Awesome Asian Cell Phone Technology? Not Quite.

I've been here for two months and successfully lived without a cell phone.

That is a statement I never expected to utter. One of the things I couldn't wait to get when I came to Korea was a cool new tricked out Asian phone. I expected to have to pay like 40 or 50 bucks to buy a phone and be on my way. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that my school offered free phones to the staff, and all we had to do was put $10 worth of minutes on a phone per month in order to use it.

Perhaps 'pleasantly' is a word that shouldn't be used so liberally here. The phone that I received was a Samsung AnyCall something or other:





I say something or other, because I spent a good 15-20 minutes today trying to find any type of specs on line, but to no avail. Anycall is the brand of Samsung for its Chinese, Korean, and Russian phones. Some of their products look pretty snazzy but I believe my phone to be easily 5 years old (which is a dinosaur for how far cell phone technology has come in the last few years) so its got no flair.

The screen has color, but very basic graphics, and its menu is not user friendly. It takes the phone 3-4 minutes to even turn on, and when it does some stupid dancing fairy has to go through its routine before you can get to the main menu. The phone is set to English, yet whenever I attempt to add in a contact or write a text message, the script will still come out in Hangul (Korean writing). Also, to get to the phonebook you have to go through 4 different menu options to even get there. There is no scrolling option to be found anywhere. Not to mention the battery doesn't last longer than 10-12 hours and takes about 10-15 to charge on its base. Yes, it has a base, not just a plug in option.

As far as the $10 a month option, it operates as almost a pay as you go. You're not on a contract once you register the phone but you have to put a minimum of 10,000W down. I have no idea how many minutes this gets you, but incoming calls are free. Supposedly if you do not use all of your minutes, by the end of the month you lose whatever money you have left, as it will not carry over to the next month. This is still up for debate. The Koreans are an extremely helpful people, but they also like to leave out a lot of important details on purpose if they think you won't be happy with it.

I could just go out and buy a phone and get on a contract somehow (apparently its pretty difficult for foreigners to get a contract in Korea), but since I barely use this thing as it is, paying $10 a month when I need to use it isn't a bad option. We'll see how it goes...

Field Trip: Speed Demons on Bikes

It was a pretty exciting week around SLP. Full of fun activities for all the kiddies, and lots of work for the English Teachers. A 5 day week full of the usual teaching funness, but Thursday was a special treat for the kids. Field trip!

We took the kids to Yuldong Park near Bundang for some Bike Riding and outdoor fun. The park even had a fully functional Bungee Jumping Tower over this gorgeous little lake, that at some point I will take advantage of. However we went past this tower and onto the park. We got there, let the kids have snack time - which is my favorite time because they share all of their goodies with each other and with us. And the parents usually give all sorts of things to the kids to give to us. One parent made hot dogs soaked in ketchup, mustard, and the most amazing sweet pickle relish I've ever had, and another parent cut up Korean Pears (much different than pears at home) and peaches:





I also got cookies and Krispy Creme donuts from another parent. But after snacktime we had 30 minutes of play in the field time where we were given a ball and told "Be Creative", and then 30 minutes of bike riding. I consider the day a success because the weather was absolutely beautiful, my kids only cried maybe 3-4 times, and only 1 of them wound up bleeding. Victory! Anyway, I'll let you get the idea through pictures:

"Candy Candy Candy Candy"

"Halloween is not like those other stupid holidays.... ... there's just candy. Boom, you go out and you get candy. Simple. That's me" - Garfield's Halloween special.

October is the month of Ghosts, Goblins, My Birthday, Garfield and candy. I recently downloaded Garfield's 1985 Halloween Special - one of my all time favorite cartoons. It made me think about the random stuff I've been eating here as far as sweets are concerned. Now while I AM trying to be a bit more mindful of my health here, there are just something things a girl cannot say no to - one of those things being chocolate. My first week I happened to find a treat that I used to have as a kid, but they were really hard to come by: pepero


They're about 700W usually ($.50) and are bread sticks covered in chocolate and almond. So small, and yet so addictive - I get them at least 3-4 times a week.

