Day 60: Only In Korea - Part 2

Here's Part 2 of those unusual/hilarious/odd/surprising sights that you'll only see here in lovely Korea. Enjoy!


6) Where in the world are you if you see politicians promoting their campaign for becoming alderman/senator/president by getting all their friends together to hang out on random street corners, stand in front of billboard-sized posters of their faces...and do the macarena....all in the hopes of gaining...voters? Music blaring, wind blowing through their hair, traffic racing past, and there they are - usually 4 or 5 middle-aged citizens, dancing and shaking their booties for passerby, all so that you'll look their way and think "Wow! Those people *really* do know how to shake their asses! I think I'll vote for this politician now! Who cares that he stands against everything I believe in! His supporters can do the Hokey Pokey like no one else can! He's getting my vote, man!"

Only in Korea...

7) Where in the world are you if you're walking to work and pass by a truck waiting at the light transporting chicken breasts to some store or market? But wait - you think this is a sanitized truck carrying boxes of frozen chicken that have all been carefully freeze-dried and air-sealed in protective plastic and then placed in cardboxes, all being driven around town in a truck that keeps a minimum -15 C temperature in order to prevent E.Coli and other nasty diseases from finding a new home in that chicken, right? Hahaha...oh you poor naive little thing, you! This is just some dude's truck, carrying some other dude's chicken - stacks and stacks and stacks...of OPEN UNCOVERED CHICKEN PIECES! No lid, no ice, no protective tarp even - just a big pile of stacked chicken and the open road... Mmmm...yummy.....

Only in Korea...

8) Where in the world are you if you're stuck in a traffic jam on the streets...because some old bitty is holding up traffic with her giant-ass cart full of cardboard that she's pulling through the city? 18 miles of gridlock cause Ol' Granny doesn't feel taking her cart o' cardboard treasures onto the sidewalk or a side street. Nope - she's been collecting icky cardboard all day from streets and yards so she can recycle it and make a few Won and dammit she's tired and cranky! If she wants to drag that cart down Main Street the whole way home, then hell she's gonna do it!!! Come to think of it, that 18 miles of gridlock is in HER way! Watch out!

Only in Korea....

9) Where in the world are you if you're out in the city doing some shopping, and then look across the street to see a HUGE LINE of people waiting outside a department store cause they're giving away free stuff? You stroll over to check it out, and see that not only does the line stretch down THE ENTIRE CITY BLOCK, but that people near the front of the line have been waiting for over an hour to get their freebee item. Wow! It must be something really amazing and awesome and *expensive* to have that many people waiting that long outside in the cold!!! And then you find out that these people are willingly spending their Saturday afternoon waiting for hours in line cause they're giving out...free bags of popcorn... What the *#@^....???!!!!

Only in Korea....

10) Where in the world are you if you're walking down the street and then get to an intersection with a red light so you have to wait... and you keep waiting for that light to turn green... and you still you wait even more.... Seasons come and go, the Himalayas rise and fall, ice ages sweep over the planet and melt again...and yet you're still waiting for that god damn ff......oh finally it changed! GREEN! God it takes *FOREVER* for traffic light cycles to go through. And because of this incredibly long wait, which frustrates even Koreans, you're nearly across the street when all of a sudden you hear a commotion behind you....what's that racing across the crosswalk coming right at you? Why, it's a Korean Mom and her kids, racing madly to try and desperately make it <*oh please god can they make it before that motorcycle racing at Mach 4 that's coming right at them hits them?*> before the light changes red again, baby carriage in one hand, box of rotting anemic toxic chicken in the other, giant rack of meat strapped to her back, dodging the Cardboard Cart Lady and almost getting burned by a mini explosion from that old man's pile of burning garbage on the street corner, praying to the high heavens that she'll make it down to the Lotte Department Store, only 27 blocks away, that's giving away free popcorn before it's all gone!
Watch out foreign boy! This woman's on a mission from God and nothing ain't gonna separate her and her hungry kids from that free popcorn so you better get out of her path!!! RIGHT NOW!!!!

Only in Korea...

:-)