Only in Korea

I met a friend-of-friends tonight: a flight attendant on her first Asian layover. She spoke with such animation about these Korean quirks that have become so familiar to me, I forget how odd they seem from fresh newcomer's eyes.


I've been sitting on a few bits-and-pieces photos for a while, forgetting how unusual they really are. In no particular order:

I did an interview with a local radio station, and they sent me this whale soap as a thank you gift. Whale soap. Like, from the blubber. Korean whaling is a really murky issue, and as an outsider, it's especially hard to get the facts straight. I can't quite bring myself to use the soap yet.

A few weeks after Buddha's birthday, paper lanterns still line a dank alleyway. The weather has been drizzly, and I love seeing these sudden pops of colour. 

Yellow dust is a spring phenomenon where wind currents carry sand and grit from the Gobi desert over to the Korean peninsula. Before coming to Korea, I didn't know "dust" could be a weather forecast. The grime that's marbling that puddle is a pretty sickly shade of yellow, up close.