A mystery Sherlock Holmes could not solve

* So I was really excited that Vicki, one of the foreign teachers at the Y'z League hagwon, invited me to go see Sherlock Holmes with her this past weekend. It was to a new part of town I had never been to before so I was a little nervous but one bus ride and subway ride later I made it, and even with 10 mins to spare. I realized that once I got above ground from the subway, I had no clue where the actual theater was. I guess I just figured it would be obvious.
After scanning the skyscrapers for a while I finally settled on the skyscraper with the big tv screen on it. My powers of deduction were accurate, and after going back underground through the subway tunnels I re-emerged on the correct side of the street in front of the building that I hoped was a theater. Its not like a huge Edwards Cinema or Howard Huges center, it really was an unsuspecting skyscraper that at the base of it had a list of what seems like movie titles posted to a little plaque. The plaque was similar to what a restaurant would put out front to display its menu to passing potential customers. Now, I've been studying Korean for a few weeks and have a good handle on sounding out the characters, so I was able to read the list on the plaque and recognize names like "Abata" (Avatar) and "syol log home ja" (Sherlock Holmes) and figured this must be the right place! Only problem was the theater number followed the name of the movie and I don't know my numbers yet.
I began to walk around the lobby for further clues as to where I should go to meet Vicki for the movie. As I wondered around I realized there were two different entrances so me standing in front of one of them waiting for her wasn't going to do me any good. So I began my assent into the skyscraper by getting on the escalator. I passed many interesting places, restaurants, advertising agencies, optometry centers, but nothing that resembled a theater until I reached the 8th floor. By this time I was 10 mins late to meet Vicki and even though I had managed to find the ticket counter for the movie, I was unable to find Vicki who had already purchased my ticket for me. (This is why it is too cruel not to let foreigners have cell phones! I'm seriously considering renting one from the airport after this experience!)
Fortunately, on this floor they used the numeric symbol next to the movie titles so I learned that "syol log home ja" was on the 9th floor. I guess because the theater is in a skyscraper each floor of the theater section of the buliding features a different movie. Unfortunately, that is where my luck ran out. I made it to the 9th floor only to discover that the movie was playing in 4 different rooms and I had no clue which one Vicki was in! Additionally, theaters differ here because each ticket is assigned seating. So even though I popped my head into one of the rooms and looked around, the usher would not let me get past him without my ticket in hand. Though he did seem more than willing to just allow me to stand there in the isle and watch the movie as long as I didn't attempt to sit down.
I was deflated. I had found the right bus and subway to get there on time, had managed to locate the correct building even though I didn't know what I was looking for, and even found what floor the movie was playing, just to have to turn around and go home. Argh! I felt so stupid! Not only was I embarrassed about not finding the correct movie room, but I felt terrible that Vicki had wasted money on a ticket for me. And anyone who knows me, knows I hate wasting money; it causes me a lot of anxiety.
After I had gotten back home (after taking my time with some retail therapy, I even found a bookstore that carries a few English titles) I talked with Vicki on Skype. I explained to her what happened and she just laughed at me. She said it was alright, and she is giving me another chance to meet her for a movie this coming Saturday. Unfortunately, she has picked a different theater in a different part of town from the one I just mastered. She says she chose it because it will be closer for me, but really I think she just wants to torture me. I told her I would pay her back for the ticket I didn't get to use, but she still insists on making me try to figure out yet another theater. Wish me better luck this weekend when I go see Abata (there are no 'v' 'r' 'f' or 'z' equivalents in the Korean language so they have to be creative sometimes.)

Merry Christmas!

* It's Christmas!!! Even though I registered at the American embassy and got my foreigner's id card Santa was not informed of my change of address. He still delivered all my gift to my parents house I think. Good thing Melissa is coming to work with me in a few days! She can bring my x-mass gifts to me! Yippy skippy! I am so excited for you to get here Melissa! I hope you find a way to put my sister in your luggage and bring her too!
* All of the stores are open today. Its so strange but I guess because people have the day off from work, shops figure its a good day to stay open. Korean's seem to like the look of x-mass, the lights, trees etc, but don't really celebrate it. They decorate everything for x-mass but then don't give gifts or have family dinners. Its kind of a couples holiday here. Couples go out to dinner on x-mass eve, drink a lot because they don't have to work the next day, sleep in, and then go shopping together.
* I took some of my veggie ham I got the other night with Hye Jung to the Y'z League hagwan. This is a kind of after school program that the publishing company I work for owns. Here there are a few Yankees, Hoosiers, and Brits, and even one other vegetarian to share my lentil based synthetic ham with. She was so excited; she has been living in Korea for 7 years now and this was the first time she has come across veggie smeat. I let her keep the left overs because I still have half a slab of it at home. She was so happy that I brought faux ham for us to eat that she invited me to go see the Sherlock Holmes movie tomorrow, I'm really excited about that!
*Dinner at Y'z League was a different kind of Christmas dinner than I expected. Because the principal of the hagwan is Korean, she served all Korean foods, with the exception of the gingerbread house. Instead of turkey they served shrimp, instead of mashed potatoes they served glass noodles, instead of dinner rolls they served California rolls, and instead of fudge they served mushy bland rice cakes. Although there was little for me to eat at dinner I still appreciated the invitation this Christmas party. After dinner we played some crazy Korean game. It involved throwing four sticks on a rug and depending on which way they landed you got to move the game pieces a certain number of spaces. I have no idea how to play, I just threw the sticks when they were handed to me. (I would rather take Bunko at Brandee and Gary's any day). Half way through playing the game we noticed that it started snowing. That's right, I actually got snow on x-mass!
* At the dinner I got to meet Mike's wife and daughter. Mike is British and his wife is Korean, their daughter was sooo cute! Lucas, I don't know how you are going to do it, but I want a little Korean baby like this one. She is awesome, she uses British swear words that she learned from her daddy. For example when a little boy tried to take a tangerine from her she shouted "cock!" at him. She also totally rocks the beret! Too cute!!!!

Christmas Eve

* So this is the first time in my life that I have ever had to work on x-mass eve. Now I know what its like for my mom every year. Though I'm sure working in an office on x-mass eve might be a little different from working at the airport on x-mass eve, I'm sure there is a comparison there somewhere. I made x-mass cards for 6 of my closest friends at work last night, and walked around the office handing out those cards and sharing the maple cookies from my care package. Everyone really liked them; I liked them too. I was happy I had something x-massy to handout since I have no oven and couldn't make cookies from scratch. Later in the afternoon the gifts I ordered on-line yesterday actually arrived! I told everyone that they would have to wait to get their gifts next week, but even though I ordered it the day before I got it next day without extra shipping charges, amazing! I got Chin, Bonyun, Hye Jung, and Sunny each one of those purse hangers that Allie and I got in Japan town L.A. Everyone was really jealous of the one I had so I thought it would be a perfect gift for all the girls.
* On Saturday Bonyun and I went to Lotte World. We just went to the market to do some shopping and dinning. I bought a jacket that was last years model so it was marked down from 190,000 won to 30,000 won! A total steal! That store is ridiculous! Everything is entirely over priced, well, except the jacket I found. That was a rare find! I took a picture of the bag they put my coat in. It shows the Lotte word castle and the raccoon version of Micky and Minnie Mouse. Look really closely at the ear, thats the only way to tell its not Disney.
*In the window of one of the Lotte shops they sold robot dogs and cats that looked so life like I couldn't believe it! The shop was closed for the night so the pets were curled up in the beds and their sides actually rose and fell like they were breathing. They actually looked like read dogs and cats sleeping! Freakiest things ever!!!
* Lucas, Mike got an iphone and an egg. He says the egg only last 4 hours before you need to plug it in to charge. He also says it works great as a hand warmer, it heats up when ever its on.
* Yesterday Hye Jung and I went to what is in all likelihood the only vegetarian shop in all of Seoul. All I can say is I totally stocked up! I bought smeat balls, furkey, soy dogs, and fakin nuggets. I think I might need to buy myself a toaster oven so I can make some of these food though. Its a case of my eyes being bigger than my kitchen. I was just so excited about having access to these foods, I didn't think about how I was going to cook them. I also didn't consider my freezer size, I barely got everything in it and the door closed. And the last thing I forgot to consider was that Hye Jung drove me out to the shop, but I needed to take the subway home carrying a big bag of frozen foods. I made it just fine, I just think it is funny that I didn't consider any of these things when I was buying my veggie treats!
* I've been learning Korean. They do not have the letters 'R', 'Z', 'F', or 'V' in their alphabet. So for example the word 'coffee' is pronounced 'copy', they simply replace the letter 'F' with something similar like the letter 'P'. Well, I was listening to the song Jingle Bell Rock being played at a store I was shopping at and noticed that the letter changes needed to sing this song happened to change the meaning of it. "Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell lock.... in the crusty air."

