Ok so I never did a post about my apartment and have had many requests from family and really good friends back home *wink*. So here it is. I should've done this in the day time so you could see the street but if I waited till the morning it would never have gotten done.
If you look closely you can see my lotion bottle sitting on the floor. This is a good strategy. Since the floors are warm, my lotion gets warm too. So when I get out of the shower it feels so good to put on heated lotion instead cold lotion. Great idea!
I'll post more pics too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuAO5UPHBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUf6jzznbqc
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Getting pushed/shoved
Don't get upset when the old and young all push you. They shove here and it is not a problem at all. its part of the custom. No one gets upset by it. You'll be shoved, bumped and cut off, all the above. With that said don't hesitate to push your way through too. I think it's hard at first because we just don't do that sorta thing. You get bumped around when its really crowded, but not just pushed and ran down. But you gotta do it cause they be all up in the way and never walk straight. I still say sorry, sorry, sorry cause sometimes you can't help but bump and push, they don't even look twice or once for that matter. And then I think, hmmm when am I gonna stop that? Because it never even gets acknowledged. When you push them its the same as the wind blowing....nothing unusual, not even noticeable most of the time.
One time I was about to miss my bus back to Jinju and this older lady was standing in the doorway. I think she was trying to figure out which gate her bus was at but I sure shoved her right out my path...No way I was getting stuck in a city I didn't know or have friends in. She didn't care, didn't even look my way, just moved over. LOL this lady I work with said when she went to the US someone totally went off on her cause she bumped/pushed with no excuse me. She said "I was so embarrassed, I didn't know it was so different". And this is a really nice lady so go ahead heave your way through. I've seen ppl brush other ppl's kids out the way too and was the only one who even noticed.
One time I was about to miss my bus back to Jinju and this older lady was standing in the doorway. I think she was trying to figure out which gate her bus was at but I sure shoved her right out my path...No way I was getting stuck in a city I didn't know or have friends in. She didn't care, didn't even look my way, just moved over. LOL this lady I work with said when she went to the US someone totally went off on her cause she bumped/pushed with no excuse me. She said "I was so embarrassed, I didn't know it was so different". And this is a really nice lady so go ahead heave your way through. I've seen ppl brush other ppl's kids out the way too and was the only one who even noticed.
Multiple posts in One
I'm so not a diligent person, which I kinda regret. So I never post on my blog regularly and then I end up with multiple things to write about and then I have this inner debate about whether I should just make one huge blog with multiple pieces. Then I think that would be too much, so I consider just doing multiple blogs on the same day, which should be alright since its my blog. But it still feels like I'm breaking some kind of rule or just going over-board. And then I ask myself why I don't just keep up with my blog in the first place especially since I have so much I want to say. Finally I just say, "Oh well. I just can't help it". I'll just have multiple blogs for the day and multiple topics in each. And like the non-diligent person I am, I won't add the pictures until days later. Its terrible and true.
Stuff out here is so expensive for not that great of quality. I guess its because, and this is just my theory but I think its pretty accurate. Korea doesn't really get anything made in cheaper places like Thailand and China. Most stuff you buy here is made here. And they don't pay people like .40 cents a day. They pay them a real salary so we have to pay real prices. I hate to say it but the whole sweatshop thing really works for me. I like the bargains we get in the west. I saw a jacket that I liked about a month ago and lo and behold it cost a whopping 1,500,000 won. It wasn't that nice, come on. Seriously ridiculous. That's only about 700 USD at the moment but even that....Its ridiculous. All the ugly coats that you wouldn't want are like 400,000 won. I crack up when I see this. I tell the sales people come shop in the US so you can see what this is really worth. If I see one more plain turtle neck sweater for 50,000 won....
The public schools are so conservative...Korea is in general though. you don't see much skin besides legs, which are usually covered by leggings (I like this because I hate my legs). Not even a collar bone, yet alone the slightest bit of cleavage. I think It took me about a month to pick up on that. Everyone is covered to the neck, seriously. I wore a shirt that went a little below my collar bone and immediately had scarves thrown around my neck. I knew about the coverage issue so before I left home I pulled my tank top straps up as high as they would go. I thought I had it covered but once they saw that clavicle it was all over. I think Korea will make a lady of me for this reason and also because of the dirty floors.
