07/04/2011 Radioactive-rain Day and the Day the Animals came to School

 So, I'm sitting here and it's been raining non-stop since last night - I actually experienced the biggest thunderstorm I have ever been in, it went on ALL night long.  No joke.  And I'm not talking a little rattle here and there, I'm talking full on storm.   The thunder was rumbling constantly and the lightning must have been flashing about 10-15 times per minute....all  night!  It was quite exciting (being from England, I've never really seen one last more than about ten minutes), but it did start to get annoying after a few hours of our whole apartment lighting up like a disco when I was trying to sleep.  On the plus side, I'm not epileptic.  Always look on the bright side.   All this talk of rain is making me think of an Adele song that I love  'Set Fire to the Rain'; boy I wish I could have set fire to the rain today.  I actually had puddles in both of my shoes when I got home this evening.

Ok, so the title of this blog post is about radioactive rain.  In particular, one specific day when the country freaked out.  Let me tell you the story...   The media had suggested a few days before that on the 7th April 2011, the wind would change direction from Japan and consequently blow radioactive particles on to the Korean peninsular.   Obviously, the government stepped in and did it's best to assure people that there was no chance of this happening and people were just panicking for no reason.  Despite this 'reassurance,' weather forecasters were still insisting that the wind had changed direction and that radioactive rain was upon us.  It turned out that we did have radioactive rain, but nothing at a level that was harmful to people.  They actually said that you could drink the stuff every day for a year and still not get ill.  I probably wouldn't go that far...

Anyway, when people heard the news that the dreaded rain was coming, they freaked out. Yes they did.  About 150 schools were closed in Seoul because parent's didn't want their children to get rained on.  Shops sold out of masks, umbrellas, raincoats and alien costumes (see below).  Sadly, our school didn't close so James and I had to brave a short walk to school in the rain.  I was hoping to gain some super-powers, but all I got was a cold and an ear infection, which was in fact unrelated to the radioactivity.  So that is the story of radioactive rain day.  For some, the freaking out continues (just a few days ago my co-worker was refusing to get rained on, insisting that it is not safe) but for the rest of us, life goes on!

Environmental activists protesting over nuclear power in Seoul (taken from segy.com)

                                         Alien abduction.....nope just radioactive rain  (photo from msn.com)


Now on to the next part of this blog.   As a consequence of the radioactive rain palaver, many parents complained about us taking the kids on a field trip to see the cherry blossoms (which is a HUGE thing in Korea).  They come out once a year for a few days, and the whole country goes crazy and people flock to the parks with their very advanced digital cameras, snapping away and posing with every blossom in sight.  I must admit, I did join in the fun and yes I did pose with a cherry blossom or two.  Why the hell not?  I'm in Korea.

Posing with some cherry blossoms

'Flower' setting on the new camera

Anyway, I digress.  Our field trip got cancelled because the parents didn't want their kids to breathe in the bad air, so instead we decided to have a 'market day' where we gave the kids $10 each to spend on various things, which most ironically, were outside.  Hmmm.  Logic aside, it was really fun.  We transformed the school in to a market zone and had candy floss, balloons, a toy/book/clothes shop, face painting, and wait for it......30 something animals!!  I had to admit, I couldn't even imagine how they would do this, especially when we were told that these animals would include a 'big snake,' a sheep, a goat, a pony, a skunk (yes, a skunk) and various other furry and feathery friends.  Sure enough, when we arrived to school that morning, all the animals were there waiting for the hoards of kids to start pestering them.  

At fist, I think I was more excited than the children.  All weekend, I was like...'oooohhhh animals are coming to school on Monday!!' (yeah, I need to get a life), but when I arrived and saw the animals, I actually just felt really sad for them and had a short moment where I felt like I needed to rescue them and just set them free!  They were all in tiny cages.  There was even a cat in a cage, surely this is wrong?  I was in charge of pony rides, which I was super excited about, but when I saw the state of the poor old, haggered pony, I really didn't want to be the one responsible for putting small children on it's bony, spiny back.  It looked so sad.  Luckily, the children just posed with it in the end and had a photo, so it was all ok in the end.  Plus it gave the kids tonnes of entertainment when it decided to have a huge shit poo.  When the first kid saw it shitting pooing, they starting shouting 'dong!' 'dong!' and had many laughs.  James was in charge of animal feeding.  In his pen, there was the funny goat (it kept eating the sign), a duck, a pig, a sheep and a goose.  One kid wanted to feed the duck, so proceeded to shout 'duck' and lobbed a piece of radish at the duck.  Poor thing.  I don't think the duck understood.  The goat & sheep loved it, although the pig, being a pig, didn't have many children interested in feeding it.  I'm sure it got enough food though.

