More cool things in Korea

Here are some things you probably wouldn’t see back home:

A tube slide at a childrens daycare that goes out the 2rd floor window onto a busy street. Have fun kids!!!

Today, in the morning, I took my first poo at school. This is notable because there is no soap at my school. No soap in any of the bathrooms at all. No soap. Think about it.

There are no stop signs in our city of 250,000. Stop lights at major intersections, yes. But for every other intersection in the city, cars either honk (“I’m coming through”) or creep up to the intersection before they go through. Even at lights, if there isn’t anyone coming through, cabs and police will slowly ease through the red… after a warning honk. The exception, of course, is the scooters and mopeds who don't abide by any rules.

Because of the above point, drivers are FAR more attentive and way more skilled in Korea than back home.

If you don’t have your stuff on the conveyor belt in the grocery store, you are not officially “in line”. Someone will slide in front of you. Cueing doesn’t exist – therefore British people go crazy in Korea.

When signing contracts (which we have to do a lot of here) you are supposed to use a stamp to endorse it, rather than using your signature, like we do back home. In most cases, our signatures were fine, but when I agreed to teach an extra class, I was required to leave my mark in another way. They asked me to leave my thumb print on each page of the contract. Kind of neat in theory, however, the colourful character than I am, I was a little paranoid of leaving my full thumb print on the pages... so I only pressed down with the tip! I even told my co-teacher that thumb prints are only for when you go to jail! I'm such a loser!

Now, don't get the wrong idea. Those who know me, understand that I'm pretty easy going, so I love seeing stuff like this. This is what learning a new culture is all about, and what makes even going to the bathroom an adventure.