Entries about korean

Hey guys,
I know it's been a while since I posted anything, and actually there's a bunch of stuff I want to post because some really cool stuff has happened recently, but as you might know, this is my last month in Korea, so I'm trying to enjoy everything as much as possible which leaves little time for sitting down to type here.

However, I've been wanting to post this, so I will :3
It's a compilation from various sources, with some of my own added in.

You know you've been in Korea for too long when...

You no longer come to a complete stop at the stop sign and you never yield the right-of-way. <Koreans drive like fucking madmen!>

You enjoy slurping your noodles as loudly as you can.

You walk down the street holding hands with your buddy. <Because when you hold hands with a girl, everyone stares at you, but when you're giving your buddy a soapy massage in jimjilbang no one bats an eye.>

You ask your wife to stand outside with a baseball bat to protect your public parking space in front of the house.

You look forward to winter in your off post housing so you can store beer and frozen foods in your bedroom or bathroom.

You can fall asleep on the city bus and wake up at your stop.

<Your favorite beverage is carbonated milk.> <FUCK YES MILKISS!>

You can shovel in an entire bowl of rice and half a course of bulgogi into your mouth before you swallow.

You can make a left turn looking only to the right.

You think that Korea's greatest natural resource is good looking young women. < >Implying it isn't >

You only lock your door if there are lots of "Mi-gooks" around. <I've seriously only started feeling conscious about my valuables around other foreigners..can't trust those fuckers, man.>

People ask if you want to go by car and you respond, "No, I'm in a hurry."

You realize that it is safer to jaywalk than use a pedestrian crosswalk.

You wear white socks with a dark suit.

<You start saying "Aigo, chuwa" when stepping outside, even before actually registering if it is indeed cold.>

You crawl back into your house to get your coat, rather than take your shoes back off or walk on the floor with shoes on. <Did this like 4 times. ONE MUST NOT DESECRATE THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR!>

Someone says breakfast, you think of "fish, soup and seaweed." <In my case, ramyun.>

You'd rather sit on the floor than in a chair.

You start believing that you can blend into a large crowd of Koreans. <Even though you stick out above them at least 10cm>

You let your eyes be drawn towards any female whose hair isn't black.

Someone says "mansion" and you think of a two bedroom flat in a 400-unit apartment building.

You mutter "Aigo" when lifting a heavy objects. <Or when sitting down, getting up, entering your house, and pretty much whenever. I will never stop doing this.>

You suck in air through your teeth before saying "no" to anything.

You start growling and spitting inside your mouth to add emphasis to what you are about to say.

<The first thing you think about after you've had a few glasses to drink is "I want to go to noreabang!">

You always wave your left hand to signal you are going to cut in front of another driver without looking first.

You select shoes based on how easily you can get them on and off. <I wish I had done this before coming here.>

You answer "Nhe" even when speaking English to non-Korean friends.

You carry chopsticks in your back pocket. <I carry them in my backpack.>

You don't freak out when the salad arrives with octopus legs still wiggling on top of it.

You are not embarrassed when old ladies are standing in a bus while you are sitting down.

You like OB or Cass better than <Bavaria or Franziskaner>.

It no longer bothers you when an Ajumma bumps you out of the way. <I still rage every time. Especially when they cut in front of me in line FFFF~>

You eat shrimp chips and seaweed with beer.

You know the mystery of the missing 4th floor. <Protip: it has to do with language and superstition.>

You know how to properly pronounce Hyundai. <Protip: when I get back to the Netherlands I will never say it wrong again and none of you will have any idea what I'm talking about.>

A motorbike drives up the sidewalk toward you, and instead of jumping aside, you refuse to move out of the way on principle.

<You wait in front of the red light even when it's the middle of the night and there is no traffic whatsoever, just because 'it feels right'.>

You go to a "Western" restaurant and can't seem to use a knife and fork.

