I’ve been in South Korea for about 2 weeks now. Here are some of my personal observations of Koreans and places in the country. (When reading this list, please keep in mind this is my site about my experiences.)

• Not everything is written in Korean. English can sometimes be included on the menus, signs, transportation, internet sites.
• There are many high-rise buildings with 10-20 floors of apartment housing, even for families and in rural towns too. (At least there are elevators, right?) 
• Skyscrapers and high-rise buildings are surrounded by tall mountains along the horizon, even when I visited Seoul, Busan, Gwangju cities and in small towns, too. I read online that “the skyscraper boom is expected to accelerate in Korea” on The Korean Times. 
• Vegetables are in nearly every and any dish. (Good thing I actually love vegetables.)
• “Free” appetizers or side dishes always come with the main dish. (Similar to Olive Garden‘s “free” breadsticks.)  
• My summary of Korean food: Koreans love spicy with foods to add flavors, the soju drink, seafood, pork, and BBQ chicken.
• Soju is strong, cheap, like W1200, and drank pretty often. I’ve seen soju with lunch or dinner, and even being drank in public places. Also, it’s pretty easily accessible to buy.
• Koreans like honey and sweet foods, for example: potato chips taste sweet.
• Recycling and proper garbage bags are enforced.
• Public parks or roads are pretty clean of litter (starting to see this in NYC).
• Lots of scooters, bikes, and motor bikes.
• Lots of Adidas and tennis-style sneakers.
• Adidas slides are worn indoors. At hotels and some public places, there’ll be spare pairs of slides for visitors to wear.
• The mountains are very sudden/steep. (Though I haven’t hiked any yet!)
• Many buildings and busses/trains have air conditioners (starting to see this in NYC subways). 
• Koreans are very generous people and they have the “go-out-of-your-way-to-help” kind of personality, for example: When I was trying to figure out which bus to take, someone helped me before I thought about asking for help.
• People seem to be learning Chinese or English as their second languages.
• Korean babies and toddlers are the cutest.
• The children are vocally very loud and energetic.
• I’ve seen young children wear matching outfits with their siblings, which is super adorable.
• Teens/young adults wear shirts with such random English phrases or words, for example: I remember seeing a “Deep” hat or a “Can’t make me say it” shirt. 
• Many people ask me “Boyfriend?” or “Where boyfriend?” as if maybe assuming that I’m not alone.
• Males are super generous to females, for example: I’ve had a guy unexpectedly open and close the car door for me.
• Elders continue to dye their hair, for example: When I went to a church/mass, nearly all of the elders had dark/black color hair.
• Teens/young adult females wear pink/red lipsticks and high-platform sandals.
• Teens/young adults like to take a lot of cute selfies.
• Korean parents like to take a lot of pictures of their babies (Though if my baby were as cute as theirs, I also would take tons of pictures!)
• Highway signs include towns written in English.
• People mainly drive 3 colors of cars: White, Black, or Silver/Gray.
• Drivers nearly always back-up into parking spots.
• Fearless drivers. These drivers will pass you even if it’s a blindspot turn or keep rolling at red/yellow lights if they think there isn’t another car in passing.
• Many Hyundai, KIA, Renault Samsung brand cars. I’ve seen some Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW, and rarely Cadillac, 1 yellow Mustang!
• Some small SUVs have a monitor or something on the back rear window. (I’m not sure what it is yet…) 
• Elders, pregnant, weak, disabled people have “the right” for seats on busses/subways. (I did read about this respectful rule somewhere online.)
• Cute tunes play in public places, such as busses, and cute doodles on places I wouldn’t expect, like a cartoon face on a toilet.
• In some public women’s bathrooms, I’ve seen positive ‘body image’ quotes on the mirrors. A few times, I’ve seen a monitor screen to show which bathroom stalls are occupied or vacant.
• Also in some public bathrooms, you need to unroll some toilet paper before even going into the bathroom stall. (Hopefully you bring in how much you’ll need…)
• Lots of coffee shops, e-mart story, hair salons, technology stores on nearly every corner.
• There’s outdoor fitness equipment practically outside of each high-rise building/neighborhood. I’ve seen people use this equipment when it’s dark outside, like around 8pm. Why are they exercising before bed? Maybe they were busy during the daytime or it was too hot earlier.   
• There are a lot of parks and recreation areas. 
• There are a lot of rice farms.
• Many houses and neighborhoods have security cameras and/or fancy gates to their front doors.   
• Dogs and cats seem to be mostly outdoor pets. 
• A lot of trees are being held-up with other pieces of wood. 
• I’ve observed Korean television shows similar to The View, The Price is Right but with Dr. Oz, and strict newscasts. The newscasters’ appearances and tone are serious, though I can’t understand what they’re saying (since I don’t understand Korean).
• Internet speed is fast.
• Blocked web pages, for example: I couldn’t simply visit my US phone carrier’s webpage or listen to some artists on Spotify because of Security web blocks.
• Bugs/Spiders/Cockroaches are solid, thick bugs. They also move fast.
• I’m not sure how I feel about Korean live music performances or art, but so far I’ve seen some public street performances in Busan and plenty of wall murals.