A bidet, compliments, and indecent exposure

Musings about some of my experiences in Korea:

- A few months ago I had my first encounter with a bidet. You know, the toilet thing that squirts water to clean your bootie. Well, Dusty and I were at this restaurant enjoying drinks on a date. I had to use the bathroom. Ahem, I had to go number two. I put on the special bathroom slippers (weird) and went ahead and did my thing. Then I went to flush. Hmmm! There were several buttons with pictures (no words) and no obvious flusher. So I took a guess. As I pressed the button, I leaned over the toilet to make sure it was would flush. But instead, I heard a bell-like noise and water started to squirt up at me. It hit me right in the face. "OH, NO!" I thought to myself. Frantically, I started pushing buttons until the water stopped. Then, I tried another button thinking maybe it would be the magic flusher button. Just in case, I leaned up against the side wall of the stall so any water would miss me. Wrong again. This time, the water squirted out in all directions drenching me even more. Aah! Why would it ever be necessary to have water douse your entire bootie after using the toilet? Finally I managed to hit the stop button again. I looked in the mirror (that was in the stall) and realized that I was pretty drenched (in toilet water). Gross! I took one more look at those buttons. "CRAP!" No pun intended. I couldn't bring myself to push another button so with wet floors and walls, I quickly left the bathroom, found Dusty, discretely told him what happened, and we left that place. Now whenever I see another one of those toilets, I always think twice before going. I still don't know which button to push to flush but so far, I've been able to avoid another shower.

- Earlier this week I wore a long peasant skirt, a short sleeved shirt, and chacos to work. It's the first day I've worn sandals since we've been here and my feet were so excited to finally get to breathe again. When I walked in to teach my English Land 5 class, one of my students exclaimed with great excitement, "Teacher, your outfit is fantastic! You look beautiful." Well, it's not often you get a compliment like that let alone from a 10 year-old.

- Then I went to my English Land 2 class. When I walked in the room two or three of the kids squealed and laughed. They said, "Teacher, your arm muscles are very big." Now, I'm not sure if this was a compliment or not but they made the motion with their hands like I had two big humps on each arm. I took it as a compliment since they just as easily could've told me I was fat. Then I tried to explain that I rock climb but I'm not sure they got it. Side note: People here have no problem telling you you're fat. Luckily, nobody has said such a thing to me since we've been here.

- I went for a walk a few days ago down by the river near my work. It wasn't as nice as I had hoped. The water was nasty and smelly and... I saw two men pee in public in broad daylight. Yes, that's right. TWO! Can't you get arrested for that in America? I almost couldn't believe it when I saw the first guy. I looked around to see if anyone else noticed. Everyone seemed oblivious. Then, on my way back I saw another guy peeing in the exact same place. What the heck?