American Beef, Gays, and T-Shirts

This post does not mean that if you eat beef and wear t-shirts that you are gay! Ha ha ha. These are merely three topics that I would like to blog about that I find interesting here in Korea especially.

American beef. For those of you that are not up to speed on the whole American Beef controversy that is going on right now in South Korea, well it would take me a while to get you up to speed on all the details. Basically, Koreans think that American beef is bad and that if you eat any American beef you will get Mad Cow Disease. To us Americans here in South Korea we find this statement highly amusing. We have been eating beef in the US for our entire life and well we are ok. There are huge riots and protests going on in the larger cities like Seoul. There have been pictures taken in newspapers where children have drawn pictures against American beef. It is sad because they only know what their parents tell them just like any child in the world. If you go into a restaurant and ask if they serve American beef they will look at you really funny and some places will tell you to leave! Before I came over to South Korea I had to have a series of medical checks done, including blood work. Well all of that was pointless because in the mean time, the rage was building over here with the beef issue. So when I arrived, I had to have the entire medical check all over again because they would not accept my records from the US and they wanted to know when the last time I had beef was! I was in shock and super upset because I hate having blood taken. Luckily heath care is super cheap here so everything cost me about $40.

Gays. Here in South Korea they turn their head when it comes to homosexuality. They simply believe that it does not exist and do not talk about it. They think that it is something that western cultures make up and do not see how it can even happen. It is not surprising though because the religion here is mostly Buddhist and the other small portion Christianity. However, there is so much affection shown between young people here of the same sex. It is not un common to walk down the street and see all the boys holding hands and the girls holding hands. Often times I will be waiting for the bus and there will be two boys waiting as well. The two boys will be petting each other and practically sitting on each other's laps! I am in shock that they act so loving and affectionate towards one another but do not believe that gay exists! I see this kind of thing everywhere. It is completely normal, so I hear.

T-Shirts are popular just like every where else in the world. The thing that makes Korean t-shirts so special are the sayings that are printed on them! Basically they take any English phrase that they know or partially know and print it on a t-shirt. I see boys wearing shirts that say "I Miss My Boy", "I went on vacation and came back on probation". My favorite ones are those that have misspelled words or grammatically incorrect phrases. One shirt I saw this past weekend said "I taken this look easy" it was supposed to say "I make this look easy". Ha ha ha. Oh and some shirts have extra "eee" on it. Koreans are notorious to add the long "e" sound to everything. It sounds like "I am an Englishee teacher" So funny! One last thing are the curse words. I am not sure that they even recognize that they are curse words. I bought a shirt the other day that says "1970 Up Against the Wall Mo**er F***er!" My friend Candice and I laughed so hard in the store and no one knew why we thought it was funny so we each bought one. Mine is light pink and hers is white. All the other English teachers look at me when I wear it and say "you must have bought that here". I laugh and say of course!

Well readers, it is time for me to end this. Hope everyone is well :)