The ABCs of Korea (Part 1)
With only a few more weeks in Korea, Cinthia and I decided to do an ABC list of things that we've learned, seen or experienced during our past 2 years here. We'll do a few letters of the alphabet at a time, and some letters will have a few words (while others we've had to stretch a bit, how many Korean things start with an X?!)
A
Apartment buildings here are everywhere! In Korea apartments are not only more common than back home, they can be much nicer than anything we've ever seen in North America.
While on the outside some apartment buildings may seem similar in size the reality of the situation may be that an apartment is a few hundred square feet, or an entire floor!
Our first apartment had multiple rooms and was quite spacious; this year our apartment was 1 room that was our living room, kitchen, bedroom and office all in one.
B
Buses and other modes of public transportation are great! They're cheap ($0.70 - $1.70) and with the rechargeable transit card (T-Money) you can easily transfer between buses and subways usually without an extra cost.
Unlike our personal experiences in Canada, a Korean bus is usually on time which is always a plus! I also found a website where I can track (live) where buses are...it's not stalking!
Bundang (considered to be a suburb of Seoul) is the area we've been living these past 2 years. It's easy for us to go into Seoul (about 40 minutes via bus) and it's very easy for us to find western foods if we ever feel homesick. The air is also cleaner here than Seoul and we have the beautiful TanCheon (stream) where we've ridden our bikes and done lots of running!
Baseball is huge here! Last year we picked our team (LG Twins) and unfortunately this year they came in last. Going to games is very different than back home. There aren't hotdogs to be seen anywhere, but rather fried octopus, kimbap and caramel popcorn. The fans are also much more active here, cheering for most of the game (following the dancers moves of course).
Cellphones might as well be given to you as you get off the plane. Everyone has (at least) one cellphone including grandparents and children in kindergarten. They are much more advanced than back home, most have interactive subway maps (telling them how to get from station A to station B), some have live TV and radio (free) and all of them have cameras (how else could you take pictures of yourself to see how you look?). Because of new features, Koreans tend to get a new cellphone every year or so. Interesting thing to add, the iPhone has been 'on the way' to korea for well over a year now.
D
Dalk Galbi is one of our favourite Korean meals. It's chicken, cabbage, rice cakes, and sweet potato all mixed together in a spicy sauce. It might sound odd but it's delicious and we'll hopefully find a way to make it back home.
Doctors here are...interesting. It's partially due to the language barrier but there are also some clear differences. There have been a few times where we've caught the doctors on the computer searching our symptoms. We've also been told at least 3 times that we'll get better if we don't shower, something we've never heard back home.
DMZ(de-militarized zone) is the area between North and South Korea. We've been meaning to travel there since we first came but something always came up. Luckily there's a tour going there on November 28th which is our last Saturday in Korea! We'll obviously post some pictures when we get back!