The next thing that I have every now and again also remind me of a type of deliciousness I had as a child - moonpies:


Now these aren't actually moonpies, but they're the next closest thing, and in some cases I think these are better. Not as dry. But for 1,850W (About $1.50) you can get a box of 6 like this.

There's one type of candy bar that I've only had once, but I only picked it up because of the name:


Crunky Chocolate! Ha. It's basically just Korea's version of a Nestle Crunch bar, but I don't find it to be as good. Although you can get it for about 500W (like 35 cents).

Next are the sodas. You can find Pepsi/Coke here pretty easily but that's about it. They have a version of 7up/Sprite called Chilsing Cider which tastes exactly the same and I'm a pretty big fan of that:


The one thing I love about the sodas and juices here are the portion sizes. They come in these 250ml cans which is the perfect amount of liquid. They're half the size of the cans at home, and I never finished them as it was.

So those are just some of the things I have come to enjoy around here. I've seen random things at festivals like Fried Silk Worms, and they give off a smell that is so putrid I have yet to get near one of the little stands to see what it even looks like. The odds of me actually trying these things are slim to none, but the Koreans seem to enjoy them.

Meet the [Korean] Parents

Remember that funny movie a few years ago? Meet the Parents? And then the follow up Meet the Fockers that in my opinion was a better movie than the original? Those were good movies, weren't they?

Well this post's subject matter isn't as entertaining as those movies were, and it doesn't involve meeting a significant other's parents - it's worse. I had to meet with the parents of one of my classes on Thursday afternoon and it was nothing short of nerve wracking.

I have a class - Frog SR-3 (I'll explain the levels in another post)- every Tuesday/Thursday from 3:20-4pm. It consists of 6 kids - Sally, Dabin, Elmo, Jennifer, Alice, Will, Harry. They're good kids overall, but they're also a handful. I think they're all about 8 or 9 (about 7 or 8 normal age) and have been coming to SLP for quite some time now. They speak pretty fluenty, but definitely need some help in the grammar areas and their writing isn't where it should be really. Our focus for this class is public speaking, and story reading. Dabin's the trouble maker... this round little kid who's got the sweetest face, but has the worst case of ADD I've ever seen. The kid cannot sit still and disrupts everyone else.

Anyway, everyone's parents show up except for Dabin's. I'm in the classroom next to my head teacher, and in front of all these moms... and to be honest, this school isn't cheap, so these are some pretty rich, well put together, gorgeous Korean women, and they all care about their children's education very intently. The entire 40 minutes is in Korean. They ask a question (in Korean) and Sally (my boss) translates and vice versa. I'm terrified to say something negative, because as this isn't a school that prioritizes education over the business revenue it gets from these kids, I want to make sure what I say will benefit the kid as well as not anger the mom and make them take their child to another Hagwon (Korean private school).

Now I've been here for two months officially, and I've picked up a fair amount of Korean. Can I make sentences? absolutely not. But I know some words, and I heard them ask where I was from, and it sounded like they were starting to criticize me - "ah stupid new yorker, how does she know how to teach kids??" Afterall, this class is easily one of my least favorite, and I don't find it very fun so how could the kids? Turns out it was quite the opposite. The parents loved me. They said my class was very fun and the kids were learning a lot and to keep it up.

Since I'm working on a staff where they will fire a teacher at random and for no apparent reason, getting a good review like that from parents is a way to stay useful and keep your job for another day. Beyond stressful though, that's for sure.

Now, next month we have open classes where the parents come in and watch us teach their pre-school kids for an hour. Man I can't wait... I think I'd rather cut off an appendage than go through this, and I have to go through it twice! yay!

Age is Just a Number - Until it Involves Math.

