What I have learned living in Korea Vol 4
This is a list of musings, of observations, of hard and fast facts, of opinions, of completely made up fairy tales. These are things I have learned since I have moved to Korea. Things about myself, things about Korea and things about things. Believe them or not, I believe them to be true.
- There is a very distinct difference in desserts here. Cakes are much more dry and are not rich and sweet. But GiGi's opened a Cupcake shop close to us and they are the real deal. Moist, thick, rich, huge American cake + frosting.
- For an average meal here we pay $25-$40. In the USA that would be the nicest meal we ate all
weekmonth. Here that two sandwiches, one coke and a plate of fries to share. - Koreans do NOT write their names in red pen.
- Due to Asian laws/regulations, to protect privacy, all camera shutters must make the clicking sound. It's very loud, annoying and totally harshes my ability to take secret shots of people doing embarrassing things. There is no way to turn it off. And no one here cares. During concerts or events people will snap a picture, their phones make an incredibly loud noise and no one thinks twice about it.
- The Starbucks here have a seasonal flavor: Cherry Blossom. Sounds so weird, tastes so delicious. Vanilla Cherry Blossom Latte. Yes Please. Cherry Blossom Frappuccino. Yum.
- People here are incredibly helpful. I was in the grocery store looking for vanilla extract. I was doing a terrible job explaining to the worker in my terrible Korean, so a nice lady came over and translated for me. Then helped me search. The determined they didn't have it. So I gave up. A while later she ran up to me with a bottle of vanilla syrup that she thought would work. She was more committed to my search than I was. So very kind.
- I make everything from scratch. I get crazy food cravings because I really like food. The other day I needed biscuits, but they don't sell biscuits in a can here like they do back home. So I made them from scratch, like I even had to make the ingredients from scratch before I could follow the from scratch recipe. I am really impressed actually with how much I have learned and really like cooking this way, but it is so time intensive. But I'm really grateful to still be able to enjoy the foods we like.
- Musicians here start young and are so talented.
- Famous conductors are really funny and like to interact with the audience here.
- It's hard to be 16.
- Taking the subway is the best/easiest/cheapest/fastest way to get to the airport.
- Kids here don't like to get out of class, even for fun things! They are so committed to their studies. But will still slack off just like the best of us, it's more about the appearance of being in the classroom not necessarily about doing the work, sometimes.
- Koreans are so serious about everything they do. They do everything 500%.
- I like going for walks anywhere and everywhere in this world.
- The college areas here are the coolest.
- It goes from frigid to really great weather in a day here.
- No one cares what the weather is, everyone is still out and about on the streets.
- It's amazing how much you can figure out just using charades. Not knowing Korean has not hampered our lifestyle at all here. We are so grateful.
- The time difference between here and back home is still so strange and hard to get used to.
- Korea (and most of the world) doesn't observe day lights savings and I love that.
- I will never be able to fully explore Korea or even Seoul. Even if I tried to just master one small area, by the time I got 3/4 of the way through it half of the businesses would have changed.
- You truly can get any kind of food here. We tried one of the multiple Russian places and it was ohhhhh soooooo goood.
- Koreans and Americans have very different definitions of fried chicken. Some places it is amazing. Some places it is gray and soggy. What even is that?!
- We found a place that sells waffle fries and the most delicious Philly Cheesesteaks. We are set for life.