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.