Honking

One major difference I noticed right away about this place, is that people are always honking. It drove be crazy at first since we live on a busy street, but now I'm used to it. The main difference however is not just how much people honk, but when and why they honk. In Oregon, you only honk when your pissed at someone. When they don't go the split second the light turns green, when someone cuts you off, or if you are just annoyed by someones driving. Here in Korea you honk your horn when: You plan on running a red light, you plan on cutting someone off, you see someone in your way (even if they are supposed to be there and you are not), you are zipping down a crowded sidewalk on your gas scooter, basically if you plan on doing something a little crazy you honk, so everyone sees you. When we first got here, I could tell immediately that Koreans are way crazier drivers that Oregonians. I thought there would be accidents all the time, but since we got here, I haven't seen a single one. I think that might have something to do with how they use their horns here.

Dog

Okay, so if you do a few searches on Koreans eating dog meat, you will only find sites that say it is common, and in general don't know what they are talking about. At least that's what I found. So here's the deal, most Koreans have never and will never eat dog. Dog meat is not common, nor is it popular, in fact lately it has been quite unpopular. It is almost only served as a soup, and it just happens that one of only a couple places in the country to eat dog, is near our place. So you might be asking, who does eat dog then? Well lets just say that according to Korean tradition, dog meat is supposed to help older men stay active in bed. And the younger generation understands that this is b.s. So you will only see older men eating it. We have seen plenty of pet dogs here, and unless you go into the Moran market, you wouldn't even know that the tradition still existed. Now you know.

Plans for Chusok

So, on Wednesday we are taking a bus to Sokcho, which is on the east coast of Korea about 20 miles south of the border. Because it is Chusok day, we have been told that we might have trouble finding a place to stay. I checked out places online, but the two or three hotels that have online sites, are all booked up. According to google maps, there are dozens of hotels and motels all over the place there though. Hopefully we will find a place, or we will be camping on the beach, which might not be so bad. Oh well, we already bought our 22,000 won bus tickets. Either way it will be an experience. Hopefully we will be able to make it back on our last 160,000 won.....

Lotion

So last night we met a few Americans, we were hanging out at the Dublins bar, one of the few places that foreigners hang out. We learned a lot about things to watch out for here, one of them is lotion. Apparently most lotion here has a skin bleach added to it. I always wondered why some of the girls here are more pail than most white people. Now I know. Koreans also have lots of plastic surgery.

Well it's been a while since my last post. Let's see.... What to talk about today.I guess I will go with trash. Here in Korea, since everyone lives in buildings, they don't come pickup you trash from the curb. Each building has it's own trash area, much like an apartment complex would in America. However, the fee for throwing stuff away is not included in the rent. Instead of everyone paying a monthly fee, you pay by the bag. In order to do this, you must buy a "Pink", any of the local mini-marts sell them. They cost about $1 apiece, and each bag is 10 liters. that's about the size of you average bathroom trash, as you can see by the picture above. So because of this, you want to recycle everything you possibly can. But you have to separate everything by type, like you used to have to do in Oregon. Now here's the one last interesting point about the trash, you cannot throw away food in your trash. It must also be separated, and placed into one of several very stinky and almost untouchable trash cans down by the dumpsters. So, that's how the trash works here in Korea. Even though it seems weird at first, I actually think it is a much better system than in the States. Although just like a lot of things that I think are better here, I don't think they would work there, because here everyone lives in a building, and there everyone lives in houses. And by everyone, I mean everyone, I haven't seen a single house since we left the US, not one!

My first post

Well, I've never had a blog before, so here goes nothing. As anyone reading this will know, I am in South Korea with my wife Irina. She is teaching English and I will be studying online to finish my degree. As I type this I am eating top ramen. But unlike in the US, where there are many different flavors of ramen, here in Korea, there is only hot and mild. I have not and probably will not try the hot, as the mild is what would be at least medium in America. I already have so many things on my mind that I want to post here, so I will probably post a few times a day, after I get caught up I will try to keep posting every day, but no guarantees.