This is month six.

Today is the official six month mark of our time in Korea. I know I already blogged about the six month mark, but I thought I should write something on the actual day.

This week has been full of craziness. We are coming to the end of the school year at Kinderest so all kinds of things are happening. For one, report cards. I never thought, in my wildest dreams that I would be a person who worked on a Saturday night... but I found myself this past Saturday night cranking out report cards... And then tonight I did more. Another thing that is happening the teachers are all wrapping up their stuff to move out of their classrooms and it feels like we are coming to the end of something. It is both exciting and nerve wracking.

Tonight was also my last night of religion class for this term so my student, yes singular, and I went out to a coffee shop to chat. It's called tea time and Korean's LOVE it. So we went at 6pm because that is when our class meets. We were there until 9pm. Talk about a long class, it usually only runs an hour at the most. We talked about everything under the sun. We talked about our cultures mostly and how different they are.

For example, Korean children live at home until they get married. Especially women. My student is probably mid thirties and she still lives at home. But get this, not only does she live at home, her mother still does her laundry, cooks for her, cleans her room and on top of all that, she doesn't have to pay any rent. Can you imagine? I cannot. Mom, can you even imagine still doing my laundry? I feel like you stopped doing that a hundred years ago. I have been doing my own laundry forever. And cleaning my room.

So she starts in on this thing about how Korean women are super women. And I jsut sat there in shock. She said, "Korean woman has to clean house, do the dishes, take care of the children, cook, and on top of that she should have a job. It is very difficult to be a Korean woman." And I was just... I don't even know the word for what I felt. Her MOTHER still does her laundry for her. PLEASE. She has nothing to complain about. Then she told me it is the same for guys too. So then it began to make sense to me why so many Korean couples get married and then have serious problems... If a man lives his whole life having his mother take care of him, then gets married and expects his wife to take over that role, while marrying a Korean girl who has also never had to do a darn thing in her whole life... I feel like that makes for a seriously tense and disastrous situation.

One of the main things Korean's say when I ask them about what happens in relationships, is they say that the expectations are too high. Or too different. And I can see it. While they are dating it is all gravy. They just go out, they never spend any time in the same area with each other, never cook together, or do anything remotely real. They live in a dream, a fluffy, romantic, dream world. But then they get married and move into a place that they have to actually take care of and BAM, real life hits them. I can't even imagine how shocking that must be.

So I told my student how I have lived on my own for a long time and she was shocked. How can you live alone, who cooks for you? haha. How can you take care of a house and have a job and live? Well, I am also superwoman? I don't really ever have an answer, but she looked at me like I was amazing and I couldn't help but laugh at her. How does she live... this is my question.

Anyway, so it was an informative three hours in a coffee shop. Tea Time is my favorite, its the time when you get to connect with a person on a real level. Find out what they are actually like and I think that is how you really learn about a culture. You can visit all the places that are "Korean" . You can see all the sites, you can go to all the cultural places, but if you never take the time to talk to an actual human being you miss out on the actual Korean experience. You can see all the things that are "important" but never see the human side of it. And then I am pretty sure you miss the whole point of being in another country. Humanism. It may be basic, but thats basically the point of life =)

That is all.

~Michelle