A countdown of the strangest (to our foreign eyes) things we’ve discovered about Korea:

6. Trash bags are extremely difficult to find here in Korea. Greg and I looked up and down every aisle at Lotte Mart and Sing Sing Mart. Nothing. Finally (one whole week later) Greg got the brilliant beyond brilliant idea to ask one of the TAs at school and she was kind enough to write something in Korean on a sheet of paper. The rough translation of this message read:
   

   I want trash bags of any size. Show me. I will choose. Thank you.

   We took this message back to Lotte Mart and problem solved. Evidently, one can only buy trash bags at a special kiosk and they are quite expensive because they include the garbage collection fees (or so my economist husband thinks).

5. On Saturday, Greg and I woke up to an announcement coming from an unmarked white van with loud speakers on it’s roof parked right outside our window. Not understanding a lick of Korean, we of course began to think the worst. North Korea is invading! A giant purple monster is devouring the city! The red coats are coming! Peeking outside, we saw that nobody else seemed to be panicking, so we decided everything was safe and went about our business as usual. The van was back on Sunday…. turns out that it was just some guys selling stuff out of his van.
4. When giving someone something here (money, for instance), it is considered rude to just hand it over nonchalantly. One must instead touch your shoulder, elbow or forearm (with increasing levels of formality) with the non-giving hand, or—most formal of all—use two hands.
3. Apparently, It is a taboo in Korea to write someone’s name in red pen. It either means that you think that person is going to die soon, or you want them to die soon. Either way, one must remember this when correcting papers.
2. Some Koreans seem to believe in something called “fan death”. This mysterious condition is thought to occur when one has a fan turned on in a room and no windows open. It is believed that the fan can suck up all the oxygen and everyone will suffocate. This explains why often, we return from lunch to find our classroom windows wide open, helping to counteract the ever present threat of the air conditioner.
1. And the winner is…underwear! In Korea, underwear (called “panties” for both men and women) is a completely acceptable gift to give to certain people (teacher to student: probably not acceptable). We discovered this when one of the other teachers received a box set of Ralph Lauren underwear from one of his student’s parents.  We were all a bit puzzled by this, so we asked Lucia, another Korean TA, what she thought of this gift. She explained to us that giving underwear is seen as a sign of respect and gratitude to one’s elders. Teachers often receive expensive underwear from students (or their parents) and when children have graduated college and land their first real job, they give underwear to their parents to say ” thanks for raising me well.” So Mom and Dad, expect a package in the mail.