Shiny Teeth And All

I've mentioned before that Koreans are OCD about cleanliness. Everything germ free and sparkling clean! (Except my school's toilet facilities. WOW!) Hand sanitizer is found at coffee shop condiment bars, in school hallways, near train station exits, and in grocery stores. Those with a cold or other minor illnesses, or those who simply don't want to inhale pollution on their way to work, walk around nonchalantly with face masks. It took me a few weeks to realize they weren't hospital escapees or some crazy Ebola virus carriers. Specific colored latex gloves are used in every room for cleaning purposes, pink for dish washing. Ajummas (old Korean ladies) run around sweeping the sidewalks with their short handled brooms. Why are all broom handles backbreakingly short? Yet another Korean mystery. ^^

And then there is the obsessive teeth brushing. Public restrooms are filled with ladies brushing away in front of the mirror. After lunch, my school's hallways smell like sweet minty toothpaste and the restrooms have coffee mugs packed with students' toothbrushes and perfectly squeezed from bottom up (fluoride-less) toothpaste tubes. 

Brushing my teeth incessantly is a little much, being that I do want some layer of enamel in the future. But I do enjoy living in a clean country. If only they found a way to filter that yearly "Yellow Dust" blowing from China's insane air pollution. That same dust storm that blew into my lungs and partied for a month last spring.