We went to a Japanese restaurant the other night and I ordered some random dish because the picture looked good. When the dish arrived it was moving. It looked like little tiny maggots waving back and forth. Yuck right? Well it wasn’t maggots it was some type of paper thin item similar to the texture of the peelings from a piece of garlic. We think it might have been onion but paper thin. The sizzle of the warm food underneath and the air made it move around like it was alive. Luckily my food was not alive. It was very interesting and tasted great. It was a bowl of noodles with squid, clams, mussels, octopus, and probably some other items too, your typical seafood dish. It was delicious.
Tonight I was really craving an all American sandwich with sliced white bread, mayo, ham and American cheese. Instead Chris went and got some Kimbop. I would consider it the Koreans equivalent to a sandwich. It has a “yellow radish,” some type of meat or cheese, and a few other items wrapped in seaweed. It is cheap and tastes really great.
HOW TO GET AROUND
We are slowly figuring out the bus system. The busses run every few minutes. But in order to catch the bus you have to wave at the bus driver to get him to stop even if you are standing at the bus stop. At about 11 pm last night we watched two of the buses that we wanted to get on pass by us before we realized you have to indicate to the driver that you want to get on. Well we made it home ok. It was quite an adventure.
We had gone out to dinner with Joan and Georgiana, two of the other teachers from our school. We went to Uno Chicago. Yes it was good old American food. Chris and I shared a Chicago deep dish pizza; it was good but very expensive. The rule around here is that Korean food is cheap and Western food is expensive.
After dinner the girls showed us where the dollar store was, ok I mean the 1000 won store. We were able to pick out some nice plates and a few other items that we needed. We will look forward to going back there soon. The restaurant was in an outdoor mall that was really cool. I learned where a lot more shopping stores are.
LIFE IN OUR APARTMENT
Our apartment is interesting. We have to use a number combination to unlock the door. The nice part is that we don’t have to carry any keys. My mother once said that the less keys you carry the less complicated your life is. So how many keys do you carry? : ) When we moved into our apartment walls were really dirty. I asked Sarah (our employer and the person who handles anything about our apartment) about it and she said that it was the landlord’s responsibility to take care of it, and that she would contact him about it. Well he came this morning and decided that he would have all the wall paper changed on Thursday. I am looking forward to this. After the walls are fixed I am going to buy some house plants and print out some pictures of family members to put on the walls to make feel more like a home.
Since it is Saturday, today it is laundry day. Our washing machine is in our kitchen. It is a small front loading machine. We do not have a dryer so we hang everything up. It takes all day to do laundry. You can only wash a few items at a time and each load takes 1 hour and 27 minutes to wash. But I am very thankful that we don’t have to take our laundry to a laundry mat.
I have noticed that a lot of websites that I used to access in the US are not accessible here. I guess I misunderstood the words “World Wide Web.” Oh well. I don’t have much time to spend on the Internet anyway. I mostly check my email and write on Facebook. We have also figured out how to use Skype. I have been able to call the states for $0.021/per minute. When I wake up in the morning it is evening in the States and when I get home from work at night it is early in the morning in California.
Our school and apartment are on the same street about a 15 to 20 minute walk. It is nice because the sidewalks are made of some type of material that is soft. It is green or sometimes red. It reminds me of walking on a tennis court. I appreciate it because I can’t find shoes that are comfortable enough to walk in everyday survive the weather and still look appropriate to wear at work. I am looking forward to the warmer weather so I can wear some of the other shoes that I brought.
I have had a breakthrough at school. I am finally able to figure out my lessons plans and write them quickly. I was able to finish all of my lesson plans for next week, 38 classes, before I left school Friday night. I feel very accomplished. This means that next week I will not have to stay at school until 9:00 pm every night.
The weather here is interesting. It is cold but mostly because of the wind. If there is not wind the weather is not bad. It has rained off and on during that last week, but nothing too bad. The weather is supposed to get warmer soon.
Well I learned something interesting from one of my classes the other day. The lesson was teaching them about Valentine’s Day in America. One of the girls let me know that Saturday, March 14 is White Day in Korea. I asked her what that meant and she said that in Korea on White Day, guys give girls chocolate. According to Chris I lucked out since I was in America for V-Day last month and made it to Korea in time for their chocolate holiday :)
We are happy here and are glad that we are starting to develop a routine. Please continue to send us emails. If there is something specific that you would like us to talk about in this blog please let us know.
Jennifer
A Large Man In A Small World
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