the sidewalk and passing out, this will be no problem the next morning at work. You will probably just get a funny nick name and a raise!

2. apologizing- One day in class my students were talking about how they prefer to go out drinking when they have to make an apology. They apologize and move on immediately to make new memories. Apparently the middle aged generation of 25-30 years old is having trouble using this technique with younger generations. The younger generations roughly from ages 18-25 prefer having a public apology with many of their friends act as a witness to the persons testimony of faith.

3. networking- Koreans don't talk to strangers; not even when they are sitting on the bus or the subway bored out of their minds. But if Koreans are drunk, they can talk to anybody they want! Not many Koreans try to talk to me during the day, but at night time around 10pm many of them are drunk already and always approach me to practice their English. I like to call this the the Waygookin Drunken Affect. Waygookin
(외국인) means foreigner in Korean, and almost all Koreans use bad English and say "I am very drunken" when they start speaking to foreigners late at night.

     Yes, I understand that these skills are not universally accepted in Korea. Many companies are starting to crack down on peer pressure related to drinking. And many more are starting to enact strict policies in favor of Koreans who do not accept drinking as a part of their lifestyle.
    But I see this change happening very slowly in Korea, and having very little affect on most of the population's drinking. I even teach two entire classes of Tell a Story at my school, which use vocabulary and stories strictly pertaining to drinking. Yes, I teach my students words such as hangover, wasted, and buzzed and it is a requirement! Check back soon for another article about this class. Till then, happy soju time!


If you have any questions or comments about "Opinion: Understanding Korea's drinking culture"  please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com
  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.


  

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Seoul Food Girl: Why eat cereal when you can drink it?

   This article can also be read at www.seoulfoodgirl.com

Who wouldn't want to drink 19 cereals at once?

  One morning while teaching a very low level Talk Time 2 class, I noticed one of my students named Irene drinking Denmark Morning Cereals Milk. As a cereal lover, (I ate Cheerios for breakfast this morning) this drink fascinated me. "So what is this drink?" I asked my student. She replied that the milk tastes just like your eating milk and cereal.
    Of course I thought this was crazy. Why on earth would I want to drink a carton of cereal flavored milk? The idea is just too crazy for me. Plus, if you look closely at the carton this milk cereal stuff says it is blended with nineteen cereals! Who on earth would want to taste nineteen different types of cereal at the same time? So of course I promised my student I would have to try this milk sometime. Meanwhile I completely forgot about this magic milk cereal.
    Two weeks later on December 1st I started a new month of classes. I showed up to teach a Talk Time 3 class not knowing who would be in my course. The students didn't even know who their teacher was going to be until I walked in the door. And behold, the second I enter the classroom Irene has a box of Denmark Morning Cereals Milk on her desk. She proudly offered it to me and I accepted it with gratitude and excitement!

    So what do I think of this milk? Alright it is a little strange at first. But towards the end of the carton I started to get used to the flavor. This is a neat solution for those that have little time to eat breakfast in the morning, or for those that simply do not want to do dishes! The taste wasn't so bad, it tasted like a healthy protein drink, and of course like cereal. However, this drink cannot replace the delicious taste and crunchy texture of my Honey Nut Cheerios.
    This milk cereal drink can be purchased in Korea at pretty much any convenience or grocery store for about 2,000 won depending on location.


If you have any questions or comments about "Why eat cereal when you can drink it?"  please leave them in the comment box below or email them to seoulfoodgirl@gmail.com
  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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Be Quiet! The Jehova's Witnesses are here!

They never leave us alone here!  Courtesy of www.ROKetship.com

    Alright, many people have told me about "them." "They" came to my apartment the first day I started unpacking and moving in. But no one told me that "they" would be my worst enemy in Korea. I mean really now, "they" woke me up this morning on my one lousy day off work!

    Yes people, I'm talking about Jehovah's Witnesses here in Korea. There is nothing wrong with being a Jehova's Witness. Although it is a little peculiar that in 2004 more than 10,000 of them had to serve prison terms in South Korea for disregarding the compulsory military service. Don't get me wrong, religion is an amazing thing that only makes the world a better place. As a somewhat practicing Catholic, I find myself taking the more spiritual approach than a devout Church goer.  Growing up I learned to appreciate the joy of having a religion in your life. However, the one thing that always bothered me was those who try to impose their religion on others.

     Each time someone knocks on my door I immediately get very quiet and turn on my door camera, in fear that its the Jehova's. Usually I have two younger women who knock on my door, and they strike up a pleasantly normal conversation with you. They want to know your name, how long you have lived in Korea, and just start talking to you like their your best friend. Then they try to give you a million hand outs like the one pictured. By the time you get rid of them you will have spend around fifteen minutes trying everything humanly possible to send them on their way.
     So why not just answer my door and casually tell them "I'm not interested?"  Well this has been tried too, however they will just keep knocking on your door and ringing your doorbell until you open it again. And trust me, they will come back again tomorrow, and the next day to see if they can talk to you.
    Therefore, until there is another grand solution to get rid of the Jehova's witnesses, my reccomendation is to never answer your door when someone knocks, and pretend like your not home. Or maybe you could just put a giant sign on your door that says "I HATE GOD" instead!
  
If you have any questions or comments about "Be Quiet! The Jehova's Witnesses are here!" please leave them in the comment box below or email goneseoulsearching@gmail.com 


  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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Who wears skirts to the gym?

 

    Yes there are tons of girls that wear cute tennis skirts while they are playing tennis and this is ok because they usually have little shorts underneath them. But girls are just not supposed to wear skirts in the gym. Just thinking about this idea sounds so scandalous and wrong.
    About thirty minutes into my workout the girl in the picture entered the gym. I thought maybe she just forgot something and was coming back to get it, but then she did some stretching and hopped right on the elliptical machine. I have heard of  Korean girls wearing funny outfits to the gym, even heels, but I was surprised by the skirt. There were clearly no shorts under the skirt, because the girl kept holding it down as she was stretching.
    This was so amusing to me that I actually got off my treadmill and went back up to my apartment to get my camera. Luckily when I returned she was still working out and was facing away from me which was perfect to get the photo and video for this article! If you wore a skirt to a gym back home in America, I'm pretty sure security would come kick you out, or demand that you get changed! Apparently anything goes in Korean gyms!

If you have any questions or comments about "Who wears skirts to the gym" please leave them in the comment box below or email them to goneseoulsearching@gmail.com



  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

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