Take notes America!

After complaining about Korea I must follow with a list of things I think are wonderful. You know.. sandwich method style.

Food
The food here is exceptional. I really had no clue what I was getting into when coming here. My only experience with Korean food was the BiBimBap I had a month before arriving.. and "kimchi".

Dwenjang is fantastic. It took me months to try it.
1. because it smells like rotting shit 2. because I am allergic.
But it tastes like candy and is a fabulous accessory for duck.

Unlimited side dishes
You've run out of kimchi? No problem, "Yogiyo! Kimchi juseyo!"
Each meal comes with a minimum of 3 side dishes sometimes up to 7, which is wonderful in itself, but they are also unlimited!

I could talk about food all day but I'll save that for another post. .

Drinks
Sure, gin & tonics are much cheaper here. But that isn't why Korea deserves praise.
America, meet makgeolli. From what I can tell it is currently unavailable in the U.S., but probably not for long. This fermented rice beverage is pretty tasty. It has also been studied for its anti-cancer properties. Commercialization seems to ruin everything, and makgeolli is no exception. The cheapest, therefore most popular brands are sweetened with aspartame. It tastes kind of moldy without sweetness, and with Korea's obsession with being thin I think natural sugar lost to its chemical alternative.
My boss instructed me to not shake the bottle because if I do I'll get a bad hangover. He drinks the top half and tosses the stuff that settles on the bottom. I'm interested to know if the aspartame settles. I'd really like to learn to make it or at least find a Korean expat who makes it. There must be home-brewed makgeolli in the depths of Koreatown, USA, and when I get home I'm going to find it.

Drinking
Expat bars are places where all the people you didn't like from high school go to get drunk to avoid home-sickness, listening to the same shitty music that I try at all costs to avoid at home.
Luckily there are other places to get drunk. Like in front of Family Mart, the ubiquitous convenient store-equivalent of Starbucks. (As a rule of thumb you should never use Family Mart as a landmark while giving directions.)
My favorite cocktail at Ye Olde Family Marte bar is soju + grapefruit juice. You can get that room-spinning feeling we all live for at about $5.oo, less if you don't need a mixer.
Grab a seat on their plastic outdoor furniture where you can actually have conversations with friends instead of awkwardly miming and fake-laughing at one another as you try to not break under sensory overloading conditions. Triangle chomchi kimbap is just a few steps away.
People watching is also a plus.

Free water & coffee
You will find water purifiers virtually everywhere. Usually accompanied by a cabinet of stainless steel cups, bathing in sterilizing UV light. Instant coffee machines are almost as prevalent... not that I'd ever drink it. I guess this differs from the American system in that it doesn't use disposable cups. I also like that the water is being purified to order, unlike the plastic 5 gallon water coolers we are used to, which are probably reused to their degradation.

Bathroom
The T.P. situation
In most public restrooms there are rolls of toilet paper to be accessed before getting into the stall. This ensures that you'll never find yourself unprepared asking someone to "spare a square". Or course, the bathrooms aren't always stocked. You'll never find a Korean without "mul tissue", or wet wipes on hand.

Soap on a stick
In some major public restrooms you'll find soap on a stick. Bar soap fixed to a metal rod hanging from the wall. I think this is terrific. You just grab at it with wet hands. No dropping the soap, no horrid anti-bacterial bullshit or perfumed garbage. Just simple bar soap.
This is not the rule though. Most places actually use liquid soaps.
Liquid soap is stupid.

The Western toilet
For those unenlightened on my views of pee click here.
The seats are virtually pee free. I'd like to conduct a pee-havioral study to find out how they keep their seats free of tink-sprink.

The squat toilet
The jury is out. One advantage of the squat toilet is its lack of tink-sprink. But it has its own pitfalls. ...The pee puddles.
Sometimes the floor is wet and its hard to tell if you are standing in a pool of someone elses urine, or if they have just hosed down the floor. Even in the latter case, you can't help but ask yourself "Why did they hose down the floor?.. Did someone piss all over the floor?" Eventually you're likely to conclude that either way you are standing in piss. The question then becomes, "Well, what is the piss-to-water ratio?". This can sometimes be evaluated by smell. But to err on the side of caution you must be mindful of your soles until you've walked around a while. This is often difficult when your post-piss destination is a bus. If you are so unfortunate - shoes should be removed and placed no less than 6 inches from the floor space your bag will occupy. This also leaves you free to sit indian-style.

Public Transit
Like food, transportation can make or break a city. Busan has a great subway line and tons of buses that make intracity travel really convenient. Intercity travel is just as easy.
I hope that one day America's major cities are as efficient as Korea's.

Agriculture & composting
Every person has their own compost bucket for food waste. This keeps your garbage can from smelling rotten. It has benefits far beyond aesthetics though. The city collects the waste and produces fertilizer and animal feed. Unfortunately they also dump tons into the ocean.
Hopefully the dumping will be a thing of the past thanks to efforts to produce bio-fuel with food waste though fermentation.

Korea hasn't completely killed the farmer yet, like we have in the U.S. Although, I predict it is only a matter of time, especially with this new F.T.A. do-dad making U.S. imports more affordable, and impending globalization, thus corporitization.
But for now, travel just a few minutes outside the city and you'll find bio-diverse farms that receive much love, evident by the bags hand tied to the tops of the crops preserving the fruit, and by the green houses built to create ideal conditions. The markets are full of old ladies peddling their days work... life's work. More and more people are caving to the convenience of Home Plus & E-Mart, your one-stop shopping box. Let's hope Korea doesn't follow the U.S. model.