Weird Korea Part I

I think some of the oddities I have seen in Korea deserve their own blog post, so here is the first installment of many to come. Presenting: Weird stuff in Korea!

1.) Tea that isn't tea. At least it is not tea as you would commonly think of it. From black bean tea to corn tea, there are a million and one varieties and most are created and sold by pharmacies as "nutritious drinks". I recently tried the corn tea and was pleasantly surprised. When you crack it open, it's like a bag of movie popcorn is in your hand. Koreans don't like sweet things, so it could really use a couple tablespoons of sugar, but the taste is interesting. I'll definitely miss it when I come back home.


2.) Big plastic display cases of food. In every restaurant, there is a massive glass case filled with plastic replicas of every item on the menu. There are even little green and red plastic shavings to represent different herbs and spices floating around in soup. Of course, this makes it very simple for me to order wherever I go!


3.) Rock beds. I mean we're talking the Flintstones. A few nights ago, Eunice, Shaina and I decided to go to Megabox to see a movie. I was surprised to find out that there was an entire department store inside of the movie theater, complete with a home wares and bedding section! As we stroll through the mattress display aisle, I notice these shiny rock tables that seemed to be fitted in bed frames. Eunice casually mentions that they are beds and that her Aunt and Uncle sleep on a granite bed. o.o What the?!?! Apparently, older Korean folks believe it is good for the health to sleep on different types of stone. Jade, onyx, you name it. Yes, they use pillows, but they sleep directly on the stone, nix bed sheets. (FYI: These beds were $8-9,000)

4.) There are no trash cans. I am constantly walking around with wrappers, apple cores, banana peels and water bottles stuffed into my purse because there are no trash cans anywhere. Recycling is taken pretty seriously here on campus. There is a designated bin for plastics, paper, etc. but the bins are up by your room, so you have to carry your trash with you throughout the day until you can get to a recycling bin. And food is not allowed in the recycling bins. On each dorm floor there is a common room with a "food bucket". This is where you scrape all the food off your plate into a single communal bucket before putting the container in its correct recycling bin. Man... when you take the lid off that thing it will knock you off your feet. Most of Korean food is fermented something or another, so combine it all into one trash can and you have a skanky stink bomb every time you crack that lid.

5.) Just like everywhere else in the world, everything in Korea is made in China! From traditional steel Korean chopsticks sold in gift shops to the gum I am chewing and the lamp on my desk, everything has that little telltale gold sticker affixed to it. Two days ago we had a class called "Magic in Education". I didn't think the class would be so literal: we had a magician named Mr. T come and teach us magic tricks to show the kids. One of the tricks was being able to mysteriously take a solid metal ring and rope it with a shoelace (There is a magnet in the shoelace that just gives the optical illusion that the string cut through the metal). Both the string and the metal ring were made in China. But really this story is just an excuse for me to show you the following picture: (This is an example of the hilarious English translations I constantly come across)
Me, Mr. T, Shaina and Eunice!