How Bazaar ~

There are many oddities to Korea have become so normal to me I no longer think twice about them. But when I take a moment to remind myself that I'm living in Korea, a few things stand out as the Korean way.

Always take your shoes off, sit on the floor. Even at school the students remove their shoes to wear slippers.

You must always carry your own toilet paper, and there is not always a western toilet.

Koreans have this genetic flexibility to squat down and sit for a great length of time. Most westerns cannot do it with such ease. We have experimented.

There is always a man sitting outside the 7/11 drinking sojo [really potent rice liquor] or Cass [really bad beer made from rice].

Any day of the week there are Korean men in business suits stumbling out of the bars and restaurants. Usually they make a chain linked line with the most sober on the outside getting worse towards the center. A pretty logical system considering there usual state of stumbling and slurring.

The woman at my favorite coffee shop even calls me “Teacher”

There are rubber paths along the sidewalks for easier walking and the parks have stone paths to remove your shoes and walk across, massaging the feet.

Korean woman always are wearing stiletto. (when I told my korean co-teacher Jenifer that heels hurt my feet she exclaimed that flats pain her, and she cannot wear them anymore.)

Koreans never j-walk.

Showers are not common, nor are baths. It is simply a shower head mounted to the wall next to your sink.

Doing laundry is always a task because the machine is in Korea, you never really know whats going to happen, and it plays a song when it finishes. I suppose Michelle and I had the same problem in London and it was in our own language, but there was no diddy, the machine sounded the same as an airplane taking off.

Parks have exercise machines in them, and Koreans are always using them.

At the subway and bus stations, lines form to board the train/bus.

Everyone on the subway is watching TV on their cell phones.

There are 12 seats on each carriage designated for the elderly and even if there are no elderly to sit there, no one sits there.

Koreans can sleep anywhere, benches, tables, trains, sidewalks, anywhere.

When you go shopping someone will help you to the point of dressing and buttoning and setting each detail just right.

They also have no problem with pushing you out of their shop when they see how big your feet are.

Red-lights are optional, and while driving most koreans watch sports or drama.

When students win in a game the rest of the class is so ecstatic they all run, tackle, and pile on while screaming with excitement.

Students are always in school. High schoolers begin around 8:30 and finish around midnight.

Ramen is a staple in the Korean diet.

It's true, most eat rice and kimchi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Korean pop music is really terrible, but everyone aged 5 to 70 listen to it! Wondergirls, Nobody

While it can be humorous and a bit bazaar, it has become normal. Maybe it is the western way that is odd...