The land of the not quite right...

Many people stationed here in Korea refer to it as the land of the not quite right. The longer we're here the more we realize exactly what this phrase means, and the more we find ourselves saying it. Here are some of those things we find not quite right...

• Korean men spit a lot. It's rather disturbing to be walking along and hear someone gather all of their flem into their mouth and then to witness that glob hit the sidewalk. It's impossible to avoid and quite disgusting!
  
• Korea has many interesting smells. Some of them are good (like the smell of little doughnut like treats being made in the subway!), but most of them are nasty and unidentifiable (but I think most of them come from their unusual foods). The increasing temperatures are making things worse.
  
• "Right-of-way" means nothing to Koreans. Traffic is terrible here in Seoul and the drivers are even worse. As an American it's hard to adjust to having to pay attention to EVERYTHING (including pedestrians who will cross a street without even looking, assuming that it's the driver's responsibility to see them) all at once.
  
• Koreans will NOT j-walk. It doesn't matter if the intersection is clear, and has been for the past five minutes, if the walk sign is not lit, they will not walk. This is especially strange considering how Koreans will not hesitate to ignore road signs and signals!
  
• Koreans accomplish things in groups. It took 8 people to figure out how to fit our washer and dryer into their proper place when complications arose. It took four people to examine our broken air conditioner, which still isn't fixed. How many Koreans does it take to screw in a light bulb...as many as will fit in the room!
  
• Pushing and shoving here is VERY common, and not considered rude. Mostly the only times we deal with this is when we're getting on/off buses or the subway trains or when we're in crowded public places like the markets. It's hard not to give people dirty looks for practically running you over.
  
• Koreans have a funny way tracking their age. Babies are considered one year old when they're born. Then on January first they turn two. If I was Korean I would have been considered two years old a mere 5 days after I was born (my birthday is Dec. 27)!

This list could go on and on, but I'll save some of those other strange things for another day.

One thing that we've appreciated about Korea, or perhaps just Seoul, is that there are public bathrooms virtually everywhere (and they're clean!). Not all bathroom signs are like this, but I thought it was unique.