Litter bugs.

Every single morning on my way to work I walk past the park that is right next to my school. And every single morning on my way to work I exchange smiles with an old man that works in that park. His job? Picking up garbage. I think it is great that there is someone who is making sure the park is clean, especially with it being so close to an elementary school, but seeing him there every morning picking up garbage in exactly the same spot as he did the morning before and the morning before that, reminds me of my biggest pet peeve about Korea: littering.
There are basically no garbage cans here. While, in my experience, this is fairly normal for a city, unlike in other cities (and countries) I have visited the lack of garbage cans isn't an oversight or perhaps a way of preventing vandalism and fires. In Korea there are no garbage cans because people don't see the need for them. Why have garbage cans if you can just throw your garbage on the ground? It's easier. Having to walk to a garbage can, having to think about the waste you are making, would be inconvenient. Every day I see people open up packages and toss the garbage on the ground without thinking twice and I cringe every time.
There are three major results of this that I can think of. One: many people, especially older people, are hired to walk around every single day in parks and on some streets picking up the discarded trash. This might not be a bad thing, perhaps some of these people couldn't find a job doing anything else. Two: the streets of Korea, as well as the rice fields, and the parking lots (anywhere there isn't someone hired to clean up) are lined with garbage that goes completely unnoticed by the population that puts it there. And three: there is a whole population of people who, although they are gung-ho about recycling and there are even composting facilities at all the big apartment complexes, do not think about waste and the environmental repercussions of their actions on a daily basis. Even putting my environmental concerns aside, this is a population of people who look at litter strewn streets and do not see the same disgusting, unreasonable mess that I see, but just see something "normal".

Brush your teeth.

Today one of the ladies in my office asked me what are some of the cultural differences that I observe at our school. It seems odd, but the one that stood out to me the most was teeth brushing. This is something I have discussed with many foreigners and they all agree that it is one of the moments in the day when it is clear that we are “not in Kansas anymore”. Everyday after lunch everyone at the school brushes their teeth. All the teachers have tooth brushes in their desks in little cups and they brush their teeth. Some teachers go to the bathroom, tooth brush in hand, some sit at their desks and even chat with their tooth brush in their mouths like it's no big thing, and other still go to the office sink and look out the window peaceful as they brush. No matter the ritual, everyone brushes after lunch. Not to be left out, no matter how odd it feels to me, I too have a tooth brush in my desk and pull it out after our afternoon meal. When I told my coworkers that this is not normal for me, they were really surprised. “Don't you worry about how your breath smells?” “Isn't it better for your teeth?”. I told them that in Canada, brushing your teeth is usually a private thing.

Cultural differences.

A look at SK.

Welcome back to South Korea and my blog about my life here! I just found this video on a site about Korea for Expats, and was blown away. The images are beautiful and it really tells a story of what it is like here. I don't really know how to explain what is so unique about it, but I keep wanting to say "this is what Korea looks like!!!!".