Last week we started back to school after a five week vacation. So those of you that complain about how American schools have too short of a summer, QUIT COMPLAINING!! There are a lot of things that students in American education take for granted, but that's another series of posts (one that I will eventually write about.)
So what do Koreans do on vacation? (disclaimer: Keep in mind that I am generalizing and not every Korean family does exactly what I am talking about today.)
First, Koreans are very lucky (vacation wise) because their country is so small! This means that they have a VERY wide variety of pleasant scenery to visit. By far, the most popular places to visit are mountain valleys and streams. They are usually within a short driving distance of a person's home and are almost always cooler than the cities, which is a nice change. I was lucky enough to be able to tag-along with a Korean family on a trip to a valley, and it was immensely satisfying. The day that we were there it rained, but it was still incredibly pleasant to sit next to the stream (under the protection of a series of tarps), listen to the water flow, eat delicious food and talk to my Korean friends. Even though it was raining, there were still quite a few people swimming. Because of the lack of access to swimming pools, a great number of Koreans can't swim, so a lot of people were wearing life vests. Eventually they figured out that the water wasn't very deep and they took the vests off. The day spent in the valley was definitely my favorite day in Korea and one of my absolute favorite days ever.
Like I said earlier, one of the best parts about Korea for vacations is its small size. This means that everyone is within driving, train, or bus distance of the different seas surrounding Korea. Many Koreans escape the city heat by visiting the eastern coast of Korea. I was also lucky enough to be able to visit the East Sea over vacation break. It was quite a bit different from US beaches (although sadly, I only know this from movies and pictures. One of the many downsides of living in KS.) Instead of people laying out in itsy-bitsy swimming suits, quite a few people are fully clothed and there are tents (camping tents) set up everywhere. You even see a few people wearing short sleeve shirts and also wearing nylon sleeves on their arms. We played in the sea for a while, alternating picking up seashells with our feet and just lounging around and hitting a ball. We also had an opportunity to ride a Banana Boat! SO MUCH FUN!!!
Ours was a lot bigger than the one in the picture, but it's still a pretty similar setup. A man on a jet ski towed us around the coastline, going as fast as he dared to go. We laughed at the group before us because he tipped them twice...but we stopped laughing as soon as he tipped us!! It was still a lot of fun though :-)
Those two locales are by far the most popular vacation spots for students, but there were also a few that had visited other countries. Two of my students went to the US, three went to Canada, and several visited Japan and China. These students were the exception, however, as it is still expensive to travel.
When students aren't vacationing, there's a few other things they do: playing computer games or watching TV, playing soccer, studying, or going to their academy (private learning institutes.) I feel sorry for these kids...they study English, math, science, Korean or music. They work very, very hard, even on vacation. But they also play hard. They spend countless hours in PC rooms playing computer games.
I'm sure I'll think of more later, but I wanted to give you guys an overview of how Koreans spend their free time. Like I said, I'm generalizing and not everybody goes to these places, but after reading my students' projects last week, I feel confident in saying these things.
I promise that I will be better about keeping up my blog! Please let me know if you have any questions at all; I have two more blog post ideas swirling around in my brain, but I would love to hear from all of my friends and family if you have any questions or ideas!
0 comments:
Post a Comment