Beware of the Dong-chim!

Korean students are like any other students and enjoy playing jokes on one another.  During my time here, I've become accustomed to the students' rough-housing.  They put each other in headlocks, wrestle one another to the ground and will physically hurt their friends; but they're just playing.  It really shocked me at first, but after I noticed that none of the Korean teachers take any notice to this, I began to get used to it.

Well, there's a special move that Korean kids (boys and girls both) like to use when joking around with friends.  It's called the dong-chim.  Luckily, I have not experienced the dong-chim yet, and nor do I want to.  It literally translates as "poop needle".  The dreaded dong-chim is when Korean kids clasp their hands together into the shape of a gun, run up to an unsuspecting victim and poke his/her butt-hole, and yell "Dong-chim!".  Yes, you heard that right...  Kids stick their gun-shaped fingers into the crack of the victim.  They think it's absolutely hilarious!  (Which it is, as long as you're NOT the one getting fingers to your butt).

You might assume that adults are immune to this childish act because kids would never do that to their teacher, parent, etc, right??  NOT TRUE!  Young or old, boy or girl,  you can fall victim to the dong-chim.  You constantly have to watch your back (I mean ass..) because you are a target if you are not paying attention and you happen to bend over or turn your back.  I have witnessed the dong-chim on a few occasions, and it looks as unpleasant as it sounds.  I'm trying to avoid it at all costs.      

The Dong-chim stance

A comic of the dong-chim being performed

Thanksgiving in Korea

Thanksgiving was different this year.  This was the first year I wasn't home for Thanksgiving.  I've never missed a family holiday before, so this was new for me.

This year, I had to work on Thanksgiving.  It was just a regular day here in Korea.  I was at school, teaching lessons as usual.  There was no Black Friday shopping.  There was no turkey.  There was no decorations around my city or school.  While my mom was talking about Thanksgiving preparations and the family's plans, I had to remind myself that I wasn't going to be there.  It was a little sad, but I reminded myself of how lucky I am to be experiencing this life in Korea.

Since I have other American friends here in Jecheon, all of which were in my same situation, we decided to throw our own Thanksgiving dinner.  Most traditional Thanksgiving food/ingredients we were able to find easily at a local supermarket.  Other things were impossible  to get.  For one, turkey is near impossible to get here; it can be found in big cities like Seoul or Busan, but if you can find it, you better be prepared to pay a hefty price for it.  Therefore, turkey was nixed from our Thanksgiving list.  Instead, we had roasted chicken, which wasn't a bad substitute at all.  Other items we were able to make for our Thanksgiving meal (with no problem) were: mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, rolls, corn, fried chicken, salad, banana cream pie, apple crisp, sangria (wine) and pumpkin soup.

The substitute turkey: roasted chicken!

Things which took a lot of effort and/or outside help to get/make:

• green beans (my friend had a can of these which she saved up for months)
• corn bread (my friend had a packet of mix which she also was saving for this occasion)
• stuffing (had to be legit homemade, no boxes of stuffing here)
• macaroni and cheese (had to be homemade / cheese had to be bought in Seoul at the foreign food market)
• gravy (had to be homemade, no canned gravy here...Koreans have no idea what gravy even is...)
• **pumpkin pie puree cannot be found here, so unfortunately we had no pumpkin pie

Even though it was a lot of work, we successfully pulled off a real Thanksgiving dinner in Korea.  We were working with limited space (a studio apartment) and a small oven (no huge American ovens here).  We all stuffed ourselves, and had tons of leftovers, so the next day we heated everything up and finished it off.  It was amazing!!  I was soooo proud of all of us!  It seemed impossible to do, but we made it happen.  

My friend's apartment and the space we had to work with.  Limited counter space and the oven is the white square on top of the refrigerator.

My plate, filled to the max!

The finished product!

We did it!!!