Well I turned 25. It was inevitable really... it does come after 24 and it had no where else to go. Usually I just use my birthday as an excuse to get everyone I know together for some randomness. BUT this year being in a brand new country with brand new friends I did it a bit differently. Not to mention the math is just all screwy.

Being on the otherside of the International Date Line has its pros & cons. This year, when the clock struck 12 on October 8, I became 25 years of age. However, instead of 24 hours of birthday fun, this year I wound up with 37. Why? Because being 13 hours ahead, they got tacked on for the people at home to send their wishes. If only that could have been the case for my 21st birthday...

Ah, and the math fun doesn't end there. There's always a korean twist to things these days... Koreans do age differently. They count the first 9 months you spend in the womb as your first year. So the day you're born you're 1, and then the following year everyone turns another year older on the same day in January (or maybe February, I'm a little fuzzy on that detail). So in essence, I am now 26, and will turn 27 in January. So at this point I never know what to answer as far as age goes.

Other than that it was a good way to spend a crazy amount of time. Amazing birthday cake from the people at work:


And then a really great dinner at the Patio Place for some Korean BBQ with 12 or so other English Teachers from our little nook of Suji:


So here's to another quarter century... may it be as entertaining and story ridden as the first one was.

Hitman & Mafia

It's been an interesting week around SoKo. The last few days have been shrouded in secrecy, paranoia, guns, lies, & death. What am I talking about? I'm talking about English teachers that generally have too much time on their hands and have figured out ways to entertain ourselves.

First things first. Mafia just got us all hyped up for the start of hitman. It's a card game where each person takes a card, gets assigned the position of Mafia, Sherriff, Doctor, or Townsperson. And each round someone dies, and each round the town has to figure out who dunnit. We've played multiple times, and it never loses its fun. There's nothing better than trying to figure out who's the best liar in a group. OR who's after you for no reason.

Mafia was completely a random thing that demonstrated who has the ability to be sneaky, and who knows how to play others against themselves - which is exactly what Hitman is all about. A few weeks ago, one of us came up with the idea to play Hitman - a game where a number of people buy toy guns (pellet, airsoft, bb - which ever you'd like to call it), draw names, aim for their target, and try to be the last one standing. On Wednesday night at our weekly BBQ 10 of us drew chips out of a bag with names on it and the games began.

Day 1 - Thursday - two casualties. Everyone was extremely paranoid... finding alternate ways to leave their apartment, traveling in packs, watching their backs, finding safe havens. It was exciting.

Day 2 - Friday - three casualties. We were safe at Family Mart, but the second people dispersed it was fair game. People hid, people came out of no where, people were shot in the back. Truces were made. And then a 5am shootout happened at exit amongst the 9 people that were left in the bar - korean - british - american - it was one of the most fun events at a late night bar outing in a really long time.

Day 3 - Saturday - five people left standing - I'm one of them. We meet at family mart to rendevous for an all night bonfire in the woods on a mountain... as soon as we disperse - the first kill of the night is made. Now there's 4. I'm one of them still. I know who has me as their target so I have my gun ready - I see him reach for his, I cock mine - and at the exact same moment he shoots his gun, I pulled my trigger. There was a split second difference, but in the end, I was out. My death was swift, and I made a stand for it, but that's how the game rolls. I did receive vindication though... 10 minutes later as we were walking, the person who had made the initial kill of the evening had become a rogue agent (ability to kill anyone) and killed my hitman in the back.

So now, there are two people left standing, and I'm personally voting for the rogue agent. Until the next round that is...

A Shave & A Haircut...

...two bits.

Well, maybe not so much the shave, but I definitely got a haircut today and was terrified of the idea going in. The last one I got was in early August, and it wasn't what I wanted, but it was a cut nonetheless. SO I figured if I couldn't get what I wanted to an english speaking stylist in New York, how in the world was I going to get what I wanted from a Korean Salon?

