A More Balanced Post

I realized I have been very positive on Korea in my last few posts, thus this post I figured I would be less positive and point out some of the less good things about this country.

First I will talk about food. I generally enjoy Korean food (except Kimchi since I don't enjoy rotting cabbage), but when they try to imitate Western food they often fail. For instance I recently bit into a good looking donought. The dought part of it was quite good, it was sprinkled with sugar and the dough part was flakey and tender. The filling was another matter. This particular doughnut was filled with red bean mush. This read bean mush was not seasoned or flavored in anyway. And no, this was not an exception or an odd doughnut by Korean standards. They actually often fill their otherwise delicious doughnuts with red bean mush. They also seem to think that cakes (yes actual cake) should be filled with peas, or beans, or sweat potatoes. In short Korea doesn't really understand pastries.

You might be wondering about all this talk of bread products since Asia doesn't really have a reputation for bread products. While this bread thing is apparently a new thing to Korea, it has become quite popular. There are 3 bakeries within a few minutes of my apartment (although neither of the two grocery stores near me have much of a bakery). At these bakeries you can find good bread like products, but you also find things like doughnuts filled with red bean mush. In other words you must be careful when you bite into a pastery in Korea.

Another problem with Korea is their national pride. You might be wondering about this given that I'm from America, and America is all about national pride. It's not so much the national pride but the unwillingness to accept that anything might come from somewhere other than Korea. For instance I've mentioned PC bongs before. These places are labeled as "PC" then a bung of Korean stuff. Yes, the PC is English letters. Despite this many of my kids were convinced saying "PC" is Korean, despite the fact that the letters are clearly not Korean whenever they are shown. In case you think this is just a thing among stupid kids, adults also have the problem. A while back I was offered a "Korean" ice cream cone. This was the pre-wrapped ice cream cone you can find in any store with a freezer in America. Despite this they thought "American" ice cream was the scooped kind and "Korean" ice cream was the kind in a cone that you bought pre-made. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was not a Korean ice cream cone since they are widely available in America (he was actually shocked that I could get this kind of cone in America). All this depsite the fact the there is much English on the packaging of the ice cream cone. This usually indicates that the product is imported. Despite all of this the ice cream cone that you get from your local store is in fact a Korean style cone.

To be more balanced I will include some good things here too. The buses in Korea are awesome. I can travel to just about any major city in Korea in a short period of time. I can literally go down to the bus station right now and catch a ride for $10-15 to any major city in Korea and I won't have to wait more than an hour. Also, the buses here are not grey hound. They are actually comfortable with plenty of leg room. They are kind of like chartered busses but better, and they leave every 30-60 minutes to every where. You can also take a train for less money, although you have to plane that a little better since they don't leave as often, but they do cost less money (as a side note I rode my first train ever between cities a couple weeks ago. It was very exciting).

I'll be posting more later, but for now I must be going.