never take candy from strangers!

We did so many new things over the past week! I will try hard to remember them all.

Thursday night, the girls and I went to the Shinsegae movie theater (remember, Shinsegae is the "uppity" mall) to see The Hunger Games.  While the movie itself was fairly entertaining, I did have some issues with the writing.  Everyone else said it stank...  I liked everything but the screenplay adaptation.  There was too much awkwardness!

Anywho.  This is not a film blog!  The movie theater was pretty fun.  You get to choose from regular, cheese, or caramel popcorn.  You can even have a beer or some Starbucks while you wait!  The theater itself is lush, comfortable, and impeccably clean.  Get this-- the seats vibrate!  Chalk that up to the 4-d experience.

Friday, I went with a co-worker to get manicures.  And Saturday, we all went to Jamsil to attend the season opening baseball game!  Though I confess I'm not too much of a baseball fan, we did actually have a lot of fun.  There were so many people there, and it was loud.  All of the Koreans were really proud and into the game.  We had more Koreans smiling at us there than we ever do on the street-- I hear because we are sharing in their "favorite pastime", something they are very proud of.

We were seated near that blue box in this picture (no, not the TARDIS. hehe) where the cheerleaders would do their thing.  The male cheerleader, who dressed in a Heroes baseball uniform and blew a whistle, would alternate between bouncing around on stage and getting frustrating with the crowd when they wouldn't do a cheer right.  Fairly entertaining.  ;)  Check out the video on my Facebook page to see him 

dancing!

One final funny story:  on our way to the baseball game, Kristin (a co-worker) met up with us in the subway.  We were sitting down quietly on the train, and this old Korean man walked up in front of us and started staring.  We're used to staring, so it didn't phase us too much (though Ben said that he was kind of leching on us girls).  But then the man spoke to us in English.  He complimented Ben.  "You have a very nice beard and mustache," was his opening line.  We all laughed a little and spoke for a few moments with the man.  He looked between Ben and me and asked if we were a couple.  When Ben told him we were married, he said we were "a match made in heaven."

Then he gave us candy and wished us a good day, then got off the train.  No, we did not eat the candy (Mom, I still follow the 'don't take candy from strangers' rule!), but it definitely gave us a funny story to tell.  Koreans as a whole are a surprising people.  Some of them are the nicest people you've ever met.  Some of them are fairly antisocial.  They aren't too different from Westerners.  It's just that we're always surprised not only when one of them addresses us in English, but also when they have something nice to say.  A lot of people think that Koreans are like every Eastern "Oriental" culture over here, and it's just not true.  Koreans are much more than that.  They are materialistic and humble, kind and very concerned with appearances.  They represent so many strange dichotomies.  There are as many Korean personalities under the sun as there are American, and even though their society still professes a "group think" mindset (where the group is more important than the individual), Koreans are constantly striving to improve themselves as individuals.  You can see this even from a very young age, when five- and six-year-olds are sent to three different hagwons to learn English, math, and music.

We're learning a lot about the world by being here.