My First Week - A Retrospective Part II

The Bad

As promised, here’s the continuation of the smell. Although you’ll encounter some delicious aromas while walking the streets, you will unfortunately also stumble upon numerous spots of nauseating odor. There are open drains along most streets which funnel what can only be sewer water. Passing in the vicinity of these areas will, without a doubt, let you know you’re near a drain even with closed eyes. It’s almost heartbreaking to follow your nose towards a delicious, mouth-water scent only to be smacked in the face by an open drain near a restaurant.

There is no way, by any stretch of the imagination, that Korean driving can be placed anywhere other than the bad list. You know how when the right lane is closed up ahead and there are signs warning you of this so everyone moves to the left lane but there’s still that one ass who drives in the right lane all the way until the sign blocks them and they force their way into the left lane ahead of everyone else? Every Korean driver is that ass. They don’t mean to be but they are. Koreans want to turn, weasel, maneuver, and squeeze their vehicle into any and every possible spot. And this not only goes for cars; it also applies to motorcycles, scooters, bikes…hell, even the way they walk. If the subway or train wasn’t on a track, I’m sure it’d be the same too. Koreans love using their horns and it’s said that the lane markings on the roads are merely a suggestion.

A great deal of Korean men smoke. It's mostly young men and I can only imagine the rate of lung related illnesses now and in the future.

That’s my only bad observations for now, but I will leave you with an honorable mention “this could be a bad thing in a few years.” Busan is developing at break-neck speed. Everything is in a constant state of construction which to some, say a contractor or business man, would appear beneficial. Here’s my only concern with that though; Busan is not Seoul. While there are about 4 million people residing here, that pales in comparison to the 10 or so million that inhabit Seoul. There are no homeless people, there doesn’t seem to be an influx of people trying to move into Busan, and it doesn’t appear that families are looking to experiment with Western living by finding an apartment with more than one room. At some point the law of diminishing returns will take effect and there will be more highly priced, new apartments than people and families willing to move in (there probably already is). So what’s to happen to the hundreds of thousands of empty apartments?

Please stay tuned for the third installment of the good, the bad, and the ugly.