Random thoughts...

I can't believe it's only 10 days until Christmas...this year has flown by and I think back to the times when I was a kid and older people would tell me that each year goes by faster...well I think I have to agree with that. Hard to believe that just a year ago I was sitting in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport all day Christmas since there was a massive snowstorm in Denver (which delayed all of the flights into Dallas-Ft. Worth). I'd had a great 24th with my family in Prescott, AZ and was heading back to Charlotte...what a boring and horrible day that was. Well, this year I'll also be in the airport most of Christmas, but probably a little more excited...I'm so excited to be going to Auckland for Christmas this season. I have wanted to go there since I was just a little kid, and so this is sort of like a dream come true...I'll try to take plenty of pictures and add them here for everyone to see.
The weather here has been weird...it's really really cold for like 4 days and then it gets nice and is pretty warm for about 3 days and then continues the cycle over again. It's not bad except for the nights I'm riding my bicycle back from the hakwon (Kids College) at 8 PM...then I do miss my Maxima and heat! Other than that...I've had a pretty good relationship with my bike. My tires had about gone flat the last few weeks, and I finally got some air in the tires, which has made riding back and forth to school ridiculously easier...amazing what some air in a tire can do. I had meant to get them pumped up, but the tire stems here are totally different and I couldn't figure out really what to do...so I just kept riding as they got lower and lower. I finally went to the bike shop where I bought the bike and got it aired up and the lady checked out my tube for any leaks...the cost was a whopping 3,000 Won, (about $2.25)...so I've been riding around on nearly flat tires the last two months to save $2, pretty smart! HA!
So I finally tried oysters the other night...not the best thing I've ever had. They were on top of some kimchi when I went out to eat the other night and I thought "well, I've never had oysters, so why not try them?!" It tasted kind of like how it smells when you go near a lake after people have been fishing and gutted the fish and left a few hours prior...at least that was my take on it. Almost all of the Korean food I've had here though has been awesome and I really love it all.
So as much as I love Korea there are a few funny things I've noticed here:
People love to honk their horns. I don't really know why or what causes it, but I can be riding my bike crossing the street 50 yards in front of a car, and I can guarantee that the car will honk their horn at me. At first it really would tick me off...now I just kind of laugh and think it's ridiculous.
Koreans love "fake brands." When I first got here I was baffled at how many women had Louis Viton hand bags...they were everywhere! I knew that they were expensive and so I couldn't really understand why I saw so many of them. Well...in the Seoul subway you can buy anything, and I mean anything...well, I finally figured out why there were so many "Louis Viton" bags, they were fake! They're like 10,000 Won ($7.50) for a purse, and so it all made sense then. I bought some really nice "handmade silk (wink, wink)" ties, 2 for 5,000 Won! HA!
Koreans love microphones and blaring their voice to everyone. It's nothing to hear the the apple or tangerine truck rolling by at 8AM on Saturday with a recording just blaring over and over, giving the prices for the fruit. I go to the local grocery store and there is a dude who just walks around with a headset on, talking non-stop about all of the different sales and pricing...I think a nice sale flyer will suffice! HA
Anyway...as most of you know I love Korea, and those are only a few funny things I can really find here. Most of the people here are very kind and appreciate foreigners who try to struggle with some seriously broken (maybe busted is a better word) Korean. I have had a lot of fun learning Korean, but I'm always so hesitant to actually speak anything since I think my pronunciation is so awful...but every once and a while I'll try to break out some new Korean I've learned from my book!
So...anyway, I just had a few minutes tonight and wanted to just say some random stuff...I don't even know if any of it made sense, and althought I usually give in to my OCD and read, then re-read, then re-re-read my post, tonight I'm just going to post it and forget if there are any grammatical errors, or things that just don't make sense!