Today was election day out here, which means everyone got the day off to go to the polls. From what I can tell, Korea’s electoral process is way cooler than the United States. Instead of constant bitching and mudslinging, candidates kick it old school with festive colors, songs, and dancing – lots and lots of dancing. I’m not kidding about this. Large groups of middle-aged housewives will set up shop on street corners, in plazas, or pretty much damned near everywhere to bust a move in the name of their chosen politician. You can tell what candidate the people are pulling for by looking at their assigned color and number. For instance, Obama’s color might be a noble navy blue and his number would be 1, while Hillary might be a prune-colored reddish brown and her number would be 666. And McCain, well, don’t get me started on McCain. There are also roving vans with huge speakers and video screens attached to the roofs blasting hour after hour of incomprehensible blather. Come to think of it, that whole blather part is little bit like back home. Here’s a video (not mine) of a candidate poppin’ and lockin’ it in the city of Daegu (the dancing starts at the 1 minute mark).
Back at home I had the best bed ever. It was a plush queen size bed with a down comforter and all kinds of pillows. Granted, it was in my parent’s basement so that part kinda sucked, but damned if it wasn’t comfortable. Moving out to Korea I knew there would be downsizing, so it doesn’t bother me that I now have a small single. What does bother me though, is the fact that whoever picked out the bedding apparently stole it from a 12 year-old girl. The sheets are bright lime green with pink and turquoise accents. The kicker is the little bit of embroidery near one end of the comforter, which in a delicate turquoise script reads “Bride of May.” What does that even mean? Now that I look at it, the word “May” isn’t even capitalized, so what may this bride be doing? And as an added bonus, there’s also a baby blue firetruck pillowcase that I think I may have owned when I was three. It’s not like the school I work for wasn’t well aware of my age and gender when I first applied for the job. You had three months to find something suitable and this is the best you could do?
Today was election day out here, which means everyone got the day off to go to the polls. From what I can tell, Korea’s electoral process is way cooler than the United States. Instead of constant bitching and mudslinging, candidates kick it old school with festive colors, songs, and dancing – lots and lots of dancing. I’m not kidding about this. Large groups of middle-aged housewives will set up shop on street corners, in plazas, or pretty much damned near everywhere to bust a move in the name of their chosen politician. You can tell what candidate the people are pulling for by looking at their assigned color and number. For instance, Obama’s color might be a noble navy blue and his number would be 1, while Hillary might be a prune-colored reddish brown and her number would be 666. And McCain, well, don’t get me started on McCain. There are also roving vans with huge speakers and video screens attached to the roofs blasting hour after hour of incomprehensible blather. Come to think of it, that whole blather part is little bit like back home. Here’s a video (not mine) of a candidate poppin’ and lockin’ it in the city of Daegu (the dancing starts at the 1 minute mark).