Weekend in Ulsan Part 2

* Chin said cavities are contagious?!? Anyone else here this one? Or is this just propaganda from the Lotte gum makers? Lotte says their gum has xylitol in it which is what kills that contagious cavity germ. You are suppose to chew it after meals and before you go to bed. Apparently mothers who have cavities can infect their unborn babies, or infect their childrens' teeth by sharing a spoon or giving kisses. Really? Sounds like a scare tactic to sell more gum to me.
* So Lucas, you might run into some trouble, or at least experience some discrimination because of your shaved head. In Korean melodramas only the gangsters have shaved heads. People who are not exposed to the American culture might avoid, or be fearful of you. But here the Buddhist monks also shave their heads so you can always dress in gray and pretend to be a monk.
* At the hotel buffet their was a beautiful cake with a serving knife next to it. Although many people were eying the cake no one was willing to make the first cut into it. Although I am handicapped in the cake cutting department (as my family can attest) I cut the first slice out of this cake. Many Koreans also took pieces of this cake after I make that critical first incision. I wonder if there are studies done on this type of behavior? Who are the types of people willing to be the first to break a social norm? Are they the people who already feel like outsiders and have the least to lose by acting first? It reminds me of Catalina with Henry and Shereen. How many people wouldn't take the last brownie or slice of pizza, but as soon as I cut it into 4 pieces every list bite disappeared!
* Thanks Angela for sending the 2 Discover Magazines. I had to write some news articles for a kids TV show today. I needed to create some interesting stories for kids to read off of teleprompters. I was able to take four stories from the magazines, so thanks for helping me do my job. Now its going to be just like the Simpsons... Kidz Newz and Bart's people, "is there any room is this world for an old man and his ducks?"
* Road side stops in Korea are awesome! They are way better than a Flying J! At one of the rest stops there where musical performances, restaurants, and a childrens' playground. It makes so much sense to have a playground for the kids to go nuts in after sitting for a long car ride. Why don't we do this back home? Stick a playground at every rest area, not just a green area for dogs to run around.
* Chin and I went to may different pottery places. We even visited a pottery museum. What I think is hilarious is that we looked at a pottery display at our hotel 3 times before I saw this interesting ceramic figure. I don't know why I didn't notice it when I was looking at the display before, but I'm a little puzzled why it is in with the rest of the cup, pots, and vases. conveying
* Ok, Pokey Tokey is officially the strangest rabbit I have ever come across! Right now he is eating the goldfish crackers mom and dad sent. I try to feed him carrots, tomatoes, squash, things I know normal bunnies eat, nope, Pokey just turns his nose up at them. Cook them in my soup and he cant get enough of them! He wont eat pear but he like eating my homemade salsa. He wont eat sunflower seeds or dried corn but he will eat tofu with spring onions and soy sauce on it. Oh, and he went nuts for garlic mashed potatoes with broccoli in it. Freak!!!!

Weekend in Ulsan Part 1

* In the bathrooms of really fancy restaurants here they have special mouth wash dispensing machines. Do we have this back home, or have I just never been to a fancy enough restroom before? Is this something unique to Korea? They are all about brushing their teeth after meals so it doesn't surprise me if its something they came up with.
* H1N1 has made for some interesting safety protocols being put in place. The door knobs in the hotels have all have condoms on them. That's right, the metal door knobs have rubber covers on them. Because rubber door knobs will some how hold less germs then metal ones?
* At night Koreans turn off the headlights of their cars when they come to a red light. This is apparently considerate (not dangerous)because they are not blinding the on coming traffic or pedestrians in the cross walk. Lets just hope they always remember to turn them back on before the light turns green again.
* I went to a whale museum, well, the outside of it. I didn't pay to go in. I thought it was going to be an aquarium and show me all the different animals that live in the local ocean here.... nope! Turns out its a museum of whaling. Yea, it was a museum of the history of whaling and how practices have changed over time. I didn't feel like paying to go inside to see it. Plus their was a free whaling vessel for me to explore outside the museum. It was complete with replica crew, harpoons, and meat hooks. And right across the street from the museum are 3 or 4 restaurants that serve whale meat, so that was enough of an experience for me without having to go inside.
* Amethyst Caverns. Sounds great right? Then like me you were tricked. It was so lame!!!! It was an emptied amethyst mine that they flooded with water so they could sell tickets to boat rides to see nothing but empty mine shafts!!!! They stuck fake plants and waterfall in it just to give people something to look at I guess. Oh, I was soooooo disappointed. I should have know it was going to be lame before I even got in the mine because there was all kinds of games and rides outside. They didn't want people to feel like they wasted their time by coming out there for nothing so they set up a petting zoo, go cart track, and dragon swing so people wouldn't demand a refund. Oh what is the worst is that there a special room inside the mine where people are suppose to go and "feel the healing power of amethyst." Of course, I already mentioned that this is an empty mine and these is not more amethyst, so they set up a portable heated floor for people to sit on, and used red and blue flood lights on the wall it was lit up purple like amethyst... Ha!
* The guy who works at the front desk of my hotel picked the best English name I have ever heard. People have Korean names (obviously) and if they studied English then they usually have an English name too. Anyways, the name he picked was Shrek! How great is that!?! He works at a 4 star hotel and his name tag says Shrek on it! I asked him if I could take a picture of him because his English name was so cool, he said yes and laughed. (I would post it here but you can't really see his name tag too well)
* So what was the best part of this weekend you ask? I got to take a bubble bath at this 4 star hotel. It was my first access to a bathtub since I moved here and I took advantage of it. I had my true blood novel from Tempest, and a beer from the minibar and had a relaxing evening in the tub. Ah, it was perfect!

