Koreans will proudly tell you of their four seasons, no matter how much you plead with them that there is, say, the same thing in Michigan or most places in the Northern Hemisphere. But what is left out is\u00a0one essential, annoying part of those four seasons:\u00a0Monsoon season (\uc7a5\ub9c8).<\/p>\n
If you’re heading to the beaches of Busan or Jeju Island in June and July, you might find yourself rained or\u00a0typhoon-ed<\/em> out.* So what do the locals do? In Korea, rain (\ube44) is a call to drink makgeolli (\ub9c9\uac78\ub9ac). Sometimes these are hole-in-the-wall shops with plastic stools down quirky alleys. Sometimes there are caves that were once WWII bomb shelters.<\/a>\u00a0Either way, rain and makgeolli are synonymous in Korea.<\/p>\n However, makgeolli is famous for its legendary hangovers. But Korean marketing is on this issue, as you can see with K-Pop Star Hyeri’s (\ud61c\ub9ac) hangover cure commercial.<\/a>\u00a0Or go for this<\/a> hangover ice cream.<\/p>\n There are a number of Korean advertisements that can keep you busy in your apartment, hotel or love motel in Korea, such as this rapping grandma for the Korean electronics store Hi-Mart<\/a>, or this awkward and possibly offensive world beer commercial<\/a>, which shows how Koreans have rapidly become open-minded to non-Korean brewed beer.<\/p>\n Since most drinking establishments don’t open until the evening, this leaves you with a full day or torrential downpour, flooded streets and watching umbrellas turn inside out. Essentially during\u00a0monsoon season, or\u00a0jang-ma<\/em>, even the depressed salary man goes to work<\/a> in flip-flops and shorts (before switching to his shiny grey suit).<\/p>\n Jang-ma<\/em> doesn’t stop Korea’s high-speed KTX train, even if it is riddled with zombies, like in this highly anticipated Korean film, which premiered at Cannes last month to a 10-minute standing ovation, and will be released in July. (In Korean only.)<\/a><\/p>\n Or, feel free to ignore everything above, and just do nothing, which apparently is a thing in South Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n But perhaps the best way to enjoy the downpour is to join all the other Koreans–even the North Koreans<\/a>–on their coffee shop obsession. And, if you are still in the planning stages, this K-Drama, Coffee Prince (\ucee4\ud53c \ud504\ub9b0\uc2a4)<\/a>, might get you excited for the\u00a0jang-ma<\/em> drama. (And enjoy the Big Bang parody below.)<\/p>\n