Snails and Pizza Trucks, Things That Make Me Laugh

One of the things I love about living here is that something makes me laugh everyday. It's either a cute kid saying or an awkward translation or just the humor of not having any idea what's going on a lot of the time.

On Thursday, I had a fun conversation with one of my bilingual 2nd grade classes. One of the girls had just returned from a tour of Europe with her family, so I had her tell about her trip for the first few minutes of class. Then I had the other kids ask her questions. Finally, it was my turn to ask a question. Korean tour companies are known to take groups only to Korean restaurants, so I asked "What did you eat on your trip?"

She blushed a little and with horrified expression on her face whispered, "In France, we ate . . . SNAILS!"

All the kids in the class grimaced and said "EEEEEWWWWWW!"

"Was this at a French restaurant?" I asked.

"Yes, they eat snails in France!"

All the kids started chattering to each other, "Snails. Eeeewwww."

Then it dawned on me, Koreans eat snails, too! "Hey, everyone, what are you eeeewwwing about? I've seen people eat snails here in Korea. I've eaten snails here in Korea. They sell them in the grocery store!"

One of the boys retorted, "But she ate FRENCH SNAILS."

Once again, there was a group "EEEEEWWWWW."

Then one of the girls said, "I don't like to eat snails. I like to pet them!"

And another girl from across the table chimed in, "Yes, I like to pet them, too."

While I was contemplating the image of two little girls petting snails, one of the boys added, "Snails make good pets." The rest of the class nodded in agreement. I'm not really sure how they came to that conclusion. I had a pet snail named James. He was marginally interesting but not something I'd describe as a good pet, but I let the subject drop.

"Did you eat any Korean food on your trip?" I asked.

"Yes. We went to a Korean restaurant and ate kimchi!" she replied.

All the other kids got big grins on their faces, and no exaggeration, they started cheering and clapping, "YAY KIMCHI!!!!!!" Now don't get me wrong. I like kimchi, but I don't have the love for the stuff that most Koreans do, and it made me laugh to hear the kids cheering for spicy pickled cabbage that most American kids wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

That's just one of the funny little moments that happens everyday. And here's another, the side of a delivery truck, as seen outside my apartment building yesterday morning:
Enough said.