Reporting from Seoul

Last three-weeks, I have been in Seoul (it's pronounced as Soul),so here are the few interesting reflections of the place on my mind:

• People eat dinner at 6 p.m. itself. Man!. First-day when my new friend Dong Jin (He likes to be addressed as "Tobetter") asked me to join him for dinner, I was almost shocked! What?. Dinner! At this-time ?.But I guess one get use to the system in few days, as now a days we go for dinner at 6 p.m.:-). So,now I am having four meals in a day :P .Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Night:-)
• Here everybody has an electronic device in hand. I mean whether you see a kid, teen-aged, young, middle-aged or even a old-aged person. Each of them will be carrying a electronic device, or a book while local travel. They just keep playing games, watch video, or listen to music. I really wonder if they even see who is sitting next to them in the train (or bus).I wouldn't be surprised if if I come to know that they dint even notice presence of their close friend(s) in same train. I don't know;may be they are too occupied with themselves.
• They stay too long at work. I came to know that sometimes they do not even go home for several days, and just stay in office itself. My goodness! what do you do in office for so long dudes!!!
• As observerd by one friend (we call him "Chote/Shyam" - real name Sanny though),no one in Korea seems to have mustaches or beard. We don't know why though :-)
• I don't know how many times they brush their teeth in day ;-(. You will see n number of people doing-this just before/after lunch/dinner (actually anytime in the day).It's like in-India we keep comb in our pocket, and here they seem keep tooth-brush :D
• Public transport is just amazing. You just buy a T-money card (like a prepaid-pass), and you can use it seamlessly in any train, bus or taxi. In fact we have tried fooling the system as well. That also works :-).May be, I will update you in some other blog in details :P.
• We are required to change 1 bus, 3 trains, walk for almost 2 km. and climb 300+ stairs to reach office :-(. Now I realized why everyone looks so fit here! Yes, I have not seen more than 10 people who are even plump!!
• Do not put any 10,000 wons ( Yeah! Here, you have only 1000, 5000, 10000 won currency-notes in Korea) in the bus. As driver doesn't have rights to open the money box, and you will loose rest of the 9.000 won (the expected change in return) :-(. Surprised!! Yes, you are suppose to carry T-money card, or loose-money (change).
• During peak hours, traffic in Seoul is pathetic.
• People are very disciplined on the roads when traffic is not there, but once traffic is there; They are just like us :). No difference!
• Whole metro-infrastructure seems to be constructed underground. I think the gap between line-2 and line-6 will be more than 5 floors! "Lagta hai ye sehar andar se bilkul khokhla hai :-)".Jokes apart, Amazing infrastructure for public transport.
• Unlike India, where all of us at-least try to communicate in English (at work), these guys seems to love their native-language, and hence most of the meetings (even in office) are always in Hangul only :-(.It seems that they just don't care; even if you are sitting there, and aware that you wouldn't understand. They will just keep talking in Korean.
• Also, a meeting can go for hours-and-hours!! Meeting just rambles on and jogs.
• I don't know how do they manage to eat "even rice" with those chop-sticks. I tried, but no success yet!! They tell that you need to have really strong fingers for that :-(. Really!! My take is;it's just about habits.
• People are helping, and they will try to help you as much as they can. Although most of the people can not speak English,they can read it and write pretty well. So if we need to ask something to these people, better you write it down and show it to them rather than asking them in words.
• These guys are always in Hurry! And that is the part of their culture. So if you listen too many "Belly! Belly!" (hurry-hurry),don't get offended;it's part of their culture.
• To me, Hangul (Korean language) seems to be pretty easy and nice to learn :-). Already learnt quite a lot sentences,but mostly problem happens when I speak in Hangul, but the person on the other side is not expecting me to speak Hangul; and he/she thinks that I am speaking something in English only :-((nd can not decode it correctly :-(. But they really appreciate if you put any effort to learn their language.
• Somehow, I felt that female/male ratio is relatively height here. Not sure!.
• Hairs!! Man, people have really-good hairs here. I have hardly seen anyone having less hairs (other than My Manager :P, looks like he worked outside Korea for long time :D). Almost 90% people have same coiffure -irrespective of guys or girls - The style with hairs falling on the forehead. Man! You can never read the lines on their forehead :-)
• Seoul is awake through-out the night.
• It has lot of street-shops which really give you a feel of India.
• You should not miss a chance to bargain. Believe me, you can bargain more than you think! You can start from 50% as well.
• People have awesome dressing sense.Everyone seems to be a natty dresser.
• Most of the girls seem to wear skirts.And I wonder how do they manage to survive with them in the winter as chilling as -10 *C. Seoul might be a good place in summers ;-)
• Water seems to be costlier than beer :-S.
• To all the volley-ball players, these guys play it with legs man! But believe me, it's nice to see the control they have over the ball.