Getting my haircut here was nothing short of amazing. I walked into Lotte Mart as I had been told there was a salon there, and the english speaking manager asked if it was my first time there, I said yes, and she took care of me the whole time - and basically had a team of stylists working on me. She led me over to the chair, then a woman washed my hair as traditionally expected, and I was brought back to the chair, had a rather large block put on my lap, and given a Korean issue of Cosmo. The manager came back, asked what I wanted to have done. I tried to explain the type of layers I wanted, but as it wasn't even really making sense to me, I just asked if she had a picture book. Of course it was all asian, but honestly, looking through the book I found about 8 different styles I wanted. They were young, and trendy, and as the kids say - hip. All of the books at home are for children's haircuts OR for moms. So I picked one out and we were on our way.

I was offered coffee, tea, or water while I waited for my stylist to come over. The manager explained in korean to the man that was going to cut my hair, and for the next 15 minutes he just went to town. And all of the things I usually have to ask for (a razor, thinning shears) he just automatically used. When it was over, the same woman from earlier washed my hair again which surprised me. A second hair washing?? wow.

Then I came back to the chair, and my guy started blow drying my hair. Then another woman came over to help. Two blow dryers? Either my hair is extremely tough to do, or I was being treated like a princess (I prefer the latter).

When it was over the manager gave me my bag back (they took it to put away for me in the beginning), and gave me the card of my guy. I was expecting to pay about what I would pay at home... anywhere from $25-$40 depending on what I have done. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me it was 16,000W, AND on top of that there's a 30% discount for being a foreigner! So 11,000W later, I walked out of the salon feeling pretty darn good.

So if you're in Suji, and you're looking for a great hair-cutting experience - go to Lotte.

Chusok Pt III: Backpacking-ish

For a 3 day trip I sure did have a lot to say. Getting out of Suji made me appreciate it much more than I had been and the first significant trip definitely deserves some attention.

Once we got there we tried a few motels & a hostel we knew about, but we got two rooms at the 3rd motel, and wound up playing cards all night on Sunday and 4 of us crashed in one room and 1 of us in the other room. Eh, it's all part of the fun. The second night we stayed at a Hostel which is run by an awesome guy who's fluent in Korean (obviously), English, & Japanese. We paid 50,000 Won to have his master guest room, which had 3 rooms, 4 big beds, and a common room. It was really spacious, very clean, had a big bathroom, free coffee, and for 5 of us to pay 10,000W each? I won't complain. We called him Willie because he only has one eye (a little insensitive on our parts, but we didn't disrepect him). If anyone sees this and is interested in going, it's the Seo-Cheon Guest House and his email address is eui9882@yahoo.co.kr if you'd like to tell him you're coming. We just walked in and he said to come back the next day and all was well. I have his card and phone number, so if you'd like more information, just email me.

The nice thing about the hostel the second night was the random people we met. Hostels are the poor man's way to travel, but they provide the most entertainment, and a certain amount of ease. Four of us sat around the table in the common area late monday night and two guys knocked on our door wanting to know if they could have a cup of coffee with us. So we invited them in - they taught directly in Seoul and were from Florida & Montreal if I can remember correctly... had excellent conversation about teaching in general, and we suggested some places for them to see. About an hour after they left, one of my crew was having a smoke out back and I heard an extra voice. So we invite the extra voice in, and play a round of cards, but more importantly talked about his bike trip that day fro Seoul to Gyeongu (keep in mind it took us 4 hours on a bus), and about his years of experience teaching in Korea & Hong Kong, and we all talked a bit about our experiences, and just had a really sweet night. In fact, I have added his blog to the right side of my blog, so make sure you check it out - he had some kind words to say about his occurence with us!

