Oddities

Katy, here.
Happy Halloween weekend, everyone! As a sort of follow up to last week's post about the difficulties in our new social environment, I'd like to talk some about the oddities of our physical environment. It is amazing how and agglomeration of little things in your world can create a completely foreign feeling atmosphere. You know, the kind of thing that makes you look around and say "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" and yet not be able to point to an elephant in the room as the culprit. Fortunately these differences in our physical environment don't have the same awkward, frustrating effect on us that social differences do. Usually it's just a matter of, "well would you look at that," or a laugh that just bubbles over when you trip and fall into a brick wall just to realize that for some reason, the brick is made of foam, and if this were the US you'd have a huge scar to remind you just how clumsy you are. But not here. Chances are, if you are indoors, the brick is fake, and squishy. As a matter of fact, you can buy this stuff in bulk at Daiso (the local version of a dollar store) in a variety of nauseating neon colors if you so choose. Check it out! You can even see in the picture below the jagged edge of this wall, which happened to be in a restaurant, where they cut it with ordinary scissors to make it fit the desired dimensions. Weird, right?

Along the same lines, there is the roll out hardwood that is a favorite for indoor flooring here. Our apartment, for example, is completely floored with this roll out, hardwood-looking laminate. It is similar to laminate in the US that is made to look like a tile floor. Despite this experience with laminate flooring, the faux hardwood still tickles me when I see it curling up in the corners.

Other examples of these environmental oddities include that Korean towns and cities are too cool for straight lines on their roads downtown. These zig zags are consistent throughout most places. And it's not just the creative lines on the road that make driving fun here, it's also the color. Korean roads are often painted red. I'm sure this has some purpose, but from my perspective, it's just a nice uplifting color. There's also the lack of police to pull you over. Korean police don't patrol the roads in hopes of catching that random bad driver, but rather, driving laws are camera enforced so that if you are speeding, you just get a ticket no matter what, not only if you happen upon an officer. This keeps people's driving relatively in check.

Off the road and in the comfort of your own home, there is the fact that chairs are rather uncommon in a typical household. Similarly to dryers and ovens, standard western tables and chairs are reserved for the well off who have a nice big home to accommodate such luxury. Here we generally sit on the floor, on a pillow, or the less common "floor chair." Jamie and I have invested in these floor chairs for our own apartment, as a full sized desk and chair would completely block the entryway. Sitting on the floor has its pros and cons. Bad news first... this can be really hard on your knees, especially if you are not used to getting up and down all the time and sitting cross-legged for long periods of time. The good news is that the resulting ache-y-ness has the great effect of getting you up off your butt and out of the house more often that one is usually inherently encouraged to do when sitting comfortably in a plush desk chair. I often do work that necessitates a computer at the local coffee shop or outside, which increases the likelihood of running into people, socializing, and budgeting time wisely (as you aren't going to pay for coffee just to check facebook). Restaurants and coffee shops generally have standard western chairs and tables, at least in part of the facility. Many places offer half and half floor or table seating. Large parties of people are generally required to sit in floor seating areas, however, as there usually aren't enough big tables to accommodate crowds. An interesting effect of growing up accustomed to sitting on floors, is that there are these odd "bench" tables that are in many parks, and on sidewalks. These are large square platforms raised just a foot of the ground which people sit cross-legged on like a picnic blanket. They are used for socializing, eating together, or just taking a rest. Regardless, you generally slip your shoes off to sit cross-legged on these, facing the center so to talk together easiest. Notice in the picture below that although there are picnic tables provided, Koreans seem to prefer these bench tables as a form of seating.

There are plenty more of these differences between the built environment in a Korean community as opposed to an American community, but those above are the most amusing (or just the ones I happen to have pictures of).
I hope everyone has a great Halloween!
-Katy