The Gym

Finally, it's starting to cool down here.  I wore a sweater for the first time tonight.

Scott and I have been enjoying going to the gym.  We go to the university gym.  It is almost empty during the day which works very well for me since I teach in the evening when it gets busier there.  There are some differences between American gyms and Korean gyms.  One difference is that you have to remove your shoes to go into the locker room.  People remove shoes before entering houses and going into traditional Korean restaurants.  There is a special lower part of the floor by the entrance where you can leave your shoes.  The locker room floor is kept pretty clean, so socks are fine for it.  Unfortunately, out in the gym, some young men spit on the floor between the treadmills, so I would avoid stepping there.  Spitting is very common among men of all ages.  It is not everyone though, and Scott and I have met some Korean people who find the spitting gross.  One final thing about our Korean gym is that the cardio equipment goes largely unused.  That is because everyone there is already very skinny.  Koreans make the French seem like fatties :)

Some interesting context about South Korean education

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2094427-1,00.html

Cantina and Dunsandong

Scott and I have gotten used to traveling to other parts of Daejeon now by subway and/or bus.  On the weekend, we like to go out to eat in Dunsandong,a busier, richer, and less pungent neighborhood than our own.  There are tall commercial building in that neighborhood with multi-story shopping centers and various western-style places to eat.  On Saturday,  Alex joined us for dinner there at Mexican restaurant called Cantina.  We've been craving Mexican for a while; we had a neighborhood place back in Minnesota that we frequented.  Our expectations were unrealistically high.  The food was expensive and very mediocre.  But it was nice to dine somewhere different.  Honestly, neither Scott nor I have really gotten into Korean food.