What I&#39;ve learned so far

-Bread is hard to find and mainly available in bakeries only. Also it is creamier than the bread at home. Kind of like a half moon cake (those Jos Louis snacks)

-Coffee, peanut butter, toilet paper, and grapes are expensive here

-Chips are available in 3 flavours- plain, hot (BBQ) and Onion

-Walking around town you will notice intermittant stinky smells. It's the sewer

-The air is fine but the pollution is bad enough that you can't see the stars at night

-'Shopping district' means 20,000 stores or more in one area, minimum. You can buy anything you want and it's usually cheap. Bartering is OK too. Mel bartered on some hand creme.

-Skulls are big here. Skull high heels, skull hoodies, shirts and jewelery are everywhere.

-The subways are bilingual and easy to understand.

-Don't drink the water

-It's warm here! Shorts only even this close to October

-The music is the same as at home, just in Korean. We've heard Korean versions of Ghetto Superstar, some Celine Dion songs, Green Day and such

-Beer is cheap! Soju (rice vodka) is less than a buck at most stores.

-There are lots of American brands available. There's McD's, KFC, Pizza Hut (your pizza is served with pickles), TGI Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, Budweiser, Coke, Pepsi, Dove, L'Oreal, IGA.

- Items we haven't been able to find yet: candles, cups and plates, garbage bags, cheddar cheese (we've only seen cheese in one store and it was mozza), plug converters (the voltage and shape of the plgs are different here so our hairdryer and iron don't work), coffee cream, cafes. If you need clothes and shoes- no problem

-The sugar for your coffee is usually liquid sugar at most coffee shops

-There's a lot of random english on signs though the english isn't always usefull or relevant. It is usually funny though.

-We haven't seen any women smoking but a lot of the men smoke little thin cigarettes about as wide as a toothpick. It's cute!It's not hard to find a man passed out on the side of the road, liquor bottle still in hand.

-Little Korean kids come up to us all the time and say "Hi". We always say Hi back and they love it. It's so cute. You know "HEllo" is the only english word they know.

-Snoopy and Mickey Mouse are huge here.

-We've only seen one cat but some people have little dogs. Unfortunately the conditions of the pet stores are sad :( We saw dogs for sale on the side of the road. They were kept in little boxes with lights on them and they weren't even trying to move or escape. They just laid there. We saw a guy walking a shitzhu that looked pretty happy though.

-They have pigeons and mosquitos here. A lot more dragonflies here, I've noiticed. The spiders are bigger too.

-The shower drains over by the toilet so your bathroom floor is usually wet. We just get changed in the bedroom so we don't really mind. The shower nozzle is removable so you can spray up!

-You have to buy your shopping bags. They're only 50 won (5 cents) but you have to tell the cashier how many you want

-Pork is very popular and sold everywhere. It's white like chicken so I keep accidentally buying it.

-Kirsten Dunst is really popular. She's even on T-Shirts.

-Most departments stores are 4 or 5 floors and some are 10 or more. Usually the big ones have one floor where you can get plastic surgery done while shopping for clothes and shoes.

-Kimchi is served with every single meal, even breakfast. Kimchi is pickles vegetables, usually radish and cabbage and it's pretty spicy. Most koreans eat a full meal for breakfast, like octopus with rice and kimchi.

-Men's lingerie is very popular and men and women can usually buy matching lingerie.