Due to the rain I feel we didn't get to do as much as I had hoped, but I enjoyed it all nonetheless. We took a bus out to the Sea of Japan when we got there on Sunday to see the Underwater Tomb of King Munmu. After an hour and fifteen minutes on the bus through the windy mountains we finally saw the ocean - the angry angry ocean. The sky was dark, the sea was loud, and full of deep blues and greens, and waves taller than me. However, we weren't sure of the stop and once the ocean became a distant memory we got off in a random rural town. Everything kind of looked run down and there was no sign of anything really. A korean man with decent english walked over and asked of us if he could help, but he pointed to an area on the map and said that we were there, but we all knew we weren't. So we thanked him anyway, walked on to show him we appreciated his help, but once we were out of sight we took the map back out. That's when another korean guy about our age got out of his car and asked us if he could help. He then told us in really good english that this was his home town, and we stuck out like sore thumbs. He even walked us to our bus stop and told us what time it would come by, and I was seriously impressed by his generosity. So awhile later, we got to where we were going... to see some rocks:


I expected this tomb to be much more grandiose, as it is billed as the world's only underwater tomb. King Munmu in the 1300's believe that he would come back as a dragon to protect Korea against invasions from the Japanese if he were to be buried in the sea. So his ashes are placed in the center of that rock formation in a pool underneath rocks. It was still a cool place to see though, and the waves were pretty intense.

Monday wasn't any drier... we went to the Korean Folk Village which was primarily closed due to Chusok & the rain:


And then we moved onto the Bulguksa Temple, which was the highlight of the trip for me. A temple that had been burnt down by the japanese was rebuilt 50 or so years ago, and has a number of pagodas housing shrines to various types of Buddha's. I managed to take a few illegal pictures:


Overall an excellent trip, and a very beautiful part of the country. I recommend it :)


(mounds that are traditional korean tombs for royals)

Chusok Pt II: Gyeongu To & From

Spending 3 days away from Suji was exactly what the Doctor ordered. However, the doctor did not order more rain, and insane traffic but we got it anyway.

Five of us trekked out of Suji at 5am on a grey Sunday morning. The bus systems start here at 5am so we waited to take the 1550 bus to Yangdae for the subway, and then the subway to the bus stop. Well, we got a little scared about waiting for and maybe missing the bus, so we hopped in some cabs and were at the bus station in central city Seoul by 6am for a 715am bus. We bought our tickets on line at www.kobus.co.kr & paid extra for the tickets on the "Excellent" bus... a steep 26,000W and within four hours we were in Gyeongu, on the South Eastern side of the country, pretty close to Busan. The trip itself was great on the way down... we had four seats directly across the back, the windows on the bus open unlike at home so there was a nice breeze, and the view was incredible:


Nothing but farms and mountains as far as the eye could see.


We stopped at a rest top halfway through, and it was along side a rather large mountain and a river:

It was all wood, like a pier, and restaurants, and of course bathrooms, and it put rest stops at home to shame. Not just McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and Subway like on the thruway, but you could get full on meals here. There was even carnival food all along the outside and I found something I never thought I would find here - Syracuse Salt Potatoes. Syracuse hasn't cornered the market on these, but very very few people know what these are even though the name says it all. Tiny boiled potatoes drenched in salt and butter. The koreans put their little spin on it though... they added sugar... and it was heavenly.

We had only bought our tickets one way. We were testing out the bus since many people told us it wouldn't be a good way to go, and the that train would be better. Well, since the trip down had been so nice and we realized everyone was completely wrong, the second we got to the station we bought our return tickets. It was 17,500W on the "Normal" bus, and we were scheduled to leave on Tuesday.

It rained constantly on Sunday & Monday and of course, on Tuesday it was beautiful. We kept close to the station and got on our bus at 1:40pm. Our bus had an indian theme to it, and was no where near as spacious and nice as the "Excellent" bus we had on the way down but it worked.


