Things I've noticed

I've been in Korea for a week and two days. I still love it. Here are a few things I have noticed.

Kimchi, which is like a strange love-child of sauerkraut and Tabasco sauce, is a daily occurrence. It is practically an hourly occurrence. Koreans couldn't accidentally drink bathwater without a side of kimchi.

Korea might be the cleanest place in the world. The ratio of Koreans to Koreans-employed-by-the-government-to-clean-the-streets is 6:5.

Korea might be the safest place on earth. No one locks their apartment. One family in my building does, but they keep the key in a small bag attached to the door knob.

Everything about my life has a faint kimchi smell. It's like my own personal theme song, but in olfactory form.

My apartment complex has 5 security guards who do nothing. There is no crime here. However, on recycling day they are very busy making sure that everyone recycles according to the rules. Molly and I were yelled at by our security guard for throwing recyclables into the trash.

The church here does everything better than the church in America. Everything. Everyone tithes. I'm pretty sure that everyone gives above and beyond their tithe.

Koreans don't sleep. The average sleep time is 6-7 hours a night. Our pastor gets 3-4 hours a night. He wakes up at 3 for personal prayer before dawn prayer.

Older adults in Korea are adorable. All of them. They are the cutest people on earth. They crumple. The tallest Korean over the age of 65 has crumpled to 4 feet 3 inches. They all attend dawn prayer every day.

Little kids in Korea are cute but behave very badly. However, they get all of the naughtiness out of their systems when they are kids and they don't go through the sullen teenager phase that Americans do. It's a good trade off I think.

Koreans don't wear deodorant often, but the deodorant they sell here is definitely for Koreans. The deodorant stick is about a quarter of the size of American deodorant. It takes me 6 swipes to lather up my fat American arms with their skinny deodorant sticks.

Being force fed could also be used as a torture device to elicit information. I've had two meals at the same Japanese restaurant and both times the Koreans have given us so much food that we were physically sick for days afterward.