7-eleven Bus

Throughout Korea there are convenience stores and this does include 7-eleven.  Besides 7-eleven there are also “CU’s”, “GS25”, and various other smaller neighborhood stores.  Within any town in Korea you can’t go five blocks without seeing at least one of these stores.  Besides convenient stores taking up a lot of space, phone stores are the other retail building that seems to be on every other block.  With 7-eleven being so prevalent around the country it does create a unique concept for seeing each different city in Korea. 

7-eleven Bus

I introduce you to the 7-eleven bus.  This bus number is extremely common and can be found throughout Korea.  Essentially this bus is used as a way to see the city.  These buses stop in front of 7-elevens throughout the city (not every single one because then it wouldn’t get that far) and so it can be used as a tourist bus.  So a person gets on and off whenever it likes around 7-elevens and in that way can see the whole city and be introduced to a new city.  When someone does get hungry or need some sort of refreshment then it isn’t that hard to find food in 7-eleven.  In fact, it is very common to have chairs and tables in the 7-eleven so that way people can eat and enjoy their food.  Eating or drinking at a convenience store is quite common especially when it warms up and there are chairs and tables outside.  So anytime visiting a Korean town just find a 7-eleven store and wait for the bus to come by and start exploring the city.    

This week there still aren’t students around to teach.  They have one more week of break.  I have been keeping busy by putting out applications for after Korea and reading.  Time does go a lot slower without the students around.  A couple weeks ago I went hiking on the mountain by my home town.  Up at elevation there still was some snow around but it was a nice little hike.  It was shorter than I expected and so next time I will head the other way on the mountain (it technically stretches to the next city over).  It is getting around lunch time and I don’t know if someone is ordering in for us or I will have to head over to a little diner place. I will write later.   

Graduation

This last week everyone was back from winter break.  Now usually after a break it is assumed that it is back to work full force learning new stuff.  Here in Korea that isn’t the case.  Basically it was a week where no learning happened at all.  On Monday I asked my co-teacher if it was a regular week and she said it was with the same classes as before going on winter break.  I show up to my first class and the students were looking at me like I shouldn’t have been there.  I talked with them for some time and the students said this week there is no learning because every teacher is done with the book (curriculum for the year) already.  So the students knew that there would be no learning and the week would go by slow.  So I simply walked around my classes talking to some of the students, played some cards with some other students, and watched a movie in one class that was playing when I showed up.  If I attempted to teach anything I knew I would have no motivation from the students. I keep mentioning only week and not weeks because now no students are around because it is spring break.  So it is come back from winter break for one week and do nothing productive and then spring break happens right away.    

The reasoning for even being at school was for graduation which was to happen on Friday.  Graduation isn’t as big as back in the states.  I am teaching at a smaller school then the one I attended back in Arizona, but the whole atmosphere of a graduation ceremony wasn’t the same.  One main difference is the students didn’t wear any sort of graduation regalia.  Some of the students were in the school uniform while some were in casual business dress and then others were in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.  Basically there was no uniformity from anyone.  It did surprise me because overall Korea is a society that likes conformity.  Another thing that was different was the speeches and music performance was from the underclassmen and not from the graduating class itself.  There was one speech by one of the graduating students but besides that it was all the underclassmen.  Graduation started at ten in the morning and so at first there wasn’t that many family members present.  By the end the seats had filled up and they were ready to congratulate the students with bouquets, balloons, hugs, and pictures.

Overall the graduation didn’t have the same festive vibe as back in the states but I do have a theory of why that is the case.  In South Korea people live at home and stay in the same residence until they are married.  Sure some people go off to college but when done with that they live at the same home until they are married.  For school breaks and anytime off they aren’t traveling they are back in the same home.  This is especially true for the Koreans who live outside of the big cities.  Back home in the states that isn’t the case and having independence is usually the norm.  Usually high school graduation is a good time for that to happen and so it is a bigger deal than in Korea.     

So currently at school there are two other teachers and me.  School doesn’t start back up until March 3^rd.  So the next couple of weeks it will be slow and not much work.  I probably will take some days and go hiking or do other things around here, but contractually I am supposed to be at work.  Yesterday as I was walking home I heard some good sounds: birds out chirping and moving around.  I think that means spring isn’t too far away.  Even though yesterday it was snowing as I was walking to the bus to head to school.  It is still freezing temperatures during the evening time and the low fourties during the day.  I think it is colder here than in Sochi, Russia but no snow around.  Heading to lunch soon and so I will write later.