I figured I might as well use this, since people try talking to me and I look like a moron trying to explain I can't understand them. It's a good thing I trained for Korea by playing charade-style games with my family and friends back home, and a little bit of sign language from my cousin David helps too.
In other news, I am supposedly going to meet my other co-teacher (English name Sarah) on Wednesday. She's going to bring me to the hospital for a physical (aka check the dirty American for H1N1), and then I can go to the bank and open an account and buy a cell phone (but who will call me?). If all is done by the end of the day, Sarah says I could possibly go to the school and meet the principal - that is if the H1N1 lab tests come back negative.
I ventured out on my own again this afternoon, thinking I could probably open my own bank account. According to Jordan, I should be able to. He recommended Woori Bank which he said was near my building. I couldn't find it, but I found one near Outback (near E-Mart). I don't think it was a bank however - more of a commodities and trading company. I looked completely confused, and just left.
By the way this is Woori Bank's logo:
look at all familiar??
I then stopped by the E-Mart. We have a bittersweet relationship. It has what I need, but I don't care for large monopolizing companies - especially ones that have floor plans that confuse the hell outta me.
I picked up some actual food this time. Spaghetti, pasta sauce, some pork to fry up, more oranges, yogurt, canola oil, honey mustard, and some amazing dumplings filled with pork, rice, scallions and onions. I actually had my first real homemade meal that wasn't toast, grilled cheese, or ramen. I had to take a picture it was soooo good it made me smile!
I also felt I needed to point out an interesting aspect of Korean grocery stores that we don't get to experience. Korean's don't really believe in having things "on sale". Well, they do -- but instead of lowering the price of something (in this case my strawberry yogurt) they instead give you more food for the same price as it usually is. How do they do this? Well, they just tape or staple an extra couple pieces of the product to the original (see below). It's an interesting marketing idea, - albeit, time consuming to open the products and tape them to other ones instead of printing out a different sign with a lower price and entering it into a computer. (insert another "such a deal!" for Dad here.)
I went out to dinner with Brittany tonight, we got Bibimbap, a rice dish that is served in a hot iron pot topped with vegetables (in my case also kimchi pork), and you add chili pepper paste to it. (I added too much and my mouth was on fire for a little while).
After dinner, Brittany showed me some local places where I can buy fruit cheaper and stuff for the apartment at a discounted rate (take that E-Mart!).
Before heading home, I walked around and took some pictures of the city at night, and some views from the balcony on my floor (not in my apartment).
Anyonghaseyo!
P.S. - a big THANK YOU to Uncle Gerard for hooking me up with access to his SlingBox. Now I can watch live American TV. (primetime in the mornings before work and mid-morning shows before bed -- but it's all good because NESN replays the Red Sox games at weird hours).
2 comments:
Hey Nick,
I'm glad to see that you're getting along well. You're living situation looks great. I basically lived in a basement my first year and only had markets the size of my office in the neighborhood to shop at.
I saw a restaurant or two in your pictures that you should try (or others that serve the same dishes). In pic #18, there's a place that servces "dalk galbi." It's the one with the yellow sign on 2F. The dish is made of boneless chicken pieces and a few veggies fried on your table with spicy sauce. It used to be my favorite meal, but I didn't know that there were any places still serving it. Also, in the sign above the dalk galbi restaurant is a place that serves "dalk do ri tang." It's also good.
Take care,
Mark
Nick,
sign language is not universal! American Sign Language (ASL) is used in america, canada, i think parts of the philpeans...it's most like french sign language. good thing you're teaching english and not asl! :)
David
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