Little Ben Around The World: Last post on Korea

So this is the final post on Korea! We're already one week in China right now but have been so busy exploring Beijing that I'm running behind on updating the blog....We left South Korea from Busan last Wednesday but still want to share some things we picked up on our way through this fascinating country.

First of all, we really regret not having met more Koreans. We tried to couch surf with them but all our requests were left unanswered. So most of the time we were staying with English teachers from either the UK, the US or Canada.

Koreans are obsessed with learning English; they learn it at school during the day but most of them have extra private tuition during the evening. The country employs thousands of native English speakers to teach them and almost every foreigner you'll meet in Korea is an English teacher.

Kids, especially in secondary school, don't have easy lives. Every single day after school they attend extra classes, especially English but also maths, sports or music until 10pm. The aim is to get into one of the four top universities in South Korea because this will ensure them a job with a leading company.

Walking through Seoul, we noticed a lot of ads for cosmetic surgery clinics. Cosmetic surgery, especially for women, is widely accepted because looking beautiful will help them finding a good or better job. Lots of them have their eyelids corrected, apparently they love the double eye lids of western women. For those who are not so keen on having their face cut, there's always face yoga. You can sign up for a weekly one hour class of face exercises to keep you young and fresh.

We could hardly believe it when we heard the following; but Koreans truly believe that sleeping with the fan on will kill you. Even though they're all super educated, it's a superstition that's hard to eliminate.

One last thing about Koreans: they are cool cats! Colorful and extravagant, especially in the way they dress. They love kitschy stuff and they're all the time and everywhere playing with their smart phones, iPads or Nintendo DS.