I honestly couldn't recall if there was anything about the Korean experience I hadn't related, and figured the women behind the restaurants, washing dishes and peeling onions really didn't tell anyone much. Nor did the people who come around with push carts to haul away boxes. I've *heard* garbage trucks, I think, and seen the odd recycling truck, and trucks hauling away food waste. (which, BTW, is a sight that is indeed as evil as you could imagine it to be,) and.....well, taken in total, Korea's capacity for waste management is not nearly what it needs to be. Which is not to say that the place is an all-around pig sty, floors and windows are kept immaculate, floors because as much time as they spend on the floor, it only makes sense, windows, frankly, I don't know. Just keeps that image of clean, I guess. But the needs of 48 million bodies can generate a lot of crap, and I guess if you don't know where to put it all, or what to do with it, it just kinda stays put. This state of affairs probably bothers me as much as anything else.
If we're lucky, Korea will see this as a problem at some point, and perhaps give us the next great leap forward in creating electricity or powering cars on pelletized pork fat or something equally arcane. (Hell, all that Soju sweet potato wine could do as much to power the cabs as it could the cabbies, I would think, but that's just me. The CNG used to power the cabs and buses in most cases seems an adequately green solution.) As I've said many times about Korea, one can only hope......
But the other thing that's really hit me throughout the trip, is acne. Not to the point where I've gone all pizza-face, but I've had it worse since I've been here than I have in I don't know HOW long. Usually a one-or-two-zits-at-a-time deal, probably mostly from stress, at first, although lately I'd say the summer heat played a role too, if I had to guess. But then I started thinking, "God, what if my body chemistry really HAS changed that much?!" And how else might it affect me? I guess I'll know more, somewhere along the line, when other people can tell me more. My students just tell me I talk too fast sometimes. Ah, well, a diamond's just a lump of coal that's been through hell, too, right?