1. There are no janitors at school. The kids clean the school.
2. In public places (including school), we put our toilet paper in a trash can beside the toilet. We don't flush it. This is so remarkably disgusting on so many levels. I know this is typical in many places in the world, but I still struggle with it everyday. Oh, we flush in our apartments though.
3. The school's main body is not heated. By that, I mean that there is a heater in every classroom and staffroom, but no heat in the restrooms or hallways. It's freezing when you have to scoot out from a warm room to the washroom. I think I've told you this one before.
4. Persimmons grow everywhere here: it's beautiful to see. But they eat them rock hard.
5. It is normal for men to pass out in the streets to sleep off the exorbitant amount of alcohol they've just consumed. They'll often stay there all night and just get up and go to work the next day.
6. Males and females meet online all the time. This is normal. What isn't normal is that you can find a Korean girlfriend on Craigslist. Seriously: look it up.
7. They don't "do" gay in Korea...
...or do they?
8. Most homes do not have a bathtub, oven, dryer, nor dishwasher (including mine). Almost everyone lives in an apartment, not a house.
9. To rent an apartment, you often have to put down a deposit upwards of $100,000. To rent.
10. Men don't wait until women have gotten out of the elevator, hold doors open for them, or perform other common Western courtesies. You are expected, however, to show an amazingly high level of respect to any and all elders, including the women who squat over piles of green onions and peel them so they're "presentable" all day long.
11. Last year, the government of Korea implemented a policy to ensure that its citizens pass each other (on the sidewalk, for instance) on the right side. This is what we do naturally. If two people are coming towards each other, we naturally assume the same position as when we're driving: I go on my right, the other person on his or her right. Traditional Korean custom dictates that they pass on the left, however, despite the fact that they drive the same way we do in Canada. So, in an effort to adhere to modern custom, the government implimented a policy to have people start passing on the right. Do we really need a policy for this?
12. There are seats on the subway just for old people. I know this is fairly common in any metropolis, but if you sit in one of these seats and looks could kill, you'd be dead.
13. Korean people share ALL food. I'm an only child: I don't like this much.
14. It's fairly common to answer your phone where ever you are: church, restaurants with your future in-laws, a family's private home.
15. All Korean men must serve for two years in the military (please note that this picture is clearly not indicitive of any army, but I thought it was funny. And check out the source! Hilarious!).
16. Bus drivers are nuts here. I think they take a crazy course. They drive the bus like it's a sports car, breaking on a dime, sending patrons flying through the bus. It's absurd.
17. At my school, teachers fill up a recycled Coke bottle with water. They then pour all the water all over the floor in the teacher's lounge. Because the heating system is so drying, they do this to humidify the air. Pour water all over the floor. My shoes get all wet! It's ridiculous!
18. This could be because we're foreigners, but everytime we walk into a store (any store, even the grocery store!), he store clerks follow us around as if we're poised to steal something. I'm not sure if they are being extra vigilant and courteous to us, or if they are being extra vigilant because we're bound to steal something. This reminds me of a story...
when I was about nine, my family took our annual trip to FlaUsa, as my mother calls it (Florida, USA). Since the weather was crummy, my Oma took me to a hobby store, where she told me to pick out 12 paints that she'd buy for me. I did. And since the paints were rather cumbersome, I put many of them in my pockets of my winter coat (it was that cold). Upon getting to the checkout, I promptly emptied my pockets on to the conveyer belt. Woah, did I hear it! She accused me of attempting to STEAL those paints (why would I steal if she was going to buy them for me?). I was so confused. And apparently scarred for life. Back to Korea...do they think I'm going to STEAL? After THAT?
19. There are sleeping rooms in most schools (though I haven't found mine yet). It is customary for a teacher to lay her head down on her desk and take a nap if the day is tiring.
20. They can build anything in a jiffy. There was a phone store on the corner of my street. One day it was up and running (but it had a strange smell coming from it), and the next day, it was torn apart. Two days later, a new store was in its place, redone, remodelled, restaffed. It was remarkable. They started building the new school (my new school) after I got here. It's huge. And it's expected to open in December. Remember how long STM took to build? Like two years. Not in Korea, friend, not in Korea.
21. It's hard to find garlic that isn't already peeled and separated into individual cloves. Boo hoo...I love smashing a good clove of garlic!
No comments:
Post a Comment