Compare/Contrast Busan and Dallas

Hey, I am an English teacher, right? So I’m kicking it old school with a compare/contrast post.

Things they have in Busan and in Dallas:

7 Eleven, McDonald’s (cheap, too - in Barcelona a Big Mac meal was the equivalent of $10, and although here it looks expensive because it’s 3500 Won, that’s really like 3 bucks), KFC, Burger King, Friday’s, Bennigan’s, (well, actually I guess they don’t have Bennigan’s in Dallas any more... maybe if they served spaghetti like they do here, they’d still be in business), Outback (but it’s actually not out back here either, it’s upstairs)*, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts (at least it’s correctly named here, unlike in Spain where it’s called Dunkin Coffee), Starbuck’s (you think it’s expensive in Dallas? Try twice as much here), Cold Stone Creamery, Baskin Robbins (apparently love of ice cream is universal), bad Asian drivers (but somehow it works when everyone’s doing it), waffles, every bad crime show on CBS, 2-year old episodes of MTV and Bravo shows, false eyelashes (and they’re less than $1 a pair, score!!!), baseball (8 teams that play over 100 games a year - AGAINST EACH OTHER - and the Korean obsession with it is something I understand less than the European obsession with soccer)**, strawberry Chap Stick (a million times better than cherry, I don’t care what Katy Perry says), Kenny Rogers music, and plastic surgery (apparently 75% of Korean women have had epicanthic fold surgery on their eyes).

Things they have in Busan that they don’t have in Dallas:

3 million Koreans, PC Bangs (pronounced like ‘bongs’ - internet gaming houses on every corner because gaming is huge here), tons and tons of street vendors selling mostly unidentifiable food that smells delicious (reminiscent of the State Fair, but not costing a million tickets), kimchi (which is delicious, and not at all scary - think non-mayonnaise-y, spicy cole slaw), silver plates, cups, and chopsticks, decorative wall stickers (which are actually really cute), Soju (Soju:Busan as sweet tea:Texas - that is, if sweet tea got you drunk), ham-flavored potato chips and Cheetos (I guess only America is missing out on this phenomenon because they had them in Europe too), McDonald’s Bacon Tomato Burger and corn salad (um, why are they holding out on Americans?), dead fish on display pretty much everywhere you look, umbrellas used as parasols (due to the extreme Korean fear of dark skin), beaches, the subway (which, as subway systems go, Busan’s is really nice and easy to navigate), and of course Angela, Chris, Eric, and Jen.

Things they have in Dallas that they don’t have in Busan:

Chipotle (why, oh, why can’t every place on Earth be as obsessed with Chipotle as I am???), guacamole (but don’t worry, I’m spreading the word), my loved ones (but that’s not exactly a surprise, because duh), deodorant (I guess Koreans just don’t have B.O.), sales tax, forks, fat people (the biggest Korean person I’ve seen is the size of my left calf), gay people (is it because Koreans all choose to be straight? No, it’s because of this)***, any kind of illegal drugs (Korea has a zero-tolerance policy), Daylight Savings, lawns, ethnic majorities/minorities (seriously, Korea only has one race - Koreans), trash cans outdoors (it is literally a scavenger hunt to find a place to throw things away), the ampersand, the letter R.

Things they don’t seem to have either here or at home:

Falafels, Don Simon sangria, nude beaches, hostels, and my Barcelona friends. Sad, but true.


So it turns out it’s not so different here than it is there, and honestly, identifying the little differences is one of my favorite things about life abroad. It’s like a game of quirks that I can’t lose.

*Disclaimer: This joke is just one more step in the direction of ultimately becoming my mother.
**It’s not that I don’t like soccer or baseball, I just don’t understand how having only one big sport doesn’t get boring.
***If it’s not clear that I’m kidding here, you must not know me. But welcome to my blog.