wet dog soup

* They serve a soup here that smells exactly like a wet dog. It is probably one the foulest smelling foods I have ever encountered and I had it ordered for me at the business dinner that Chin hosted. It was the vegetarian alternative to the Korean BBQ being served. The restaurant staff swore that there was no shrimp and no meat (asides from the huge crab claw floating in it) so I had to try it. That's right, I ate the wet dog soup. I was shocked, it tasted so much better then it smelled thank goodness!
* Lucas, I'm watching an English movie on TV and it has the dad from Fringe in it. I miss watching Fringy with you.
* Well she did it. That belly dancing instructor finally got me out of my comfort zone. It took her three classes to do it. I started out by just wearing the beaded belt and dancing with my shirt (that she forcefully)rolled up. The next lesson she had the belt and genie pants for me to wear. I put the genie pants over my regular work out pants because I still wasn't comfortable with dressing up for class. When I attended the third class she had the belt, the genie pants, and a beaded bra for me to wear. The bra was way too small so I just put it on top of my regular bra. So now she has me looking as fancy as the other students in the class. The good thing is I didn't need to buy the outfit like everyone else did. She said because I'm "foreigner, its gift."
* I got my package today! My parents, Lucas, and the Poulos family put together a care package for me. It took 20 days to get it but it was worth it. Thank you all so much!!!! The customs agent at FED Ex wouldn't release my package until I had submitted a detailed spread sheet listing all of the items in the box, why I need each item, and a website featuring a picture of the item. Then on top of that I needed to pay a tax on it too! Argh! Anyways, it was a learning experience, now we know never to send a box with a value over $150.

Human Landmine Detectors

* I decided that instead of doing a day by day I would just do more of a weekly post. At the beginning, everything here was new and exciting. But now as I become settled into my routine there are some days that are completely uninteresting and unworthy of a blog entry. So instead, I may post a daily, or maybe a weekly report, depending on how exciting or slow my week was.
* Things are nice at home now. I've got a cute, cuddly rabbit waiting for me at home and I have the internet. If you know bud the cat then you can imagine bud as a tiny rabbit and that would be Pokey Tokey. (He stands up on his hind legs, just like a little Rorey Calhoun)
* Today I went to a teacher conference at one of the universities here, there are 10 different universities in the city of Seoul. It was really interesting hearing some of the speakers talk about students motivation, and engaging students in writing. Also interesting was the rock version of the wedding song played on an electric violin. During the closing of the conference a woman came out with an electric violin and played not only the wedding march, but the song from the godfather as well. What that had to do with educating second language learners I will never know.
* Last night I woke up to the sound of rain, and this afternoon it turned to snow. Big, puffy, flakes of snow blowing all over the place as Bonyun and I tried to find the conference. The snow is not sticking, it doesn't last long on the ground. I do fear the day when the snow does start to pile up, I am not ready to start living in a winter climate.
* This week I joined a belly dancing class. Its 3 times a week for a month and the class is taught in English, although she has very limited English and it is often impossible for me to understand. She seems like a genuinely sweet woman, although she did accost me when I first met her. Without warning she lifted up my shirt and tucked it in to my bra in the front and back. I was horrified and one of the other students, a girl from New York, said "It's ok, she does that to everyone," which some how still didn't make me feel better about revealing that much of my body to strangers.
* Mike taught me that in all other Confucius societies asides from Korea, the men walk in front of the women. A woman always walks behind her man, and the Korean society started out that way too but this changed in the 1950's. Apparently, landmines from the Korean war are to blame for this change. That's right, in the 1950's women became landmine detectors. If a woman was killed that was sad but at least the breadwinner was still alive and well. A woman would not be able to get a new father to her children if anything happened to him, but a man could always get another landmine detector.

Day 39

• Today I walked a different route to get to the subway and found a really good grocery store. Its only 2 blocks away so now I will not be dependent on Chin taking me grocery shopping on the weekend. Though I am looking forward to going to Costco with Chin tomorrow, I wonder if it will be similar to the one back home.
• I took the subway to Emart, which is 2 stops away and got my bunny!!!! His name is “toe key” pokey. “Toe key” means rabbit in Korean, and I added pokey to make it more like the song hokey pokey. I will have to ask Chin tomorrow what pokey means in Korean. I don’t want to accidently call him a bad name. He is really cute. He got to ride on the subway home with me which was fun carry his cage and getting loads of strange looks from people. He is so tiny and cute! I gave him an apple and he didn’t know it was food. He sat on it for a while and then after 20 minutes he realized it was something he could eat and now it’s his new favorite food.

Day 38

• Oh no, real world zoo is on TV again. There is a chimpanzee spinning around in an office chair. (Lucas: should we tell them that all of the chimps we sent into space came back with super intelligence? No, I don’t think we’ll be doing that.)
• Mmmmm, mashed potatoes and stuffing left overs. It’s almost like being at home; if only I had some tofurkey leftover too!
• It’s Friday night and I am at home studying Korean…. Nerd!!!!!
• So the other day my soup tried to kill me. I noticed before it could complete its mission; take that soup! I was stirring my soup before I took a bit and noticed it had shrimp in it. I told Mike and he looked for shrimps in his soup but didn’t find any. I realized that if I had gotten his bowl of soup I would have eaten it without know it had shrimp juice in it. So that explains why I was getting allergies that included red eyes and itchy skin. So I think the best to avoid soup all together. Try to kill me now soup! Sucker!
• Here a person gets new license plates whenever they register a new car. The car doesn’t have to be new to get a new license plate. So that means when I gave Angela my car she would have registered it and gotten new license plates for it with this year’s date on it. So there basically isn’t a way to show off whether or not you’re driving a new car because anyone can put a new plate on their car. So when ever people do get a new car they leave the factory foam stickers on to show that it’s new. I was wondering what those blue thingys were, I just thought people put them on their car doors so they wouldn’t bump other cars that they park next to. Guess not; it’s a status thing.

Day 37

• Thank you Mike for coming to work with me! Today he helped me figure out how to send money to my bank account back home. I needed to open up a remittance account and he knew a bank specifically for foreigners. He got the English speaking help line phone number for me so I could ask someone what information I needed to present when I went to the bank to open this type of account. I went to the bank by myself with a print screen page from their bank website and my list of needed information according to the help line and said ‘e go’ which means ‘this.’ It’s the greatest word ever! I just point and say ‘e go’ and people can understand what I want. Sure enough, I got my remittance account despite my bank tellers limited English.
• Today was Thanksgiving! Hooray! We got a full Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, ham, dinner rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes, succotash, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. I brought corn, black pepper, and butter too. There were about 20 people there and everyone needed instructions on what the food was and how to eat it. I showed people that we cut the rolls in half and put butter on them. And that they can put gravy or cranberry sauce on their turkey. Also, we put black pepper on the mashed potatoes or gravy on that too. I really enjoyed sharing this meal with all of my friends from work. And don’t worry, I staged that photo of the pumpkin pie, we used forks hahahah!

Day 36

• So I have to watch my mouth because saying the word “crazy” is a swear word. Hahahah! So saying “that’s so crazy” is extremely offensive. OOOps, once again, thank goodness Mike started working in the office with me to teach me all of this stuff.
• Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! We are ordering Thanksgiving dinner from the army base and having dinner after work. Unlike you all, we don’t have Thursday and Friday off of work, booooooo! But we will have turkey, ham, dinner rolls, veggies, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and even pumpkin pie. I told Chin we need to find forks for everyone because I refuse to eat my pumpkin pie with chopsticks. I’m pretty sure there is a law against it. Yup, the law clearly states no eating Thanksgiving dinner with chopsticks; back me up here Rhett, you’re an officer of the law. Anyways, after work today I went to two different convenient stores before I found what I hope is butter. You can’t have dinner rolls without butter. I also got some cans of corn, can’t have mashed potatoes without corn either. Although corn is easy to find, they put it on pizzas here, butter was harder to come by. Dairy products are not really served that often.
• Angela! You won’t believe it! They have “Glee” with Korean subtitle! I finally got to see it. It was the one with Glenda from wicked. I only caught the last like 8 minutes of it though. Who knows if I will ever find it again, damn this cursed TV with its poltergeist and lack of Tivo!!!!

