(no subject)
I've spent four days in Korea now. The second and third day were really stressful due to certain issues which I'd rather not get into right now, but at least today I was able to get myself to get over it and so Cathy and I went out for lunch and went shopping at COEX Mall. I saw my little cousin (Woo-Jin) who's 3 years younger than me tonight, and it's so weird to see how big and grown up he is now... I still vividly remember his face and stature from when he was about 9-10 years old and absolutely adorable. My other two little cousins (Chae-Yul and Seok-Ryul) who are 5 and 19months old follow me around everywhere around the house now. I think they get really bored because during the day only my grandma is here, and their parents don't come home until around 7-8pm. My grandma and even their parents are usually pretty tired and all, so they don't play with them and give them as much attention as I think they really want. On another note, my 19 month cousin eats like no other baby I've seen before. He'll eat anything and everything on the table. I love feeding him, he just never stops opening his mouth and demanding more food... muhaha, he's my cousin alrite! ;)
After shopping for hours today, I've decided that the fashion here is cute, but so different compared to America's fashion...I walked by a lot of clothes thinking, "that's cute, but I can't pull off that look."
Couples are very "couple-y" here. Like today, Cathy and I saw shirts that said "When Boy Meets Girl" and "When Girl Meets Boy" and they had a picture of a boy and girl with hearts in place of their eyes... and on the back of the shirt there was a picture of both of the little cartoon characters encompassed by a big heart. There was another pair of t-shirts that both had half a heart drawn on it... super cute... super cheesy ;]
The majority of the girls are super-skinny. I read in a magazine when I was back in the U.S. that according to polls conducted worldwide, more Korean girls than any other girls are unhappy with their body, feel more peer pressure to go on a diet, have been on a diet, and compare themselves to models, and I could definitely see that stuff happening here. Cathy and I saw this sticker that had a pig jogging or something and it said "You can do it. Go on a diet." haha, how horrible is that!
Oh, Korean's and their pride. Korea played against Togo at the World Cup Games, and half a million people gathered just in front of City Hall here! Of course there were many, many gathering places to watch the game together, such as Olympic Park, so I'm sure there were way over a million people all around the streets of Seoul last night. I definitely wish I had gone out to cheer and watch the game with everyone else, but I watched it on tv with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandma. About 90% of the people I saw last night had on the red t-shirts to support Korea's soccer team and girls had little devil horns and guys had red bandanas and armbands.
The number part of addresses mean nothing. There's no street names in Korea. Seriously, having the address to a place won't help you find it much. It's crazy how everyone finds everything because I would have a lot of difficulty finding places.
People rush to get onto the subway without stepping aside to let passengers get off of the subway first. Everyone's so eager to get an open seat, and when it's rush hour everyone just pushes one another in and tries to squeeze in.
The Koreans I talked to had a lot of difficulty with English. One time I was talking to a guy who works at a cell phone place and asked about the cost per minute on a pre-paid plan (in Korean), and he told me the price of domestic phone calls (in Korean), so then I asked what about international phone calls (everything was asked in Korean except I used the word "international")... and he looked at me confused and asks.. "Indonesia?" He didn't get what international meant, it's perfectly normal for him to not know, but I thought it was funny anyway. At McDonalds I asked to get the meal "To-Go" and the lady didn't understand that either.
The weather here sucks.
The drivers here are crazy and impatient. I wouldn't be surprised if a car drove over my foot or was even an inch away from me as it sped past.
When you're at the entrance of the subway at the point where you put in your transit card, everyone's in such a hurry that if you take 2 seconds people behind you will move to the next line.
After shopping for hours today, I've decided that the fashion here is cute, but so different compared to America's fashion...I walked by a lot of clothes thinking, "that's cute, but I can't pull off that look."
Couples are very "couple-y" here. Like today, Cathy and I saw shirts that said "When Boy Meets Girl" and "When Girl Meets Boy" and they had a picture of a boy and girl with hearts in place of their eyes... and on the back of the shirt there was a picture of both of the little cartoon characters encompassed by a big heart. There was another pair of t-shirts that both had half a heart drawn on it... super cute... super cheesy ;]
The majority of the girls are super-skinny. I read in a magazine when I was back in the U.S. that according to polls conducted worldwide, more Korean girls than any other girls are unhappy with their body, feel more peer pressure to go on a diet, have been on a diet, and compare themselves to models, and I could definitely see that stuff happening here. Cathy and I saw this sticker that had a pig jogging or something and it said "You can do it. Go on a diet." haha, how horrible is that!
Oh, Korean's and their pride. Korea played against Togo at the World Cup Games, and half a million people gathered just in front of City Hall here! Of course there were many, many gathering places to watch the game together, such as Olympic Park, so I'm sure there were way over a million people all around the streets of Seoul last night. I definitely wish I had gone out to cheer and watch the game with everyone else, but I watched it on tv with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandma. About 90% of the people I saw last night had on the red t-shirts to support Korea's soccer team and girls had little devil horns and guys had red bandanas and armbands.
The number part of addresses mean nothing. There's no street names in Korea. Seriously, having the address to a place won't help you find it much. It's crazy how everyone finds everything because I would have a lot of difficulty finding places.
People rush to get onto the subway without stepping aside to let passengers get off of the subway first. Everyone's so eager to get an open seat, and when it's rush hour everyone just pushes one another in and tries to squeeze in.
The Koreans I talked to had a lot of difficulty with English. One time I was talking to a guy who works at a cell phone place and asked about the cost per minute on a pre-paid plan (in Korean), and he told me the price of domestic phone calls (in Korean), so then I asked what about international phone calls (everything was asked in Korean except I used the word "international")... and he looked at me confused and asks.. "Indonesia?" He didn't get what international meant, it's perfectly normal for him to not know, but I thought it was funny anyway. At McDonalds I asked to get the meal "To-Go" and the lady didn't understand that either.
The weather here sucks.
The drivers here are crazy and impatient. I wouldn't be surprised if a car drove over my foot or was even an inch away from me as it sped past.
When you're at the entrance of the subway at the point where you put in your transit card, everyone's in such a hurry that if you take 2 seconds people behind you will move to the next line.