This is officially my first effort at blogging, so I'm apologizing in advance. Since I'm starting this six months after I arrived in Korea, I figured my first post should be about memorable things that have happened since I've been here.
1.Korean (Hangul) is a hard language to learn. I went to one survival Korean class and left not understanding in what direction you really read the words (or how you know when one word ends and the next begins). After being here for almost six months, I now know how to say "hello" (annyeong haseyo) and "thank you" (gamsa hamnida).
2. Koreans don't seem to believe in public trash cans. In different areas on the public streets, there are piles of trash. I thought this was horrible, until I realized that this occurs because there are no public trash cans on the streets.
3. Babies are seen as a group commodity. If you have a baby, are carrying a baby or are anywhere around anyone with a baby, people will hover around you. They will smile at the baby, talk to the baby, touch the baby and often try to pick up the baby. Apparently this is perfectly natural here. (see my friend Lynn's blog for more about this).
4. The toilets here are tricky. In some places, they are just troughs in the ground (even one of the premier hospitals here has bathrooms with a few normal toilets and the rest "trough" toilets). However, there are also bidets (or bedays, depending on where you are). My first experience with this was in an Outback Steakhouse in Suwon, Korea. I was warned that flushing the toilet was tricky, but was not prepared for what I encountered. Let's just say that when I started pressing random buttons labeled in Korean and a little nozzle twisted around and started spraying water at my shirt, I was quite surprised (and wet!)
5. The customer is always right has a different meaning here. At shops, you can often barter and arrive at a cheaper price (walking away is also a useful tactic). However, when you lose your luggage on an international flight (just for example), they don't seem very interested in getting it back to you or even apologizing. Instead, they'd rather have you walk and meet them a half mile away at 0200 (2am for everyone) to pick it up two days after it was lost. When you attempt to argue with them, they just say that they don't understand English (this does make me feel somewhat bad since, I am in their country and realistically should be using Korean).
6. Traffic is bad here; I mean really bad. Think New York City, combined with Chicago and L.A. and you’ll get a sense of the traffic here. As a result, the drivers are, “enthusiastic”. Speed limits, street signs, the little kid in the crosswalk are no challenge for the “enthusiastic driver’s” race to his/her destination. The bright spot of the traffic and driving conditions is that I’ve been on 3 helicopter rides to the Army Hospital in Seoul (30 miles away) because it would take too long to go by ambulance.
Okay, I promise next time I'll post more pictures!