Korea is really (and I'm not complaining...I am because I hate this but its just one of those things I guess) filthy. I walk down the streets and I cringe. Maybe I have some kind of issue (slight OCD) but it drives me crazy. The floors in the bathrooms are always wet and dirty. They don't clean the way I'm accustomed to. They just hose down the bathroom w/o cleaning products and the floor is just wet and people still walk in and out so its a wet floor turning black because of dirty shoes, so its more dirty. My pants are always too long so they touch the floor. I can't even explain how gross this makes me feel. Its not just the bathrooms but the streets as well. There is always trash and rotting fruit peels and the smell of sewage around. People spit all over and....ugh. Gross. We have the same situation in the US and everywhere else I'm sure but I've never seen a street like the ones here. Probably because I haven't been to NY. Anyway I know my pants are touching all these things so I've decided to invest in lots and lots of skirts. I NEVER wear skirts or dresses but yep Korea will make a lady of me I'm sure.
Stuff out here is so expensive for not that great of quality. I guess its because, and this is just my theory but I think its pretty accurate. Korea doesn't really get anything made in cheaper places like Thailand and China. Most stuff you buy here is made here. And they don't pay people like .40 cents a day. They pay them a real salary so we have to pay real prices. I hate to say it but the whole sweatshop thing really works for me. I like the bargains we get in the west. I saw a jacket that I liked about a month ago and lo and behold it cost a whopping 1,500,000 won. It wasn't that nice, come on. Seriously ridiculous. That's only about 700 USD at the moment but even that....Its ridiculous. All the ugly coats that you wouldn't want are like 400,000 won. I crack up when I see this. I tell the sales people come shop in the US so you can see what this is really worth. If I see one more plain turtle neck sweater for 50,000 won....
The public schools are so conservative...Korea is in general though. you don't see much skin besides legs, which are usually covered by leggings (I like this because I hate my legs). Not even a collar bone, yet alone the slightest bit of cleavage. I think It took me about a month to pick up on that. Everyone is covered to the neck, seriously. I wore a shirt that went a little below my collar bone and immediately had scarves thrown around my neck. I knew about the coverage issue so before I left home I pulled my tank top straps up as high as they would go. I thought I had it covered but once they saw that clavicle it was all over. I think Korea will make a lady of me for this reason and also because of the dirty floors.
Korea is really (and I'm not complaining...I am because I hate this but its just one of those things I guess) filthy. I walk down the streets and I cringe. Maybe I have some kind of issue (slight OCD) but it drives me crazy. The floors in the bathrooms are always wet and dirty. They don't clean the way I'm accustomed to. They just hose down the bathroom w/o cleaning products and the floor is just wet and people still walk in and out so its a wet floor turning black because of dirty shoes, so its more dirty. My pants are always too long so they touch the floor. I can't even explain how gross this makes me feel. Its not just the bathrooms but the streets as well. There is always trash and rotting fruit peels and the smell of sewage around. People spit all over and....ugh. Gross. We have the same situation in the US and everywhere else I'm sure but I've never seen a street like the ones here. Probably because I haven't been to NY. Anyway I know my pants are touching all these things so I've decided to invest in lots and lots of skirts. I NEVER wear skirts or dresses but yep Korea will make a lady of me I'm sure.
Priceless
I just had a really great weekend in Seoul. Cirque du Soleil has been here in Korea for about 3 months now and I finally got to see the show.It's called Alegria. It was pretty good. I've seen other shows by Cirque, this one isn't my favorite but it was a good time. It may have had something to do with the venue....it was a tent so there were huge poles with lights attached placed throughout the tent. Our seats were positioned with a good amount of pole sight so we were moving all over the place trying to get a good view. The crew members were so strict on seating, even though the venue was far from sold out. The show itself was fine.
