Vendors

It is so cold here that I find myself leaving work without ever having taken my coat off. They don't use the conventional heating system that we use in the states. Most houses (aparts- standard houses are non-existent for the most part here in Korea), are equipped with ill insulated walls and floors, and the floors have hot water pipes running through them creating heat. Fortunately, I am on the second floor and the person below me has their heat cranked at all time, rising nicely into my apart!
I spent most of the day being head butted by one of my five year old students, "Chally" his teacher told me his name was, thankfully I have taught him how to properly spell it and have shared with him another letter in the English alphabet- "R".
ONLY IN KOREA: Vendors on the side of the road who look as if they have done one of two things: A- raided their wives closets and are selling the "good stuff" and B- the vendors who have the oddest variety of things to sell. The woman I passed this morning had the following on or around her 3 foot table: A men's suit, a track suit (the Korean tuxedo), two sizes of luggage, a pot, a Sterno- yes one?!, a ladle, 3 ties, 20 pairs of infant socks and a yellow plastic piggy bank. I stopped in amazement and thought to myself:
"Now if I was on my way to a really fancy gathering I would totally make use of the track suit- throwing on a tie with it to make it a "proper" tuxedo. I could grab the pot and make some of my famous kimchee, ladling it out of my Sterno lit pot proudly to all the guests asking them to kindly fill my plastic piggy bank with won for all of my hard work. I would give socks as gag gifts, because of course they are infants socks and they wouldn't fit any one in Korea- (they would in fact fit most everyone). I'll have to pass on the luggage because I really have no use for it!- sensible of me huh!"
And without buying a thing I continued on!

Headed off for a fabulous dinner with Trevor, I am really missing good restaurants- there are some here I am sure but not being a fan of Korean food puts a lot of restrictions on the places I go. We are going for BBQ Chicken or to the Outback- amazing that the worst restaurants in America have somehow franchised to Korea- why cant the Olive Garden open here?