I'll bet you'll see these things and behaviors in Korea!

     Every country is full of people enacting their own peculiar behaviors.  Yours too!  Here are a few I'll bet you'll see not long after you've begun living in South Korea.  

     

     A person walking in front of you will suddenly STOP as if it never occurred to him / her that anyone (you) was walking behind him / her.

     You're riding your bike and doing your darndest best to obey all the traffic rules.  You're in the proper lane.  In Korea, the green lane is the bicycle lane, and it is often marked with a picture of  (Guess what?) a bicycle painted in wide white brush strokes right there on the green lane.  BUT, people walking in the opposite direction (towards you) are not only walking in the bicycle lane, but they are spread out all over both lanes, AND, if that weren't enough to cause frustration, they're walking as if they have no clue that you are riding towards them.  Don't be surprised if none of them move aside to allow you to pass through.

     You're working out in a gym.  You finished a set on a machine.  You've not completed the total number of sets you wanted to do, but you politely get up to allow someone else to have a turn.  Guess what!  Another person takes the seat and DOES NOT take turns, but stays on that seat until he / she has completed every set plus his / her rest moments in between.

     Fried chicken restaurants everywhere ... across the street from each other... a half dozen (or so) of them all within a couple neighborhood blocks.  There are not enough chicken restaurants.

     You're sitting in the cafe car of the train.  Someone else is sitting next to you.  There really isn't any room for anyone else on the bench, but someone else (and his wife / her husband) tries to squeeze in between the two of you anyway leaving you and the other person who was there at the start pushed out towards the very edges of the bench.

     Magpies.  The magpie is Korea's national bird.  They are black with black and white wings.  You'll see them, and you'll hear them.

     Cemeteries on mountainsides.

     Motorcycles being driven on sidewalks.  Don't be surprised if you see one coming right at you and you don't know whether to go left or right, because you don't know what the driver will do.

     Cars parked on a sidewalk (and maybe on a street [but not next to the curb]) so the driver can make a quick run into a bank, store, or post office.

     Drivers going right through red lights as if the red lights were not even there.  Be careful when crossing streets.

     Pickles.

     Someone standing right in front of the elevator door.  I mean his / her nose is almost touching the door as if he / she is determined to be the first one through that door, never mind that someone might be in the same position on the other side of the door.