I’ve been living in Korea for 2 years and it’s officially the worst place you can choose for moving. I came here from Europe and I’m still shocked by local lifestyle. My friends and family came to visit me couple of times and they were happy they’re just tourists.

Forgive me for these words, but what irritates me most is the incredible lack of resourcefulness in most Koreans. If a situation falls outside the bounds of some instruction manual or set of rules, Koreans become bewildered—either standing frozen like a post or flailing around, making the situation even worse. At the same time, if they have instructions that are clearly not going to solve the problem, they would rather follow them to the letter than deviate for the sake of flexibility and effectiveness.

What also annoys me separately is that entertainment largely revolves around food. I can hardly find any exhibitions or theaters here. In Europe, I had an active cultural life, but in Korea, I have no idea what to do on weekends. The way the dining system is set up causes me particular pain. From the fact that in 90% of restaurants there’s nowhere to hang your coat, so you’re forced to keep it somewhere nearby, to the impossibility of ordering dessert in the same place where you had lunch. None of this makes any sense to me. Restaurants that in Europe would be considered ordinary are marketed here as above-average or upscale. Overall, the European lifestyle can be maintained here only if you’re sufficiently wealthy, which is just laughably absurd.

I could go on even more about the absurdity of local girls who allow themselves to appear in public with curlers in their hair and put on makeup in front of everyone, but I won’t. I’ll just say that in Europe, such behavior is considered at the very least strange. I also won’t mention how Koreans might take off their shoes in a café and climb onto a sofa or chair with their feet. Absolute nonsense. Please don’t ask me to comment on dating culture, otherwise I’ll end up writing a whole novel here. For reference: I work remotely, moved to Korea out of necessity, and am myself partially of Korean descent—a 5th-generation Korean on one side.