Weird Things About Korea

There are indeed McDonald's in South Korea,  and they offer 24 hour delivery. This is a pack of their delivery vehicles. They're pretty cute. The menu is pretty much the same, although they do have something called a Bulgogi Burger, which is like a teriyaki pork burger. It wasn't bad but certainly not great. 

Living in Korea has not helped my belief in the stereotype that Asians can't drive. There are a lot of scary drivers over here and to add insult to injury none of them can park either. This car is almost entirely blocking the entrance to my apartment building!

Yet another example of the weird parking choices of South Koreans.  If they have a nice car they actually put these blue foamy blocks on the side of it. The idea being that if someone opens their door too close to your car it will hit the foamy blocks and not damage your vehicle.

Koreans spam not just your mail box but also your door. My building has a code to get into it, but this still does not deter them. These are all ads for various grocery stores and restaurants. Sometimes they are offering a good deal but I don't know enough Hangul (Korean alphabet) yet to tell where they are located.  I can leave my house with a clean door and come home 8 hours later and find twice this many posted to my door. So annoying!

All the bars in Korea have electronic dart boards.  I know this isn't that weird, but I have never in my life seen darts played so frequently and regularly in bars before.  I pretty much insist every time I go out with the other teachers that we play darts. I sadly have yet to win a game. It is now officially one of my goals for the next year to win a game of darts before I leave Korea. If I'm not back in a year it's because I still haven't won.

 

Korea has a weird trash system. You pretty much just put your trash in special trash bags on the street wherever you find another pile of trash. It can't be any old bag, but a very specific bag. You can of course buy rolls of these bags in stores, but when you purchase an item the bag they give you is a trash bag as well. This system makes for very dirty streets to say the least.  The cool thing about this is that people put furniture they don't want out on the street as well. I have found myself walking around some nights "shopping" for new furniture.

 

South Korea is VERY polluted. This is the view from my roof top in Suwon on a not so polluted day. I am trying my best to adjust to this, but coming from fresh aired California it has been a bit of a challenge. I pretty much wake up with a sore throat every morning. Although part of that might be from yelling at my students!