So I realize that the longer I am out here (1 month!) the more spread apart these posts are. I am deeply apologetic for this. Things have been going well. I am getting into the swing of things here. Being foreign has allowed me to be able to mundane things that somehow become interesting. For example: maintaining my house. I don't have a stove here (something that makes me miss cooking a lot). Every 2 months a woman comes around with her magic wand to make sure there are no gas leaks near my gas range. She came in all of her methane glory last week. I usually sleep until 8:30-9 because I don't have to go to work until 1:30 and so I was chilling in bed when I heard a ring. I don't know about you, but I am hardly presentable at such an hour (this hour being anytime before 8:30-9) who should it be but gas lady. I ran to the door, and was greeting by a wonderful smile and a black baton with a meter at the end of it. She came in, checked what she needed and then said "Sign Here" which I did. End of story, see you in two months...or so I thought.

That night I was deciding that I needed to get to bed earlier and was dozing off after a nice read. I was just about asleep when I get a ring at my door. If it had been 6 o'clock in the evening I wouldn't have been surprised. Then I remembered that it was Korea and people here work on Saturday. Here was gas lady again. When she saw me (I am the only foreigner in the building) she threw up her hands and took mine and yelled "SORRY". I smiled and told her not to worry (although she didn't know English so I hope she understood) and then she proceeded to open my door again to tell me "Sorry'' about 6 more times. This woman was repentant. I will be waiting with wine and cheese next time she comes for a visit.

Fashion here is great too. All the kids are wearing t-shirts with English writing on them, which confuses me because I have to imagine they have no idea what it means. That happens in the United States too, and I guess isn't too weird because people get those stupid Chinese symbols on themselves all the time, only to find out later they have just tattooed the word "idiot" on themselves. There is something different about it here. It feels like a joke that only a few people get. It's not just on clothes here, too. It's everywhere. On pencil cases, in resturaunts. Here are some of my favorites:

-On a t-shirt that my student was wearing:
"HappyBear. I feel happy when I eat a him."

-On a student's pencil case:
"So Cute Mushrooms Brothers: We give thanks for another beautiful day from God, and a look from a flirtatious stranger."

-On another pencil case (they are big here):
"Booby: flowers in the field are so lovely"

Another great work is in a chain of restaurants called DaSarang, which serves chicken and pizza, and that's all. They have a manifesto of sorts on their wall. It's a very posh looking place that has nice booths and low lighting and in stainless steel lettering on a marble wall are about 20 lines of writing. I can't remember them all but somewhere on the wall were the following words:

"We hopes to be number too in the industry of phreshness, declaring fairity among world among the phreshness....Europe and counting the tolerance of equality"

And this ladies and gentlemen, are in establishments across the country. I love Korean.