Jeff has been in Korea for a half a year now, and I'm going on somewhere around 18 months! It would be a lie to say the culture has had no effect on us. We both eat kimchi, we both give and receive items with two hands, we both give slight bows when entering or leaving a building, and we both invade people's personal space without flinching.
But would you believe me if I said our lack of chair usage wasn't a result of being in Asia? Granted, many Koreans do not use sofas or chairs... or even beds... but that is not why we've opted to use folded up blankets instead of the chairs we so awkwardly placed in the middle of the room. You see, we both have a tendency to sit on the floor, regardless. Ask our parents, our college roommates, whoever knows us best. I have to admit, the floor heat used in our Korean apartments helps make the floor all the more inviting on a cold winter day!
Wait... I take that back. The floor heating makes the ground level more inviting at my house, but not at Jeff's. He's a bit more cost-efficient and uses a "heat fan" instead of the hot water pipes underfoot. That would be a more accurate explanation of why the blankets are folded up so nice and thick, and why both piles of blankets and books are accompanied by our much-appreciated slippers. His floor is chiiilllly!
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