China v. Korea

It is quite nice to be back in Korea. Much more relaxing. As Prof. Bowman says, China is sort of like the wild west. It is fairly dirty and grimy. This is not to say that I do not like it. The people have to make money there, or they do not eat. So everybody's life revolves around making money. The best way for them to that, or an extremely lucrative way of doing so, is by charging tourists exorbotant prices for goods and services. The outrageous prices are not greater, and often less, than the tourist would pay for comparable goods and services in his/her home country. The thing is that in China, you can get these for a fraction of the price elsewhere in the world because of the abundance of cheap labor, all though it seems this is begining to change, as well as the fact that China keeps it currency at an artificially low value, which also may soon change. Anyhow, after exhaustive efforts at hangling with the people, you can drop the price to amounts many times cheaper than the original price. The buyer gets what he wants for cheap, and the seller still makes a decent profit. This process must be constantly delt with. Eating. Transportation. Shopping. Information. Bathroom (occasionally). And so on and so forth. A person can seemingly buy whatever he/she fancies in China for very cheap and it is fairly exciting. The people, when not on duty to make money off of you, are very pleasant. One night, we hung with a girl at a bar for a number of hours and it was a good time. The following night, I sat and watched soccer with two guys who spoke zero English for about two hours, and they would not let me buy any beers, which they bought many of. When they left, the young folks (my age) invited me to sit with them, and we discussed music, motorcycles, etc... During the day, the men, who care very little about appearances, lift up their dirty t-shirts to their chests and let their buddha-esque stomachs hang out with absolutely no shame. The place has the craziest driving I have ever seen as well. All in all, I really like it there, but it is dirty and exausting.

Back in Korea, things are much easier. The driving is tame and seems to be governed by some set of rules. The people here in the city are doing fairly well, financially. All the girls have seemingly perfect physiques. The girls are all trim and sleek. Fat people are mostly non existant in Seoul. The women all are very stylish and dressed up. Some fashion of heels are worn at all times. The majority of men dress in similar fine fashion, often in suits or designer clothes. Many are to the point of being very efiminate, not unlike girly guys in the U.S. Getting around here is not exhausting. It is actually quite pleasant. The problem with all of this is that NOBODY will speak to you. There is one girl who works at the international affairs office who hangs out with us sometimes who we speak to. That is all. Not kidding. Jake, Kip, and I asked her one night over drinks what we had to do to hang out with some people (girls). She basically told us most girls meet guys on blind dates, and we could not talk to anybody casually. It had to be formal and with long-term intentions. She told us we should "just leave them alone." Ask you may guess, not what we wanted to hear. Tonight Jake and I ate ice cream and the restaurant was full of people. Girls. We stay at a women's university. Every seat in the house, for the most part, was occupied, minus the four seats right next to us. No one would even sit there. Two girls finally came and sat at our table, with seats separating us, but quickly thought it unwise and promptly re-located. Far from flattering. Apparently, these people are shy. But come on. Anyhow, it will be nice to get back to the U.S. where it is possibly to meet new people with out being on a blind date.