I was so excited because I saw snow fall for the first time in 2 or 3 years....It snowed in Tucson a couple years back. I took some pictures and it began to look a lot like Christmas. Nice big snow flakes too. We shopped, haggled and bargained, slept 7 to a hotel room....Best way to save money.
The funniest thing that happened is that we were rushing to the show after getting a hotel room and missed the train. Not all of us missed it however, one of the girls jumped on and tried to hold the door open for the rest of us. It didn't work, so she just ended up on the train alone. I was one of the ones that was way behind so I didn't get to see this personally but they say the look on her face as the train took off was priceless. I wish I was there. It sucked though because she had no phone and she was the one who knew where we were going so that was bit of a mess. And I think her boyfriend was kinda worried that she was separated from us in this HUGE city. Seoul is really big. Hmmm....but yeah he obviously didn't hop on the train with her lol. We had to laugh at him about that.
I was so excited because I saw snow fall for the first time in 2 or 3 years....It snowed in Tucson a couple years back. I took some pictures and it began to look a lot like Christmas. Nice big snow flakes too. We shopped, haggled and bargained, slept 7 to a hotel room....Best way to save money.
The funniest thing that happened is that we were rushing to the show after getting a hotel room and missed the train. Not all of us missed it however, one of the girls jumped on and tried to hold the door open for the rest of us. It didn't work, so she just ended up on the train alone. I was one of the ones that was way behind so I didn't get to see this personally but they say the look on her face as the train took off was priceless. I wish I was there. It sucked though because she had no phone and she was the one who knew where we were going so that was bit of a mess. And I think her boyfriend was kinda worried that she was separated from us in this HUGE city. Seoul is really big. Hmmm....but yeah he obviously didn't hop on the train with her lol. We had to laugh at him about that.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Fractions for English
This picture is from the first night I met some other foreigners in town. I was extremely excited. I remember just before coming out here, I only wanted to be around Koreans and be totally immersed in the culture. That died down quickly and all I wanted to do was find someone to talk to in english. The english speaking teachers here can't understand me when I speak at regular speed so my conversation literally slows down to like a third of what it usually is. It takes a bit of extra thinking because we use so much slang in our language...I never realized that until now. English is LOADED with nothing but slang so whatever you have to say....you have to reduce it to simplest terms....like fractions for english...Seriously
Example:
32/5 = 6.40
I've got a bone to pick with you = I'm upset with you
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Dark Knight
Very interesting....Last night the movie "The Dark Knight" came on television. I guess its not that big of a deal except it was only in theaters a few months ago. But the thing is that it didn't come on a payed channel like pay-per-view it was just on regular t.v. Back in the US I'm thinking that its probably on pay-per-view still or maybe just coming out on HBO or something like that. At first I thought it was just a clip and then realized, no no no this is too long to be just a clip.....not that I didn't watch it or anything. I just think its odd, like maybe boot-legish Legal boot-legging going on in Korea.
This post is kinda irrelevant but I typed it so its goin up.
This post is kinda irrelevant but I typed it so its goin up.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Finally Free
My last early morning class (8 a.m.) was yesterday morning. It's such a relief. I have an extra 30 minutes in the morning plus I just come to work now and wait until 9:20 or 10:00 for my first class to start.Its so much less stressful. I'm trying to think of productive ways to fill my time now that I'm free. I also have an afternoon class which we are taking a break from until next week. Basically, I've been working from 8 a.m. until 5 or 6 p.m. teaching 6 classes total. It was a lot.
My busy schedule will return soon enough though. Over winter break I have to teach for 4 hours and I'm picking up 2 extra classes to make more money. Needless to say there will be lots of movies and games and talking. I never knew how tiring teaching was. I am learning to be more creative with my lessons thus making my job easier.
My busy schedule will return soon enough though. Over winter break I have to teach for 4 hours and I'm picking up 2 extra classes to make more money. Needless to say there will be lots of movies and games and talking. I never knew how tiring teaching was. I am learning to be more creative with my lessons thus making my job easier.
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