Sunday, November 16, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
November
Before I came to South Korea, I had all these grand plans. Goals, if you will. One of these being that I was going to spend time every day writing-- journaling, blogging, poetry, short stories, etc. I've been doing some but not every day, and I've definitely been neglecting both this blog and my "regular" blog.
Maybe that's because nothing particularly exciting is going on. I guess that statement in and of itself proves to all of you that I am completely settled and comfortable in Korea. My friends and I always talk about how we keep forgetting that we're on the other side of the world because this feels so natural to us now. Natural and familiar, even though things are SO different. Instead of taking classes, I'm teaching classes. I don't have a car anymore, I either walk or take the bus/subway whenever I need to go somewhere. My lunch/dinner meals consist of "weird" food-- for example, for lunch today I had triangle kimbap (imagine a ball of rice with sauce and egg in it, surrounded by a seaweed sheet) and kiwi, and for dinner I had pork spine soup. Again-- completely natural to me.
I honestly believe that if I weren't super close to my daddy/Kathy, my brothers, and some of my best friends-who-are-more-like-siblings, I would never leave here. This is just such a neat culture. PLUS...I love having a full-time job. I love that I don't have to pay for rent and that my utilities are like $50 a month. Everything is so cheap here too, but good quality. Okay, not everything-- fashion and/or hygiene things are pricey, but very good quality.
This weekend I'm SUPER busy. On Saturday, I'm going to the DMZ with Patrick and Alison. We have to be at the tour bus at 7am on Saturday, which means we have to leave HERE at 5:30am. Ugh. That night we're going to my friend Annie's birthday party. Sunday I'm going sight-seeing/shopping in Seoul with Tiffany and Marina. I'm sure the weekend is going to fly by fast-- they always do here.
I bought my plane ticket home for Christmas yesterday. I intended to buy it on Monday (pay day) but I discovered that I couldn't use my Korean debit card online, since I'm a foreigner. I went to the bank yesterday to get it sorted out but I couldn't do anything about it, so my friend Gina used her credit card to buy my ticket for me and then we transferred money from my account to her account. I was SO happy that my card ended up not working, because if it had I would have purchased my ticket on Monday for 1,554,700 Won. Because I had to wait until Tuesday, I ended up buying my ticket for 1,054,700-- 500,000 Won cheaper!!!! So basically, for those of you unaware of the exchange rate, I was GOING to buy my ticket for $1165 but ended up getting it for $791 because of this amazingly fateful inconvenience (Go God!). The ticket prices were going up and down and I was afraid to wait too long to buy my ticket because it had gone up to 1,888,000 Won at one point. Craziness. So yes. I am only coming home for a week, sadly, but it will be great. I'm spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents in Alpena. Then I'm driving down to Lansing so that I can have the honor of standing in one of my bestest friends' wedding...and of course, see some SWEET people that I love and miss dearly. After that's over I'm going back to Alpena for the rest of my trip. It will be psychotic and exhausting and I'm going to sleep a ton when I get back to Korea, but it will be worth it. Fo sho.
Time for bed. It may be only noon Michigan time, but it is 2:02am Korea time. ^.^
Maybe that's because nothing particularly exciting is going on. I guess that statement in and of itself proves to all of you that I am completely settled and comfortable in Korea. My friends and I always talk about how we keep forgetting that we're on the other side of the world because this feels so natural to us now. Natural and familiar, even though things are SO different. Instead of taking classes, I'm teaching classes. I don't have a car anymore, I either walk or take the bus/subway whenever I need to go somewhere. My lunch/dinner meals consist of "weird" food-- for example, for lunch today I had triangle kimbap (imagine a ball of rice with sauce and egg in it, surrounded by a seaweed sheet) and kiwi, and for dinner I had pork spine soup. Again-- completely natural to me.
I honestly believe that if I weren't super close to my daddy/Kathy, my brothers, and some of my best friends-who-are-more-like-siblings, I would never leave here. This is just such a neat culture. PLUS...I love having a full-time job. I love that I don't have to pay for rent and that my utilities are like $50 a month. Everything is so cheap here too, but good quality. Okay, not everything-- fashion and/or hygiene things are pricey, but very good quality.
This weekend I'm SUPER busy. On Saturday, I'm going to the DMZ with Patrick and Alison. We have to be at the tour bus at 7am on Saturday, which means we have to leave HERE at 5:30am. Ugh. That night we're going to my friend Annie's birthday party. Sunday I'm going sight-seeing/shopping in Seoul with Tiffany and Marina. I'm sure the weekend is going to fly by fast-- they always do here.
I bought my plane ticket home for Christmas yesterday. I intended to buy it on Monday (pay day) but I discovered that I couldn't use my Korean debit card online, since I'm a foreigner. I went to the bank yesterday to get it sorted out but I couldn't do anything about it, so my friend Gina used her credit card to buy my ticket for me and then we transferred money from my account to her account. I was SO happy that my card ended up not working, because if it had I would have purchased my ticket on Monday for 1,554,700 Won. Because I had to wait until Tuesday, I ended up buying my ticket for 1,054,700-- 500,000 Won cheaper!!!! So basically, for those of you unaware of the exchange rate, I was GOING to buy my ticket for $1165 but ended up getting it for $791 because of this amazingly fateful inconvenience (Go God!). The ticket prices were going up and down and I was afraid to wait too long to buy my ticket because it had gone up to 1,888,000 Won at one point. Craziness. So yes. I am only coming home for a week, sadly, but it will be great. I'm spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents in Alpena. Then I'm driving down to Lansing so that I can have the honor of standing in one of my bestest friends' wedding...and of course, see some SWEET people that I love and miss dearly. After that's over I'm going back to Alpena for the rest of my trip. It will be psychotic and exhausting and I'm going to sleep a ton when I get back to Korea, but it will be worth it. Fo sho.
Time for bed. It may be only noon Michigan time, but it is 2:02am Korea time. ^.^
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