Adventure in Korea: By the numbers

Contract statistics:
Number of days completed in contract: 209
Number of days left in contract: 156
Percentage of contract finished: 57.7%
Number of days in Korea: 217

School statistics:
Number of students whacked by co-teacher: approx. 46
Number of students sleeping in class: approx. 17
Number of times I've gotten lost in Korean Windows XP: 12
Months before I decided to say "screw it" and bring my own computer: 6.2 months
Number of times I bowed: approx. 6,100
Number of times a student has bowed to me: approx. 31,200
Number of times I bumped into a student outside of school: approx. 50
Number of cultural mistakes made at work: 13

Other statistics:
Amount of money saved per month: from 800,000 KRW to 1,300,000 KRW
Cost of power bill in fall, per month: 20,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW
Cost of power bill in winter, per month: 130,000 KRW to 150,00 KRW
Hottest temperature experienced: 31 degrees C
Coldest temperature experienced: -21 degrees C
Number of stamps and visas in passport in past year: 13
Number of stamps and visas in passport before this year: 0
Number of times I've been mistaken for Korean: 189
Number of times I've been mistaken for Japanese: 56
Number of times I've been mistaken for American: 14
Number of times I've been "mistaken" for Canadian: 0
Number of times I've been "mistaken" for Chinese: 0
Number of verbally racist incidents: 9
Number of physically racist incidents: 0

In-jokes:
Number of seasons experienced: 3
Kilograms of kimchi consumed: 42.1 kg
Number of Hyundais and Kias spotted: approx. 47,000
Number of Toyotas spotted: approx. 5
Number of times I had to Konglishize a word to make myself understood: 21
Number of "gamsa hamnida"s: approx. 327,000
Number of "annyeong haseyo"s: approx. 410,000
Number of times I've crossed my arms into an X: approx. 12,000

This Would Never Happen in Canada: motorcycles

Along with South Korea Sights, I will also start a semi-regular feature called This Would Never Happen in Canada. The title was inspired by the catchphrase, "This would never happen in Japan" from a message board I frequent.

The segment will be very short and will talk about... well, I think the title is self-explanatory.

---

This would never happen in Canada: motorcycles regularly using sidewalks.

Here in Seoul, sidewalks are for pedestrians and motorcycles. Sometimes the sidewalks are wide enough for this to happen, but sometimes not. Once, I was on a sidewalk in Yongsan less than a meter wide, and a scooter decided to squeeze by me. This is not only normal, but expected. It's never a bad idea to be overly paranoid while navigating the sidewalks of Seoul. Sidewalks also double as motorcycle parking lots sometimes.

Similarly, motorcycles often use pedestrian crosswalks. It is not unusual to be standing there waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green, and looking next to you and seeing a motorcycle rider doing the same thing.

Motorcycles are also used as delivery trucks. We do this in Canada for stuff like pizza deliveries, I know. But here, they do it for anything from pizza to huge rolls of carpet. It's amazing how big a load they can add to a motorcycle without losing balance. And some of these guys drive the motorcycle with only one hand on the handlebars and often without helmets!

Seeing the traffic in Seoul (and its side streets), it's often understandable why a motorcycle would look like a wiser choice. I'm now trying to imagine how UBC would look if students used motorcycles instead of regular bikes to get from class to class...