It's almost seven months ago that I moved here to Seoul, South Korea, and while I can't pretend to understand much of the stuff that goes on around here, I thought I'd share some of the little things I've noticed that I find odd or interesting. So without further ado...
1) Nearly all (perhaps 99% or so it seems) of the cars over here are either black, white, or some shade of silver/grey. It's a strange thing to spot a car of any real color. But the buses are quite colorful coming in green, blue, and yellow--the color indicates something, but I haven't figured it out yet because I tend to use the subways instead.
2) Unlike Japan (and from what I see on tv, China), hardly anyone uses the bicycle as a mode of transportation. Someone told me (so I'm not sure how true this is) that bikes are seen as a poor man's way to move from place to place, and Koreans, being quite caught up in image, choose not to use them. I do see bikes on the running/biking trail by the river when I go running, but I do not see them locked up around town and very rarely do I see a bicyclist on the sidewalks of Seoul.
3) I don't know if I'm just going to the wrong places, but it seems that finding vegetables that aren't in some way pickled or fermented in restaurants is a difficult thing. I enjoy the pickled and fermented stuff, but every once in a while I find myself longing for some steamed veggies and a baked potato.
4) At the risk of sounding a little negative here, I must say that Koreans (most of them) seem to have no concept of space--or at least a very different concept of space. I don't know if this is only in Seoul and thus the product of living in such a populous city, but walking down the sidewalks here can be a little frustrating at times. People just don't get out of your way--or even move a little over so that you both have room to pass at a comfortable distance--granted comfortable distances are a very cultural thing. I've even had several situations where a business man who's just standing on the sidewalk outside a building and talking on his phone or smoking his cancer-stick will casually look right at me and then turn around and slowly saunter into my way forcing me to either stop or take a few steps outside the line I was walking--rather like a base-runner who's trying to avoid a tag. It's very annoying; in fact, I find this, above all, the most annoying aspect of living here.
5) Spam is a fairly normal food item here and not the meat of the poor. Ami puts it in kimchi soup and it's actually quite good (though upon further reflection we might just qualify as the poor).
6) I am not a woman, so I can't claim to be an expert on what women want (can any man?), but young, and some older, Korean women have an unhealthy fascination with handbags. Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and I don't know what else. I don't remember seeing or hearing about this in Japan, but maybe it was there and I was too busy watching sumo to notice.
7) There is an unwritten rule that on a subway a younger person will relinquish his/her seat for an older person. I don't mean a 25-year old will do this for a 35-year old, but more that a 25-year old will do this for a 60 or 70-year old. But alas, the 25-year olds are usually either too busy staring at their smart phones or pretending to sleep to show the older generation this courtesy. Now I realize that there may be the same sort of thing in America--I don't ride public transportation--but it still makes me feel bad when I see a woman in her 80s standing while some idiot 20-year old pretends not to notice (like I did the other day). And just so you know, I was standing too, and I have given up my seat and will probably do so again.....if I ever get one.
8) Plastic surgery is a bit rampant over here, but what I find most interestingly odd is that it's very accepted too and, from what I understand, is talked about much more openly than it is in America. I am no expert, but I believe that if a person chose to have some plastic surgery in the US, he/she would most likely not talk about it. Here, though, it seems that it's ok to talk about..."Yeah, I had my eyes done last month. Do you like them?"
9) In Korea, sleeping is a hobby. I should say this is true in Japan too. It's the first day of class and we are introducing ourselves to each other...."Hi. My name is Eun Young. I am 23 years old and my hobby is sleeping." Something I'd never heard until I moved to Japan and now Korea. I keep trying to tell them that sleeping is not a hobby, but they will have none of it.
10) Baseball has cheerleaders. What else can I say?
11) Generally, Koreans don't drink to enjoy the flavor of the chosen drink. They drink to get drunk. I guess I can understand this with quality of the alcohol over here (minus the makgeolli) and I've gone there with them. But on a Sunday afternoon the beer is for sipping while you watch a baseball game, not for slamming down the throat. Of course, Koreans also don't drink (again generally) unless they plan to go all the way, so you don't tend to find them enjoying the slow beer with lunch like I (and most of you) will do.
12) In case I sounded negative above (and I only meant to in #s 4 and 10 and maybe slightly in # 11), I'd like to end on a positive note. One of the best ideas I've seen to come out of Korea is the idea of cutting food with scissors. Usually it's meat they cut--thin slices of beef or pork--but I've noticed that kimchi also gets cut this way. I first saw this done in California when I went over to Ami's for some dinner and her mother cut the pork strips using scissors. I thought it strange but highly logical.
