Things I Find Hard To Get Used To In Korea...

The other day the conversation topic for one of my classes was "Foreigners in Korea" They had all sorts of questions they had to answer about foreigners. One of them was "What do you think foreigners find difficult about living in Korea?' The students offered all sorts of answers for this question - none of which were the things I have on my list of 'Things That Are Hard To Adjust To.'

They suggested things like;

• 'Being bumped into in the street' - here people don't apologise when they bump into you, I understand why - sometimes there are just so many people you can't avoid bumping, so why waste time apologising for something unavoidable that everybody understands. I've gotten used to it, and honestly it's not as bad as I was expecting.

• 'Crowded buses and subways' - to date I have not been on a bus or subway that is more crowded than the buses and trains in South Auckland when the school children are going to school. I spent five years on those buses and so far nothing has come along that has phased me.

• 'The food' - this one actually was at the top of my 'Hard Things' list in my first month. I had very few expectations about Korea before I arrived but one of them was that since Korea had so many Buddhists I would have no trouble finding vegetarian food. Turns out that most Buddhists really really like meat! However it only took about a month for me to become familiar with places where I could get the things I wanted/needed and now I am experimenting more and more with Korean food and eating has become and adventure, (and occasionally an extreme sport,) not a source of angst.

• and of course not understanding the language.

Funny thing is that none of the class thought to ask me - the resident foreigner - what things I found difficult. Probably a good thing as I'm not sure they would have liked what I had to say.

My list of 'Things I Find Hard To Adjust To Here In Korea' - actually I should call it "Things I Find Gross In Korea."

• Toilets - putting your toilet paper in the bin rather than flushing it down the loo. Yes, I understand why this is necessary - plumbing problems, but it is still GROSS!!  

• Spitting - the people spit in the street, on the foot path, anywhere and everywhere. That and the clearing the throat sound they make just before they spit is the most disgusting thing ever!!!!! I have to be very very careful not to look like I'm throwing up when I see it happening!

• Chewing - here in Korea closing your mouth while chewing is an optional extra. And it is not uncommon to see people carrying on an animated conversation through mouthfuls of food. The first time I encountered this I was awestruck by the oxy-moronic quality of the situation - beautiful woman, (and she was very beautiful - one of my students, model quality by western standards,) ugly ugly mouthful of food being masticated in front of my nose. I spent a lot of time looking at my plate. 

• I think the thing I have found hardest here though is being watched. Whenever I'm outside of my apartment I catch people staring at me - particularly the old men - and I really really don't like it. I'm used to being able to hide in a crowd. When you are exceedingly fat people don't really see you, their eyes kind of slide past and around you, not focussing. However losing something like 100 pounds has dropped me out of the 'exceedingly fat' category and into the 'just fat' category, taking away my protections. Add to that the fact that I'm now living in what is essentially a mono-culture, yes there are quite a few foreigners in Seoul but we stand out as different. It's easy to spot a foreigner. Can't hide in the crowd any more. Having said that, I'm just going to have to get used to it because I'm not going to put that 100 pounds back on, (in fact I'm going to lose more,) and I'm not leaving Korea just because people stare!!!!!

I suspect it's probably just as well the students didn't ask my opinion.