Unfortunately we were not home at 6pm like we thought, but rather 2am. We all went a little stir crazy around hour 8 and we had to coax each other back on the bus when we made rest stop #3. Apparently traveling on Chusock Day is 10x as bad as traveling in the US on the Tues/Wed before Thanksgiving. The rest stops which I had thought were beautiful on the way down were hell holes on the way back - swarming with thousands of people, dirty, & everyone was angry - and rightfully so. There was a TV on the bus which was cute in the beginning but 13 hours straight of korean television would be enough to make anyone go mad. You ever try watching a gameshow in another language where they have to learn Old MacDonald for an hour? I didn't think so. Also, we watched an inflight movie where a teenage Korean boy comes to terms with himself and his desire to be a woman by becoming a pro wrestler. He wins the championship, and everyone loves him at the end when he dressed up like madonna and sings Like a Virgin in drag. I kid you not. Well, 13 hours later we were at Seoul and had cabs back to Suji. I love traveling.

Chusok Part I: Presents for everyone!

This may be a 2 or 3 part series - not sure yet, but the first part will be an explanation of Chusok - the Korean version of Thanksgiving and the events I've partaken in so far...

Tuesday, Septemeber 25th is this year's Chusok. It's basically a Harvest Festival celebrating Korean ancestors that supposedly goes by the lunar calendar. I've seen where it is supposed to be in August, however I guess it has been in September most years. I assume its counterpart for scheduling would be our Easter, but it is more traditionally related to our Thanksgiving. Chusok starts the night before and ends the night after, so most Koreans will take 3 days off of work which means that as an English Teacher we also get 3 children free days and no obligation to celebrate the way they do. What do most of us do? Well a few guys went to Thailand, another that went to Taiwan, another to Japan, some choose to just stick around here and do day trips, and some have their relatives come visit (there are a few moms roaming around the streets of Suji and its quite cute). Myself? I'm going to take a 3 day trip to Gyeongu, a city about 4 hours away on the South Eastern coast of Korea to visit Buddhist Temples, and see old traditional Korea, with four others. Should be pretty exciting.

However, before the actual holiday, Chusok is a much talked about event and there is much excitement leading up to it in a school. Starting this past Thursday the moms started bringing in tons of presents. Here's an example of some of what I got:



I received a big box of bath stuff (seen above closed & open) from a mom who bought it at an extremely nice body shop. Other moms brought in food for all of the teachers. Then on Friday it was stuff galore... I received a gigantic box of various teas, gourmet brownies individually wrapped in bows, a really nice passport holder, a Lotte Mart gift certificate from our boss, juices, cookies, and just various cakes and whatnot were around the office. Some of the other teachers received various forms of gifts as well - one girl received socks, and another received high end procured meats. Very random, but very very good & extremely generous. Also, all of the kids dressed up in their various Hanboks (traditional Korean clothing) not too unlike the Kimono. Check out how friggin cute my kids are!



They come in dressed up and we spent the morning making Songpyon - VERY tasty rice cakes that look like little dumplings, filled with sugar, cinnamon, & sesame seeds, & black soy beans if you wish (which I didn't). We ate them for the kids' snack time and then they brought home whatever extras they had. I of course had no idea what I was doing, so I spent my time taking pictures of the kids:



Overall it was a pretty enjoyable day - and getting presents is always a fun thing. My presents to all of my kids? Mostly classtime spent playing games (educational ones of course - scrabble, hangman, guess who) and no homework. Hey, that'd make me happy - and its the gift that keeps on giving b/c that means I don't have to grade anything when we get bacK!

One Month Anniversary

As of this moment I have been in South Korea for one month and its amazing how exactly the same I feel, and yet I know already everything's different.

I haven't done as much as I wanted to in my first month, BUT that is just because I'm overly ambitious, poor, and I've adjusted my time schedule here a bit. The first month really is spent settling in, and getting acquainted with your surroundings and meeting new people. Also for me, its getting used to the weather. The first week and a half was more humid than I care to think about and the last three weeks, or 21 days, Im pretty sure that it has rained a solid 15 of them - hells its raining right now. Really all I wanted my first month to include was seeing as much as possible, and taking a hike or two. The hiking hasn't happened yet, but I don't really like the idea of sliding up & down a mountain. Eventually though...

