Culture shock- Part 1

Hi!
I've been in Korea for just over a week. Here are the top 5 cultural differences I've experienced so far!

1. WATER- you can't drink the tap water unless you boil it!!! Apparently it's to do with the pipes... You can buy bottled water from 1000 won (around 75p) up for a litre, or if you're lucky enough to live in my house, you can have a filter plumbed in.
Alternatively, many businesses, e.g. phone shops, banks, churches, have water dispensers which you can use to refill your water bottles, within reason.

Our amazing water filter xx

2. DON'T CROSS YOUR LEGS. I do if my legs are hidden by something, but if they can be seen, it's rude...




3. NO SHOES! It's rude to wear your shoes in the house. You can put them in a shoe cupboard which is usually near the door or leave them at the threshold.
Koreans usually provide slippers for their guests. When you go into the bathroom, you swap those slippers for plastic slippers, to stop your feet from getting wet. When you go onto the balcony, again you swap your slippers for balcony slippers, as the balcony is more dirty than the house. Mercifully, I love slippers.

*If you walk into a restaurant and trip over a big pile of shoes, it's also a 'no-shoes' restaurant!*

4. NO CHAIRS! In many Korean-food restaurants, you are provided with cushions on which to sit kneeling or cross-legged at a very low table. It's quite fun unless you are tall, in which case, it's a potentially painful exercise.

5. RUBBISH- this is admirable. Koreans separate all rubbish into: rubbish, recyclables (which is almost everything) and food waste. Top tip from my amazing flatmates: store the food waste in a bag in the freezer until you take it out, to avoid filling your flat with the enticing aroma of rot.

Our beautiful bag of food waste.

The only downside is that when you take the rubbish out, there aren't usually bins. As my friend explained: You dump your waste in front of the apartment block in the hope that one day someone might take it away. No bin day here. The rubbish dump area smells, and I fear as the weather gets warmer, that will intensify.

*You have to buy special green bin liners from the supermarkets for about 50p a bag, which goes to the government as 'trash tax'.*

Finally, the Korean pear is delicious and tastes like gritty watermelon, in the very best sense of the phrase, and the winner of the best name for a cake goes to...

The 'Always Think about Chocolate' Bun!