Muggy

Walking to school today felt like I was walking in a puddle of moisture.

Icky, eh?

I hear its raining right now too. Not that I've gone to check. I just saw some people mention it in their facebook statuses. Its the lazy-man weather checker.

And a lot more reliable than the real weatherman.

Good thing I keep an umbrella at school AND at home. SHA-BAM!

Now, please let me take a moment to delve into some things in Korea that I just don't understand.

#1: The unflushable TP

You walk into the bathroom. Here at school, they have music playing in the background (instrumental music of Barry Manilow songs are my favorite selections). You walk into the stall and you see what you normally see in a bathroom stall: a toilet, toilet paper, and trash can.

(In most public bathrooms, however, the toilet paper is not located in the stall. It is outside all the stalls near the sinks or whatnot. So you have to gauge how much TP you'll need for whatever deed you're about to do before you get to doing it. True story.)

But thats not the main focus of this. In lots of places here, you do not flush the TP in the toilet.

You fold it up and then throw it in the trash can. I think this is strange. I'm pretty sure most toilets can handle the paper-thin tissue. But for some reason, they just like to put it in the trash. And I think that is icky.

#2: The mini-broom

When you walk along the streets in Korea, you see lots of old people walking around. Most of the people have had long lives and worked really hard, and you can tell just how hard they've worked by the horrible back posture they currently have. Some of them are bent almost to a 90 degree angle. It is actually really sad.

After awhile, I noticed that Korea is weirdly promoting this back behavior with...the mini broom.

These brooms are only as tall as your knee or mid-thigh. So in order to use them, you have to bend all the way over.

I just want to shake up the world here and show them a regular sized broom. With a handle that is almost as tall as you, allowing you to walk around with your head held high. GENIUS!

#3: Advertising

Walking along the streets on a Friday night, don't be surprised to hear what sounds like a marching band pass by you. But don't worry, they're just advertising for whatever store hired them. Some are holding big banners while others are generously throwing flyers all over the road. No, they don't just hand them to people. They cover the streets with their advertisements.

Sometimes they'll forgo the fake marching band and just have some guy drive around and throw flyers or business cards out of his car.

It's awesome. Kinda. Friday and Saturday nights are the most popular times for these, so when you wake up the next morning you'll see streets lined with papers.

And then you'll see poor old ajumas (old ladies) with their mini brooms, sweeping them up.

It's a vicious cycle.

Honorable mention:

In Korea, every time you get a pizza, you also get a side of pickles!