Elections

As I mentioned in a previous post, May 31st is voting day. We will be SOOOOO happy for these elections to be over. It's not a presidential election, but there are plenty of local races going on. There are HUGE (and I mean BIG) banners all over the city promoting different candidates, always with their faces on it. That's kinda strange to me, 'cause in the States they usually don't show faces this much. I think it's because there are so many people with similar names. Each candidate is also assigned a number that is shown prominently on the banners as well. If it were just the banners, this we could handle. However, starting last week, trucks with the candidates' banners started driving around, blasting music out of speakers. Each truck has its own song. So, if one decides to park near our apartment for awhile, we hear the same song over and over again. Most of the trucks are kind of set up as a stage so that the candidate or campaigners can stand and wave, or even use a microphone to speak to people nearby. On my way back from the store tonight, I saw one such truck parked and playing its music, and an old Korean man was on the platform dancing his heart out. That was cute. Today as a noisy truck drove past my classroom window, I commented to the kids on how the noise was bothersome. The kids disagreed with me, though. They said they liked it! Their explanation was that it is arirang, traditional Korean music. That didn't explain to me why we should want it disrupting our quiet.... (but that doesn't seem to be a concern here at all. So many stores play loud music outside, too. And when a new business opens, they have the dancing girls out with loud, loud music, as well. Even outside our academy where kids are trying to study!) Probably the strangest thing to me are the workers for each campaign. As you might expect, they go into different businesses to hand out literature, but you'll also see them standing on a street corner in their matching outfits (complete with visors and t-shirts matching the banners) and bowing to cars that drive past! I'm not sure what that's supposed to do for the candidate... make him look respectful or something?? Anyway, it's strange. In the market on Saturday, one candidate was strolling around, and he stopped to talk to us. His English was quite good, but it didn't make sense for him to talk to us- we can't vote. Oh well. Something that doesn't relate to Korea.... In the midst of talking about elections and stuff, Ben mentioned that in Australia, you're required to vote. If you don't, they'll stop picking up your trash and stuff. Isn't that strange??