About a month ago, I came back from vacation to Hong Kong and South Korea. Since I've been to Hong Kong many times, it's not a culture shock to me anymore. However, I've never been to South Korea, and surprisingly, it was a bit underwhelming. But nonetheless, here are some things I learned about Seoul, South Korea:
1. There were so many coffee shops and a lot of bagel shops as well. They even have a chain (at least in Seoul) called the London Bagel Museum. I thought it was meh. And there were the occasional Western/French bakeries, which I think Korea might have out-did France on this one. There was a bakery I went to at the Incheon-Seoul International Airport that was pretty good. It's sort of like Tour les Jour which is another Korean/French bakery that has an international presence. There two Tour Les Jours in Charlotte.
2. Restaurants serve cold water. Maybe not ice water, but it was definitely cold. (This is comparing to China and Hong Kong, where restaurants serve hot tea or hot water.) Or maybe it was just Seoul, where there are a lot more tourists.
3. 7-11 sells cups of ice. I don't think I saw cups of ice being sold at the 7-11's in Hong Kong. Koreans really like cold drinks. I had to buy a cup of ice one evening because I had left my drink out on the table, so it became room temperature. It was nice to have iced soda.
4. In Seoul, Uber partnered with the local taxi drivers. You can still try to flag a taxi driver, but your best bet is to use Uber. It's the same, or similar, price. You can also use the subway system, but it was a little confusing and most everything was in the Korean language. If you study the map, I think it may not be that hard to navigate Seoul via subway.
5. In observing the Korean people, they dress very proper. I feel like they dress up more, even when they go out to the shopping malls, or to a local restaurant. They are not slobs. And their color schemes are more neutral, pale pastels, and blues. No extreme colors that you may see in the U.S.
6. Korean food is a billion times better than what I had in the U.S. My cousins, brother, and I had a lot of Korean barbecue, and a few times we had soup bowls or tofu bowls. One time we had Korean bar food, which was interesting. The first night, we had Korean fried chicken. I think I was taking a shower, so when I came out, my brother and one of my cousins came back with some chicken. My cousins and brother already ate most of it, so I guess it wasn't as crunchy as I had hope.
7. We received a few text messages (in Korean) from the local Korean government. It was strange, actually. I had to take a screenshot and translate what was going on. If my old phone hadn't died, I would share at least one of them in this blog. But generally, the text was communicating that the few days we were there, they were exercising demonstrations leading up to their Armed Forces Day on October 1st, and not to be alarmed if you hear military airplanes. But then, we were so close to North Korea, you never know...I guess this is normal for South Koreans. At least we didn't get poop dropped on us.
8. The Sunday we were there, we walked to one of the royal palaces. A church had set up service outdoors in the main street and blaring (in a nice way) "What a Friend We have in Jesus" (in Korean). All of my cousins grew up going to church, and my brother and I have been to church as well, so we knew the song in the language we have learned it, and we felt that we were going to church on our way. But to point out, South Korea is the one of the few democratic nations in Asia, and they have freedom of religion. There are a lot of Christians in South Korea. And it's the most Christian thing I've experienced outside of the United States.
9. Not-so-automatic doors! But it is electronically operated. Some stores in Korea, especially those facing the street, will have doors with a button on the door. Instead of automatic doors, where there is a sensor at the top of the frame that sense people coming in or out, you have to push the button to open the door. And then do not let the door shut on you! It won't sense that someone is inside the frame of the doorway.
10. It was so surprisingly... Western. I was a little bit shocked to experience what I call "reverse culture shock" when you expect one thing but find out it to be very similar to the culture in which you came from. And I don't know what the culture was like before the Korean War, but South Korea felt weirdly Western. I may have to work and live amongst them long term to get the full effect, as I heard their work culture is extremely stressful, especially those who work in an office setting.
I think that's all I can think of right now. I think I may go back to South Korea some day and travel to other regions of the country. I think I will get a lot more out of going to different places and experiencing other local cultures.
