Random Things We Hate About Korea

Although we love so many things about Korea, there are definitely some we could live without. Here is a random selection in no particular order:

1. Water: This is two fold. First, you can't drink water out of the tap; it is going to be really great to go back to a country where you can. Some people do it here, but we have been told by foreigners and Koreans alike that it is a bad idea and not even boiling it will solve the problem because it is a chemical/pollution issue. Second, and much more important, is the way you are served water with meals. Restaurants have these tiny little cups that fit about three swallows of water. Sometimes you can ask for "big water" and get a western-sized glass, but not always. We really miss having a full glass of water with a meal!

Tiny water cup :(

2. Soap on a stick: This is just what it sounds like. A bar of soap impaled on a metal stick in the school bathrooms and various public restrooms. You wet your hands, rub them on the soap, then continue washing. I guess this is more practical than a bar of soap sitting next to the sink, but for some reason this grosses us out, seems inappropriate and just plain weird, and we hate it.

3. The education system: This is a huge one! Although Korea does exceptionally well internationally in math, science, and reading, we really have a hard time accepting the way they do it. Korean students are put under so much pressure that is at a level American students could never begin to understand. They attend school literally all day, with their normal school day immediately being followed by various academies (hagwons) where they learn more intense science, math, English, music, etc. Olivia's first graders normally are going to bed in the 9-11pm range. Michelle's sixth graders were only getting around 4-5 hours of sleep in preparation for their middle school placement exam and even now that the exam is over (which the look of terror and despair on some of these students faces when they learned they were not accepted was one of the most horrible things Michelle has ever personally witnessed.. amplified by the fact they are 12 years old), they only sleep 6-7 hours a night. These kids are exceptionally smart and talented, all of them playing multiple instruments -not just hot cross buns on a recorder, but symphony orchestra style- in addition to their academic achievements, but there is a reason that suicide rates are quite high in Korean universities. The stress and pressure to do well are just too much. We would never want to subject our children to this type of education system.

4. Some health-related things: The Korean medical system is great for the most part. It is fast, inexpensive, and from what we hear the doctors tend to do a good job. However, we really hated that during our medical exams (mandated when getting an E-2 teaching visa) the people drawing our blood and handling our urine didn't wear gloves nor wash their hands after touching the urine samples before drawing our blood.

5. No knives: We love chopsticks and find them better for eating most things. However, some things are better eaten with a fork but there is rarely a knife available. And we miss butter knives, a steak knife spreading butter is just not the same.

6. Psycho drivers: We have decided that if we die in Korea it is going to be in some driving-related incident. Most likely crossing the street when the crossing sign in on and some crazy person decides to just go. Or maybe in a cab. We have definitely had one ride that was absolutely terrifying  In fact, Olivia had a cab driver tell her that when he got angry he liked to make accidents with the delivery men on scooters. Both of us have also been in a taxi behind a clearly drunk delivery man on a scooter who just out of no where decided to drive, hit the car in front of him, and fall off, only to be too drunk to get back on. It is also possible one of these delivery men will kill us when they are zipping down the streets filled with pedestrians.

7. Laundry: Going back to America and doing laundry is going to be amazing. The washing machines take forever for some reason, everything must be washed in a garment bag, they tear up your clothing regardless of the garment bag, dryers are uncommon, and your clothing just never feels as soft as it should - i.e. crunchy towels are fairly common regardless of fabric softener.

8. The lack of public garbage cans

9. Corn on pizza: We will eventually do a post just on food but for now we will just mention how much we dislike the tendency to put corn on everything. Especially pizza.

10. Sales people: The sales people here are really in your face all of the time. In grocery stores they will follow you around and try to point out everything you should buy and just won't leave you alone no matter what you try to say to them. In the downtown area, they stand outside their stores like cheerleaders with microphones and will literally grab you to try to pull you inside. It's a cultural personal space difference that we dislike.

11. Office supplies: American (western?) style folders and three-ring binders don't exist or they are hard to find. Instead they are binders with sheet protectors inside where you put all of your papers, this just feels inefficient to do ALL the time.

12. People going on and on in Korean when we clearly do not understand: We fully understand we live in Korea and don't speak the language, and don't expect anyone to speak English just for our benefit. We have also had great experiences where we have to explain ourselves fully with sound effects and gestures. However, we really hate it when someone just goes on and on in rapid Korean when we don't understand. It is stressful and frustrating. It is much better when someone is talking to us in Korean and relying primarily on gestures instead of words.

Random Things We Love About Korea

There is so much we love about living in Korea, but we thought we would give you a taste of 13 random things we really enjoy:

1. Ding-dong buttons: This is probably the number one best thing about Korea - they have ding-dong buttons on all the tables at most restaurants. These are buttons you ring when you are ready to order, need more to drink, etc. This means you don't have a waiter or waitress annoying you or ignoring you, it's PERFECT AND BRILLIANT AND SHOULD BE EVERYWHERE!

2. Umbrella Bags: So sometimes it rains a lot. Yes, it rains back home too, but ever thought it was annoying to carry around a wet umbrella through a store or didn't know where to put it at a restaurant? Well, Koreans have found a great solution. When you walk into a restaurant or sometimes a store, they have this contraption that you put your umbrella in, and pull it out, and it is wrapped very nicely in a plastic bag so you don't get water everywhere.