The loudspeakers on the trucks driving in your neighborhood don't wake you up. <Y'ALL WANNA BUY SOME FLOWERS? NO? WHAT ABOUT VEGETABLES?>

You stop being surprised after huffing and puffing up a mountain and running into a young woman in lipstick and heels, or being passed by a 90-year old who isn't breathing nearly as heavily as you are. <Every fucking time.>

A roll of toilet paper at the dinner table no longer phases you. <I'll start doing this at my home. Shit's useful.>

You hate Japan for no apparent reason.

You move back to your home country and go through DVD bang withdrawal.

You start wearing a surgical mask in winter.

You make a midnight munchies run for shrimp chips and pre-packaged kimbap triangles. <God I will miss the kimbap ;_;>

You know which stall in Dongdaemun will give you the best deal on a Prada knock-off.

While standing in a crowded line at a government office, you ask yourself, "What would an ajumma do?" - and then you do it.

You don't mind paying more for coffee than dinner.

<You're not wondering what that pair of scissors is doing on your table in the barbecue restaurant.>

Every time you meet anyone who is older than you you shake their hand with two hands.

Your wife reaches her 40s and you expect her to be permed and wear unmatched clothes and anklets.

You think 10PM is the normal hour for kids any age, be it 8 or 18 to get home from school or tutoring.

<You're unfazed when you see 12 year old kids playing FIFA Online in a PC Bang at 5 AM.>

You start cursing when for some reason any shop is closed before midnight. <Lazy fuckers.>

You think it's odd that the bus driver doesn't play the radio out loud back in your country.

You are talking on the phone or on Skype with someone back home, and keep asking “Are you there???”, because they aren’t saying “mmmm” every five seconds. <YOBOSEYO? YOBOSEYO?>

You know now that “meeting up at 8pm” really means “8.30″. <Korean thirty minutes. Add another thirty when meeting a girl.>

You don't even react when you see an ahjusshi with his hand deep into his fly when he is still fifteen feet from the Men's Room door.

<You don't feel unsafe at all leaving your bag open, your wallet and expensive camera sticking out.>

You associate Itaewon with crime and danger and would never even think of going there alone.

You use so many Korean words in your regular conversation that your friends and family back home have to request a translation guide for your blog. <Sorry guys!>

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

Today is the first day of the Year of the Dragon in the Lunar calendar. Lunar New Year is a bigger deal in Korea than our 'regular' new year, but it's not celebrated very loudly. In fact, the holiday mostly consists of seeing relatives that live far away and eating certain kinds of traditional food, so there wasn't that much going on in Seoul.
Actually, Seoul was creepily empty the past few days. Because no one actually lives in Seoul (everyone just like works/studies/shops there) all the people who are usually here are now visiting their family in different parts of the country. It was so weird to see the otherwise so busy subways and 6 lane streets almost completely bare.

There was some stuff going on to entertain the foreigners and the few people left behind though, and we played a traditional new years game called Yut Nori at the guesthouse.

새해 복 많이 받으세요!

I got bored today so I grabbed my camera and just started walking.
Took a bunch of good pics that I will soon be uploading here, ate at a freaky little small place where no one spoke English, and then found a used book store that also sold cd's. Ended up digging around there for about 2 hours, finding lots of awesome stuff but the prices were a little skewed. I mean who the fuck would pay 5,000 won for a Video CD of Super Mario Bros in Korean? So I ended up buying just Yobi the Five Tailed Fox and Nobody Knows, plus a promotional-only-not-for-sale AVP VCD. Because there's no way I will ever be able to buy that anywhere else ever again. The Starcraft and the headphones were bought on Gmarket, together with a sweater that is so fucking Kpop I'm almost afraid to wear it. The patches are from an Army Store I ran into during my random walking around.
Seoul still holds some interesting surprises.

Just to give you a little idea of what living in Korea is like, I've stood near a subway exit doing nothing to film this for you:

And then I found some robots dancing to K-pop, so you know what happened: