The weather here is suffering from a nasty dose of schizophrenia. One minute hot,the next cold. Last week I was waking up shivering, but today smacked all that nonsense out of me and provided a pleasantly warm day. Seeing as it was warm I decided on a trip into town to peruse new clothes in stores. what a mistake. Koreans in large numbers annoy the hell out of me. When walking around the main shopping areas of Daegu, the foothpaths are thronged with thousands of people, all ambling along on their two speed gear sticks- go slow and sudden unexpected stop. Now beacuse there are thousands of them and because the streets are a tad on the small side, everyone is compressed sardines in a tin style. You are constantly being pushed, elbowed, smacked by bags, having toes and heels trodden on and worst of all..... when a team of girls that have been blocking the entire street, see a frilly pink hideous fabric number, disguising itself as a "blouse" ( didn't think there were still such things in the world, but rest assured they are the backbone of the Korean women's fashion industry), in a store window and suddenly slam on the brakes causing everyone behind them to bump into them. That sucks. Oddly enough no one here seems to mind. Even if, like me, you purposely push others out of the way just to get through crowds with both shoes on, they appear oblivious to your actions and continue with what they are doing. Wierd. Also evident here are the blatant lack of manners. No one and I mean no one here holds a door open. I was leaving a rather snobby department store today with my arms full, what with shopping bags, bag, phone and stupid Christian fliers in my hands. Two men walked out the main door before me, letting the door swing in my face and while I grappled with said door and my belongings, another guy pushed passed me to get out before me. However, this is not just with me, i have seen Koreans do this to their fellow Koreans and no one seems to care...again. Also on the bus this afternoon, all the seats were occcupied by men in their 50's to 60's. A bunch of old ladies got on the bus at one point, one with a walking stick and another with a dodgy hip and were they offered a seat by these men? No. The saying is that "Manners maketh man", well here it appears to be " Man who is rudest will maketh it". Strange how these things still annoy me even though I have been here so long, but I guess there are other social annoyances that I have become immune to- such as toilet paper on a restaurant table instead of napkins, the inability of the people here to eat with their mouth closed and other such social treats (!) I am excited about Don ( friend from Ireland) coming here as I cannot wait to see what he will have to say about the place.