There are tomatoes on my waffle...

As a sociology major, my mind is constantly racing with hundreds of sociological findings I've observed since I took up residency in South Korea. Like any good sociologist, most of it's based on race and gender. Language consciousness, cultural ettiquette, and age-based constructions have been brought to the forefront of my mind as well. I won't bore you with details, but if you've ever taken a sociology or phyc class I would highly recommend living in a different country for a while... it's amazing what you'll pick up on and think about.

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I have been living in Jinju for 3 weeks now. My love for this country has not receded in the least bit. I continue to find this place facinating. I'm so happy to be here, I'm in absoulte love.

I've met some amazingly cool people here. The foreigner community is pretty close-knit and being such a small city, everyone knows everyone. I've met people from all over the world (well, from the English-speaking countries anyways). You got your Brits, New Zealanders, Scotts, Australians, Canadians, Brazilians, and lots of Americans from the south and west coast. I've heard this setting described as a scene from the Real World- we're all living together in this foreign land, working on the weekdays at jobs none of us majored in, and spending the weekends bonding over the English language and Korean beer.

Nori (kareoke) bars are popular here. This isn't an actual Nori bar, but we are busting out the kareoke songs. Typical Nori bars are in private rooms with large TV screens. You pay per hour or per number of songs, depending.

Kevin hitting those high notes

Being the adventureous type I've had the opportunity to try lots of new things. Prime example below. My friend Joe and I decided to order a cocktail off the menu that we couldn't translate. Well, Joe could read "grapefruit" but the rest was unknown. After the cocktails arrived and a cheers was made we sipped what tasted like a mixture of vodka and mouthwash. It was absoultely horrid.

I'm pretty sure I had a nightmare about this drink. Just terrible.

Joe, myself, and those awful green drinks.

Not all cocktails in Jinju will make you want to keel over. Soju- popular Korean drink- is pretty tasty. It tastes similar to vodka but not as strong. Everyone loves it here.

My 1st Soju. We had it mixed with some strawberry flavoring- would remind you of a daquri. The Soju itself isn't all that bad.

Korean drinking facts:

• When you are drinking (with Koreans) you must hold your cup with two hands while the person next to you pours the alcohol into your cup. In respect, you return the favor and pour the beverage into your neighbors cup as he holds it with two hands. You must never pour your own drink.
• Korean drinkers know how to drink. Bars are filled everyday of the week. And drinking is a long affair- usually done with huge platters of food to share among the table. Interestingly, you don't hear of alcoholism being a social concern and drunken rages merely don't exist. Koreans keep it simple- they drink and they're merry when they do it.

Another fantastic little find was at a coffee shop. The Couples Waffle is heavenly. Joe and I split this one. Dressed with strawberry serbert, cookie's-n-cream ice cream, bananas, kiwi, tomatoes... wait. what?... and drizzled with chocolate it was the perfect dessert for any carb-loving customer.

Tomatoes? On a waffle? Really?

Spontaneous trip to Seoul (with pictures) coming soon.