waste

I just wasted the entire day.

But I wanted to share some stories.

Last night I went out for dinner/drinks with the boy and his cousin, who is an electrical engineer for SK. It was hilarious and really really really fun.

His cousin is crazy, but in an awesome way. He told lots of really funny stories. My favorite:

Me: I really want to buy a scooter.
Boy: Nooooooooo. Not safe.
Cuz: I had a scooter once.
Boy: 맞아, tell about the time you had an accident.
Me: *horror* you had an accident??
Cuz: *laughs heartily* yes. I was really drunk.
Me: OH GAH. *horror x1000*
Cuz: And I was driving on an access road and I realized, hey, I'm not supposed to be here, because it's not for scooters.
Me: uh-huh...
Cuz: So I turned right onto a street near Yongsan and I saw just a shadow.
Me: *Cringing in fear* Oh god, uh-huh...
Cuz: And I hit a tank.
Me: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????
Cuz: I hit a tank. A military tank. Well, actually I fell under the tank.

Yes, folks, that's right. He hit a fucking tank. And fell under the tank. I'm not sure if the tank was moving, but I'm going to assume no. Evidently he ended up with just a bunch of bad scratches, and was okay. He didn't realize he was bleeding. But someone there told him. Phew.

Korean people are bat-shit crazy.

This story also reminds me of this time I was at a bus stop on this MAJOR road (3/4 lanes each direction). I was waiting for my bus home, and this lady comes up with her children, ages maybe 4 and 7. The seven year old sits nicely next to his mom. The 4 year old however is curious and wanders around a bit, which makes me nervous. We are next to a major road mind you. The child, in his curiosity, steps down off the sidewalk curb and into the bus lane and I almost pee my pants with anxiety. The child walk around a bit, and the mom looks over and is like, oh, hey, Minsu, come over here all nonchalant as if her extremely young child wasn't in the middle of a bus lane where bus come rolling through at speeds fast enough to effectively smash grown men and women flat.

I think this is one of the only things I hate about Korea. The non-caring attitude people seem to take about driving and pedestrianism. People literally think, oh, it won't happen to me, and they drive like crazy mother fuckers. Or they think, oh no one will hit me and cross streets recklessly or other such things.

Thats it y'all.
A

Driving in Korea

Yesterday I saw the craziest thing. Okay, so not THE craziest, but it was weird. In the morning I stopped by Family Mart to pick up a cappuccino, as usual. After paying, I go outside, and there is a white kia pulled up on the curb. Nothing unusual here yet. Cars often hop the curb and park on the sidewalk. The unusual part is how the driver decided to re-enter the street. His whole car is up on the sidewalk. Now, the street is directly to his left so in theory, he should reverse a touch and pull out easily onto the road. Well naturally the obvious option was a no-go. Directly in front of the car is the entrance to my apartment building's parking garage area. To prevent cars from driving onto the sidewalk from this entrance, there are some short, maybe foot and a half tall concrete pylons. There are maybe seven spanning the length of the sidewalk's border with the street entrance.  They are each about 4 feet apart. This driver decided to try to avoid the pylons and enter the street via the entrance to the parking garage. Unfortunately, he forgot to take into account that his car is not, in fact, four feet wide.

Head out the window, he is expertly avoiding the pylon just left of his car's front corner. Unwittingly, he is literally smashing the right corner of his car against the pylon a mere 5 feet away. I'm begin to watch as I hear the crunching sound of his bumper grinding against the concrete pylon. Unfortunately this man doesn't notice the noise, or chooses to ignore it. He can't figure out why his car won't move forward as he presses the gas. he reverses a half a foot and the changes gears to drive and pushes once more into the pylon. he presses the gas, the engine revs and his car moves maybe a cm deeper into the pylon. He seems befuddled and it is at this point that I decide to inform him of his self-destructive driving. I wave, and point to the corner of his car being crushed. He looks at me. Acknowledges my warning and the proceeds to repeat his attempt again, in spite of me saying, hey guy, the front corner of your car is being repeatedly smashed in for no reason.

Imagine repeatedly ramming your car into significantly fatter versions of these. Now imagine not realizing your car is being rammed into these. Hard, right? Welcome to Korea!

Oh well. I did what I could to warn him.

Car and Driver

On my way to work every morning, I must walk on a sidewalk beside a small road that leads to my school. My school is tucked back behind some apartments and government buildings and there is a small street leading to it from the main road. This street is just one lane each direction, with speed bumps intended to encourage drivers to proceed with caution. Between the hours of 7:45 and 8:30, this street is teeming with students. Between my school, the boys middle school next door and the elementary school just a bit further down the road, there are easily 1000+ students (I'm guessing here... my school and the boys school each have 700 students, plus the elementary school, with most walking) walking this street to their respective schools. Only one side of the street has a sidewalk, and so students must cross the street (from the apartment building entrances) to walk safely. Generally the students walk on the sidewalks but when there are too many students (or piled-up snow on the sidewalk), some may walk on the shoulder of the street.

It is thoroughly disconcerting the speed at which most of these cars drive. some of the apartment entrances that the students walk out of are blind turns, making it extremely difficult for them to see oncoming traffic. Cars speed by, hardly slowing at all for the speed humps, and blaring their horn as if to warn the 7 year-olds, "if you don't get out of my way, you're roadkill"

It totally freaks me out. Today, I saw some girls peaking around their blind corner at the entrance to their apartment complex as an SUV came barreling down the street. They lept back as the horn let off a lengthy screeching "outta my way" warning to the students.

There are 6 year olds walking to school on this street. Have some care, you imbeciles. That could be your kid you nearly miss as you rush to beat the traffic to your shitty desk job.