I love this country.  I really do.  It is absolutely crazy and bizarre and I can’t, for the life of me find any pattern of predictability with these people.  On the surface they are very serious, conservative, and keep to themselves.  Don’t bother to smile at a passer-by in the street if your intention is to receive one in return; their stony, lifeless expressions are unaffected by such a nonsensical gesture.  Yet an “Anni-yang-ha-se-yo” coupled with a slight nod will get you one step closer to basic cordiality, and if you are comfortable enough taking it a few steps beyond that, you are very likely to find yourself in conversation so peculiar and hilarious you forget how you could ever feel lonely in a place like this.

I find it so adorable that for the first time since 2002, I am once again repeatedly asked “Brittany, as in Britney Spears?!”, as if it’s the first time anyone has ever made that connection.  I love conversations with university students in the subway who turn out to be 15 year old girls (who knew?) and ask many questions about Eminem and Justin Timberlake.  Better yet are the middle aged men seated next to us in the street food tent hand-feeding us soju, beef, and jalepenos from their table (we didn’t even have to use our own hands!).  Nothing better than dinner accompanied by ever-popular Korean fart humor from a group of true professionals.  Gom-be!  After dinner and a show, what’s better for digestion than walking at a steady pace away from some (drunk?) high school girls and their riddles regarding something about being a nurse?, or purse? or kayak, maybe?.. in the middle of the night, while begging my 30 year old mi-gook friend for a kiss.

Rarely a dull moment.