Day 35

• I had cereal today for the first time in over a month!!! Hooray!!! So I figured out a system. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they offer a mixture of cornflakes and checks but do not offer soy milk. Only of Fridays do they offer soy milk in little juice boxes so I have to try to take more than one and save it for the following week to use on the cereal days. Last Friday the lunch lady caught me and made me put it back. I need to be sneakier next time.
• I am like Cher or Prince. Wait, that sounds terrible. Let me explain. There is no letter z in the Korean language so my last name cannot be translated. So now I have a bank account from Citi Bank that says only Renee on it. Apparently, I am the only Renee in all of Korea so it’s fine.
• Online banking here is really interesting. You open your online banking account and save a security code to your flash drive. In order to look at your account you need to plug in that flash drive to any computer you are using. So if you don’t have that flash drive plugged in then you can’t check your account.

Day 34

• Today was great! Just when my day was going from bad to worse I got a phone call saying there was a package waiting for me down stairs. Actually, the guy at the front desk called Hye Jung because he has seen me with her and he doesn’t speak English so he asked her to tell me. Anyways, it was a care package from Jane! It was a Halloween pumpkin full of all the candies I was craving!!! So today became reverse Halloween! I walked around the office giving candies out to my closest friends. Don’t worry Jane I have only 5 close friends at work so all the rest of the candy is mine  I will try to stick to no more than 2 pieces a day till it runs out. Getting Halloween candy from home was such a special treat; thank you so much Jane!

Day 33

• So the poltergeist in the TV is back with a vengeance! It still turns on all by itself on Saturday mornings, but now it turns on by itself on Sundays too.
• So the company replaced my refrigerator when it broke the other week and the old fridge has been out in the apartment hallway every since. I don’t know who’s supposed to do something about it but I sure can’t carry it down a flight of stairs by myself so I just left it out there. Today there was a note taped to it. Since I don’t know what it says I can only assume it’s not a love note.
• I watched “Point Break” in English and thought of you Lucas. I sure wish I could have seen “Point Break Live” before I left.

Day 32

• Today I went to a Korean wedding hall. Watching a Korean wedding is very different from an American wedding although they are wearing western wedding clothes. At the wedding hall there are different conference rooms with other couples getting married at the same time. There are people everywhere talking to each other or on the phone, no one is listening to the actual wedding ceremony. The wedding ceremony just seems like an excuse to take photos. In fact, during the ceremony a small cake was wheeled out for the couple to cut and then it was wheeled away, they didn’t actually serve any cake at the reception. Anyone can walk in, including me, but if you want to eat at the reception then you pay 30$ for a meal ticket and your name is written in the couples wedding book so they will know you attended their wedding. The wedding couple never spends any time with their guests. Only the parents go around at the dinner reception to thank guests for attending. There is no music or dancing either. While the guests eat dinner, people can watch the closed circuit TV’s showing the wedding couple downstairs having their traditional Korean wedding ceremony. Guests don’t give gifts to the wedding couple, only family members present the couple with envelopes of money which the couple then uses to pay for their honeymoon. Then end of the traditional ceremony is really interesting. The mothers throw chestnuts into a blanket that the couple holds, and how ever many land on the blanket is suppose to predict how many children they will have. After this, the husband presents the wife with all of the money envelopes; she is in charge of the finances (watch out). The next step of the ceremony is like the western kiss. Koreans are too shy to kiss in public so they share a fig; it’s sort of like the spaghetti noodle scene from “The Lady and the Tramp.” And lastly, the bride jumps on the grooms back and he gives her a ride around the room. Like I said, very different from watching an American wedding ceremony.
• Business cards are a very important part of the culture here. Bo-nyun’s mother in law gave me her business card at the wedding reception and I had to follow a very strict business card ritual. First you look the card over very carefully, examining both sides, then you put it on the table in front of you. You don’t put it in your wallet right away; if you are a man you put the business card in your breast pocket, woman need to put it on the table in front of them. Bo-nyun’s mother in law was really pleased with me because I was able to sound out her name by looking at the Korean characters. I really am acting like a 3 year old, reading any letters I can recognize.
• Another important part of the culture here is to address people according to their age. So when ever I meet someone new the first question they always ask me is how old I am. It is very weird to get use to. Usually people ask you where you are from, or what you do, not how old you are. But they need to know how you should be addressed so it is not considered rude to ask. You don’t ask old people their age because it’s obvious they are your elder and should be given a respectful title.

Day 31

• I got a bank account today! Yea! Now when the company direct deposits my paychecks it will actually go to my bank account. Last month I got an email saying that they deposited my paycheck into my bank account and it took me two weeks to figure out where the money went and to get it in cash instead.
• I am getting much better at reading Korean. I practice when ever I take the subway. When you ride the subway train a screen shows you the next stop written in Korean, and then it will show the name in English. So I sound it out in Korean and see if I’m on the right track when it shows it written in English. Then it will announce the station in Korean so if the train is not too crowded then I can hear how it is pronounced too.
• Tonight after work I went to Hye Jeung’s house for dinner. It was so nice! Her mom is a Seventh Day Advantest and because of this she is a vegetarian. Her mom went to a vegetarian shop near her house and bought me fake ham and stakes so Hye Jeung would have some food to offer me. Hye Jeung and I cooked dinner together, I made the bean curds stuffed with purple rice and she made the fried crab/radish/fake ham kabobs. I call the rice purple because that is what it looks like to me but she says it’s called black rice because they add black beans to it.
• Today was the first snow of the season. I said that it was cold enough for me and that I don’t want it to get any colder. The girls told me not a chance, when it becomes winter it will be -20 at least!
• Hye Jeung told me that Koreans drink coffee after every meal. Unlike me, they don’t drink it first thing in the morning before breakfast. That means coffee shops don’t open till 8 or 9 am!

Day 30

• I have been learning so much from Mike; I am so grateful that he has come to work with me in the office. Now do I not only have company during the day, but he teaches all kinds of useful information. For example, we were walking home after work (he takes the subway near my apartment so he walks me home after work Tuesday through Thursday) and were searching for a Tae Kwon Do studio and he pointed out the sing for a brothel. Apparently a red and blue spinning barber pole does not indicate a place to get your hair cut.
• Mike also told me about how I can order traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There is an army base in Seoul that you can order a complete dinner including: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. It will feed 10-12 people and it’s cooked and ready to go. It is suppose to only be for the army personal so they only deliver on base. But Mike found that they don’t check ID and they will deliver it to the front gate because that is technically still on base. So we are going to order it and Richard will go pick it up and bring it to work so we can have Thanksgiving dinner at work.
• Guess what! My bus pass works for not only buses, subways, and taxis, but it will also work at payphones and as a debit card at the convenient stores! There is no reason for me to carry cash; this is my kind of country! (Don’t worry, I always carry a little cash on me anyways.)
• OOOOOoooo! Sunny taught me how to hula hoop! I have never been able to do it before but she taught me how and now I can! I was so excited! I know Dr. K, hula hooping champion, would be very proud. So would Jen, she used to carry her workout hula hoop in the back of her car everywhere she went!

