Korean relationships

So, there are a number of interesting points here that are worth observing.
First: Boy on boy affection.
So this isn't a specifically Korean thing, I understand it is very common in a lot of non-Western cultures. But it's a little crazy here, especially in class.
Today, there was one boy, leaning to the side, and slapping a friend's bum. That's pretty funny in itself. But then, the boy getting slapped would slap the boy ahead of him on the ass. It's was this crazy chain reaction of ass-slapping, that was being repeated again and again. Of course, I've already talked about the hairstyling that was happening last Thursday. But aside from that, htere is a lot of just playing with another boy's hair. Just sitting there, petting him, like they would a dog. Just gently patting and caressing his hair. Sometimes, roughly or playfully messing it up.
And then other times, there are boys, with their arms wrapped around the waist of their best friend, who is sitting on their lap. This is a full-on hug, like a guy holding his girlfriend at a party or something.
There is also a lot of girl-on-girl affection, but there's a lot of that at home too, so it's not as interesting. Lots of hairstyling happened in class in Canada, but there it was just girls.

Dating
So yesterday, I was getting on the bus to Samho to see Jessie (I got off work early, and we had to go to the immigration office in Mokpo, regarding follow-up to the fake-contract Canadians in Korea), and I saw two girls sitting together on my way to the back. Well, I actually saw one girl, and a second head with very styled hair out of the corner of my eye.
Eventually, they started making out. Seriously making out. Which was surprising, because this is Korea, and things are extremely conservative here. I thought it was amazing, here we are in a country where holding hands in public is a really big deal, and here are two girls making out like bandits on the bus.
Then, the guy looked up at me. It turned out to be a guy all along. I was surprised, to say the least. And then I burst out laughing. And then they went back to making out.
The point is, it was actually the first time I had seen a public display of affection (That's PDA for all you In Touch subscribers out there [mom]). Wierd, eh?
Then, there's the apparently constant need to be together. I have no actual evidence for this, only hearsay.
I was telling Mr Lee about going to Kwangju over the weekend with Rodrigo (more on that later). He said "Oh, and Jessie too?" and I said "No, she wanted to stay home for the day". This was the week afetr I had told him about going to Kwangju just to get out of the house, and that Jessie had stayed home because she needed some time alone.
His response was the same both times. "I'm sorry to hear that". But it was said after talking about Jessie and I have different interests, and liking to do different things sometimes. His response?
"I'm sorry to hear that".
And Mr Ryu's response when we told him at our Korean lesson/English tutoring session that I had gone to Kwangju with Rodrigo for a manly day of shopping and movies?
"And Jessie is angry?"
So, it seems that the very idea of two people who are dating having different interests and enjoying time not wrapped around eachother or within touching with no touching distance is just really bad.
Weird, I think. I think a lot of Canadians would agree with me.

Hierarchy
This is really complicated to explain, and I don't even understand it at all yet. All I really know is that it pisses me off.
The verbs are conjugated based on who you are talking to, and there are about fourteen differnt greetings/thank yous depending on who you are talking to, and their status in comparison to you. What worries me is that if you use the wrong one, you can offend someone. And how do you knbow your status? Is there some sort of "An Idiot's guide to Korean Hierarchy and your place in it: The Foreigner Edition"?
Are Jessie and I considered on the same level as our coteachers? Other teachers in the school? How offended would my coteachers be if I asked, because asking if we were on the same level would imply that I thought we should be?
Because we are new, and therefore low on the ladder, it means that our days are subject to change with little or no notice. It's super annoying.
It's also assumed that I will respect someone no matter how ridiculously incompetent they appear to be (Looking at you, Mr B), or how poorly they treat me (I'm looking your way, people who laugh at me when I try to speak Korean).
Capital F.

That's all for this subject for now.