Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die tomorrow.

James Dean

Friday, March 12, 2010

What I have learned so far ...

1. Despite the fact that there is supposed to be close to 1,000,000 foreigners living in South Korea, we stick out and attract a lot of attention. I must admit in my first few day here it was rather unnerving to walk down the street and have every other person stare at you. It's not done in a shy, don't let them see me looking manner that we Canadians would use. Instead they are very open and unashamed about it, sometimes tripping over themselves to look at you. It's not rudeness but curiosity. I'm at a point now where I don't even notice anymore although there are the occasional moments when it annoys me. Then you get those moments when your walking down the street and some little kid opens the window of his car as he's driving by and yells HELLO at you. Some Korean's are very curious about you but others seem downright fearful. It's almost funny to be riding on the bus and have the seat beside you be the only empty one. Watching the faces of the people as they get on and realize that their only options are to sit next to that strange looking foreigner, or standing. It's amazing how many people choose to stand.

2. In Korea there seems to be no rules on the road. Drivers just seem to go whereever they want, whenever they want to. Although they do seem to stop for red lights there seems to be no protocol for who turns when. It seems to be whoever is quickest or whoever pulls out first. You see cars cutting in front of each other constantly - and yet I haven't seen a single accident. It makes it a little scary when your trying to cross the street as you don't know who driving where. They really love to honk their horns, all the time, for no reason that I can see. They also seem to park anywhere they want. Sometimes they just stop their car in the middle of the road and park, oblivious to the fact that they are blocking all the traffic behind them.

3. They eat rice for every meal. Now I like rice but I just can't do it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I told my co teacher this she laughed and said that when she visited the UK she couldn't understand how they could bread at breakfast. It made me think about how all the things here that I find strange are normal for the people who live here and all the things that I find normal must seem strange to so many other.

1 comment:

  1. Love the blog and the photos! I am so impressed how you make your way around those streets it looks totally confusing to me!
    Alex

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