When in Seoul…

When in Seoul…

/ Ali Craft / 3 Comments

You don’t even want to know when I first started writing this post. The struggle is so real. We are busy getting ready for our Spring Break trip to the Philippines. After school swim lessons are over for quarter three and middle school volleyball (I was helping coach) just ended, so we have just enough time to try and scrape together some warm weather attire and throw some bargaining chips in a backpack and head south for a week. We are going with two other teachers and taking nine high school students as well as our two kiddos.

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We leave on Saturday at 4am and will be in transit for about 15 hours (1.5 hours to the airport, 4.5 hour flight to Manila, 8.5 hour bus ride to Baguio, Philippines), so if you think of us next week, first have a nice long laugh at our expense and then send up a prayer for us. I’m sure this won’t be us at all…
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Anyways, here are a few more things about this place we call home.

 

Hailing a taxi

So luckily we learned this shortly after arriving, but hailing a taxi in Korea is apparently a bit different. You are supposed to hold your arm horizontal to the ground (palm down) and then pull your fingers back towards you.


We have been told that if you do it palm up, it is offensive, because that is the way you call a dog.

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Good to know…

 

iPhones

I’m sure to most of us, a world without total iPhone domination sounds like it may be a sign of the apocalypse, but we live right in the heart of Samsung country. It was totally bizarre to walk into a cellphone store and not see any iPhones or Apple accessories.

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Not mention, the nearest Apple store in Japan… (“No, customer service lady, I can’t take it in to my nearest Apple store.”)

 

Car colors

The Koreans share my affinity for neutrals.

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Concrete walls

I am no engineer so don’t ask me why, but the walls in many buildings here are concrete. As you can imagine that makes hanging anything on the wall a real challenge.

Hellloooo command strips!

 

Non-automatic automatic doors

There may have been a couple instances when we first got here where we stood, waiting awkwardly, for automatic doors to open only for them not to. Many places here have automatic doors, but you have to push button, unlike the motion detector sensors in America.

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Power Lines

In addition to not being a engineer, I am certainly no electrician, but…
I am just going to have to assume they don’t have the same safety codes as America.

 

At this rate it won’t be long before:

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Eating

It seems as though everything here is meant to be shared. Almost everywhere you go you will see people order an entree or two, and then share everything that is ordered. They also eat many foods with knife and fork that you wouldn’t see happen in the states such as tacos, chicken wings, french fries, etc.. Isaac thinks that eating a burger with a knife and fork is a North Korean ploy.

Couple Style

This one still cracks me up. Couples will not just coordinate their outfits, but they will full on match, head to toe. I keep trying to get Isaac to do it but he just won’t go for it. And don’t you say I don’t have awesome photography skills.

This cute couple was heading to Dallas on their honeymoon. I suspect it is only this early in marriage that I may could have gotten Isaac to wear a boat neck shirt. Also, can you think or any better way to kick off a honeymoon than a 14 hours flight sitting next to us? I think not…

That’s it for now folks, time for you to get back to actual work. Have a great week!

 

P.S. In case you had missed this little gift from the internet; you can thank me later.

When in Seoul… 

/ Ali Craft / 2 Comments

Here we are for our second edition of When in Seoul. See the first edition here. Living in Korea never leaves us lacking for cultural differences. They sometimes make us laugh and other times are frustrating. The greatest testimony of God’s grace that we have experienced since moving to Seoul is our sense of humor. When it comes to things that could really upsetting (remember the epidural?!) our instinct has often been to laugh. We know that this can only be God’s hand, especially since even small things can ruin your day when say…maybe you aren’t getting enough sleep (looking at you, Asher), but we continue to find things hilarious.

Speaking of hilarious…

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Now back to the post…

I fully believe that attitude and Jesus, duh, is the key to success when it comes to living overseas. If you don’t learn to laugh about things, you will inevitably go crazy. Like say maybe if you were getting in a taxi quickly because you guys were running late and accidentally hit Judah’s head on the door frame, so you decided to give him your brand new Vivofit band to calm him down because it was the only thing you could reach, and then in the hustle of getting out of the taxi in traffic, you left it in the taxi and realized it only after watching the taxi drive away. And for the greatest irony, after Isaac got out and shut the door you said, “babe, don’t forget to always check behind you to make sure you’re not leaving anything”.

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Yup. That would be a good time to laugh.

So anyways, on to things we have noticed lately:

Elevators (or lack there of)

This is something I still can’t get over. In the States you know that basically anywhere you go that has more than one story will have an elevator, because let’s be real, in this day in age, if you don’t, you are probably asking for a lawsuit. Here in Korea, there are elevators in high-rise buildings like apartments and business towers, but places like restaurants and small shops that are in the second or third story generally only have stairs. This severely limits our options with our stroller in tow, so before we leave the apartment we always have to plan if we want to take the stroller or not. Also, at our school we have an amazing soccer field on the roof of our athletic facility, but again, no elevator. Maybe this is only shocking to me. While I do have a very real concern the people with limited mobility, I mayyy just be over here like…

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Food packaging

Everything here comes in a box with individually wrapped portions inside. There goes “accidentally” eating a whole package of Oreos. Maybe this is why Koreans are thinner… It may even prevent someoneee in our house from eating a whole sleeve of crackers (Isaac).