3. Doors with Keypads:So we both have problems keeping track of our important items, such as cellphone, keys, and money. Koreans have also found a solution to THAT problem. A lot of apartments don't use keys, they have an electronic keypad on the doors entering the building or entering your room. When you move in, someone comes to your room and you just choose a 4+ digit code that you use to get into your apartment, like a pin number. This alleviates the need to remember a key to get home, you can always get in! You just have to pay attention to the noises it makes so the batteries don't die and you get locked outside.

4. Stores' Common Approach to Attracting Customers: KPop/Dance music. No more needs to be said.

5. Cheap Tansportation: Neither of us have cars nor liscences, so we rely on public transportation a lot. It is really nice that you can basically get anywhere in Korea for 30$ on a bus or a train. Within Gwangju, there is also a very good bus system with tons of buses going everywhere for about $1 if you have a bus pass (which we do). Finally, the best part is the taxi rides. They start at a base prices of about $2, and we can get almost anywhere we need in town for around $5-$10, (but we usually pay on the lower end because we live in a really good location relative to the places we want to go). This is especially nice always being together and being able to pay only half of that.

6. Korean Socks: Korea and, from our limited experience, Japan, cutify everything. This is not excluding socks. They are extremely cheap, very comfortable, and just plain adorable. They usually have pictures of cute animals or something of the like, and sometimes even have animals farting or pooping (which somehow they make cute).

Pooping puppies and farting elephants

Angry birds and Gangnam style

7. Safety: This country is incredibly safe. Rest easy parents. Petty theft and crime rates are extremely low. If you leave your bag or wallet in a coffee shop, leave for 4 hours, it will still be sitting there when you get back. It's also kinda weird to see HOW safe because you will just see small children wandering around downtown by themselves. Obviously there is still crime so you still have to be aware and smart, but nonetheless, it puts the US to shame with safety.

8. Cab Rides: So we mentioned the cheap transportation earlier, but this doesn't account for the actual taxi ride itself. I would say, about 70% of the time they are incredibly entertaining. For example, we live near a gym which is our landmark to tell the taxi driver how to get home. Some understand this, others just laugh until they are almost in tears because they think we are leaving the bus station with suitcases to go work out at 10pm. One taxi driver even called his friend to share this fact. Other times they are really excited they have people who speak English in their cab, one time a taxi driver called his daughter and told Michelle to talk on the phone to her in English. This was then followed by him dancing and trying to get everyone else to dance too while making fun of our accents. But even if the taxi driver doesn't talk to us or behave strangely, the music they listen to is always interesting. We've heard Disney toons, 80s rock, Kpop, American pop.

9. Public Drinking: There is no "open intox" public drinking laws here, so you or whoever can just walk around with a bottle of Soju (a Korean alcohol that is similar to vodka with a lower alcohol content, but without the burn - very plentiful and very cheap here) without any legal consequences. This results in seeing some very interesting things at all hours of the day from people just being really drunk.

10. Service (pronounced Service-y): This means "free stuff." This comes in many forms from extra stuff that you happen to get when you buy something or just for being foreign. At restaurants or coffee shops, if you sit there for awhile or are with enough foreigners, sometimes they will just bring you an extra pastry or coke, just for being foreign. Kinda nice. But there are also lots of great times when you go to a store to buy something, and just happen to get a little present along with it.

11. Not understanding Korean: Yes, it would obviously be ideal for us to understand the language of the country we are living in. However, there are perks to being a foreigner with no Korean ability other than "thank-you" or "yes." For starters, you can almost always pull the "I'm a confused foreigner" card with just a look and a shrug and either get benefits or people to do things for you(like cook your galbi - Korean bbq - because they just don't think you can handle it). On a less shameful note, it is also really entertaining to watch Korean interactions without understanding what is happening. This is especially a thing at school. The way the Korean teachers act towards the students which makes no sense and the students hysterical laughter and chattering about what is happening is always a source of entertainment during the day. For example, Michelle's coteacher just got a cat. He has a picture of it on his phone and will show it to some student as a type of punishment, maybe, while everyone else laughs, but then walks immediately over to another kid who is cooing at the photo. This goes on for about 10 minutes. The final perk about not being able to understand Korean is that when we get back to the States, we will be unbeatable at charades.

12. Establishment Closing Times: Or more, lack there of. No matter what time of night, you can find something open with whatever you need: convenience stores, most restaurants, bars, etc.

13. Most Korean food: Delicious. Stay posted, we will have a blog post dedicated to this one.

So there you have it, our list of things we love about Korea. There are many more where that came from and I'm sure we will continue to discover more little things that we love as our time here continues.

Where Olivia and Michelle Eat Things Squirming All Over Their Plate...

Sannakji is a Korean dish (easy enough to find but not part of the standard Korean diet by any means) made of a small octopus that is cut up into pieces while it is still alive and then served immediately with a light sesame sauce so it is still squirming around on the plate. It is also possible to be exceptionally adventurous and eat the whole thing: they jam the top of the mini octopus on a chopstick, wrap the legs around it, shove the whole thing into your mouth and you start chewing. Youtube it. So far we have tried the cut up version (as you can see in the video) and I don't know that we will ever try the whole version, but we will see. 

If the video doesn't work for you, click here to watch it on youtube.