Pusan, Korea

An overcast day in Pusan on the Haeundae beach.

A vending machine for books on the Pusan subway. (In Korea, most people are occupied by reading, listening to their mp3, playing with their phone, or sometimes watching their personal video players. In China, they seem to be less concerned with filling up every second of their time when on public transportation. Even when I take a long train ride in China, I've never seen anyone reading anything other than the occasional magazine.)

In Korea...
I saw a man getting his nails done at a manicure shop in the mall.

I was walking with my friends on the beach where we walked in front of a large group of middle school age boys on a field trip. As we walked, they started to leave in groups and pass us. As they passed us, almost every group would dare the others to talk to us, the foreigners. We tried to talk to a few in English, but they were too embarrassed or didn't understand. So, I spoke to one of the boys in Korean and he just opened his mouth and stared. He wouldn't say anything. After he ran away, one of my friends said "He reacted to you speaking Korean as if a dog had just spoken something understandable!"

The lady checking my luggage for liquids at the airport on the way out of Korea saw my Korean study book and then started to speak to me in Korean. She asked me where I was studying and I told her I was a teacher. She then said "You teach Korean?" Although if she had talked to me longer, she would have realized I wasn't qualified, I was flattered at first.