Well, on the heels of the top things I like about Korea I thought it would be appropriate to jot down the things about living here that get on my last nerve. Now, some of them aren’t major, but really they add up and sometimes I just shrug my shoulders or laugh at the absurdity and other times I roll my eyes and keep on trucking.
1. The Traffic Lights
The lights here are way, way too long. I sometimes feel that the lights must be broken or that a sadistic city traffic cop is watching me on a video screen and secretly prolonging the lights. I mean a red light should not be five minutes long! It makes no sense. No wonder I find myself J walking so much because I would probably age a year if I waited for the light.
2. One Menu at Restaurants
Yes, you go to a restaurant with your friends and behold, there is only one menu you pass around between the six of you. Is it that inconvenient to pass out six menus to your six customers? Okay, how about three? Three isn’t that hard to do right? Often times when I ask for more menus I get looked at like I’m an alien or a selfish bastard who never learned to share. I suggest having a menu for each chair in the restaurant and leaving it on the chair for the customer.
3. Fickle Taxis
It totally irks me when the subways have closed and all of a sudden the taxi drivers start perusing the dozens of unlucky stranded people for the biggest longest fare in history. It’s like last call at the bar and the one hot guy there knows he can have his pick and cruises the crowd to see who will be the lucky one he takes home. It’s even more infuriating when you live close by and the taxi driver could drop you off and be back in no time flat. Why circle the block ten times for that holy grail fare when you could have been paid for at least five quick stop fares?
4. Subways Closing Early
Number three brings me onto number four which is the early closing subway. Why a city of millions has a subway that closes at midnight makes no sense. The other night I was on the subway when the clock chimed midnight and thing just stopped. It was like Cinderella’s fairy godmother magic ended and Poof no more subway. The other passengers and I trudged out into the night to chase down taxis which ended in five of us crowded in one taxi and all paying the same cab fare!
5. Couples who Dress alike
Yes, yes it’s cute, but come on you’re freaking thirty years old. If you’re not twins then there is no reason to be dressing alike. If you want to proclaim your love get a tattoo or a bumper sticker. Dressing alike doesn’t mean you are in love it only means you have lost your sense of self and have become a two headed blob of neediness. Though, I must admit, if they go so far as to match their underwear too I find it very progressive, scary, but progressive.
6. Extreme passive agressive PDA
I don’t know what else to call it. It’s not like the couple or group of friends are all over each other making out. No, it’s more like the couple has death grip hand holding or the group of friends are locked in an inpenetrable chain of intertwining arms. Yes, I know you’re friends and you like each other a lot, but can you please not hog all the space while you walk down the sidewalk like a tidal wave of smile faces, hysterical giggling, sneakers, and bulky designer bags. And for that couple holding hands I have it on good authority that if you, God forbid, release each other so that people can get by that your relationship will not self destruct nor will that stranger passing you steal your honey bunny away. I promise.
7. Garbage
The streets are literally filled with garbage. Why not invest in garbage cans? The other day I spent forever holding a coke can because I could not find a garbage can. Maybe this is how recycling works here and I am just supposed to reuse the can over and over. No wonder people litter so much here.
8. Having to Strike Tell Me from my Vocabulary
Trust me that having to completely drop saying Tell Me has irked. However, it’s totally worth it not to get a badly sung rendition of a crappy song over and over. I admit I was definitely stuck in a tell me rut, it was like my students waited in anxsiously for it to slip out.
9. Strange things on my Pizza
Corn? Yup. Potatos? You betcha. Sweet Potatos? Check. Pickles? Sigh. Pizza is sacred, people! Somethings just should not be on a pizza. I’m continually cringing when I enter a pizza joing, just waiting for the day when the hamburger pizza pops on the menu next.
10. The Stare
Actually, I’ve gotten used to The Stare. Of course it does bug when the person doesn’t have the common sense and decency to at least try to be discreet. I mean its as if this isn’t an international city and just an isolated xenophobic spot enclosed in a bubble that I happened to slip through. Admittedly, it can be funny when mouths drop open and eyes bug out as if they have never seen a foreigner before. I now bow and ask to be taken to their leader.
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Hello there, just wanted to give my own huge pet peeve which is people spitting! So gross and so nasty! Spit in the trash or swallow it nasty!
My one biggest greatest pet peeve is the people who fucking spit on the ground!!!! Spit in the garbage or just swallow it nasty!
"Koreans don't like people who aren't Korean" now that is just down right stereotyping or being ignorant. Koreans do not hate other races, where the heck did you get tha idea from? Koreans do that because foreigners just started flooding in during early 90s where as America has been there and seen all since 100 years ago. It's just matter of adapting to change and it takes time.
Basketball gear isn't a bad idea. </></>Seriously though, Koreans don't like people who aren't Korean – Asians included. Hell, Koreans don't usually like people who aren't in their family or social circle. And if your skin is darker than theirs and it's blatantly obvious you're *not* Korean, you're just going to have a hard time in general.</></>I struggle when I'm over there because I think it's very obvious I'm a Korean adoptee. I try my hardest to fit in, but it doesn't always work when you're a tomboy at heart and all the other girls are wearing heels.
I was hoping that wasn't it, but I guess even in korea its tough to get a cab. Maybe I'll start wearing basketball gear so they'll think I'm some famous basketball star. Gotta make those stereotypes work for you not against, right? lol.
I HATE The Stare. As an adoptee who is clearly American-raised, I get The Stare very, very often. I once had a mean eyeball war with a middle-aged man at the Buddhist temple. I think it only infuriated him more than I would stare right back.</></>Got bad news about the cabs: they're scared of you because you're big and black. It's sad but true. One of my best friends teaches in Korea and I'd have to hail our cabs while he waited away from the street. Then when I got one (usually right away), he would have to run out and get in the cab, all because he's a 6'3" black man. Nevermind that he's fluent in Korean and I'm not, he's just apparently very scary.
Grin,</>I always loved when they put the street sign on a 4 lane road at the OTHER side of the road (you know, the other lanes) ;)</></>Or Plastic shoes – yack ;)</></>Garbage cans in Korea?</>A very rare sight.</>I think I've seen them once.</>When coming to Seoul I thought, THEY sure have them here and was utterly surprised that even there they didn't have them.</></>The stare is maybe similar to old ladies coming close to me and touching my bare arms and smiling in my face and telling me I should cover, or my skin gets ruined, or whatever they tried to tell me.</>Maybe that was my preparation for the Middle East, who knows ;)</></>Thanks for freshening up my memories about Korea *evil little grin*</></>:)
LoL, great find. I need to buy one of those shirts!
http://life-suitcase.blogspot.com/2007/12/for-bri…! I took this pic last year. I bought a couple for friends who got married and my coworker bought just one and told people in a serious tone that she was just waiting to find the person out there with a matching t-shirt and she'd finally know she'd found THE ONE.