After our Thanksgiving, I went back to my apartment to Skype my family.  Even though I couldn't be there physically, I was there through Skype (on both occasions...for the Souders' Thanksgiving and the Holland Thanksgiving).  I got to "see" and talk with all my family and it was the next best thing besides being there in person!!  During family holidays, my mom goes picture crazy, and we always get a family picture.  This year was no exception....we still managed to get one! Check it out below!

Annual family Thanksgiving photo! Love you guys!

Korean Basketball League

Like in most countries, sports play a big role in Korea.  Sports are a source of entertainment and people go watch live games just like in the U.S.  The biggest sports in Korea are soccer, baseball, and basketball.  I'm a big sports fan myself, so I've been really wanting to go to a game.  Well today, I got to experience my first professional sports game in Korea!  A few friends and I went to see a professional basketball game.  The Korean Basketball League, or KBL, is the equivalent to the U.S. NBA.  The KBL consists of 10 Korean teams.  They play a regular season and have a championship at the end of the season, just like the NBA.

To get to the game, we took a bus to Wonju, a city about 45 minutes away from where we live.  Wonju is home to the Dongbu Promy's professional basketball team.  Tickets were extremely cheap! Courtside seats were around $28!!!  Courtside seats were sold out when we bought tickets, but we still got really, really good seats for $12.50!  Our seats were 4 rows from the court, and we were right behind the opposing team's bench!

There were tents set up outside the arena with street food, so we grabbed a bite to eat before the game.  I got a popcorn chicken and coke combo; it comes in one cup.  The soda is in the bottom of the cup, and a plastic dish sits on top of the cup for the chicken.  It was a really clever concoction!  Concessions inside the arena were super cheap as well.  They had cotton candy, soda, popcorn, candy, etc.  In the U.S, it would be normal for soda to be like $5-6, but luckily Korean concession prices aren't inflated. :)

       Chicken and Coke combo in one convenient cup!  

Wonju Arena: Home of the Dongbu Promy

The announcer introducing the players!

The tipoff!

Once inside the stadium, we found our seats and watched both teams warm-up (shooting around, doing layups, etc.)  On our seats were complimentary signs for the game that said something like, "Go Dongbu".  Both teams had 2-3 foreign players; all of the foreign players were American, except one (we looked up the roster).  Our favorite foreign player was Chris Moss.  He was one of the better players on Dongbu's team and was a crowd favorite.  After a player scores, the crowd chants their name a few times.  Chris Moss scored a lot, so the crowd would chant "Moss-uh", "Moss-uh". (Koreans tend to add the "uh" sound to some words...it's just a part of their Korean/English accent.)  There were some chants we were able to join in on throughout the game.  For example, the crowd would yell, "Defense" and "Goal in".  We also noticed that each team had a translator.  During time-outs, the translator would translate what the coach was saying to the foreign players.  

Our complimentary "Go Dongbu" signs!

The game consisted of 4, 10-minute quarters.  The teams were not as good as in the U.S, but they were decent.  The atmosphere was amazing though.  It was funny to hear the Korean fans yelling and cheering.  We were even lucky enough to see a few dunks!  There were also cheerleaders who would dance and cheer during time-outs.  During different parts of the game, the cheerleaders would pass out food to the fans who cheered the loudest.  They passed out Pizza Hut pizzas, Outback Steakhouse takeout, and threw basketballs into the stands.  The girls sitting by us were given one of the pizzas and they were kind enough to share with us. :)  During half-time, there was a half-court shooting contest and a head-banging contest (random, I know...but so entertaining!).  We also got to see the Kiss-Cam!  No game is complete without the Kiss-Cam.  Half-time was extra special because we witnessed a Korean proposal!!!  A guy came to the center of the court and professed his love to his girlfriend, who came down to the court from where she was sitting, and accepted his proposal!  It was really cool to see!

Game Time

During a timeout.

The game went into overtime, but Dongbu ended up losing.  After the game, you can wait for the players to come out of the locker room to get autographs.  We waited, but only one player came out; my friend grabbed his autograph though.  I already can't wait to go see another game!