Travel Log Korea from the begining and onward
Currently in South Korea.... Join the list by mailing korea@saradevil.com .
| It's been yet another fun and exciting week of
sickness for me, as now I have the luxury of being able
to talk, my voice returned on Wednesday, but, alas now
only being able to hear half of what people say over the
buzzing in my ears. I seem to have some sort of sinus
infection because my head is plugged up on both sides and
I'm having allot of trouble hearing anything, my balance
has been a bit crazy too. If you want to know what it is
like, just put your fingers in your ears and walk around
all day that way. In Seoul this weekend there was a very large protest over the decision to aquit the two Americans soldiers responsible for the deaths of the teenage girl. (The CNN brief, very very brief http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/14/korea.protest/index.html)Koreans are still fairly angry about this, and I think it is mostly understandable. The currnet presidet will be out of office in a few days and there has been quite a bit of talk about this issue with the two canidates for president. I've been able to listen to a few of the talks on Arirang TV which is a Korean TV station that broadcasts BBC news as well as other Korean shows with English language subtitles or english dubbing, or some for of english for us non-Korean people living here. All of the canidates have addressed the SOFA agreement and most seem to agree that South Korea needs more of a say in what American Troops are d! oing in Korea. As for the elections that is sort of a craziness in and of itself. During the world cup games I saw allot of women standing on street corners bowing to traffic and waving. I thought this was all rather strange, and Jeanie pointed out that the women were there to rally support for their canidate. This weekend as I was going around to the market, and just generally walking around with Sam, I saw a great deal of women standing and dancing, and waving to traffic. At several different locations I saw trucks with the back open, with very nice looking men in suits speaking very loudly and violently into microphones. Sometimes it would just be the van and the women dancing to Korean pop music, or Koreanized christmas carols, waving at traffic. All of this to get show support of the canidate and convince other Koreans to vote. Interesting thing about the Korean political contest, though, is that for the most part the election is promoted by posters on the street, the evening news, and these crowds of dancing women. I watch a fair amount of T.V. in the evenings when I'm painting, and the news, and well the X files (I found a station running the first couple of seasons, and I like that show) and I've not seen one single commercial for a candidate running for president. I think this would be almost unheard of in the states, considering the way that most campaigning is done, and I thought it was fairly interesting. Other than that, it's another week. The election is this week, but I don't have election day off as far as I know, although I believe Sam does, lucky stiff.
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