top 10 funny/interesting things we found in korea

These are things we have observed since we have been here:

10. While walking on the street, we often have kids stare at us and sometimes say hello...we have a few times had grown men walk up to us, say hello, then start giggling. We usually then say, "How are you?" and this brings on another hello and more giggling.

9. Our school (and the rest of Korea) is absolutely paranoid about the swine flu. They give everybody hand sanitizer in every class, as well as check all the students temperatures when they arrive at school and throughout the day. To check temperatures, they use the same ear thermometer for everyone...no changing the cover or anything. Then, they have a water machine with two cups, a pink and a blue. All the girls share the pink one, and all the boys share the blue one. That is over a hundred kids a day. It's hilarious! They are so worried about the outbreak of this flu, but they don't seem to realize germs are spread by spit. (and trust me, I have seen some kids sucking on the side of that cup, or drooling all over it...gross!)

8. Everywhere you look here, there are shops...small ones, but tons of them. And everything similar is grouped together. There are some parts of town that have literally 15 cell phone shops in a row, and half of them will be the same company. Then there are plant stores. There will be 10 of them next to each other, but you can't find any of them a mile down the road. The "thing" near us is towel shops. We must have 10 towel shops right next door to each other and all they do is sell towels...mostly small ones that say the date on it. We can't figure it out because they have tons and tons of them displayed outside their store, but we have never seen anyone buy any or anyone inside the store. I wonder what happens to the towels that have old dates on them...weird stuff!

7. We went out of town this past weekend and our bus driver, while driving a bus full of people, was casually reading a book while driving! Also, almost every taxi you get into here, has a tv/gps (but always set on tv) in their front window. Seems a bit distracting...plus, there is some crazy driving hat goes on here, although we haven't seen or heard any accidents yet.

6. Commonly, but most often at night, we see men walking arm in arm or hand in hand together. Sometimes they have had too much soju (they country's cheap alcohol), but sometimes their just being friendly. Even the older (and younger) boys in our school are very affectionate with each other.

5. During our third week here, we got new teachers at our school. The first night they were here, we all took them out to eat. Ally, of the new teachers, ordered a side of rice with our meat that we were cooking. As Ally is eating her rice, Daniel (another teacher who has been here 7 months), reaches over the table and takes a scoop of her rice and starts eating it. He didn't realize it until it was almost to his mouth, and then said, "oh, can I have a bite of your rice?" It is the only way people eat here. They share everything. Many meals are ordered to come out on one big plate and everyone eats of the plate. It's pretty cool, I think!

4. When we hail a cab, everyone gets in on the passenger side, even if you are already on the driver side. You need to walk around and get in on the other side. I don't know why-Korean culture. Also, cars here are not allowed to turn left, except at a stoplight. So if there is a side road on the left that you need to get to, you have to pass the road, then hang a u-turn and go back to the street to make a right on it. It seems to make driving in general more dangerous to me...people making u-turns all over the place.

3. There are no napkins or paper towels here. At most restaurants, you will either have a roll of toilet paper or individual style kleenex at your table. If a kids spills water or juice in class, they run and get toilet paper. If a kid vomits on the floor, they use toilet paper to clean it up (yes, I have seen this). Toilet paper is used for everything that a napkin or paper towel would be used for in the states.

2. The Korean language is very whiny, especially when women are speaking. Their sentences seem to always end in a drawn out whine tone. The word for "yes" is nay, but they, again especially women it seems, use a extremely whiny sound instead. It's something like "uuagnhh". So ALL THE TIME in conversation, you here this sound over and over again. In classrooms when kids are reading out loud, the teacher will use this sound to encourage them to keep reading...it's kindof annoying. Thankfully (yes, sarcasm) Jared has picked up this sound and often answers my questions with an "uuagnnhhgg" instead of a simple and polite (I think), "yes."

1. Actual quotes from school work turned in by kids:
Nick teacher was trying to teach sequence or consequence. A kids wrote,
1. I got angry.
2. So I punch my baby.
3. My baby is die.

Another teacher had a boy turn in a couple sentences about his best friend. The boy ended his paragraph with this:

"My best friend is Jack. I want to always be intimate with him."

Those are the things that I have found most interesting or funny while being here in Korea. We went out of town this past weekend, so I'll write about that soon, and hopefully get some pictures up!

We are still here...

Things are going a bit better since my last post. I (we) definitely have days that we hate being here, but most days are pretty good. Only one day this week did I think about quitting and going home to something more fun and easier. So that was better than last week. Maybe next week, I will enjoy every day.

Really, most of the kids are enjoyable. There are just those select few that ruin it for everyone else...but hey, it's like that everywhere in life, right?

I have finally finished "Into the woods," by Bill Bryson. I've been working on that book for months. I don't know why it took me so long to finish...I very much enjoyed it. It's very inspiring to go try to hike a long trail. Maybe part of the pct next summer...hmm... Now I have started and am deeply into the 4th Harry Potter book. I decided to read the series a couple summers ago and have been reading other books into between each book. They seem to have picked up recently, so I doubt I'll be able to avoid the 5th after I finish this one. That doesn't make me nerdy, does it?

We didn't make it to a National Park last weekend because Jared got sick, and we were both too tired from work that we just sat inside all weekend and watched movies. Last night was a co-workers birthday and we all went out for dinner..cheesy, spicy rice cooked in the center of the table. It's pretty good. Today, we are going to go walking. I'm not sure where yet, but I know we need to start thinking about Christmas gifts, so maybe we will go shopping.

If anyone has a request from Korea, let me know. Apparently shipping is cheap from here to the states. And if anyone wants to send any Cheetos or something fun, we are always happy to accept gifts... :) jk

Our address, for those who have asked:

Kate Tomlinson/Jared Trine
877-6 Daldong, Namgu
Ulsan, South Korea 680-030

Hope everyone is staying warm. It's still nice-ish here. 50s and 60s.