  

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Seen here: Korean versions of Club crackers, Ritz, Saltines, Ritz cheese sandwich crackers, Graham cracker-ish kinda thingy, and some wafer things. All the official names of course.

English use

We have seen two phenomenons here; what we call the “arbitrary use of English” and “non-English English”.

Exhibit A. The Arbitrary Use of English

1. Mission  2. Vision  3. ????

Oh, great! An information sign! Wait…


Another favorite was the directions to assemble Asher’s crib, where the only English word is “tip”. Why yes, that tip is extremely helpful IN KOREAN.

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Exhibit B. Non-English English

Sometimes it’s amusing but still makes sense…

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And sometimes you have no idea what they mean, like the list they gave me (in English) of stuff to bring to the hospital which included: wet tissue, gauze handkerchief, and 2-3 pieces of Panties (I feel the need to capitalize it as they did). Also, see here on of the varieties of face masks at a local cosmetics store. Because if there is one thing I want to rub on my face…

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Pets

While I would say they are largely afraid of most dogs larger than a Shitzu, Koreans seem to have quite the affection for small dogs. Excuse the terrible photo quality, it is a little awkward to whip out my camera and ask them to pose. Behold! I give you, the dog stroller and the dog backpack.

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Für Elise

You know…this song.

The good people of Korea apparently really have a thing for Mr. Beethoven. When our door bell rings at our apartment, it’s Für Elise. When we go to 7 Eleven, the noise when we open the door is Für Elise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVQ4Wi5KOn4

So here we are the other night, volunteering at Awana on the military base when the fire alarm went off. We all evacuated assuming it was just a false alarm (it was). We were standing in the parking lot when the firetruck pulled in and the backed up to the building and that’s when we heard it. The Für Elise. FROM THE FIRETRUCK. Why have the standard beeeep beeeep beeeeep when you could have a fancy song to warn people you are backing up??

Korea. Always is keeping things interesting…stay tuned.

When in Rome… Err.. Seoul

/ Ali Craft / 9 Comments

Everything in Korea is exactly the same as it is in the States. There are no differences whatsoever. (sike!) This is our first of what will most likely turn out to be many posts about the things here that are different than what we are used to. God has a way of using cultural differences to make us more well rounded people (insert pregnant joke here). So, let’s begin.

As we have mentioned before, tipping is basically nonexistent in Korea (with the exception of food delivery, etc.). People do their jobs, and that’s that. Also, as we have mentioned before, it is customary to remove your shoes before entering homes and some public places. It is rude to wear your shoes indoors no matter how good you look in them. As a very pregnant lady at this point, I am making a conscious effort to wear slip ons, as reaching my feet is a skill I lost a few weeks back…

So on to a few new things we have noticed:

Recycling

Koreans recycle everything; even in stores and in parks there are separate trashcans designated for specific items be it plastic, glass, cans, or apparently even small domestic animals…

You had a good run, Spot.

You had a good run, Spot.

Sidewalks

You know the painted stripes in the road which divide traffic? Those are on sidewalks here, too.

Sir, can you please stay in your lane?

Sir, can you please stay in your lane?

Hand soap

We’ve had quite a difficult time finding hand soap for our bathrooms. We finally thought we had found some and bought two bottles of it, but come to find out it was just dish soap with a pump… sigh. There goes our silky soft hands.

Public restrooms

Mama always said, “Korean public restrooms are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” This is a photo of the inside of a stall in the ladies’ room at the family park near our apartment.

Oh, you needed a toilet? Will a hole in the floor due?

Oh, you needed a toilet? Will a hole in the floor due?

And apparently they don’t want you stealing their crappy public restroom soap. Isaac took this picture in a restroom along the river:

That blue thing on the bar coming out of the wall is the soap.

That blue thing on the bar coming out of the wall is the soap.

Markets

There are many stores that have roughly half of their produce on the street so people walking by can see what they have.

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Need some eggplant? No? How about a watermelon?

We also have viewed some interesting practices of food safety…

How do you like your fish? On the street with flies on it, thanks.

How do you like your fish? On the street with flies on it, thanks.

Prices

Taxes are included already in the price you see at the store, so if it says a dollar, you pay a dollar. And like we said about tipping, food prices eating out may look really high, but taxes are included and you don’t tip, so it’s not bad.

We have found groceries in general to be a bit more pricey, especially fruit.

Just for fun

You may be interested to know that Asian Mr. Clean has hair.

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Bosley for men got me great results!

Moving in

In a city like Seoul, most of the apartment complexes are high-rise towers, which makes moving in furniture a challenge, but they have a really cool way of getting furniture up to families’ homes.

Brooms

Of all of the differences that we expected to encounter, brooms were not among our foremost concerns. Our broom is so tiny, Judah thinks it’s a toy. When we brought it home Judah assumed it was for him. Since we are right in the middle of teaching Judah about sharing (you’re welcome, Asher), we now have to wait our turn to use the broom to sweep the floor (I am not kidding).

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Christmas list: one adult-size broom

I expect we will soon look like this:

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That’s it for now…sending love from the future.