Day 29

• Yea! I got my foreigners card! I’m officially legal here! I can now open a bank account so I can get direct deposit for my pay checks. I can get internet ordered for home so I don’t have to go in to work every weekend to use skype or the internet. And perhaps most importantly, I can get my portable router so I can use my iphone.
• Today I went to the doctors because my eyes are really irritated. Turns out that I have allergies. I got antihistamine drops to use when ever they get red. I might be allergic to the fall weather since I’m not use to leaves falling, or it could be the small amount of shrimp that they put in everything. Apparently everything uses a Korean sauce that has a small amount of shrimp in it. Who knows, maybe being exposed to tiny amounts of it will help me build a tolerance to it, like getting a vaccine.
• I went to the gym after work today and taught Sunny how to box. She taught me to say “dong jong” which means hurry or faster. So now I say “dong jong” and she says “I go” in response to my training methods.
• After regular school kids go to “hogwans” to study English or math etc. I want to go to Hogwarts to study! Well, maybe not. Kids in my apartment complex don’t come home from school till 11 pm. It’s illegal for hogwans to stay open till midnight but many of them still do. By the time kids are in high school they are lucky if they get 3 hours of sleep a night. There is actually a Korean prober that translates to “if you sleep more than 3 hours a night you are wasting your life.” They take school very seriously here. Now I feel like a true Korean student because I stay up late at night and practice Korean using a computer program Mike gave me.
• Melissa, did you know that when we would chase down the Kogi truck we were chasing the meat truck? Kogi means meat. I think it is so funny for me, a vegetarian, to be chasing after the meat truck. It’s pronounced “koo-gee.”

Day 28

• Today was my first day working with my new co-worker Mike. He is British and has been living here for 3 years. He has a Korean wife and an adorable baby girl. Like me he set up photo collection on Facebook. He has one collection for politically incorrect cartoons and educational materials. The other is photos of things that aren’t breakfast although served as breakfast by his wife. And like me, his apartment was dirty when he moved in. He said Koreans think it is bad luck to clean someone else house; it will curse them. He also said he thinks its just plain lazy, but that would explain why my place was so dirty.
• Mike tried to teach me everything he wishes he had known when he first got here. He showed me a website he uses to order English books and another for ordering western foods. They only charge $2.50 for shipping too! He also showed me an online class that he used to learn Korean so hopefully I can get signed up for that soon. He also showed me some interesting things to check out while I’m here like the area that has the most dinosaur foot prints in the world. And he also suggested I check out pizza in a cone. That’s right, pizza served in an ice cream cone. Check it out http://www.conepizza.co.kr/ Click on the second button at the top to see the picture menu, it's fantastic! I don’t know about pizza cones but I am always up for fossil hunting.
• We got a humidifier for the office. The heaters are on all the time now because it’s about 0C or 32F everyday and the air is really dry. Hopefully the humidifier will help because my face is already starting to get flaky eeeeeew. Mike suggested throwing water on my warm floor at home and letting it evaporate. I guess that is what they did at their house before they bought a humidifier for the winter.

Day 27

• I forgot to tell you all about the politically incorrect sporting goods store at the base of the mountain we were climbing this past weekend. Right next door to the North Face store was the Red Face store. No joke! It’s a legitimate Korean out door gear shop. I’m kicking myself for not taking a picture of it. I think I was just too tired to pull my camera out at that point.
• So instead of working in the garden or taking cruses around the world, when Koreans retire they spend their free time hiking. Some of these old men and women were blazing past me on the trail and climbing like spider monkeys over the difficult rock course. I was shocked at how agile they were. Now I really want to be an old Korean woman when I grow up.
• Lucas, I keep forgetting to tell you that they have a commercial on TV for some kind of drink, or maybe it is soy sauce, but anyways, in the background they are playing Regina Spektor’s “On the Radio.” Every time I hear it I think of you. Oooooo.
• I just found the Korean Jon and Kate plus 8. Actually it’s a Korean family with 4 or 5 toddles. The dad just put some tooth paste on the kid’s bug bites; I wonder if that works to stop the itch or not?
• Angela, you will be proud. Even though I was very sore from the hike this weekend, I went to the gym with the girls tonight. I just did a little walking on the treadmill and some stretching to help with the tightness I feel in my thighs and calf muscles. Its fun because the girls know nothing about fitness and regard me as like their personal trainer. When ever we are doing tough exercises I always say “oh, this is my sister’s favorite.” They think you have way too many favorites, and they don’t seem to like them as much as you or I do. And they do not follow the “when you can’t do any more, do five more” rule. They just collapse and say “I go” which is Korean for ‘I’m dying.’ Ha ha ha ha, I miss working out with my sis!

Day 26

• Today was a lazy day. Ever since I arrived here I get up early and go in to work to talk on skype with my family. I needed a day to sleep without waking up to an alarm clock. I slept 11 hours!!!! I guess I was really tired after the hike yesterday and needed to rest.
• Today Chin and I went to Lotte Department store. We got some groceries, and Chin helped me get the needed supplies to make my favorite Korean dipping sauce. It uses sesame oil, sweetened olive oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, black pepper, and chopped green onions. It is soooo good! I ate my octopus pancake leftovers with my homemade dipping sauce.
• Oh man! At Lotte Department store they have Panda mice! The mice are black and white with little nub tails, like hamsters. It reminds me of Gary and Brandee’s favorite movie “Royal Tenenbaums.”

Day 25

• Today I went hiking with Steve and Sehyung. Apparently, because of the cold weather and the difficulty of the trail everyone else from our work’s hiking club didn’t show up. But the two guys that did go were really nice, and their English was very good. The mountain we went to was about a 40 minute drive from the city and our hike took about 6 hours to complete. Chin’s hiking boots and climbing poll worked wonderfully! We passed many beautiful temples and even saw some of the monks getting ready to make their winter batch of Kimchi. The hike was around 7.5 miles round trip, and had a really difficult rock climbing section. I am the first woman from our work’s hiking club to ever complete the rock climbing section of that hike. There is a metal cable that runs along the ridge line to help you hang on, and sometimes the guys would have to put a foot up against a rock so I could have a false ledge to step on, or give me a hand to pull me up and over a rock, but other than that, it was all me without any ropes or harness. It was extremely difficult, but I am so proud to hold the title of first female from our hiking club to accomplish this task that I feel it was worth the struggle. As we were making our decent off the mountain someone was being airlifted out so you know that rock climbing section is not easy.
• Last night Sunny told me they don’t have the saying “piece of cake” to imply something is easy. Instead, if something is easy they say it’s like “cutting a radish.” I will take cake over radish any day! They love there radishes here. Radish is served at every meal. There is even a credit card commercial on TV with an animated radish that gets a credit card swiped between its butt cheeks!

