You know who you are. You stand and stand and stand... or... you sit in your car and sit in your car and sit in your car... waiting, waiting, waiting. You just wanted some fries, right? What's taking so long? Well, if this sounds like you, I have surprise for you!
REAL POTATO STICKS
Not those nasty imitation potato sticks. Found in every convenience store and available as soon as the craving hits you! Now you too can eat these ready-made REAL POTATO STICKS whenever you want. :DLOL. I saw these at a station convenience store while waiting for my station, and couldn't resist taking a picture. I thought about buying a pack just because but... I can't imagine room-temperature french fries tasting good. Although, I guess these are "potato sticks"... So I don't know. Maybe I'll try some later... O_O
Keeping with my current food theme... There's a small mandu stand near one of my facilities and I got one the other day and now I'm hooked. It's W1,000 per mandu (because I'm uncreative and only buy the cheap kogi (pork) mandu). I bought two of these today for late lunch/dinner. They are basically pork and noodles wrapped in a pastry and about as big as my fist... I'm not sure what the outside of it is, I've heard someone refer to it as a "noodle-like substance"... but that's not quite right either. Either way, it's hot and tasty, and on a chilly day it's the best thing there is!
Since I spend a good portion of my day in subway stations, I'm developing a love of station food too. There's a store called "Sweet Bee" in the Jongno 3-ga station. However, I think the franchise name is Manjoo Hana (because of the bag and because I've seen some others around that aren't called Sweet Bee and are called Manjoo Hana). I'm not sure how to explain what these are, except that they smell very sweet (almost smells like waffles) and are a warm pastry filled with a yellow creme. ... Wow, I'm very bad at explaining food. Anyway, think of donut creme filling... only warm... ooooohhh... makes me want more of them again... 
I met Karin yesterday (yay!), and met a couple of her friends. Very nice people. And it was good to see Karin again, even if it took me a couple of trains and a couple of different exits to find her... LOL. We talked for quite a while at a french restaurant, and later ended up going to Hongdae to a Mexican restaurant. The food was quite good... however...
Can you read what's on the bottom?... If you can't, it says "better than authentic"
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......
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O_O
I don't think that's what they meant to say...
Of course, most signs in English in Korea are this way a little bit. Sometimes I just want to take pictures of all of them and make a collage... But that would be a lot of pictures... O_O
Like this picture...
Speaking of strange signs... I know that there are a lot of themed or specialty cafes, like dog, cat and Charlie Brown cafes, but near Kyung Hee University, is this place...
In other news, Koreans have solved the problem of how to call station security from the bathroom without a phone...
The picture on the left shows the call box right next to the toilet. The right is a close up picture of the same box, stating that you can call a subway station officer. Why, I don't know. "Hello!" "Hi, how can I help you?" "I just felt like saying hello from the toilet." "Oh... hello." "Hi!!!" or maybe "Hi, the toilet paper just ran out, can you bring me more?" "I'm a guy and can't go into the women's restroom." "Oh... too bad."
Speaking of toilets... I thought I'd give you a lesson on the Korean toilet system, since it can be vastly different from what we're used to.
This picture I actually took in May, but have seen it several times on this trip. This is what has been affectionally dubbed the "squatter" and works just like it sounds... It's a relatively old toilet system, but it's still found in some older public restrooms. For the most part though, if you find one of these, you can find a "western" or "modern" toilet in the stall next door. So if you walk into a stall in Korea and find one of these, just walk back out and look at the doors. For the most part, they are labeled which ones are squatters and which ones are toilet seats. Honestly, I have only seen these a fraction of the time I have been here, so I'm throwing it out there as a random tidbit. Also, in case you ever do visit here, and find one of these, and use it thinking there is no alternative. There IS. One of the girls on my trip did this and later found out she didn't have to... LOL. Most younger Koreans I've noticed also avoid using the squatters if they can. However, if you are in a very modern or popular shopping area, you may even be upgraded to a bidet. Unfortunately the instructions are all in Korean, so I avoid these as well.
One other weird thing is Korean's relationship with toilet paper. I've already told you about the "Don't leave the toilet paper in the bathroom" rule. Well, recently (and only once, so you probably don't have to worry about it too much) I walked into a public restroom and saw the women ahead of me walk to the toilet paper dispenser on the wall, take some, and proceed to the toilet. I followed suit (since that usually happens to be the smartest plan), and found that the toilet stalls lacked toilet paper... So... if you see a toilet paper dispenser... TAKE SOME FIRST. LOL.
Speaking of... I don't think I've ever seen my roommate take toilet paper into the bathroom... And I don't think she even has any toilet paper... Wait... What.... ew.... ANYWAY.
WASHING. A lot of Koreans don't wash their hands after they go... Ew... They also normally have a sink, soap bar on a handle, and a electric hand dryer. Never (or rarely) soft soap or paper towels. The soap bar on a handle really weirds me out for some reason. I don't usually use soap bars, but it's the norm here. In fact, when I went out to purchase daily necessities, hand soap was on my list, but there were only a few varieties of hand soap to choose from. Also, the electric hand dryers are normally broken here too. So, in winter, washing your hands here is no joke. I may actually stop washing my hands too... But I'll carry wetwipes with me or something. I don't think I'll ever get the whole not washing thing... then again, Koreans probably are thinking "Gross American... Why won't she wear the health mask?" Of course, I stopped using it after that one day... and I keep thinking... What do Koreans do about their snot.... O_O
So... I started my post talking about food and ended up talking about snot... Wow. Don't judge me.
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