This is Korea

I'm not sure what life is like outside of Korea but I am guessing it has the similar tone of the CNN articles that I have stopped reading - worry.

Inside South Korea life moves on as if its any normal day of the week and the more I have talked to Koreans, the more I am discovering that this is any normal day of the week. They have grown up in a country that receives threats of war yearly and they have learned an exceptional way of dealing with it - don't worry.

When the North Korean's launched that rocket in the air back in 2012 I asked one of my co-teachers what they thought about the rocket. She told me that they don't worry about what North Korea does. "If someone worries about them then they should live in another country". I am slowly understanding her statement. If they lived their lives worried about the next thing North Korea was going to do, they'd never have a peaceful moment.

I can't recall all of the threats or strange things that the North has done since I arrived in the South, but it has been enough to fill two hands. Not once have I heard a Korean friend or coworker bring up the topic in a worrisome way. They just shrug it off and say that they don't worry. And you know what, I believe that they are right. They don't have anything to fear.  

With the increasing media attention of North Korea's threats I have received a lot of concerned messages from family and friends. Which is sweet, but honestly, waking up to those has been instilling fear in me. I start to wonder, oh no, what happened while I slept?! I quickly check my email and phone to find no message from the American Embassy. Nothing to concern me. When I got to school the day "war" was suppose to happen the kids were playing soccer and hitting each other and yelling "rock paper scissors" in Korean. The teachers were quickly moving from room to room doing who knows what. All the while the world worried.

I am learning what the South Korean's have learned long ago. That bully up north, who is family, is going to be there so let him blow off steam and continue living your life. I think their mentality has been working so far and hopefully they can be left to they own version of "keep calm and carry on" and not be convinced that something bad is going to happen any second of the day.

I do realize that this time could be different, and I have taken the proper precautions that the American Embassy has advised all expats to do, but until my Korean friends start running for cover - I'm not going to worry either.