Day 24

• Today was a rainy day but Hye Jeung and I went out for lunch anyways. I wanted to treat her because she had let me use her phone when I needed to take the subway to the Y’z League office. I needed to get out of the office and wrap my hands around a warm coffee. My office is freezing because it is separate from the rest of the floor. We shared an order of garlic cheese toast. Its really interesting because they serve it covered in honey or maybe corn syrup, either way it was really sticky and sweet flavored garlic toast.
• So after lunch I went back to work and Chin came in and saw that I was freezing in the office so she called someone to come up and fix our heater. A man came up stairs to check the heater but he said that because our office is separate from the rest of the floor we will not get heat like the rest of the office does. The man saw that I was sitting at my desk with the little blanket that Hye Jeung gave me and felt bad for me so ten minutes later he reappeared with a mini heater that he parked next to my desk! I was soooooo happy! I emailed Hye Jeung right away to tell her the good news; she wrote back and said that I saved her $20 because she had just ordered one on line for me! How sweet is she!?!?!?!?!
• After work Sunny and I went to a wine bar overlooking the Hangang River. Both the view and the prices were amazing! They sold wine by the bottle and the cheapest bottle was $60. The only wine by the glass they offered was the house $12 wine that tasted like it was from a box and then watered down on top of that! I was defiantly not impressed with the place. We ordered an assorted cheese plate for $30 and I was horrified when they brought out a tiny bowl with ritz and saltine crackers along with some cheeses wrapped up like candy or throat lozenges. I told Sunny that I wasn’t paying $30 for that crap and she started laughing uncontrollably. Apparently that was just the bowl of snacks that they put out at all the tables, and wasn’t our assorted cheese order after all. I was so relieved when a platter with very good cheeses arrived minutes later. Yet, I have no plans to ever go back to that place no matter how good the cheese or the view was.

Day 23

• Oh lord!!! That “Real World Zoo” edition is on again. Now it’s 2 baby monkeys, like 10 piglets, 2 baby goats, and one baby kangaroo. Seriously, it’s a house with toys and playground equipment in the living room. Oh no! The monkey is pealing the wall paper off the wall and throwing it down to the goats that are eating it. Oh crap! An orangutan just showed up in a dress. She is grabbing all the toys and throwing them over the gate so the pigs and goats can’t play with them anymore. Now she has an inflatable mallet and she is running around smacking all the animals. I will say it again, who in the hell thought it would be a good idea to put these animals in a house together?!?!?
• Today after work Chin took me out to dinner; we ate clam noodles and octopus pancakes. Good thing I started eating fish and sea food again otherwise I couldn’t survive here. We’ve both been working hard and stressing over our deadlines so Chin ordered drinks with our meal. They didn’t serve beer so she got what I can only describe as alcoholic Horchata. Not bad, in fact, it was way better than the booze juice boxes I brought back in January.
• I decided to create 2 photos collections. I will collect pictures of creatures that seem very happy to be considered food. The second, is inspired by the “No, David” books. I will collect pictures of children doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. Like that picture of the kid licking plates, or this one of the baby happily eating beauty products.

Day 22

• You know what I miss? (Asides from my wonderful family) I miss fabric softener. My clean underwear feels like it is made out of cardboard. There is just something wrong about having clean clothes that can stand up on their own.
• Today was stick day! I gave a box of sticks to both Chin and to Hye Jeung. It really is like Valentines Day here. But instead of people walking around with boxes of chalky conversation heart, they are walking around with boxes of chocolate covered bread sticks. Since I couldn’t find pretzel sticks to make Jane’s famous chocolate covered pretzels I just bought some coffee flavored sticks to give out instead. Without knowing it, I picked the box that says true friend in Korean.
• You know what else I miss? (Asides from my wonderful family, and fabric softener) I miss wearing flip flops every day. I hate wearing high heals! Argh! Apparently, girls wear high heals year round here. Even in the winter when it is snowing women wear high heal boots not flat, safe, comfortable ugs. My feet hate Korea.
• Today I took the subway all by myself! And I didn’t get lost! Ok, I almost got lost. I almost got on the wrong train. Ok, I almost got on the wrong train twice, but it’s really tricky. The subway line that goes to my house is actually a ‘u’ shape so you need to make sure you take the correct train when you get to the fork in the road. I went to Y’z League to mentor some of the teachers there and help them with the writing projects I assigned them. It takes 2 subway lines and about 45 minutes to get there. Hye Jeung let me barrow her cell phone so I would have access to help if I needed it.

Day 21

• Today I went out to lunch with Hye Jeung, we went to a Thai food restaurant. Although it smelled like Thai food, it was just more Korean food. I really wanted eggplant, tofu, and basil leaves, but instead got more soup, rice, and kimchi.
• Oh my goodness Angela! They have a yogurt drink here that tastes exactly like red skittles!!! Oh, it’s my new favorite! You would love it!
• Speaking of things Angela would love, tonight was movie night at my work and I saw a movie that she would love. After work the staff went to the roof and watched the movie “Once.” It was such a great movie! The ending is so good because it’s not the typical happy ending; it’s more true to life. Angela would love the music; the whole movie is practically sung. Apparently my work has movie night twice a month and provides snacks like roman noodles, beef jerky, popcorn, and even beer. Although the movie is played outside in the garden I was wearing my super warm coat (the one with the huge cigarette burn on it) so I wasn’t cold. I also had a little lap blanket that Hye Jeung gave me to use at my desk to keep warm when I’m in my office. It’s great, now I have a little blanky and slippers to wear when ever I work at my desk.
• When I got home today I had a new refrigerator! And yesterday someone came and fixed my water heater and I got new hoses for my water pipes so they won’t leak any more! Everything’s coming up Millhouse!

Day 20

Day 20
• Today I sat with a man at work who belongs to the company hiking club. I asked him if he had trouble finding my email address in the company listing because he was suppose to email me information about the club. He said it was his first day back to work in a week. His daughter caught H1N1 and apparently if someone in your family gets it my company makes you take a week off of work and be quarantined too. With mandatory ear thermometer checks and quarantine periods I’m not too worried about catching the virus. Watch, now that I wrote that I’m going to contract H1N1.
• So I was headed down to lunch today and the elevator door opened revealing an elderly Korean gentleman. I said hello in Korean and bowed my head. He asked me in English what floor I was going to and I said it was lunch time and I was headed to the cafeteria. The doors opened again letting in two managers who work with Chin. They began talking to the gentleman in Korean but I recognized my name and Chins name. He then turned to me and said, “Oh, so you are Renee.” I said, “Yes, and you are?” He smiled and the two managers were dumb struck by my comment. Once one of the managers recovered from shock he informed me that, “this is Chairman” and I realized my error. The Chairman, founder of Yoon’s English Academy simply smiled and got off the elevator. I was absolutely mortified! Chin called me a few hours later to say she received a phone call from Chairman Yoon. I told her how embarrassed I was. Apparently he said I seemed nice. Chin said it was good that without knowing who he was I said hi in Korean and bowed my head; it showed I had good manners. Luckily he didn’t get a chance to see my table manners eh mom?
• After work I picked up 2 items that my local dry cleaner tailored for me. Grand total… $6 U.S. Now I know where to get all those suits dry cleaned, what a deal!

Day 19

• Nothing too exciting today. It was raining for most of the day so I stayed inside and cleaned the apartment. When the weather did clear up I went to my favorite dollar store and bought a few items. I just had to take a picture of the socks I saw there. The white girl is saying, “Hi Tom,” and the black boy is saying “Hey, yo baby.” Can any one say “stereotype?”
• The rain seemed to keep the Christians at bay today. Usually as you walk by all the churches on Sunday people try to stop you and hand you tea so they can talk to you about how great their church is. A lot of youth groups will stand out on the streets and sing much like the Hare Krishna's at the airport. I guess there are a lot of churches in my neighborhood and they are very competitive against one another.

