Anyoung Haseyo Korea

Over the past few days I have begun to settle into my new home and have been pleasantly surprised by the general attitude and style of this place. I've begun to see that in order to truly appreciate life one must take time to stop and smell the flowers.

Before I came to Korea, my view, and I believe the typical American view of Korea is that of a nation of Kim-Chi eating people who all work in rice patties or fireworks factories. Although there are a lot of rice fields and they do serve Kim-Chi with every meal, that's not really the mood that is produced over here. I haven't found any cool fireworks yet, probably for the best.

Korea is VERY clean, sometimes fanatically. Everywhere you go there is someone cleaning something. Old ladies cleaning the subway steps, old men cleaning the sidewalks and bus stops... But why is it only old people? I haven't seen anyone under 60 cleaning now that I think about it...

I was in Seoul today and found it hard to find a piece of trash on the ground, anywhere. I also only saw like 2 bums the entire 2 days I was there (And they seemed pretty calm and zen, unlike the insane bastards that we have back home). I was comparing Seoul to San Francisco the entire time and found Frisco to be an angry, rushed shit-hole in comparison.

Speaking of shit-holes, one thing I don't really appreciate about Korea are the toilets in public places, literally a hole. Really? I'll wait til I get home...


But other than that I've been super stoked the entire week. I'm nearing the end of my "Quarantine" week and am sad that I can't have another. I've had a great week and have had ample time to embrace my new home. I even took the time to strike a traditional Korean pose. (I think the chick on my right appreciates it)

I've also been cooking all of my meals Korean style, which is no easy task. They've mainly consisted of rice, meat, soy sauce and wasabi. I threw in a red pepper yesterday to switch things up. But they've all been super awesome so far. Going shopping is kind of difficult, everything is in Korean! I can buy fruit (Super expensive, $13 for a bunch of grapes) and meat and stuff like that, but the packaged stuff is a crap shoot, literally. But everyone is pleasantly surprised to see me as I'm one of the only westerners in my town. Some people even know a few Engrish words and try to communicate with me. I answer them back with my few Korean words and we proceed to completely confuse each other.

Seoul, as I have previously reported is awesome. One would think that because it's a major international city that it would be kind of global and lose some of it's roots, not at all. There are some English speakers and a few Western establishments,
but the vast majority of the city is very "Korean" and remains awesome. Walking down the street there are tons of street vendors selling some stuff that looks... Different. Giant smoked squid tentacles and flattened grilled stingray's that I didn't try. Hot dog shishkabobs and red stuff with white stuff floating in it that is actually pretty good.
(What is that?)

So I start school on Monday and will definitely have some great stories. I guess a kid at our school tested positive for swine flu so all the teachers have to wear surgical masks throughout the day. Between that and my indoor slippers I'm going to look like a doctor that just got out of the shower, I'll get a picture and you'll see what I'll have to deal with, should be an interesting week...