Old and New

"When I look to the future, but always look to the past. Time is a circle, the future and the past in the same direction, and this moment is the thinnest layer..." (artist unknown, Gwangju Design Biennale)

As promised, a bit of belated coverage on the Gwangju Design Biennale as an excuse to weave in some thoughts on Korea's rapid transformation from a third-world agricultural nation to the technological powerhouse it is today in just 60 years... because that's how my mind works.

The Gwangju Biennale

Gwangju is known as the arts and culture capital of Korea, so it is not surprising that they host two large biennales to support local artists. This year's theme at the Gwangju Design Biennale was called "Anything, Something."

GUSIGI, MASIGI (Anything, Something) : the 5th Gwangju Design Biennale will explore cultural habits, shared characteristics, and coded conventions that inform the many unspoken contexts by which we communicate with one another. Two Korean words widely used in the Jeolla province, “GUSIGI, MASIGI,” is used to refer to an object or idea when the actual name escapes the mind, and is similar to the phrase “what do you call it” in English. Adopted from “GUSIGI, MASIGI”, “Anything, Something” keys into different elements of communication beyond literal speech such as emotional and cultural prompts as well as responses. The exhibition will explore such hidden contexts and habits in our day-to-day communication that inform designers sensitive to both familiar and new environments and who strive toward creative forms of understanding and expression. (Gwangju Biennale)

Given the theme, it was fascinating to visit this exhibition within the first week of moving to a country where I don't know the language or customs. The individual galleries were wide and varying, ranging from deconstructed straw mats to Louis Vuitton to Chinese furniture. Dani and I couldn't find printed literature on the theme, so it was hard to understand how these different things connected to each other. I was already feeling adrift between cultures, so it somehow made sense to have all these disparate pieces collected in the same space.

The featured gallery was called "Old and New" and focused on how traditional objects considered the "cultural DNA of Koreans" could be re-interpreted in a contemporary way highlighting their symbolic significance.

Featured gallery on the "Old and New"

A cascade of straw bowls, "equally valid as an object of elegant design as well as utilitarian purpose."

Some of it was pretty pretentious, but you gotta give props for dropping "dream of postmodernism."

I thought about this exhibit again after our orientation group was given a presentation on Korean history this week, covering the central defining events from the 1900s onward. The presenter was a young Korean-American woman and her passion for sharing her pride in Korea's incredible transformation from a third world to first world country had us enthralled for two hours. She did not hesitate to cover the darker, painful sides of Korean history, such as the hardships the Korean people endured during multiple wars, as well as the disturbing modern societal trends instigated by a national obsession with physical perfection and test scores.

I only took courses on China and Japan in college, so what I knew about Korea was through those courses or covered somewhat in colloquium. The precedence given to China and Japan is an ongoing issue within the field of East Asian Studies, so I graduated with this degree not knowing much about Korea. Given this, I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to learn about this country from its own perspective.

What comes to mind when you think of Korea? It's probably...

Dramas!

Kpop!

Internet! Internet everywhere!

See also: Televised gaming tournaments, Hyundai, LG, RAINNN!!!!

Before the 1960s, none of that existed. The Korean War caused such devastation to the point that it was considered a third world country.

This is an iconic image from the time. Children were raising children.

Korea was able to progress so rapidly through the highly controversial leadership of Park Chung Hee, who became president in 1961 through a military coup. He silenced any opposition and rebuilt all of Korea's infrastructure with the same ruthless efficiency.

Seoul before and after.

I can't say if the ends justified the means, but the results are incredible. It is no wonder why Koreans are so proud of their country. The pace of progress explains the bali bali culture,where everything and everyone here moves FAST. There are people in just their 50s, my parents' generation, who can remember an entirely different Korea while their kids are born clutching smartphones. People my age can only remember this bright and spectacular Korea, but it wasn't long ago at all that it was covered in rubble and farmland. The strata of society is comprised of generations of people who may as well been from different worlds. Despite the tension and friction from growing pains between the old and new, South Korea is a remarkable country and I'm excited to be here and learn more.

"Cure" (Smartphones and candy inside IV drips)

"Gangnam Style"

A gallery of proposed designs for a flag that would represent both North and South Korea. Visitors could vote with small yellow stickers.

For family and friends who follow this blog to stay updated on my activities and not for history lessons, I'm finishing up orientation week and will be moving to Hampyeong on Thursday! 

Coming up: An overview of the Jeollanamdo Language Program and orientation week.

Bingsunami!

I know folks back home are reveling in their pumpkin spice lattes and candy corn, but I have been ALL ABOUT the bingsu this week.

