Life at Humphreys is like life in a very small town.

You’re constantly running into people you know, people you live next door to, people in the unit.

There’s just nowhere you can go incognito when you need a little private time.

[case in point]

Heading to Osan the other day our old hooptie turned in front of me.

Same license plate as the one we got a year ago.

Same faded gray paint.

Same cracked dashboard with no working A/C.

But the guy behind the wheel was not the guy we sold it to. It had changed hands.

This was a husband, wife, little boy & the family dog with his head out the window.

In calculating both the time we’ve been here & the average time for Humphreys hooptie ownership, I figure it’s been bought & sold anywhere from 4 – 6 times this past year.

Part necessity – part environment.

You just don’t see very many big, shiny, flashy cars here.

There’s no ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ in Korea – at least not around Humphreys.

No one snickers because you’re driving a 1993 Hyundai Exel with faded paint, a cracked dash & no A/C – here they ask if you’re going to be selling it anytime soon, because they’d like to buy it off you.

One of the things I like about small-town Korea & one of the things I’ll hate when we get back home.