Korean sountrack

In my travels, I don't think I've ever stayed anywhere long enough to notice how different it sounds. Like the flushing toilets that were our soundtrack at a small restaurant in Venice, some parts of the sound here are more pleasant than others.

It is interesting to me that the Korean commercials are just as likely to use Greenday or Kings of Convenience as they are to use a Korean artist. Some of the commercials even use English dialogue. I'm not sure who exactly they are targeting...

And so while you hear pop artists between tv shows, it's a totally different ballgame in the stores. While shopping I've had the joy of singing along to I've been working on the railroad and other classic children's songs. I've also started to realize that even though I don't understand the song lyrics, I can recognize Korean boy band music, teeny bop artists, and cheesy love songs. That apparently transcends language. And clubs? I'd think I was state-side if it wasn't for all the black hair instead of the blonds.

The other thing that's new to me is street noise. I guess anyone who has lived in an enormous city will be familiar with the honking and the traffic noise. In Korea, they are constantly building, so construction noise is huge here too. And there's lots of people noise, but it is unique here because the children knee-high and up walk everywhere at all hours by themselves. Alot of the street noise I hear is kid noise: laughing, squealing, yelling, scampering. It's actually kind of fun. What is less fun is the very acceptable habit here of hocking up loogies. I'm getting quite tired of the noise that makes, but any small boy would probably be thrilled at the amount of spitting that goes on here. I also can't forget the sound of the language. It is much more lyrical and gutteral than English. It can sound really pretty and quite coarse all in one conversation and I still have no clue what they are actually trying to say to me. That is still high on my goal list though!