Things I Don't Like About Korea

Since I did a previous post about the things I like about Korea, I think it's only fitting that I write about my dislikes as well. Most of you know that I try to be a positive person so here's literary proof that I'm not living in Korea with rose-colored glasses.

In no particular order, here are some of the things I don't like about living in Korea:

- The driving! No duh. Actually, it's not nearly as bad as people described before I came here. You should keep in mind that my perception of good and bad driving might be skewed because of my time in southern Florida. Now that I've been to the Philippines and Thailand, the driving in Korea seems almost normal. Surprisingly, I don't see too many traffic accidents in Korea. There are red lights, green lights and "might lights." A "might light" is a red light that you might stop at. One of the things you learn to do quickly is to actually look for oncoming traffic even if you have a green light. I have a theory. I'm thinking that several years back, Evel Knievel must've taken a secret trip to Korea and had many secret babies. Those little baby daredevils are now adults recklessly darting in and out of traffic on motorcyclists and scooters. Where else would they get the gonads to pull off some of the stunts I see on a daily basis?

The Koreans are some of the nicest people I've ever been associated with. But something crazy happens when many of them get behind a wheel. Little grandmothers that can barely see over the steering wheel won't give you an inch of clearance on the roads. They jump over curbs to get in front of your vehicle, pass you on the right or left side - it doesn't matter. Yeah, driving here is nuts, but I like it!

- Lots of cutting in line

- Behavior at buffets is not cool

- All the smoking

- The recycling pain. There is so much sorting of recyclables here in Korea. Not only do you separate your plastics, metals, glass and paper, but you break it down into different types of plastic. And food waste - oh man don't get me started. It was a shock to us that you just can't throw any old thing into your trash bags. They won't take it! All the green, environmentally friendly folks in the US, this is enough to even drive them batty. Carol's really the one to be writing about this one because she has to tackle the issue much more than I do. I have this wonderful dream that she'll help me blog. I know the day is coming.

- Car seats for kids are not a big deal over here. It drives Carol crazy, especially when you consider the overall driving situation. At least these mom and dads aren't lugging around multiple propane tanks on their motorcycles and scooters like I've seen on numerous occassions. It's an episode of Emergency 911 waiting to happen man!

And that's about it. Better get back to my report. C2