Bingsu is Korea's version of shaved ice dessert. It seems like many Asian countries have their own take on it and I am definitely loving Korea's! I have had one almost every day since arriving since it's the tail end of bingsu season. So before the temperatures drop down much lower, I present to you... bingsu!

OREO BINGSU! With red beans and condensed milk lovingly laced through the snowy interior. I'm more than a little excited.

Green tea bingsu! The taste was un-matcha-ble.

I berried my spoon right to the bottom!

This one cured the tiramisery of jet lag.

O-pun sesame! Omnomnomnom...

I just settled in at the SBC orientation center where we will be receiving teaching and cultural training for ten days before moving to our various towns in Jeollanamdo. Opening ceremony tomorrow morning!

Culture Complex, part one

Are you suffering from culture complex?

I may not be sure of what I want to do for a "career" or even if such a thing is for me, but I knew that I wanted to spend at least a year living and working outside of the United States. Preferably in an East Asian country, since I was an East Asian Studies major in college.

Why not Japan? I missed the application deadline for the JET Programme and didn't want to wait another year to leave. I studied Japanese language and literature extensively and spent a semester in Kyoto. There will always be a part of me that lives in Japan (a horcrux, as Alissa would say), but if I lived there now, I would feel this pressure to be Miss Japanese Studies and I wanted a different kind of abroad experience.

As for China, my parents immigrated from China and I was born and raised in New York. I have never been to China. I know I will want to go someday, but for now, I didn't want to have a year characterized by grappling with my identity and heritage.

I chose South Korea because I wanted a particular type of living abroad experience. Aside from kpop and kdramas, I am unacquainted with South Korea and wanted to get to know a country with fresh eyes. I wanted to stumble through a brand new language with no expectations of being anything more than a beginner and a guest. I looked forward to a life where every basic daily interaction would confuse, delight, fascinate, and humble me.

What surprises me is how my mind is choosing to contain and translate the sensory overload of being here. As a New Yorker with immigrant parents, I am comfortable with encountering cultures other than my own and engaging in something that is more of a respectful understanding than communication. The problem is that all my prior experiences are making it difficult for me to see this country on primarily its own terms. A walk in downtown Gwangju reminds me of Flushing and many Korean foods, words, and customs are similar to Japanese or Chinese ones. Obviously cultures are not interchangeable, but there are enough initial similarities that the real challenge for me has been sorting them into "old knowledge with new names" and "randomly unique to South Korea." Forgetting nuances in either scenario is when I risk being offensive, more so than possibly someone who doesn't have a lot of prior knowledge of Japanese and Chinese culture.

Flat chopsticks? Mind blown!

One example is Korean utensils. The chopsticks here are stainless steel and flat-edged. Their shape and weight force me to hold them slightly differently than I am used to, but it throws my chopsticks auto-pilot completely off. It's also fine to hold one chopstick in each hand to slice food apart. It's almost like relearning how to use chopsticks.

The spoon thing is totally new to me. Both rice and soup are eaten with a flat metal spoon and it's inappropriate to hold a bowl closer to your face or drink from the bowl as I would at home.

juk vs. jook

Then there is my ultimate comfort food from home, congee. In Cantonese it's called jook and it sounds the same in Korean. I desperately craved this food whenever I lived away from home, as well as my mom's herbal soups. Both are readily accessible here and I've occasionally caught wafts of my mom's cooking from the shops on the street. It's disorienting to have such a distinct reminder of home and be 8000 miles away in a country I have never visited before. It's homesickness inverted to the point of becoming an utterly foreign experience.

onigiri vs. kimbap

One of my fondest memories of living in Japan is walking to the combini and picking up onigiri for breakfast to go. I can do the same thing in Korea, but it's called kimbap here. It's a small thing, but I have so strongly associated this specific simple act with my whole experience of being in Japan, living in a different country for the first time, and the person I was at that time in my life. I'm not yet able to describe what it means to me to be here now and be able to do the same thing, but it's something like time traveling and meeting that younger self again.

So not quite the starry-eyed bumbling new traveler, but an unexpected unfolding of something else that I'll be interested in tracking as more time passes.

Next up: More fun times in Gwangju! The Gwangju Biennale and folk art museum, copious food porn, and a burgeoning adoration of Benedict Cumberbatch 

Crash course in Gwangju

I made it to Gwangju on Tuesday, after only a grueling straight 30 hours of travel!

I managed to bring only a single suitcase and a backpack for the year, partly to live life minimally and make it easier to haul all my stuff around as a petite person. Actually, scratch that first reason-- I'm living in a wonderland of shiny, cute things that steal all my won. Damn you, Etude House. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Take my won!!

