random observations...

1. koreans are terrible drivers. this might sound stereotypical to those of you not trying to navigate these streets but it's really true (although i'm sure there are one or two decent drivers out there...just to be fair). jersey girls drive well compared to them and those of you from JMU know that's saying something! the korean drivers will drive on the wrong side of the road, drive 80 mph through the middle of town (exhibit a - our taxi driver last night. it scared me to death), and run through a red light only to come to a dead halt in the middle of an interesection. and forget about the old 'pedestrians have the right of way' rule. it doesn't apply here. you have to wait for the walk signal to come up, look both ways, and run across the street (cars & busses don't stop for anyone). i've feared for my life a time or two...one of the american teachers at our school actually got hit by a car a while back!


2. you know how in the US we walk on the right side of the sidewalk? there's no such set rule here. when we first got to tongyeong we noticed signs telling people to stick to the left side of the sidewalk. so, we thought maybe we should be walking on the left side...which works out only about 50% of the time. later on, we saw even more signs directing people to stay on the right side! so now we've realized that walking on the sidewalk is really just people-dodging. it definitely makes walking down the street a whole lot more interesting!


3. there are really only 2 car brands people here drive : hyundais and kias. that's it. although we did see a bmw today which was a huge deal.


4. old people here are scrappy. most of them are in much better shape than we are and can run up and down mountains like it's nothing. i'm amazed!

5. pickles come with everything. if you don't get actual pickles, it's a sure bet you'll get something pickled...japanese pickles are pretty popular and they're actually really good.

6. apparently, because we're foreigners, stuff breaks down for us a lot (this is a theory proposed by joy, one of the americans we work with). in the week we've been here, we've had both our internet and our apartment heat break down : two somewhat important things! we finally got the internet fixed (after two tries) and we've already had one guy come fix our heat. it sort've works but now we have an extremely annoying high-pitched screeching-kettle noise coming from the heating unit everytime it's turned on. so now, it's either be warm and annoyed or cold and...cold. sigh.

7. there are no suburbs and no real houses here either. almost everyone lives in an apartment of some sort, which is really interesting. because of this, almost all of the city of tongyeong looks like the downtown of an american city. once the city ends, therefore, it ends really abruptly and there's basically nothing but empty countryside.

8. Lotte Mart (a bigger version of walmart) is awesome. you literally have to rent out your shopping cart: it's about 10 cents each time and you get the money back when you return the cart. you also have to buy the plastic bags you use (and have to bag your own groceries). it's sort've a good idea because it really cuts down on the amount of bags you take and makes you pack each bag to the brim. these bags also serve as garbage bags, since there aren't any large trash bags like there are in the US. Lotte Mart also has an amazing food court, with ice cream and everything. mmmm

9. there are lots of random signs in english that seem really helpful at first but don't really get you very far. for example - there are a bunch of 'information' signs scattered throughout tongyeong so we decided we'd check out some good ol' information. once we got to one of them, however, everything was in korean. we think maybe the koreans want us to know that we're missing out on stuff by not knowing their language. "information here... too bad you can't read any of it." "this is a menu. unfortunately for you, you won't know what you ordered until it's right in front of you. live baby squid, anyone?"

--- also, all of the tourist locations have english names or equivalents, but none of the cab drivers bothered to learn them... pictionary skills finally coming in handy :D

10. there are heated floors everywhere, which are particularly nice against our shoeless feet :) cold VA floors seem only a distant memory...