Abandon all logic, ye who enter here...

Caroline's friend from journalism school, Suzanne, offered this advice to us when she found out we were coming to Korea to teach English.  Little did we know at the time how fitting this would be, and how it could quite possibly become the motto of our entire experience here!  I've been making little notes of cultural differences that I've noticed since I've been here- some are minor, some are funny, some are cute, and some are downright bizarre.  In no particular order, here's what I've noticed so far...

Is that the police?  No, just a traveling salesman...
The first morning we were here we were awakened by a loud male Korean voice booming over a megaphone.  He kept repeating the same thing, over and over again as he drove along our street.  It was the kind of voice that I imagine would be used to persuade the good citizens of a particular neighborhood to give up the fugitives they were hiding in their homes.  At first I was concerned, wondering what kind of fugitive had wondered into our quiet little corner of Daegu.  And then I looked out the window.  An old flatbed truck eased itself down our narrow street, the bed filled with produce from a local farmer- watermelons, or some thing.  And over the megaphone they were advertising for people to come buy the watermelons!  I couldn't believe it!  The novelty quickly wore off, though, when several more trucks came throughout the day, selling various items like onions, garlic, tomatoes, peaches, and even TVs and furniture.  Korea thrives on small businesses, and they have obviously adopted some fairly aggressive marketing strategies!

Sorry!  I love you!
The other day on the way to school we noticed that every parked car we passed had a small pillow on the front dash with a little message cross-stitched on it, like "Sorry!" or "I love you!"  On each pillow the cutesy message was followed by a cross-stitched phone number.  We wondered aloud all the way to school what these pillows could possibly be used for- was it to leave at an accident if you accidentally bumped another person's car, or what?  No, it turns out that it's for those times when you park illegally.  If someone needs you to move your car, they can just call the cellphone number on your cross-stitched pillow and you can come move your car.  I'm sure that somewhere out there is a Korean grandma who is making an absolute fortune selling cross-stitched pillows emblazoned with people's cell number and a very polite English greeting!

Where the streets have no name (who knew that Bono was singing about Korea?!)
It turns out that the "street" we live on has no name.  To be honest, I'm not completely convinced that it qualifies as a street, except for all the businesses on it, plus the fact that lots of other people live there too.  To me it looks like more of a back alley.  In any case, it has no name, and the numbering follows no order either, mainly because the houses are numbered in the order they are constructed, and not in some increasing or decreasing order.  Theoretically, this means that number 7 could be next door to number 344.  Houses are built facing every which way, and stacked haphazardly, creating a kind of Frank Lloyd Wright-on-acid effect, except with cinder blocks and concrete as the only building materials.  We have learned to cope with living on a street with no name, and now whenever we need to get home, we tell the taxi driver to take us to Suseong Market, which is near our house, and then we just walk the extra block or two from there.  "I want to run, I want to hide..."

Sunglasses?  No thanks- I'll stick to my visor.
I have rarely, if ever, seen a Korean wearing sunglasses, despite the fact that most days are bright and sunny.  What I have seen, however, is lots of visors.  They are similar in some ways to a visor you might see on a golf course, except that the huge brim is made out of the same material as window tinting, and projects down at an angle instead of straight out, like a baseball cap or other hat.  Koreans seem to be quite concerned with staying out of the sun, and in addition to the visors we see a lot of parasols as well.

Is that thing street legal??
And speaking of headwear, we've noticed an unusually large number of men wearing hardhats as motorcycle helmets.  Korean traffic tends to be fairly wild and aggressive, and we see these guys weaving and darting on their scooters with only a hardhat as any kind of protection (and no, these men are not en route to a construction job site).  Fortunately, we have not witnessed any traffic accidents, but I'd hate to see what would happen if one of these fellows were to lose it...

Praise the Lord!  Come buy our kinky products!
The other night after dinner Caroline and I went for a walk around our neighborhood.  We loved checking out the different restaurants, shops, etc. in a part of the city we hadn't been to before.  Then we happened upon a storefront with frosted glass windows that was covered in Jesus fish- you know, the ones that evangelical Christians at home put on the back of their cars.  How unusual, we thought, that they would plaster the front of their store with these Christian symbols (although there are quite a few Christians in Daegu).  And we wondered what kind of store this might be- a Christian bookstore, maybe, or the modest entrance to a modern church or meeting place of some kind?  As we peered through the front door, we were suprised at what we saw inside- the wall was covered with various pornographic posters (the centerpiece being a topless shot of Madonna, circa 1988), and inside the seedy shop the cheap shelves were filled with various sex shop paraphernalia.  Whether the shop owners were unaware of the paradox between their storefront and their products, or it was an elaborate front to keep unsuspecting authorities away, I'll never know. 

Bon appetit??
There is so much that I could say about the food, but I must say that overall we have had a very good experience with food.  We have come across some really delicious dishes (usually by accident, upon trying to order something else) such as galbi, which is barbecued pork, or bulgogi, which is marinated beef and mushrooms over a bed of rice vermicelli.  I like the ceremony of eating here too- sitting at a low table, having the grill right in the center of your table, and having eight or ten sidedishes to choose from.  It's great!  There have been a couple of things, though, that have completely grossed me out.  The other day we were walking through the open-air market near our house.  It was all pretty inocuous stuff- produce, some meat, sandals, brooms, etc.  Then I walked past a red plastic bucket filled with water.  I peered into the bucket and (to my horror) discovered that it was filled with about a hundred small eels, all squirming and writhing and generally exuding disgustingness (yes, I'm aware that isn't a real word!).  Yuck!!  And to think that someone was going to buy those and eat them for dinner.  Yuck!! Yuck!!  Another interesting but far less disgusting food thing we've found is the pizza.  They put all kinds of interesting things on it, like corn, and potato wedges.  I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised- it's not like Asians are known for their fantastic pizza or anything...

Flush it?!  But there's a trash can right here...
So apparently (and I have yet to determine where this story originated, or if it's even true) the plumbing here is not equipped to handle toilet paper.  Can you see where this is going?  Yep, that's right- when Koreans go #2 and then wipe, they fold their toilet paper and place it in the trash can beside the toilet.  I hope I haven't caused any lasting damage to the whole system, but I have to confess that I flush my toilet paper when I'm done with it!   There is NO WAY I'm throwing that into a trash can beside the toilet.  Sidenote- you can just imagine how our bathrooms at school smell by the end of the day!  Oh yeah, one more thing- toilets are generally "squatters" here (not western-style toilets), but you'll have to ask Caroline about that- I haven't had the privilege of using one yet!

OK, that about sums up my list of cultural differences for now.  I'm sure I've only seen the tip of the iceberg, and I'll add more as I come across them.