Day 18

• Today I went to Cambridge Day held at Korea University, Seoul. At the door there is a person who takes your temperature with an ear thermometer to make sure you don’t have H1N1 to give to everyone at the conference. Sunny and I went to a few lectures on English Language Development. It was very informative and I even got some good ideas to use at work. I was shocked to find that the English Language exams given for students to enter the Universities in both Japan and in Korea are actually at a harder reading level then their first language. That means that students are required to read much harder texts in English then they are in Korean, which is ridiculous when English is your second language!!!!
• Today I went to E-mart with Chin and Richard today; it seems to be our Saturday ritual. I got to the checkout with all my food and Chin insisted on buying it for me because my fridge had broken and spoiled all my food. I told her I would only let her do it if she makes the company reimburse her for it. I thought it was really sweet of her to do that. She also gave me some plates, bowls, utensils, pillows, and blankets from her apartment because she is moving and didn’t want to take everything with her. She also offered to give me her refrigerator next week when she moves to replace the one that broke. I have a little college dorm size fridge for now, but once I have her refrigerator I will bring the little fridge to our office.
• On the subway today, Sunny taught me how to read a few characters in Korean. Now I can recognize: D, D’oh, ‘ee’, ‘oh’, ‘oo’, and ‘r’ which is kind of an ‘l’ sound. I felt like I was three years old; every time I recognized a letter I would point it out and say the sound. Sunny would just laugh and said I was learning so quickly.
• Sunny also taught me that 11/11 is just another made up holiday corporations came up with to sell more crap. They also celebrate Valentine’s Day, and two other Valentine’s Day type holidays, white day and black day. I can’t remember which is which, but one of the days the girls give presents to the boys, and the other day boys give presents to the girls. It’s just like that Simpsons episode… “Happy Love Day everyone!!!”
• I am so glad that I am the kind of person who just presses buttons until things work. It’s good that I never look at instructions, because here the instructions are in Korean so they wouldn’t help anyways. I was getting really frustrated because I couldn’t get my washing machine to drain the water. But after 10 minutes of pressing different buttons it finally did what I wanted it to do.

Day 17

• So here they celebrate the 11th of November like its valentines day. Everyone gives chocolate sticks (pokeys) for 11/11 day because it looks like sticks. I think I will take Jane’s holiday treat, white chocolate dipped pretzel sticks, and introduce it over here.
• Speaking of pretzels, today Chin treated me to a corn and cheese pretzel (calzone) that you dip in caramel. Surprisingly great flavor combination! Think of caramel corn flavor but with cheese and bread.
• Today I went out to lunch with Bu-nyun, Hee Kyung, and Sunny. Hee Kyung is one of the girls I went out with that very first week of work. Bu-nyun is one of the people who comes to visit me with difficult grammar questions. Why wont she just take “because that’s just not how we say it” as and answer?
• I feel pretty good about work today. I completed my files, although not by the deadline. And I sent them off to the computer programming people. They are now going to take my files and turn them into programs that a teacher can project to his or her class and guide the students through the writing activities. Next week I have to design the workbooks that the students will be writing in as they follow along with the computer file I designed. It’s a lot of work but it’s really cool to know that dozens of teachers will use my graphic organizers and sentence frames to teach hundreds of kids English.

Day 16

• Yesterday at the pharmacy I saw some of those Korean beauty masks (the ones where you put a mask on your face that contains the facial ingredients). I told Hye Jeung that I loved them and last time I was in Korea I bought a bunch and gave them out as gifts. She said she has a bunch too, and today at breakfast she gave me 2 of them!!! She is so sweet! Speaking of sweet, someone on her floor of the office brought Krispy Kream donuts so she brought one up to my office for me. I am so lucky to have her as a friend.
• Today I went back to the pharmacy by my self and picked up the Korean birth control. (Although it’s over the counter they had to order it for me.) I was surprised to find that the 2 people at the pharmacy both speak English really well, and that my new birth control is made by the Bayer Aspirin Company.
• Today I came home after a stressful day trying to meet a 5:30 deadline to find my fridge no longer works, and everything in it is bad and needs to be thrown out. That was the last straw for me! Thank goodness I was meeting Sunny after work today to go to the gym because she was able to call and talk to my landlord. Sunny actually looked at my apartment this summer when she was looking for a place to live so she knew where the landlord’s office was. She wrote down everything that is wrong with my apartment (the heater, the fridge, and the water pipes) in Korean so that I can give it to him when he comes to my apartment tomorrow night. I am also very lucky to have Sunny as a friend. And it is nice because she lives one block away from me.
• So remember how I wanted to go to the free gym because it has all the same equipment just less of it? Well Sunny and I went to work out there tonight. Unfortunately, only the treadmills work. Everything else is not plugged in, and in most cases, missing its power cord all together. You can imagine my disappointment. But I guess that’s what you get when it’s a free facility. Angela would be proud, we stayed and worked out on the treadmill and then abs work.

Day 15

• Today I made sure to scan my badge on my way in to work this morning. Hye Jeung said that when ever she forgets to scan her badge at work she gets a reminder email sent from the company. So that is what those Korean memos were about. I was getting one every day but since I can’t read Korean I figured that if it was really an important memo than it would be in English. Guess not, ooops! I’m just so used to getting my memos read to me in a funny accent by Melissa that I just naturally assumed that the memo was not important.
• At lunch Hye Jeung walked with me to the pharmacy so that I could get some birth control. I managed to leave my 4 month supply that I had gathered specifically for the move over here at home. I need birth control so that my face won’t break out. My skin gets really bad if my hormones are not controlled. Anyways, apparently here you don’t need a prescription for birth control, it’s over the counter and costs about $13 U.S.
• I tried on Chin’s hiking boots today, even thought they are a 7.5 they fit! Maybe that is a men’s 7.5? I was thrilled! Now if only we were going hiking this weekend 
• Sunny and I are going to a conference on Saturday. It’s free, and you know me, always adding to that curriculum vitae. It is nearly novel length now, at least short story length for sure.
• After work Sunny and I went to the gym and I am not impressed. I will try to get her to go to the free gym which has the same equipment, just less of it and not TV’s to watch as you work out. No big deal, I can’t understand Korean television anyways, I’ll stick with my ipod.

Day 14

• Today for breakfast at the office, (they serve breakfast and lunch at the cafeteria at work, which saves me a lot of money) they served fried, sugared, seaweed. Don’t knock it till you try it! I was shocked at how much I liked it.
• Also at breakfast this morning I learned that I was suppose to be swiping my badge each morning so they will know I arrive at work on time. OOOOOOooops! Today was the first day I swiped my badge, asides from on the weekend when I come in to work to use the internet. On the weekend you need to swipe your badge to make the door open, so right now it looks like for the past two weeks I have only been to work on the weekends! Hahahah! Chin said she can vouch for my when I told her my little oversight.
• Today I went back to Y’z League and trained the teachers in how to make the graphic organizers and sentence frames. It is so strange to actually have people working for me. Each one of the 6 teachers will be filling out the same weekly reports I send to Chin, but instead they send it to me for review. I can’t believe I actually have people who report to me!
• After work today Hye Jeung and I went to the English graduate school to look at their gym. We are not sure, but we think that we can use the facility for free because we work for Yoon’s. Hye Jeung will call someone tomorrow to find out if we can actually work out there for free. That would save me 80$ a month. It doesn’t have any instructors teaching fitness classes, but it does have all the different machines like treadmill, elliptical, stair steppers for use. There is a bookshelf in the gym where everyone leaves their gym shoes! I won’t even have to carry my shoes to work with me, I can leave them there and use them when ever I go work out.
• After we checked out the gym near my house, its 2 blocks away, we had dinner. My first dinner guest in my new home! When we arrived, to my great surprise my curtains had been installed!!! Yeah!!! Hey Jeung also tried to fix the ghost in my TV for me. She thinks she was able to cancel the timer that was set. I guess we shall see on Saturday whether it worked or not.
• Sad news, the weekend hiking trip has been canceled. I hope they schedule another hike before the weather gets even colder. Chin left a bag on my desk today that had a walking stick, backpack, and hiking shoes. These were a gift to her that she has yet to use so she offered to let me have them. Unfortunately the hiking boots are too small of a size for me, but I’ m sure I will be able to buy some boy size hiking boots that fit me here. Hiking boots aren’t very gender specific so I should be good. They don’t make any shoe size for woman above an 8; I’m 8 ½ so I wont be buying any of the cute shoes there.

