The Downside

One of my Dear Sisters asked me if there was anything I didn't like here. She found my answer humorous, so I'll share it in more detail here.

There are, of course, some inconveniences about living in a country where you have considerable difficulty communicating. This is entirely my fault, I am in no way blaming my host country! I am not quick to pick up the Korean language and find it difficult to persuade myself that the laundry should be put down and the flash cards studied instead. Also, I seem to come up with laughter inducing mispronunciations when I learn words from my books, and that does nothing to boost my confidence (although it does seem to boost the spirits of those I try to speak to).

However, I don't really mind the language issues most of the time. BUT (time for the juicy scoop!) there are a couple things that I do have a hard time with.

1. Public bathrooms

2. Driving

And let me emphasize here, neither one of these issues has entirely negative feelings from me.

Let's start with the bathrooms.

I will be the first to say that public restrooms, anywhere, are gross. They just are. It's their nature.

Multi-story buildings are common in the cities I have been to here. 3, 8, 14 stories, they vary, but each floor of each building has a random mix of stores, offices, and restaurants. Rather than having a bathroom for each store, there are communal ones (separated by gender of course) on each floor. They are standard public restrooms, except that soap, hot water, and paper towels are usually not provided, and neither is toilet paper. This can take some getting used to! Many people carry little packs of TP in their bag, but each business will have a roll hanging inside near the door. So here's a typical scenario for me...we are out to eat, I excuse myself to run a little boy to the restroom, we leave the restaurant, make it down the hallway, remember that my purse with the TP is back at the table, re-enter the restaurant, try to discreetly take some from the roll just inside the door (but thanks to the little jingly bell on the door, everyone has already been made aware of the situation), how much do you need? People are watching. Don't waste it, but don't run out! Back to the bathroom, back to the table, sanitize all hands.

 Also, the doors to the bathrooms are usually left open and the urinals in the men's rooms are frequently in full view from the hallway. This is nice when you have two independent little boys who insist that they absolutely must  use the men's room, not the ladies. In every other scenario, it is unpleasant.

In the rural areas and in some train stations you may come across what I refer to as the "squatty potty". The picture says it all.

This was a historically accurate one in a replica of a folk village. (for display only!)

There is a flip side to the bathroom coin! Nursing rooms are fairly common! Child sized commodes are not uncommon, and occasionally you find an entire bathroom scaled for kids! Remember those fancy malls I talked about? Yeah, they have amazing, marble and glass palaces that they call restrooms. They frequently contain a sitting area and occasionally a family bathroom.

Or, sometimes there are fun surprises like this. It makes fake flushing sounds.

Driving.

Oh driving. It almost feels like it should be given a different name here. Hmm. Perhaps "Forceful Individualized Traveling" would work? Let me know if you come up with something catchier. This is not the driving of my youth. There are no meandering Sunday drives, no courtesy to other drivers, no hard and fast rules...it is fast, it is unpredictable, and it is intimidating. The Korean people seem to be the nicest people ever, I'm sure it can't be them behind the wheels of these vehicles!?

Traffic lights, multiple lanes, parking zones, right of way...those are all nice ideas, but surely drivers can't be expected to adhere to them all the time. After several months of driving in Korea, I'm beginning to relax my death grip on the wheel a tad, and I'm starting to notice a certain level of predictability in the chaos. One improvement: in the area around my home, I can usually recognize which traffic lights are obeyed, and which are simply suggestions.

I have come up with my own transportation guidelines. If I am in a taxi, I do not look out the front window. It's just too scary. I no longer drive in the right lane because people frequently park their cars in the road. I have learned not to trust the driving habits of taxi drivers or bus drivers (although when they are not driving they are usually quite nice!). Taxis hurtle down the road at high speeds, slaloming through the traffic and the cars parked in the street. Bus drivers do the same, but instead of cutting in front of you like a taxi, a bus will just start moving into your lane right on top of you. You can lay on the horn and speed up, slam on the breaks, or be forced into oncoming traffic. Your choice. Mopeds are bad news for pedestrians and drivers alike, as it is not uncommon for them to drive onto the sidewalks and they seem to be exempt from all traffic laws.

