I struggle with many everyday things even after living for 6 months in Korea.
Some things are cultural differences:
On first glance Korea is very cautious about spreading dirt and germs. Face masks keep those with mild colds from polluting the air with their illness. We wear indoor shoes and outdoor shoes– not the same thing. Swine flu sent everyone into a hand washing frenzy.
Nevertheless, Korea is a friend of the germs.
During swine flu mania every child had their temperature taken before entering the school with the same thermometer. In one ear then out and then in the next kid’s ear. Sweet ear wax.
Smell the chlorine in the bathhouse? Nope. I love the bathhouses, but I’m not going to pretend that bathing with strangers in very weakly chlorinated pools is sanitary.
After getting off a machine at the gym exercisers do NOT clean them. The salty remnants of my sweat are not cleaned off until the end of the day.
If I don’t have my own indoor shoes I use the communal ones and in the summer no one uses socks.
and there is more…
But mostly it is the same things I would struggle with at home:
My apartment is small but at night I can’t heat it to a comfortable temperature. I have three blankets, a heater, and an electric mattress pad. Around 3 am every night I wake up pouring sweat, turn off all heating devices or turn them down and go back to sleep to wake up at 8 freezing. This is a combination of pour body circulation and pour apartment building insulation.
Secondly, who makes itunes Genius music genres? The new itunes makes mixes supposedly to fit my taste, but of course I’m going to like them because it’s my music. Every time I turn on itunes I am provided with 9 genius mixes. All with different names: americana, adult alternative rock mix, lo fi mix, alt. singer/songwriter, etc. First, who decides the names for these categories? Next, most of my music is similar so why is Feist in alt. singer/songwriter not in indie? Is Train in adult alternative because they are from the 90s? What is lo fi? Why is Bon Iver Americana?
These are the things I think about when I am packing up my apartment.
