What's Your Blood Type?? (and other strange things about this country)

I'm about to go to sleep after my third day here in Korea... I decided to write another blog today about all the strange things I have seen or heard so far. I figured I should probably write about them now that they are fresh in my mind, because in a year I bet none of it will seem strange at all!

I have found that the Korean society is very much based on image. Everyone is dressed to kill; business suits, designer wear, stilettos, and all the latest fashion. I guess a popular graduation present for high-schoolers is plastic surgery, with common procedures being nose, breast enlargements, and eyelid surgery. Adam even saw a headline on a website today that read, "Tax deductions for nose jobs." I find that very strange because even though Koreans are very image based, they also are very proud of their culture. Korea happens to be the most homogeneous place on the planet, so one would think that Koreans would want to stay "Korean looking," so to speak. I have not seen an ugly Korean yet. Everyone here is very very beautiful!

I was told yesterday that I might get asked what my blood type is quite a bit (and I honestly don't even know what mine is!) I guess that like astrology, there are many different characteristics associated with one's blood type as well. Koreans take this very seriously, and when trying to set people up on dates, or maybe other activities as well, your blood type and those characteristics are taken into serious consideration! I guess there is even a movie called, My Boyfriend is B Negative! Imagine it being socially frowned upon to date someone not compatible to your blood type!!

Korean age is also something that is different from the States. In Korea, as soon as you are born you are automatically one year old. Then, on Jan 1 (I think, I'm not sure the exact date) everyone in the entire country has their birthday. So a baby could be born on Dec. 26th and be one and then 5 days later would be considered two years old! So here, instead of being 24 I am 26 years old!

Hmmm.... There are cars everywhere here! They don't just drive in the road either. Not all the streets have sidewalks, only the really big main streets do, but that doesn't seem to matter at all. It seems like if a car wants to get around traffic it just drives on the sidewalk! Motorcycles do it all the time too! There are tons of motorcycles and motorcycle shops here! I noticed that really really nice cars park on the sidewalk too! As soon as I get pics up you will see, but one of the main roads has 7 lanes going each way, and this is in the city!! I have seen cars whip a U-turn and cut off cars going the opposite direction. Also, when you are walking down the street without sidewalks it always seems like you are going to be hit by a car! The side streets are very narrow and there are a million cars going both directions, plus motorcycles that just zoom in between all the cars, plus people everywhere too! I can't even tell you how many times I have been looking into a window and almost been hit by a car! It is something that definitely has to be experienced to be believed! One other cool thing I noticed is that the gas stations here in the city don't really have pumps you drive up to. You drive into the area like you would any gas station, but instead of pulling up to a stationary pump, you pull a string and pull the pump down from the ceiling! It actually looks really neat!

There is sooo much more to write, but I will save it for another day. I think I am really starting to have the jet lag kick in. The first few days weren't as bad because everything was so exciting, but now I have been getting really tired early in the day and also waking up about 3 or 4 am and having a really hard time going back to sleep! I am trying to eat at regular times and also do a lot of walking to get my body adjusted. I am hoping to train myself to get up at 6:30 am because I am already getting up so early that it won't even feel early if I train myself to be up at 6:30. I am just hoping I can sleep past 4am today!