Did you know....

• In Korea, you are not served water at a restaurant unless you ask for it, and sometimes, you have to get it yourself.
• They use metal water glasses that look like the top to a baby bottle (that shape).  They hold about 4 oz., so you have to constantly refill.  But they don't break.
• They use metal (stainless steel) chopsticks and spoons at dinner.  Metal chopsticks are by far the most slippery and difficult to use, compared to the wood ones or lacquer ones.
• Men in Korea are not afraid to wear pink pants, pink shoes, pink shirts, carry pink phones...they are not afraid of the color pink!
• Couples in Korea wear matching clothes (it's so geeky)...matching shoes, matching shirts, matching pants or shorts, sometimes they even cut their hair the same (the bowl seems popular).
• The napkins here are the size of a piece of note paper...seriously small and paper thin...no big triple-ply napkins here.  So one must take tons of them instead of using just one.
• Koreans likes to dress up their dogs. and/or dye their hair (I've seen hot pink and purple already).
• If you need directions, it's almost always safe to ask a young person, because they are learning English in school.
• They have a melon here that I've never seen before.  It's the size of a potato, yellow skin with a darker yellow stripe, tastes like a mild cantalope.  Yes, I'm being fed it on a regular basis and yes, I'm eating it (hard to believe, right)!
• Not all kitchens have ovens.  My homestay has a cooktop, a broiler (hasn't been used since I've been here), a microwave and a refrigerator (called a Tank...believe it or not).
• Everyone line dries their clothes...if they have dryers, they just don't use them because energy is so expensive.
• There are more than 11 million people in the Seoul City, but because of the great public transportation, the traffic isn't as bad as you might imagine it could be.
• Seniors and small children get to ride the subway for free.
• I see people give their seats up for and older people on the subway on a regular basis (that is if they haven't already shoved you out of the way to dive into it).
• When you attend meetings, you almost always get a gift.  Popular gifts are soap, towels, facial tissues, toothpaste, socks, umbrellas.  My homestay parents have closets full of these things.
• Bath towels are the size of our hand towels.  The towels you get as gifts from the meetings always have the name and date of the meeting on them.
• You can buy socks for 500W (US equivalent of less than 50 cents).
• Koreans usually only drink 1/2 cups of coffee.  It's strange, but if they make coffee for you, it's never a full cup...usually only a half, maybe two-thirds.  One of the reasons is that the instant coffee that they have requires only a small amount of water.  LOL
• No one says "excuse me" or "sorry" when they bump into you or need to get by...they just push by.  The only time I've ever heard it said, is when it's from a foreigner...just habit for us.  We say it, even when we know they probably don't understand.

Well that's all for now.  It's been raining now for three days straight.  I hope it dries up soon.  Be happy!