The Weird and Strange....

I have seen some pretty strange stuff since I arrived in Korea four weeks ago. I keep thinking the food is perhaps the strangest--but amazingly, I am adjusting to it. But there are little things that keep popping up that are both amusing and at the same time somewhat amazing. What follows is just a tiny taste of those "weird things" that have crossed my path now and then.............

First...weird signs.
I have run across several downright funny examples of language gone bad.

If you use this toothpaste you will NEVER have to take calculus!


This is the name of one of my favorite restaurants in the dorm complex!



Auto-Mop for the handicapped!
I cut through a basement parking garage to get to the dining complex. They had this electric "cart" and from a distance I thought it was nice to see that handicap vehicles are available. As I got closer I looked again and laughed. This is an "Auto-Mop". They use it to sweep and mop the floor of the garage area. I can't imagine anything like this in the US.



The Traffic Guy
I was on a bus the other day and stuck in traffic. It was construction and I could see this construction "guy" waving his arms and trying to get everyone to be cautious around the men working in the area. I thought the guy was being a little over zealous with the arm waving...he was moving his arms in circles one way...then one arm would move..then the other...then both of them again. His head turned too! As the bus drew closer, I was amazed to see that this was an electric dummy dressed like a construction worker. I thought it was a pretty cool idea.



Mer-Man
I was sitting in a coffee shop in the "old" part of downtown Gwangju last Sunday. It was pretty warm outside and I decided a cold "cafe americano" was just what I needed. I was enjoying my drink and watching the world walk by outside the window when this guy "slid" into view. As the photo shows, he had a inner tube from a tire wrapped around his legs and was S-L-O-W-L-Y pushing himself down the street. It took him about 10 minutes to get by the store. He had a towel around his neck and would stop after each push and wipe his face. He looked like a male version of a mermaid--so I call him the mer-man.



Foot Massager in City Hall
I went to city hall to get a bus map the other day. In the main waiting area for bill paying, getting a passport, etc. they have a couple of foot massage machines! Huh? Imagine this in the U.S.! I looked at them strangely and some lady urged me to try one. I had to put plastic bags on my feet for sanitary reasons---and then stuck my feet into these machines and hit the green button. WOW...it was great! I must have stayed for 15 minutes. In fact my feet were a little sore when I finally hit the eject button and put my shoes back on. The nice lady took my picture.



$4.5 Million Dollars
A group of international students and faculty visited the Bank of Korea today. This is a Federal Reserve type of bank--so no people, just money! We toured the facility and I was amazed what we saw and touched! This first image is about $4.5 million dollars. It was sitting on a pallet and came out of the vault. We couldn't take pictures of the vault--but we walked into it. This was one of MANY, MANY pallets just like this. I can't imagine how much money was in there. We also saw the new 50,000 won note that was put into circulation last week. Most people haven't seen the bill yet. I got to hold a "package" of these bills--and a man told me it was about $450,000 worth of the new notes.


This photo shows one of the Chinese students holding ground up 1,000 won (about $1) notes. All bills come into this bank and if they are worn or marked up, they are shredded into tiny little bits. The bits are sucked into a machine that spits out sausages of ground up money. These old bills are sent to factories and turned into all types of things--tiles, pavement, jars, lids for things. It was pretty cool...and I got to take some of the "sausage" home....about $1,000 worth of ground up cash. Not sure what it will be good for--but it was pretty interesting.



So now I am home and contemplating heading out to the athletic field to partake in some aerobics this evening. It is hot and humid outside and I think I am going to pass on the outside activity. I hate staying in my little room --but the thought of huffing and puffing through an hour of calisthetics isn't something I want to do. So I will watch another episode of "The Wire" and get to bed early. I only have two more classes and I am finished! I am glad to be done and looking forward to moving on to China next week.