so...thirsty...

This entire country must be in a perpetual state of dehydration. All the meals I've eaten here have been wicked salty, but there's never been anything to drink with the food. Instead, after the meal, my host brothers and I share a small cup of "water." They call it water in both Engrishy and Korean, but the stuff is actually a sort of wheat-flavored iced tea that tastes like nothing so much as water that's been strained through some cardboard several times. My favorite is when my host mom breaks the nasty-wheat-iced-tea out early and upends it over my bowl of rice. It's just like cereal...only it tastes disgusting and has a disconcerting consistency.