The basics

So I've been here just over a month now and there's a few main things I've learned about this country. I think the best place to start is to point out some of the differences. The basic things you need to know to live here.
1. You are REALLY foreign here, more or less the only non-Koreans are Waegooks/teachers. There are very few tourists and the majority of the teachers come from USA or Canada so as a Brit I am very much in the minority. As such there is a lot of staring and pointing, kids especially sometimes look horrified like you are some sort of pasty monster. Which I probably am.
Another thing to know is that it's pretty desirable to look white and western so you often get weird compliments like small face and big eyes. I also get told I'm fat quite a lot. That's not a compliment.

2. Koreans have a hieararchical system whereby showing respect is really important. This means foreigners are at the bottom of the pile regardless of qualifications and age but the older and maler you are the more respect you command. I'm not sure my principal actually does anything because he's so old and manly.
This also means that women are not supposed to be seen being unladylike, drinking, smoking. The adopt a kind of whiny thing they think is attractive too. They don't really care what foreign women do but I do get shushed on the train a lot. It's a good job I'm so couth and demure anyway.

3. Teaching is different, I am used to high pressure environments in terms of having to get results or behaviour management but this is a different level. Although I haven't experienced it that much because I work in elementary school the high school kids study 16 hours a day and I see them coming home at 10 when I've left the pub. It's intense and there are repercussions, such as a high suicide rate in teens. One friends co-teacher spends every waking hour either in the temple or on her own praying her son will do well in his exams. My co told me she is very worried about her son too. It's a bit much really, poor things.
Some weird things in the classroom are that they see you as more of a friend than a teacher so play weird games with you. One involves poking you really hard up the bum but thankfully I haven't experienced that. I might enjoy it a bit much. They also find things like jewellery or tattoos fascinating and ask really personal questions.

4. They are obsessed with technology, even the kids have smart phones. They are also really forward thinking in terms of lots of things. They have expanded their economy drastically, are obsessed with education so thinking of the future, they also recycle a lot and are trying to bcome more muli-cultural.

5. Korean women, they love westerners. Some blokes have never been attractive and this is their playground. You see quite a few with hot Korean girlfriends or wives. Once they bag a westerner they try and marry them as soon  as. They don't really do birth control so that tends to be fairly easy. Something like 40% of korean women have had plastic surgery which is a bit disturbing too. 98% of Korean celebrities have and I think the rest are mixed race. It's really worrying. Even the kids will call girls ugly when they're like 11. I don't even think I was aware of what attractive is when I was that age. It's sad.

6. Korean men, they also love western women. Sometimes they just come and hold my hand. Or just talk at me in Korean. It's a little strange. Kind of like living on the tube. They also spend most of the time drunk. Check out blackout.com for photos. They are often passed out or vomiting in public at all times of day. It is also apparently acceptable to come in to work completely hung-over. Win.

7. Food. Some people love it. I don't. They eat some weird stuff. Bean paste in cakes is normally the sweet dessert type thing. It's in a gelatinous rice blob. Gelatinous is a positive adjective by the way. Yum.
They also eat loads of bizarre sea food. Squid, jellyfish, eels, octopus, anything they can get their hands on really. It's quite normal to see some bizarre petrified sea-creature where the women in the garage would normally try flogging you softmints. One delicacy is tentacle soup while the tentacles are still moving. Another is pig spine soup, yes that's right a bowl of vertabrae, also known as hangover ramen. Definitely what I crave after a heavy sesh. They also have Kimchi wth everything. It's a fermented spicy cabbage. I spat it out the first time I tried it but now it's more or less all I eat at school because it's preferable to a boiled fish head in water.
The things I do like so far- seaweed crisps, they're actually salty when most things are sweet so I love them. I often have green teeth because they get EVERYWHERE. But I can't stop. I also feel like they're better for me than potato crisps even though they're prob not. There's not a lot of green veg either so it's quite refreshing. Ramen is just essentially pot noodle but it's safe and filling. I like shabu shabu although it's actually Vietnamese. It a bowl of boiling water you fill with veg and meat and make little rice parcels with. However I don't like the rice parcels because they taste like condoms, so I just eat it on it's own dipped in sauce. Then you add noodles and eat it, then rice and make like a risotto so it's 3 courses, It's yum. I also like Korean barbecue either pork or beef (bulgogi) it comes with sour, salty soya bean paste and loads of veg and sesame and chilli oil and you make little lettuce parcels. That is really nice and not too filling because of the lack of carbs.
Ok so there's a few things to get me started, I'm sure I will have more boring ramblings to come.