Also, this coming Friday and Saturday is the highly anticipated Ko Yon Games (고연전). For those who don't know what this is, it is basically two days of sports matches between Korea University (고려대학교) and Yonsei University (연세대학교). These two schools are famous for their intense rivalry and the Ko Yon Games take place every year during the fall semester. The events that will take place are baseball, basketball, ice hockey, rugby and soccer. In preparation for the games, we had cheering practices so that all the students can learn the cheers and dances to support KU. I am truly impressed with the amount of passion, pride and dedication that students have for their university. It has really affected me deeply and now I am so proud to be a Korea University student. Even though I don't like sports I am super excited to see the games and to wear my school color (crimson/red) proudly with my fellow KU students!
So now that I've caught you up on what's been happening lately, I'm just going to talk about life in Korea in general and how some things differ from Hawaii (based on my personal experiences so they may not be 100% accurate).
First of all, Korea is a very tourist-friendly place. There are many foreigners here and you won't have to worry too much about knowing Korean since most places have signs in both Korean and English (especially the subway system). Also, a lot of Korean people do have basic knowledge of English which is really helpful when buying something or asking for help. So don't be afraid to use English when you can't say it in Korean :) chances are they will understand at least a little of what you are saying. My buddy from the KUBA program even told me that Koreans are crazy about learning English! However, in certain circumstances you should have a native Korean friend to help you (if possible) e.g., buying a prepaid SIM card, opening a bank account, purchasing concert tickets, etc.
Second, the food in Korea is generally much cheaper (and healthier) than in Hawaii. I personally think the food in Korea is a lot better, too! A few of my favorites include 밭빙수 (red bean shaved ice), 삼겹살 (sam gyeop sal or pork belly), 김밥 (kimbap or korean sushi), 떡볶이 (ddukbokki or spicy rice cake), and 부대찌개 (stew with variety of foods inside like rice cake, pork, vegetables, ramen, etc.). Of course there are many others but it would take forever to name them all!
That brings me to the next thing: dining out in Korea. Whether it's in a restaurant or just having coffee and dessert at a cafe, there are a few things that are useful to know:
- No tax and tip! This is by far my favorite part of eating out in Korea. Nobody tips in Korea and the prices are usually set by even amounts like 7,000 won or 9,500 won. It is very convenient because you don't need to go through the trouble or calculating tax and tip :)
- In restaurants, you usually pay at the cash register near the door after you are finished eating. Unlike America, servers here don't pick up your check and payment and return your change to your table. (Probably because there's no such thing as tipping here.)
- When you need something just yell out "저기요" (cheogiyo) or "여기요" (yeogiyo) or just get their attention somehow. Servers don't usually come to your table every so often to check up on you like in the U.S. (This too is probably because of no tipping in Korea.)
- I'm not too sure about this one but from my own experience, sometimes when you order just one item to share with a friend they won't let you get just one order. They will ask you to get 2 or however many people are in your party. This is probably because the menu items are set for one person serving size. However, some menus will indicate how many persons each item can feed. Keep in mind that this doesn't happen everywhere; I just had this happen to me and my friends a few times.
- For cafes, you will usually order your food and/or drink at the counter and they will give you your order on a tray (if you are going to sit in the cafe). When you are finished, you either bring the tray with your rubbish back to the workers or leave it on top of the designated trash area. In certain places, you can just leave it on the table and someone will clean it up later. The reason is because Korea is very big on recycling and everyone separates their trash into plastics, papers, and other waste. They don't want you to just dump everything into one trashcan. (Many places have slightly different ways of disposing of your trash so just keep that in mind.)
- In my personal experience, the first time I went to a cafe here in Korea with my friends, we were unsure of what to do with our trash once we were done enjoying our coffee and pastries. There were not many other people in there at the time so we couldn't just follow what other people were doing. And the people who were there did not look like they were going to be done anytime soon. We were checking out the area where you get your straws, napkins, and sugars because that's where the trash is usually located but there was no slot to dispose of our rubbish. We were confused for the longest time and after trying to read the sign taped to the 'trash can' that said something that included "...after drinking..." in Korean, we decided to leave the whole tray on top of that 'trash can'. It seemed to be correct because the worker there just said their goodbye greetings as we left.
Until next time~
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