Odds and Ends

Korea seems both quite clean and very dirty. I have seen NO graffiti and only minimal litter (surprising since public trash cans are not prominent). Businesses appear to clean the public spaces around their property. But there is a lot of dust/dirt. Even though I follow Korean custom and remove my shoes inside my room, the floors are extremely dirty as evidenced by my having already twice washed the slippers I wear because they were so filthy. (And I have swept the floor, something I do much more rarely in St. Paul.)

There must be a market for used newspapers since there is a steady cadre of, usually, older folk walking the subway cars pulling the papers from the overhead rack where people put them when finished. (It seems there are a lot of free, giveway, tabloid-size papers.) On Sunday two elders were working the same car; each scurried quickly to get everything possible before the other saw/moved to the area. Since those over 65 ride the subway for free, I guess it's a good place to earn a little money (assuming someone, somewhere, does pay something). But it's hard work; those bags of papers look heavy.

Grocery "deals" are usually items packaged together. Sometimes bottles of two different kinds of juice are fastened together, 4-packs of two different flavors of yogurt are joined, a package of coffee filters is attached to a bag of coffee, a package of sliced cheese "food" comes taped to a container of cream cheese. If you want item A, it comes with item B, whether that's something you like/want or not.

Packaged foods, particularly crackers and cookies, are over-packaged. A box of Saltine-style crackers is filled with smaller packages of five crackers each. A box of cookies contains individually-wrapped cookies. (Not for Koreans the concept that a serving of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies is one row; they'd each be in an individual paper or foil wrap.)

I walk through a high-end department store to get to/from the food court at Seoul Station. It looks about as empty as the department stores in the Twin Cities, although still is staffed at a much higher level. If one wanted help in purchasing something, a sales person would be at hand.

Beware: Seafood gets introduced into many dishes. I thought vegetable fried rice would be safe. Nope, both shrimp and something else (scallops?) were nestled amongst the veggies. Today I thought I'd venture a little further afield at the Food Court and ordered Kim Chi Udon Noodles. I like both udon noodles and kim chi. However, clinking at the bottom were shells with something attached (again scallops?), several shrimp, and something else I couldn't identify (at least it didn't have tentacles!). Guess I'm going to have to stick with mandu (dumplings) and bi bim bap (vegetables and rice), neither of which have ever been served to me with seafood in them.