Things that are weird in korea

So, the past couple of blogs have been pretty heavy on all the adventures and mishaps of being me in korea. I thought I’d take a minute to make this one a little different and share with you all The Things that are Weird in Korea. You’ve read about the craft-matic toilets and the periodic in-home loudspeaker announcements. and you can see the dye job on the dogs here to your right. Well here’s some more oddities for your enjoyment…

1. the garbage
so, they’re pretty keen in their garbage collection over here – they’ve got a special system for all your trash needs. The kick of it is, you can’t throw any food products in the regular trash. There is special composting-style trash bins for the food-y stuff. And it’s actually illegal here to dump food in the trash as there is some kind of fine associated with such a transgression. But it’s unclear how breaking that law would be prosecuted. And this, in the land of *no* traffic laws where policemen are simply window dressing (see “driving a car in korea”).

So after a week or so of dumping food scraps into a Tupperware bowl on the counter, that got *nasty*. Not a very good system. A friend suggested that we store it in the freezer so as not to let the food get rotten and smelly. So, now we dump the frozen food every few days . it’s a far better scenario. Even if we do have to keep food scraps in the freezer.

and as for recycling, well it took us a minute to realize that there is a recycling center in our apartment complex, but it’s only open from 6-9 am. And it consists of a large storage-type space run by two guys who always yell at me for putting the soju bottles in the wrong place.

2. driving in korea
there are, apparently, no traffic laws to speak of. I may have mentioned how everyone is constantly running red lights. Cabbies especially enjoy it right in front of the police station near our house. In fact, this might be the most dangerous city ever for us pedestrians. Not only to cars simply not stop for you when you’re crossing the street, they actually speed up, attempting to squash you with their very small tires. Walking across the street is definitely like george with the frogger game in manhattan. Eye contact simply does not matter. Not at all.

3. funny, funny things on signs and t-shirts.
I’m sure most of you have been to www.engrish.com. Everywhere you turn there are new and fascinating ways that the English language has been manipulated to sell a variety of products. My favorite is a sign in the window of the New York Hot Dog & Coffee Shop near our house. The place where they sell you a half a cup of coffee with a big smile. Jim says it’s because they’re optimists in this country. They think this sort of thing is a “glass half full” sort of situation. I think it’s a crime. But anyway, please enjoy the sign which I have posted here for your enjoyment. The text is below…for men who are made from beef 100%.

“New York Hot Dog the health of men today who are made from beef 100% and apprehend a little calorie is secured without it makes and constructs using an individual steam term fleshiness of the feature is also softer.”

Indeed. Please discuss.


A few more funny pics for your entertainment.



4. appliances that talk to you
this is a phenomenon that is actually quite pleasant, and in fact, a nice change from the buzzing and beeping of American appliances. See, instead of that annoying buzz when your wash cycle is through, our washing machine plays a lovely little tune that lasts for a few minutes. It seems to say “hello, thank you for washing your clothes in me. I’d just like to let you know that your clothes are now finished with their washing experience. Please do come and get them soon. Thank you. The management.” As lacey clarke suggested, perhaps my apartment is always talking to me because it’s just like “WASSUP??!! Why you always walkin’ around in me?”

And some miscellaneous info

For the yogis in the audience: Went to yoga again on Friday. It’s cool. I still have no idea what they’re saying but I am starting to get the Korean numbers down. (they use both Korean and Chinese numbers here—I got the Chinese, but Korean is more difficult). I’ve decided that physical activity in korea is definitely *not* gentle in any way. Yoga here involves a lot of punching your muscles to get them to warm up and swing your arms around a lot. At a certain point, we were sitting cross-legged and she had us roll over our feet so that we would then be on our knees and able to move into frog. Right. So as I rolled over my feet, about 18 bones all cracked at once. Which was a little disconcerting. And then, she wanted us in frog. As many of you know, frog is a pretty intense posture. And I’m pretty set on knowing where my sweet spot is—how to get just the right balance of intensity and good opening. Well, my teacher comes over to me, puts her hands on my hips and pushes me down with some serious force so that my hips are touching the ground while my feet are still in frog. Riiiiiight. I think it was the yelps of pain that clued her in to the so not ok-ness of the adjustment. Hellew. Not so gentle over here. Not so much

The end of another week. Had some parent-teacher conferences yesterday. Very interesting to meet the folks of my kids. Everyone was very sweet, though one parent is concerned that, as a foreign teacher, I’m just not hard enough on her kid. Perhaps I should hit him more, she suggested. Right.

Should be getting some more pictures up on flickr tonight and tomorrow. Check it out. Sending love out to you all.

Very pushca, very trade.

catie

***a note on the "disgruntled states of america" picture...when we went to the folk museum, there was this huge collection of money from all over the globe, from all sorts of different years. very cool. and suddenly, after looking at rubles from 1965 and bhat from 1982, i find this. a fake $3 bill with clinton's face on it. i have no idea what the hell this is or why it was in a serious collection of money. perhaps someone thinks it's real. i really don't know.