Bony Pony

Fun in the school

The hungry goat.  He was the best!

BANGING IN KOREA

If one visits Korea, then one will almost definitely participate in banging of some kind, whether it be naked in a public bath or drunkenly singing at the top of one's voice.  Let me expand....  For those of you reading this with a dirty mind - shame on you.  Bang or 방 is the Korean word for 'room' and is one of the main leisure activities for anyone in Korea.  There are so many different kind of bangs.....I will explain some of them here!

Jjimjilbang 찜질방


This is the one which is most westerners find the hardest to get their heads around, although it is such a prevalent part of the culture here.  Jjimjilbang translates to 'heated bath' and is basically a place to go and relax.  There are two main areas - the dry sauna area and the wet bathing area.  When you first arrive, you take your shoes off and are then given a key for a small shoe locker - do not step in with your shoes on, and do not put your shoes on before you exit - you will be shouted at by an angry Korean (and they often sound angry at the best of times).   If you want to go to the dry sauna area, you change in to the shorts and t-shirt provided and then do whatever you want - sleep, read a book, sweat in a pizza-oven style sauna, chill in an ice room (literally...ha)(sorry for that bad pun, but it had to be done. Then I did a poem without even knowing.  Ok I'll stop now.)  But the dry areas are amazing - depending on the size of the jimjilbang, some have a cinema (only ever showing Korean films, but the novelty is there), they all have a restaurant of some description and they all have sleeping zones - many people just come here to sleep as they are open 24/7.  Many people come to them drunk for a cheap place to stay - I can honestly say I've not had this privilege yet.  I think I'm missing out on sleeping on a hard floor next to snoring men with a block of wood for a pillow...But, ho hum.


Now we get to the exciting bit - going 'native' in the pools area.  Ok, the first time I did this it was confusing terrifying to say the least.  I went on my own (I thought that I'd be more comfortable getting naked in front of people I didn't know), but OMG it was a scary experience!  For starters, the lady on reception spoke no English, so I had to navigate my way around a 6 story jjimjilbang, not knowing where to go.  So I explored for a bit and got worried when it dawned on me that I had no idea which was the men's floor and which was the women's, so I went back to reception and casually followed some women to the right floor.  The actual bathing area was pretty amazing.  The awkward feeling of nakedness never went away, it was even worse knowing that I was the only foreigner in the building and that even fully clothed I got stared at and talked about every day.   I have to say though, that now I absolutely love the jjimjilbang experience.  It's so relaxing and refreshing - there are so many pools/jacuzzis, all of different temperatures, heated floor slabs to sleep on, spring water pools, green tea pools, more saunas, strange fat-breaking water streamers (I'm not too sure about these...).  But you feel so clean and relaxed when you leave.  Hey, I even took my mum when she visited!   The sight of Korean women vigorously scrubbing eachothers backs to the point of being red raw is pretty funny too.




DVD Bang


Whenever I mention to a Korean that I love DVD bangs, I get such a strange look.  They are basically a mini private cinema with a sofa and huge projector screen.  Just like Blockbuster, you go in and select a movie from the hundreds available and then you are shown to your room where you watch your movie.  It's so much better than watching a movie on your laptop; however they are notorious places for young couples to  'make out.'***  There is also a section of dvds devoted to porn - not subtly on the top shelf either, but eye level graphic dvd cases, sometimes quite hilarious.  Not that I spend time looking at these...  But porn aside, these are really cool places. 


***Thanks to Ian Robinson for the appropriate 'bang bang bang' link...


Noraebang 노래방

Karaoke rooms - what's not to love!!  Hours of entertainment are to be had in these..... Just on my street alone, there are probably 50 of them... and I'm not even exaggerating!  There are literally EVERYWHERE!  Karaoke is about as popular as kimchi (the national dish of spicy garlicky fermented cabbage which is served with every meal and more).  You've got millions of songs to choose from as well as a few instruments to play along with!


There are more bangs to talk about, such as board game bangs, but I've not visited any others, so I couldn't possibly comment!


Chow for now :-)