R. drove me to JFK at 3:30am, after I spent all night desperately pulling things out of my suitcase to get it down to the magic 49 pounds. I slept right through the flight to San Francisco, even though the seats were made out of an interesting high-tech concrete material, spent the next 12 hours studying Hangul flashcards and not getting the proper immigration forms because they assumed I was Korean (surprise!) and finally got to Incheon, where I sprinted onto the next bus to Gwangju as it was leaving the station. My first taste of Korea's "bali bali" (faster faster!) culture.

The remains of the welcome snacks pyramid.

Dani met me at the Gwangju bus terminal. I think we slo-mo hugged, but that might have been my brain melting. She brought me back to her apartment and showed me the epic Korean ramyun and snacks pyramid she built to welcome me. I'll be staying with her for a few days before my work orientation begins, so she was thoughtful to provide some back-up food in case I wasn't up to figuring out how to navigate the restaurants here yet. We caught up a bit and she took me to a pajeon restaurant, where I ate the most delicious fried pancake of my life.

There is a channel devoted to live gaming. Oh Korea!

The view from Dani's apartment

The tour went just like this scene.

The next morning, I magically woke up completely alert at 7am. Is this what it feels like to be a morning person? Dani came back from work early and we ended up walking all around her neighborhood and Shinae, the downtown area, for hours. Dani fed me a steady stream of fascinating details on life in Korea and how not to get completely lost and screwed over when I inevitably have to navigate the streets on my own. 

Picture highlights from the day!

Steamed mandu (dumplings)!

Public exercise machines, mostly used by older folks.

A lone Buddhist temple in a sea of neon crosses in Sangmu.

Overlooking Gwangju from the top of a Buddhist pavilion.

A subway station in Gwangju. So spacious and clean! Just like New York! Har har.

A magnetic token ticket. You tap it at the turnstile to enter and drop it into a slot when you exit.

Loud blaring melody to announce when the train arrives. The inside was squeaky clean and enormous. All stops were announced in 4 languages. New York, take note!

Hot ginseng drink that reminds me of my mom's herbal soups, aka homesickness in a bottle.

Why not? FASHION BUSINESS!

Street cart with assorted dried... everything. A vat of boiled silkworms in the top left.

G-Dragon! Can you introduce me to TOP?

Even the kids here are better dressed than me.

GALBI! NONOMONOMONOM.

Bibimbop! So delicious, it burns!

Riding on a bus in Gwangju. I managed an action shot, aren't you proud of me?

Since we shamelessly bought bags of beauty products from the legions of cosmetics stores downtown, we had some girly bonding time at night over nail polish and paper face masks. Mine was an "anti-trouble" mask, which is the face-saving term for pimples. Face-saving, get it? Wooo, East Asian Studies jokes...

Batman's "anti-trouble" mask

Next up on the blog, a discussion of "culture complex" and the story of how a pair of chopsticks blew my mind.

Introduction

Here we go. In three days, I will be halfway through my 20-hour flight to South Korea, where I’ll be living for at least a year. I’m still not finished packing, but writing is a better option than completely losing my mind.

Some background info: I am preparing to teach English in Hampyeong County in South Jeolla province, about 3.5 hours southwest of Seoul and 40 minutes from Gwangju, the closest city. I’m 27 years old (I guess 28 in Korea? Yikes) and originally from New York. I’ll be going from living with 8.3 million other people to…. 45,000! Definitely looking forward to taking a break from city life.

I am hoping this blog will provide some helpful resources on life in Hampyeong and help others with the ridiculous issues I had during the application process. Although I was originally accepted into EPIK, I had my fingerprints rejected for the required criminal background check THREE TIMES, with each attempt taking 6 weeks each. Fellow tiny-fingered readers rejoice— I fully plan on writing a series on how I eventually got my fingerprints to show up clearly enough for the FBI. Spoiler alert: it involves cayenne pepper and badgering your state representatives.

Also look forward to a couple posts on dealing with recruiters, applying to private and public schools, marketing yourself as a new ESL teacher, and holding your head up high when you’re stuck in the purgatory of having to wait months after you expected to leave the country.

Along with seeing Big Bang live, I am crazy excited to be living with my dear friend Dani again! This will be her third year teaching in Korea and she is the definitely the reason I am moving there at all. She has gone above and beyond to support me with the application process, serious family issues that occurred along the way, and making the move to Korea as smooth as possible. I really could not ask for a better friend. We’ve known each for five years now since we survived a year of AmeriCorps together and been great friends ever since. I was ready to placed anywhere in Korea, but luckily, Dani lives in Gwangju, only 40 minutes away!