Day 13

• Today was freezing!!!! No, seriously. It actually was freezing; it got down to -2 C which is something like 30F for those non Celsius users. I am warming up by drinking a nut tea. It has chunks of walnuts and pumpkin seeds floating in it.
• I wish my toilet seat was heated like the one at work. Yes, that’s right, they have heated toilet seats (unlike Mark and Anne’s outhouse in Fairbanks Alaska). I have hardwood floors in my apartment and the floors are heated by coils under the floor boards. Nice and toasty! Melissa and I found that the floors also work well to lay your jeans out on to dry since there are no dryers.
• Today Chin and I went to Y’z League. It is an after school program that has 6 English teachers, two of which are Americans. Tomorrow I am going back there by my self to teach the teachers how to make the graphic organizers and sentence frames I am currently working on.
• So Sunny from work wants me to go to work out at her gym with her. I am more than willing to, but the only problem is it costs 80,000 won a month!!! That’s about $80 American!!!!! I think Lucas and I were paying 30$ a month at Marina Del Rey fitness. I just don’t know if I can do $80 a month for a gym membership.

Day 12

• Today Chin and I walked along Olympic park. It is nice even in the fall. The trees are changing colors, and the carp are still swimming (the river should freeze by December) and there are public exercise machines to use. These machines are amazing! They use your own body weight as the resistance!
• After our walk in the park we stopped by a street vender who was selling the Korean version of a churro for 50 cents a piece. They are round and have cinnamon, brown sugar, and toasted sesame seeds inside of it. Mmmmmmm!
• For lunch I had a sweet potato and cheese pretzel. Wetzel’s Pretzels needs to get on that because it is soooo good! It’s almost like a calzone. Melissa, when you come here make sure to get one because you’re gonna love it!
• Once done with lunch we took the subway to the shopping hub known as Dongdaemun market (Melissa this is the one you took me too). It’s nice because I can use the same bus pass I got the other night for the subway, and it also works to pay taxis too. So convenient! Anyways, Chin got a new purse and after selling it to her the vendor proceeded to remove its original metal tag and attach a Prada one! So now it looks like an authentic Prada handbag! I was shocked! Also at the market, they sell nylon stockings that look like jeans. Which brings new meaning to the phrase “those jeans look like they are painted on.” They look so much like “skinny jeans” it’s hard to tell if they are real or not!
• Outside of the Dongdaemun market they sell something that can only be described as a Korean corn dog. It is the strangest looking food I have ever seen. It looks like a big wad of French fries served on a stick. Apparently nestled within the mass of fries is a hotdog. I don’t know how they make it, or how it tastes, but I do know it is very popular.

Day 11

• Today is Halloween! Unfortunately they don’t celebrate it here. Apparently something like 1/3 of the workers at my company are Jehovah Witnesses so no coming to work with a silly hat on or anything for me. Today is also the first rainy day I’ve experienced, good think I packed an umbrella. It wouldn’t be Halloween without a light rain.
• Make that heavy thunder and lightning storm.
• I went to E-Mart with Chin and Richard and outside they have machines that you put your wet umbrella into and it wraps it in plastic so you won’t drip water in the store. So smart! It has plastic bags for both large and small umbrellas!
• I wanted to get a bunny rabbit today but because it is so story I decided not to. I couldn’t carry a bunny, cage, and my umbrella successfully in the pouring rain so I will wait till next week maybe.
• I came home from the office this afternoon and once again the TV was turned on by itself just like last Saturday morning. So instead of a poltergeist or someone breaking in to my house to watch TV my new theory is that it’s on a timer. I have no way of fixing the problem because the menu is in Korean. I will just have to remember to unplug the TV before I leave the house on Saturdays.

Day 10

• For the second time I got to use a fork. We went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. Chairman Yoon’s, the head of the company, eldest son took Chin and me out to lunch to say thank you for teaching the demo lesson. For desert we had a scoop of green tea ice cream served in a cup of cold espresso shot. It was so surprisingly good!
• So my friend Hye Jeung is having her birthday with weekend and I told her I would bake her a cake if only my apartment came with an oven. She laughed at me and told me that Koreans don’t bake; they boil, fry, or steam their food. Only high-end, new, expensive apartments come with ovens, and even then people only use the ovens to warm up their left overs. I just figured my apartment was too small to fit an oven but I guess it’s actually a cultural thing instead.
• After work today, Hye Jeung, Sunny and I took the bus to Lotte World (Korean Disneyland). Instead of a large mouse they have an even larger raccoon. They kept the same theme of using street rodents that people will pay 65$ to go see. Anyway, the girls helped me by a bus pass that is also good for the metro. And they taught me what my stop is so that I was able to make it home all by myself without getting lost. My stop is actually called “Yoon’s English Acadamy” so it’s really easy for me to recognize.
• We had Indian food for dinner, but they do not use Indian basmati or jasmine rice. They still use sticky Korean white rice instead, much to my disappointment. However, I did like how they made their garlic Nan bread. It was fluffy and not oily at all.
• After dinner we walked around the Lotte World Lake. It is quite beautiful at night. We sat under the gingko trees and had a beer and had a very relaxing evening, despite all the screaming you can hear from people enjoying the rides at the amusement park. Next Friday we are going back but will go on the rides, I can’t wait!
• Both Sunny and Hye Jeung are married. Apparently women here do not buy their wedding dresses. You pay for a photography and dress package that included 3 different gown rentals for the wedding and reception. So Loribeth I guess when you had all those costume changes on your wedding day it is customary and not eccentric at all : )

Day 9

Day 9
• I remembered to fast today. I also managed to get a taxi to take me to my local international clinic. I like my new doctor; she is fluent in English and Korean. That’s not the only reason I like her of course, she was very helpful in answering all my questions and has a good bed side manner. At the clinic they have an area where you fill out forms, this area has complementary reading glasses to use. The glasses come in 3 different strengths. How considerate is that?!?
• Today I also go to pick out my new curtains for my apartment. They are custom made. I guess people don’t go to Bed Bath and Beyond and to it themselves here. They should be ready for installation in 5 days. So until then my neighbors can still see me walk around in my undies – enjoy it while it lasts because in 5 days the show is over! (Just kidding, I’m not walking around in my underwear; I’m dancing)
• Tonight chin and I went to Lotte World (Korea’s Disneyland / Hotel / Department Store) we did some shopping and got dinner. It was my first time using a fork in 9 days! It kinda felt strange to use it.