Korean homes are very different from American homes. First of all, due to space issues, most Koreans live in apartments. We are very fortunate in America to actually have houses, and property to go with those houses. Well, sometimes it seems to be more of a curse than a blessing, but regardless, we should all be thankful.
Heating/Cooling
-Korea is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO humid. Summertime is awful! We are going to Uganda from July 14-August 12 and I'm pretty sure the climate there will be better. I can take heat without humidity, but that darn humidity!
Nonetheless, I have yet to see centralized heating or A/C for a house/apartment. Instead, they have wall units on a room-by-room basis. You can see pictures of our apartment here.
The heating system is pretty cool- in Korea we have floor heat. The home are heated by water pipes that run hot water through them under all the floors. You can turn off the pipes to one area of the house so it won't be heated. We found that out too late- our living room floor was always freezing cold. At the end of the winter, we realized the heat to that area had been shut off!
I get really hot when I sleep. It's an interesting phenomenon- most people's bodies cool off as they are sleeping. I go to bed cold in the winter, and wake up hot and sweating, throwing the blankets off. The ideal winter night temperature in my house is about 68 degrees. I can't imagine having to sleep on these heated floors. Yet, many Koreans do. I think many people are moving away from the traditional Korean "yo"- a mat that you sleep on the floor. As the society becomes modern, I think most people probably have beds. But anytime we stay somewhere, besides hotels, we sleep on the floor on a mat called a yo. The yos are pretty padded and pretty comfortable. Actually I have been comfortable sleeping on a yo on the ground than on many of the mattresses I've tried hard- so hard. They are worse than the floor!
If you clicked on the link to pictures of our apartment, you might have noticed the entryway with the shoes. Koreans do not enter home with shoes- they always must come off. Even the servicemen that have come to repair things in our apartment will take their shoes off before entering. It is considered rude to enter with shoes and is just a big NO-NO. We have to take off our shoes when entering a lot of restaurants too. I've always wondered what would happen if someone stole your shoes, but Taylor and I both have feet 3 or 4 sizes larger than the average Korean so it hasn't been a problem for us. This is one that we will be bringing back with us when we move. So much dirt, chemicals, and other nasty things are tracked into homes by people's shoes. So if you come visit when we move back, make sure to take off your shoes!
Another interesting cultural thing about Korea that we just cannot accept is the issue of family as a priority. It is not at all uncommon for families to be split in the country- 1 person living in apartment in 1 city, the other person living 2 or 3 hour away. We call them the "weekend couples." 1 teacher who used to work here had gotten married last April and she and her spouse lived 5 hours away. She worked here in the fall and winter. Her husband worked down South for Samsung. They only saw each other on the weekends. The worst part was that she was pregnant and was sick all the time- morning sickness, malnourished, etc. I asked her once what they were going to do when she had the baby and she said she didn't know. The sad reality is that in Korea, for many people, work comes before family on the priority list. Our former vice principal just left for another school that's about 4 hours away. His wife lives and works here. His daughter lives on campus. Their 8 year old son goes to the elementary school at our other campus 1 1/2 hours away and lives with another family. Now the wife/mother lives all alone here. I have several other stories to tell- and this is just from our school. I know this is happening far and wide all over Korea. It saddens me for the sake of these families/marriages.
What else about the home...hmm...the KITCHEN! My favorite place...haha- because I like to eat and because I like to cook (a deadly combination). Korea has gas stoves, not electric. I've never seen an electric stove here. I'm still not used to the gas...I hate it! Koreans also don't use ovens. Back in January, we bought a small convection oven that I have been making great use of. It brings us a little touch of home. I honestly don't know how people manage without an oven!
We really do have a lot of luxuries in America. Even though we should, we don't have to conserve water, recycle, live in apartments, ride public transportation everywhere, etc... Another way that Korean homes are different is that the majority of them do not have clothes dryers, dishwashers, or other major appliances. They do have kimchi refrigerators though! At HomePlus, one of the big stores, we always see these special refrigerators that are only designed for Kimchi. It's a good idea, because Kimchi smells up everything in your fridge and other foods start to absorb its flavor. Yuck. Back to the dryers though- for 8 months we had to air dry all over our clothes, towels, sheets, everything. In the summer especially, things take days to dry and even start to smell a little mildew-y. We got a dryer a few months ago, but it's still not like the dryers in the states. Its a washer/dryer combo that steams the clothes dry. Even on the driest setting, they are still damp when the cycle is done.
Last- one of the cutest differences between American and Korean culture- babies. More specifically- how they are carried around.
In America, most of you see babies being carried around in one of these:
If you don't see that, it could be dangerous, especially with tiny infants. It's safer for the child. But in many other countries around the world, babies are carried on the mother's backs. In Korea, we have only seen infant carseats/strollers like the one above probably less than 10 times. We've been here almost a year and we almost never see babies being carried around in seats. How are they carried then? In carriers strapped on to the mother/father's body.
This was a picture I took in Costco back in the winter. In addition to a wide variety of carriers, they also have special blankets to wrap around the child in the winter.
This was a picture I took the other day right outside of our apartment building. The woman carrying the child looked like his grandmother. It looks a little dangerous if you ask me. Sometimes we even see people carrying around older infants/children on their backs without any carrier at all. Like this picture from a trip we took to Andong last week:
I leave you with this picture of a little cutie we saw in Burger King today.
1 comment:
adorable.
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