4 Months Down

As most who read this blog know, I had my four month anniversary of living in Korea a few days ago. It's been a lot of good times, good memories, some annoyances, and some strange/absurd/wtf type things. To commemorate my four months here, I'm going to talk about this category of these situations.

Here are 5 of my top strange/absurd/wtf situations in Korea:

1. Mothers and daughters holding hands

This is definitely one of my favorite things about Korea. Whenever I walk through town and through the market I always see mothers and daughters (of all ages really) walking and holding hands.

I think this stems from how it is customary for a child to live with their parents until they either get married or go to college. If they finish college and don't get married or a job somewhere else, they move back in. This means that there are countless 20 something and even 30 something girls living with their mothers. Whenever they go out to the market, they hold hands. It's really cute.

2. The bug bomb car

My town, Seosan, has a way of controlling bugs (though it doesn't seem to do much) where they have trucks and motorcycles outfitted with a fogger on them. These vehicles then drive around the streets, often leaving a giant cloud of noxious fumes on the sidewalks. Let me rephrase that, giant sometimes inescapable clouds of noxious fumes on the sidewalks. A few times I have been walking down a street or sidewalk and one of these trucks drives by to leave me with no choice but to duck off the side of the road and stay low. Here are some pictures I stole off my friend Lisa's facebook album:

3. Fan Death.

I have written about this before, and it still just boggles my mind.

4. I only have to walk three blocks to get an octopus

This is one of the great things about where I live is that I am just a few minute walk from a really great outdoor seafood market. They sell other things, but this market is pretty famous for having great seafood. I think I can get about anything there, buy my favorite things to look at and dream about buying are the octopus.

This market is a great place to just walk through and see some interesting sights. From the seafood, various other street foods, art, and clothing, there is a lot to look at. Possible the strangest thing to see at the market is an old lady who has been working a job which requires her to bend over so much that she is permanently bent. There are literally dozens of these ladies at the market whose permanent posture is now bent over at the waist looking directly at the ground. I would take a picture of them but I feel bad.

5. People never look where they are going when walking

One time, while driving my little sister's then new Volkswagen Jetta, I was on the backroads at night and encountered some deer standing by the side of the road. They were stopped, and I proceeded very slowly by them in an attempt to not strike them with the vehicle. While passing one of the deer, it started running before looking the direction it was moving and bumped its head directly into the side mirror on the car.

For some reason I will never understand, this is exactly what happens with Korean people on the street, them being the deer and me being the car. There will be a group of people talking, and one will say goodbye and leave while walking off and not looking where they are going. This leads to a lot of bump ins between them and me. It's really stupid. People, please look before you walk.