On "Fear"

Based on 15 months of observation, I have come to the conclusion that 99% of Korean peoples' fears stem from one of two categories:

1) Fear of foreigners
2) Fear of pigeons (or other small animals)

Allow me to provide you with a few corresponding examples:

1)I was browsing the aisles of Homeplus, Korea's version of a Fred Meyer's or Target. I started down the school supplies aisle and as I walked by a group of middle school aged girls, one of them caught glimpse of me and as she turned to take a second look, literally jumped at the sight of me. She had a nice gasp to go along with her whole-body jump and I heard her whispering to her friends as I continued down the aisle.

2)The other morning, on my walk to school, I was following some young university-aged boys down the sidewalk. When they came up to about four pigeons. As they walked by, the pigeons began to fly away and one of the guys literally ran off the sidewalk onto the street, arms in the air for protection, and let out a yelp of fear.

Believe me, these are only two examples of MANY such experiences my friends and I have had here.

See everybody? If people like me and pigeons are all I'm to worry about here in Korea, then I think I have it pretty good :)