But for this post there are two separate lists I can think of (Things I've done, and Things I Wish I Had Known) that will better sum up my thoughts.

Things I have done so far:
-Start teaching a full schedule
-Witness & survive a fully capable foreign teacher get fired on my fourth day
-Learn to lesson plan & create time filling activities for kids (harder than you think)
-Go on a field trip to KBS
-Spend a night in a noreabang (korean karoake) and think of it as a special type of place
-Meet dozens of people from all over the world and call them friends
-Seen more 6am nights than I have in years
-Drink a fair amount of asian beer and korean soju, but successfully decline it as well
-Go into Seoul
-See the Monet Exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art
-See Itaewon in all its glory and declare it Americatown: A place that never needs be visited again
-Spend hours walking around Hongdae and realize its a cool counter culture area of Korea/Seoul
-Plan my first vacation (During Chusock, and it remains to be seen how successful this will be)
-Ride the Seoul Subways/Buses

Things that I wish I had known:
-That I would have been living in a spare bedroom of a basement apartment with no air conditioning across the street from a dump for my first week
-That Suji wasn't in Seoul (its 45 min away)
-That I'd be teaching little kids for half my day
-That I'd have to pay my first months bills ahead of time for my apt things
-That Koreans are generally some of the most generous people I've ever met
-That time would go this fast.

Not for any particular reason tonight, a couple of us went to have Korean BBQ at this patio outdoor place, and then have a few beers outside over at the Family Mart. True to Family Mart's nature more people showed up, great life conversation was had, and then a Korean man came to our table. We learned about his life, his family, he told us that we were all ugly, and then as the conversation went on he selectively told us who was beautiful and ended up buying us a round of beer. Couldn't have really asked for a better night to immerse myself in the life of a Korean.

Basically I've settled in pretty well... and I'm learning more things about myself and Korea as time goes on, and that's really what matters right? Growing up in this place that's made me regress a bit. Also, this starts a new tagging of my posts... there was In the Beginning for my trials & tribulations of finding a job, then right before I went with Preparing to Go, and then Finally in Korea and the first few posts I had here... now, Young Korea is born since everything's still so new to me.

Laundry: A Whole New Adventure

I tell ya, the one thing that Korea has over New York is the fact that I have laundry facilities IN my actual apartment, as opposed to schlepping 3 loads a block and a half away in most of the elements. AND one thing it has over my college apartment is that it isn't coin operated. I feel like an actual adult being able to just stay in and clean my dirty laundry and ya know, just watch tv or something.

However, there is a catch (there's always a catch). While I do have laundry capabilties here, it is not as most of you know it. You'd think you'd wash your clothes in a washing machine and then once done you would then proceed to dry them in dryer, correct? Wrong. Koreans don't necessarily believe that you should waste the energy/electricity in doing something nature will do for you over time. Therefore, I have a gigantic washer, BUT no dryer. Instead, I have this handy dandy little drying rack. And its not some cheap stand up wooden thing, its this straight up, huge elongated metal rack that has different areas for different things, and can be folded into various positions for say things like Blankets & Sheets.



Most Koreans I've noticed have their apartments set up in such a way that the front of their living space isn't a living room overlooking something, or even bedrooms with windows, but a separate laundry room specifically for hanging and drying clothes. It's a rather large walk in closet with very big windows overlooking the streets where you hang all of your unmentionables for everyone to see as they walk by outside. I unfortunately (or fortunately) do not have one of these. I have a balcony that is about a foot deep and six feet wide, so I must use the rack inside my apartment.

Nothing was more interesting that the first time I actually went to do laundry and it was all in Hangul (korean script). It is all digital, and the pictures KIND OF make sense, but everytime I throw my clothes in the machine, I sit and wonder what the outcome is gonna be. Makes it exciting, to say the least. OH, and my washer is bigger than my refrigerator - that's amusing too (you can kind of see it on the right:).