When I am walking, I try to never be the first or the last person in the crosswalk. I never take for granted that a car will see me and stop for me. I learned that one through experience...by having a (slow moving) car run a red light and run into my stroller full of children when we were in a crosswalk. Yes, we were all fine. Scared the pants off of the driver though.

I have a hard time keeping my sense of direction here, so I recently persuaded my Dear Husband to buy me a big, fancy GPS. I'm starting to regret that.

 I call her "Korean Siri". Not the catchiest name, I admit. I'm working on it. Korean Siri and I are still getting to know each other. Once I have figured out how to enter the address, I also have to interpret what she is saying. Oh, she speaks English, that's fine, but her method of giving directions is not helpful. It goes something like this...

Korean Siri: "To the left!"
Me: "What?! What's on my left?"
Korean Siri: "To the left, to the right, 500 meters."
Me: "The picture definitely looks like I should go to the right. Aagh! A Taxi!"
Korean Siri: "To the left, the right, stay to the left, the right."
Me: "What?! What does that mean?! You mean that street a block ago?!! Great."
Korean Siri: "Recalculating."
Me: "Korean Siri, there is a Y in the road. I need to know which way to go. Right Now." as I slow drastically and straddle both lanes (hey, that's ok here.)
Korean Siri: "Lost satellite signal."
Me: "Hmmm. OK, let's go right."
Korean Siri: "Found Signal. Recalculating."
Me: "Thanks."
Korean Siri: "300 meters till 11 o'clock."
Me: Reach to throw Korean Siri out the window Take a drink of coffee and breath deeply while avoiding the drunk driver.
Boy #1: "Mommy, are we lost?"
Me: "No, we have a GPS."
Korean Siri: "Recalculating."


And parking?  A picture is worth a thousand words. My SUV sure helps me feel better when I'm driving, but yes, parking it can be tricky.

On the upside, the roads are in great condition, there are tons of signs in English, there are sidewalks and cross walks everywhere, and the train system is fabulous. And, despite all my complaints, I have only seen one traffic accident! It was minor, a bus took a corner too tight and brushed against a car that was parked in the street. So although I don't completely fit in with the driving style here, I've got to admit that it seems to work for everybody else! Shh, don't tell anyone, but some days it is actually fun.

Things to Make You Smile

A quick, cheerful post tonight. There are a lot of things that I love about Korea, here are a few.

-99% of the people I run into are super friendly and helpful.
-Korean grandmas love handing out treats to my kids. Especially when they are behaving. (Yay for positive reinforcement!)
-Restaurants usually give you wet wipes to clean your hands before and after you eat.
-The packaging on just about everything is designed well and is easy to open!
-People accessorize their cars! Flower shaped hub caps, eye lashes on the head lights, fancy paint jobs, wind-up-keys, long paragraphs for you to read at stop lights...and more!

-Giveaways! On the sidewalks I am occasionally handed fans or packs of wet wipes with advertising on them, but in the stores things really get interesting. Sometimes it makes sense: buy a big box of coffee, get a free thermos. Buy shampoo, get free conditioner. Buy diapers, get wipes (with Twins advertising?!). But sometimes it seems a little random: buy a phone, get a free giant pack of toilet paper or laundry detergent. Buy batteries, get a free ice pack! It makes shopping a little more surprising and fun.

-There are lots of surprises to make me smile.

Robots! Moving, talking, telephone selling robots!

Subway Art!

Fun snacks in neat packaging! All this came packed inside the bus.

Water fresh from the DMZ.

New board games!

-And, of course we can't forget the fun signs! Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all trying to make fun of anyone. I LOVE all of the English signs, shirts, etc. They help me survive. I also love how sometimes things get lost in translation.

I don't know. Don't ask.

I don't know what this sign says. But it is my favorite. Beware the monster fish.

At the zoo. I think the picture is telling me not to feed the animals. Can anyone verify what the Hangul says?

What a fun way of telling you to look up into the bottom of a fish tank!

There are so many coffee shops here and many have fun names.

The focus of this picture is not my adorable preschooler posing with the bronze statue. It's the guy on the left.

Hysterical. (This is sized for a preschooler.) I would be the owner of three of them except that it only came in white. Seriously, who puts little boys in white shirts?!

This is not a notice in our apartment complex. I saw this in an elevator and just loved the "enormous psychological damages" line. I wonder if that would work on my boys? "Shh. You're giving mommy enormous psychological damages..."

