I have been getting some good feedback about this blog and a
few people have mentioned that it seems like I am having an amazing time here
so far! I would like to start of
by saying that while yes, that is true, I
mostly blog about the highlights and leave out the boring day-to-day things.
This post is going to mention some of the less appealing
parts of my journey and just things I have noticed in general based on my
experiences so far.
#1 The Shower
As I have already mentioned, I have a hose shower that is
the middle of the bathroom and makes the entire bathroom wet. To use the hose,
I turn the normal sink faucet into the shower faucet by turning a little knob
to the left. It has taken me until
now to remember to turn the knob back!
I will be innocently washing my hands, when the shower hose will violently
spray water out and get the almost dry floor wet again! It shocks me every time too. Although I am now cognitively
prepared to check to make sure I have turned the knob back to the right, I still
wince every time I turn on the sink, and I still forget to turn it back every
once and a while and kick myself for it!
#2 Korean Internet
Although my Internet has worked wonderfully, it sometimes
sets to Korean. I am not sure if
anyone has noticed that this blog is partly in Korean. If anyone has tried to write a comment,
I have not received it, probably because it was not clear where the comment
section was. The only successful
comment written was by my American Korean friend (thanks for the comment by the
way) and anyone else who has attempted one, I appreciate the effort and I am
sure it was a great comment!
#3 The Smell
Busan has an out of date sewage system, so sometimes the
city smells like really bad sewage.
This is especially prevalent along my street, which has a lot of sewage
grates along the street. Right now
it is winter, the smell is under control, come summer I might be holding my
breath a lot. I also live on a
hill so it will be tough making the hike up the hill, in the hot, humid summer,
while holding my breath!
#4 The Manners
Let me start by discussing the driving. The driving in Korea is extremely
aggressive. As I have already
mentioned, the motorcycles drive right on the sidewalk and they barely slow
down for people. They also will
use the pedestrians walking light to cut across the street while it is full of
people. Finally, they will drive
through a crowded market, honking the crowd out of their way.
The cars are aggressive too and the red light is just a
suggestion in many cases. If you
are walking on the side the street, they sometimes won’t go around you and will
basically brush your shoulder so they don’t have to slightly move.
Some of the people are also aggressive while walking and
will run into you when the situation could have easily been avoided. On the subway, 90% of the people sitting down are glued to a
Smartphone. I feel so out of the
loop when it comes that that. Also,
when it comes to public transportation, there is no hesitation when it comes to other people getting on first and reserving their seat even if you were clearly standing
there waiting for a while.
Taking the bus is crazy too. The bus drivers are no exception when it comes to being aggressive drivers. I like to pretend I am practicing my balance every time I take a bus. You get jerked around so much, it almost feels like the driver is playing a game to see how rough the ride can be and you are just a piece in that game.
Sometimes when you are walking down the street, a man will hack really loudly and spit on the ground.
They do it so violently and loudly it sounds like they are going to lose
their tonsils and it makes me cringe every time.
Finally, as a part of Korean culture, one of the first
questions someone will ask is “how old are you.” They ask so they know how to speak to the person. Korean has different dialog for
different ages. It all comes down
to respect, you respect someone who is older and you speak to them in a more
formal way. Many Koreans have
asked me if this is considered impolite in my culture. I said it depends, but it is not custom
for that to be the first question you ask someone. Although I haven’t come across anyone asking me my age when
I first meet them, this is just a cultural difference I have been told about
and it is completely normal here.
#5 Language Barrier
This is a more obvious obstacle that I must face and something
I was well aware of before coming here. It is a daily challenge but sometimes that comes with the package of living in a different country. If anything I am lucky that there is so many things that do have English
translations and many places you go, there will be someone who has a little bit
of English knowledge so you can get what you need accomplished.
In my own apartment, I don’t know how to work some of the
appliances as well as I should because all of the buttons are in Korean. While using the heat for my apartment
and water, I must make an educated guess for changing any settings.
The laundry machine is another story. I have tried playing around with it a
bit to create a more gentle washing cycle. I don’t even know if my clothes are being washed in hot or
cold water. Once, when I got a bit too
adventurous with the buttons, I accidently set it so that when the load was
complete, all of my clothes were dripping in water. I rug them as dry as I could and set them on my drying
rack. I get no natural sunlight in
my apartment and my things were still dripping wet 36 hours later. The best solution I had was to re-wash
everything without changing the laundry settings so they had a chance of actually
drying properly. Even after that,
it still took another 2.5 days for everything to dry all of the way.
I will conclude with the fact that I found my first bug in
my apartment last week! That is
the downfall to living alone, nobody to kill any creepy insects. I survived,
but I hope not to find too many more!
On a brighter note, there are the lights in put in my room! I love them :)
Copy and paste the link:
http://kikinitinkorea.tumblr.com/post/30209494236/trying-to-use-the-squatter-toilets
The subway has toilets, which is awesome! But they all mostly squatter toilets, I guess you get used of them.
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