I know this picture could have been taken anywhere. But it's in Korea, trust me. and I've got company.
Some of you may know that Marissa, my girlfriend of almost two years, is with me now in Korea.
We did the long distance thing when I was in Turkey and my first six months here in Korea.
But skype and emails are no way to conduct a relationship, and when she heard about how tasty dog is, she said, "Yes, I'm coming to Korea."
It's been great taking her around Seoul. So far, we've been to the singing room (private karaoke) three times in the last three weeks. We've also been the foreigner district thrice. Each time we go is like a visit to America, Ireland and Turkey. Or at least the bar Nashville's, our pub the Wolfhound and my Turkish kebab vendor.
But with moving to a new environment comes new customs, practices and adjustments. The most repeated phrase of the last three weeks has been, "You'll get used to it."
See, Koreans are a quirky people. Here's a list of things they do and don't do:
-They don't wait in lines or queues. In fact, I don't think the concept of queue registers here.
-They stare at the foreigners. I think it comes from living in a homogeneous society. When you're country is made of 97% of one race, a couple of white Americans don't really blend in.
-They spit on the sidewalk. A Korean man doesn't think twice about horking on the street or sidewalk.
-They don't follow the unspoken, yet understood Western rule of elevators. That's right, they don't get out of the way for people getting off or wait for them to get off before getting on. You just have to shove your way through.
-Crazy ass cab drivers. Yeah, we all know the stereotypes about Asian drivers. Well, I'm here to report it's true.
But there's plenty of good things too:
-The subway takes you anywhere you want to go and it's cheap. About a U.S. Dollar and you can take the train anywhere. Plus it's immaculately clean and safe.
-Seoul doesn't really close. If you want to go out and stay out until 5 or 6 a.m. it easily doable. That can be a bad thing too, but so far I've kept up my old man consistency of going to bed by 9.
-Koreans are pretty friendly. Yeah there's the occasional jerk, but that's in every country. Overall, they're hospitable and nice.
-Everything is within walking distance, especially from my apartment which is in a nice neighborhood.
-Life here is generally easy. Teaching is so little stress compared to journalism and we have much more free time and better holidays.
It's been great. And our weekends have been so filled, that I've neglected you dear readers. But here's a LoughriedoesKorea promise. I will post more, but you must do the following: LEAVE YOUR NAME WHEN YOU COMMENT.
I don't care what you write, I just want to know who it is.
I will post each week with a recap of weekends, stories and, of course, wacky adventures.
6 comments:
About F'ing time you got back to work. I was starting to worry you had returned to journalism or something.
Good to have you back. Although I would like to know WHY THE HELL I DIDN'T SEE YOU WHILE YOU WERE IN THE STATES!!!??!! No way in hell you get the same kind of love from "her" that you are used to!
Oh yeah, and yes, I do exist. I was the reason for the * in a previous post. James' description was a little off, I'm only half as deranged as he said in certain areas and 5x more in other areas. Hey, there's a pyscho is every group, I just happen to make up for other groups missing one.
Good to see you posting again. I never did get a reply to my email, but maybe now that you're back in Korea?
Keep up the good work.
Senator RITS (Patrick O'Donnell)
From my experience, James doesn't reply to emails. And so far, M doesn't either! (cry!) But good to hear (and see) you're both doing well. M, let me know how you like that dog!
And Jimmy, it's been a week since you're last posting. I'm anxiously awaiting more wacky adventures.
The first half of your description of Koreans could have just as easily been written about the Chinese. It's funny, though: I didn't notice half of that when I was there (especially the spitting), but I did see everything on the second half of your list. Would it be fair to call Korea China-lite?
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