Living in a foreign country is a wonderful experience.  I'm having the time of my life out here in Pohang.  But every once in a while I'm struck with paings of homesickness.  These are usually brought on by random childhood memories that are triggered by something someone says or something I see.  Actually, with Alisa here, these reminders of home happen more often.  I had one of these reminders this past weekend as I was out with my friends for dinner.
My group of close friends here has grown to be quite large; so large that when we all get together and go to a restaurant for dinner, we just about take over the whole restaurant with our size and volume.  This is what happened on Sunday when we went to the new Indian/Napalese restaurant in town.  The food was great, the conversation was great, and the company was super.  Toward the end of the meal, we got on the topic of our favourite books, and then our favourite comic books, and then of course Calvin and Hobbes came up, and then I was feeling homesick.  I miss reading Calvin and Hobbes.  But more than that, I miss being in a place that feels like home where I have the time to relax and read Calvin and Hobbes.  Though I've been here over a year and a half, I haven't felt truly 'at home' here - at least not like I do when I am home.  Then I begin to wonder what I mean when I say 'home'.  What I picture in my head when I use the word 'home' is the time in my life when my family was all living together - my growing up years - a period of time that won't really happen again.  So I realize that 'home' should be an idea that changes as I grow older.  But I also realize that home is where my family is.  I can't wait until we have the chance to be all together again.

Something that I've learned about Koreans is that they like to have things that unite them - things that they all know about, that they can talk about together.  When I say this, I'm comparing Korean to Canadians.  In Canada, often there isn't much that unites us.  Many Canadians are from much different backgrounds or even countries.  There are parts of Canada that don't even speak the same language.  And Canadians like it this way.  That fact that there are such differences among Canadians can almost be described as something that unites us (at least something that defines us).
On the other end of the spectrum, Korea is very homogeneous.  I find Koreans to be quite separated from the rest of the world, though I do believe this to be changing.  An example of this homogeneousness is its TV channels - almost all of them are Korean.  And this makes sense of course.  If a channel is not Korean, it has to be dubbed or subtitled.  What this means, though, is that almost every Korean watches the same shows.  There is a  comedy show here that more than a couple TV channels broadcast throughout the day because its so popular.  I can see why it's popular, it looks hilarious (I don't really know because I don't know what they're saying).  No kidding, if you ask any Korean - probably any foreigner living in Korea for that matter - if they know this show, they'll say yes.  My students quote the funny things they say on this show every day.
Because of this homogeneous and Koreans like for things that unite them, I've found that trends thrive in this country.  What I mean by a trend is something like a TV show, a toy, a type of fashion, or an activity that catches on and everyone jumps on the bandwagon.  I mostly see these trends play out in my students.  I've mentioned dok-chee (Korean pogs) before.  Well, dok-chee is out and now the new trend is tops - like the toy that you spin.  Nearly every day, when I come into class in the morning, my kindergartners raise their hand and tell me about their new top.  The tops have names of course and differing levels of strength and other abilities.  The tops come with spinners - a devise that connects to the top and, when you pull the cord, spins the top with great force.  At break time, my kids congregate around a table and make their tops 'fight'.  This means they spin their tops all at the same time so that they run into each other.  The top that spins the longest wins.  I couldn't help but wonder if my kids thought all of this up themselves - the names and such - and no, they didn't.  There's a top animation on TV, similar to Pokemon, that they probably all watch.
This brings me to my final point.  Korean homogeneity and the trends that thrive here have been hugely commercialized.  Think about it - with each new trend, or each new object of Korean unity comes countless chances for major companies to make lots of money.  Angry Birds is a perfect example.  This one simple cell phone game has now become sooo much more.  This afternoon, one of my students showed me his Angry Birds socks.  This morning, Alisa's class ate a huge Angry Birds cake to celebrate the upcoming kindergarten graduation.  Angry Birds paraphernalia is sold seemingly everywhere.  To take my kindergartners new love for tops as another example.  The trend starts when they see another kid with a top at school.  They start watching the TV show, and in no time they're mom's or dad's are at E-Mart buying them a top of their own.  It's a perfect trap.  And I don't like to think about it for too long because it makes me think that human consumerism has made us become almost robotic - tools that companies know how to manipulate and make money off of.  Sort of scary stuff right?

I didn't mean for this blog to get so heavy when I started it.  I start off with a touching story about homesickness and wonder about the meaning of home.  Then I jump into how everyone is cluelessly being manipulated by some billionaire stranger out there.  Sorry about that.

Thanks for reading,
Michael