Slay me with cupcakes.

I'm feeling peckish at the moment and trying to persuade myself not to make brownies at 10:30 pm, so here's another post on food.

This humble looking pastry is called a mocha bun. Puffy white bread, sometimes filled with a bit of custard or whipped creme, and covered with some sort of coating. I have no idea what this coating is made out of! It is dry to the touch, a little crumbly, and very yummy. Perfect with a coffee.

Candy! Candy has been hit or miss for me so far. Sometimes great (this bunny poo shaped chocolate is very tasty!), sometimes not (gum that tastes like medicine!) Food with health claims seems to sell very well over here. The Kids Tree line of treats likes to pretend to be healthy. But really, these are tiny truffles. Shhhh. Don't tell mom. She thinks they're healthy because they contain milk! 

My children have been handed tootsie pops by very sweet ladies who proudly tell me that the suckers have vitamins so they are healthy. 

Sometimes actual food is disguised as candy. This, for example, is just bite-sized pieces of cheese wrapped to look like candy!

Fancy looking cakes are common here, much to the delight of my children. The two chocolate ones you see here tasted somewhat like a swiss cake roll. 

Waffles abound in Korea! Waffles with fruit and gelato? Of course. Waffle sandwich? Sure! (It was delicious). Waffle taco filled with frosting to eat on the train? Yep. Tiny waffle on a stick, dipped in chocolate, and rolled in sprinkles? Too easy. And then, in Seoul, a surprise! A coffee shop that specialized in pancakes. Which were also delicious.

We live near the Shinsagae mall which is another fancy mall with lots of expensive clothes, toys, and food. They also have a rooftop garden which our boys love to visit. There are lots of nice restaurants, but there is also a grocery store and food court downstairs. This food court is about as far from an American mall food court as can be, I just don't know what else to call it, so I have dubbed it "the food court". 

"The food court" has many, many different kinds of food. I of course like to visit the bakery and cupcake counters. One day I found this little gem. It tasted so much like the little chocolate lava cakes that one of my sisters makes! Delicious! Sadly, I have not seen this cupcake for sale again. I might have to try baking in my tiny Korean oven one more time.

I like to buy food from small shops and street vendors, here is a small sampling! This winter there was a guy roasting chestnuts in town. I thought they were yummy but the boys weren't as easily convinced (spoiled by all the waffles I guess). After seeing so many people eating them, I finally broke down and got what is essentially a double battered corn dog. It tasted the way you would expect a double dipped corn dog would taste. The little chick is essentially a small doughnut filled with vanilla custard. The coolest thing about those was the machine they use to make them (which I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of). Next we have one of my favorites, Egg Bread. It is just what it sounds like. A slightly sweet bread batter with an egg cracked on top and cooked in what I think is a steam oven. Delicious and perfect for breakfast on a chilly day. I don't know what the last item is. We watched the lady take a very soft dough and wrap it around something (maybe a giant rice noodle?) and then fry it. It was yummy, a little like having an omelet on a stick.

Cotton candy served in a cup with a tiny fork. Too cute.

I believe this was ox tail soup. Not sure. Sometimes I just point to something on the menu and hope it's good. This was delicious. I still have trouble getting used to how soup is served! The bowl is delivered to your table with the soup at a full, rolling boil. This is unnerving to me. I have yet to see anyone spill it though.

This is "fast food". So good! I'm sure I'd be losing this baby weight if it wasn't for those waffles...

How about some water fresh from the DMZ?

An interesting thing about living here...Every restaurant delivers. Even McDonald's. So far I have found one pizza place and one burger place that I can order from (because they have someone who speaks English). I don't speak enough Korean to order from anywhere else! (Oh, and see that Coke? I think it's about 16 oz. And it's to share between two people.)

Kids meals aren't always available, so it's a novelty to the boys. This is one we got the other day. Waffle pizza, gelato, marshmallows, gummy worms, fruit, and a juice box. The boys love it here.

And I couldn't end without mentioning fish ice cream. First introduced to us in Kansas, it's much easier to find over here in Korea! It's ice cream cone in the shape of a fish, filled with a creamy vanilla ice cream and a sweet red bean layer.