Happy Birthday to ME!

I have experienced many new things as of late. Let me just start where I left off from the last posting. I did buy a new camera, but it wasn't the one that I had originally planned on buying. I bought the Olympus SP-800UZ with 30x zoom, one of only 3 cameras on the market right now with that much zoom power. It is awesome! I have been taking more pictures so be sure to check out my flickr! account to see all of them. Also, I got a new phone. I got the HTC Desire and, I can't believe that I am going to say this, but I think that maybe I like it better than my iphone! The phone is awesome, but it is not totally compatible with my older mac computer. I found a way around most of the complications so it shouldn't be too bad. I downloaded a program called TextPlus so that I could text people from back home in the States for free. If you are interested in texting with me for free, download this app and I will give you my number. Actually, I think it may only work if I text you first because of the whole different country thing. Anyway, I finally got my cell phone and absolutely love it (even though it took over 2 months)!

We recently went on another field trip with the morning kinder kids. We went to a place called English Village. Basically, it is a place set up for kids where they can go and experience different activities all in English. The kids go through "customs" to get into the place with a fake passport. It is stamped and then they find out where they go first. Our group went to the magic show theatre where they witnessed a magic show in English. Next, we had lunch in the cafeteria, spaghetti with meatballs, and then went to the "hospital." There, the kids were bandaged up and learned how to say different injuries in English. Finally, we headed back to the cafeteria where we had a birthday party and a kind of roller rink-dance party. There were several other groups and not enough time to do everything. They also had a costume shop, a beauty salon, a gym/playroom, an art room, a restaurant, a toy store, and many other things that I am sure that I didn't get to see. Needless to say, it was very cool and if I stay for another year after this one, I want to work there!

Recently, my boss and I were chatting and I learned that I am getting 50% insurance coverage on top of what I am already getting from the school. This means that I have 100% health insurance coverage while working for Ashley. How many people in the States do you think can say that? I bet not too many! Korea is a seriously flawed country in some ways, but it is so amazing in so many others! Did you know that Korea actually has a Costco? Well there are several actually. The closest one is only a 30 min bus ride from my house but only 12 km. I signed up for a membership along with my coworker. We put his name down as my spouse so that he could get a free card out of the deal and he wouldn't have to sign up for a totally separate account. It was actually ingenious on my part! We didn't buy much, but now we know where to go when we need stuff.

Our boss at the school, scheduled a summer vacation for the teachers and the kids. It is only 1 week but it is a much needed break from all of the craziness and drama that is a Korean hogwon! Agnes took a week vacation to Turkey to visit a friend, but before she left she took me Duty-Free shopping. Her and her sister spent so much money there it was crazy! I only got a little makeup from M.A.C. I didn't know this, but apparently at duty-free shops around the globe, the currency used is the U.S. dollar. I will get my stuff when Agnes gets back from Turkey tomorrow, which also happens to be her birthday! Happy Birthday to Agnes!

Speaking of birthdays, I just had my 26th birthday on July 26th. It was so great! I got presents from all of the teachers at school and a couple from the kids as well. I received a gorgeous bouquet, some earrings, a body wash package, a few other things, and a night out on the town with all of the teachers, courtesy of Ashley. We had school so there wasn't much that happened throughout the day other than every class singing Happy Birthday to me, which was really cute! That night after work, we started by going to a traditional 100 year old Korean house that was converted into a restaurant. It was kind of like the Korean version of a ranch/plantation/farm. It was very close to the mountains and everything was absolutely beautiful! I took pictures so check them out! We ate awesome Korean food including warm kimchi with tofu, pa-jeon (seafood pancake), chicken wings, dotori muk (acorn jelly), a couple other things that I can't recall at the moment, AND homemade makali (a weak Korean alcoholic beverage made of rice). Everything was so delicious especially the makali! Next we headed downtown to find a karaoke joint. Now if you don't know, Korean karaoke is very different from the karaoke that we know. In Korea, you rent out a small room with a table and couch-like seating area surrounding the table. There is a huge TV and books with songs. There are 2 microphones with big speakers and a remote control to type in the number of the song that you want to sing. Karaoke is only sung among friends in Korea in a smaller room. On the screen, they have the words and a video that rarely matches that song. It is also BYOB. It was really fun although I don't think they much liked my song choices. The very first song that I sang was Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio! HAHAHAHAHA!! They were pressuring me to go first and that was the first song that I came across that I knew all the words to! Later I sang "Somebody to Love," The Used's "Take It Away," "Don't Stop Believing," "Livin On a Prayer," and a couple others that I can't remember. If we would have stayed a little longer I wanted to do "Sexyback!" LOL! We had a blast and afterward Ashley paid for all of us to take taxis home.

So, now that we are on summer break, I wanted to use this time to do some things that I can't normally do in the middle of the day, like go to the post office and go to the bank. I wanted to go sign up for a Citibank account because they are International and I thought that it would be easier to convert the money back to U.S. dollars when and if I needed to. I went and signed up for the account and when the woman gave me the card, I asked why there was no visa or mastercard logo attached to the check card. She told me that foreigners can't get cards like that and that the Korean Citibank is not really related to the one in the States. She said that the only similarity is the name. I was so upset that I didn't know what to do. Jenny suggested that we go back to my original bank to see if I could get a card like that there. Here is the back story on this bank. I went and signed up for an account around the time I got my first paycheck. They gave me a check card with the Maestro logo on it. When I went online and was trying to buy some things, everywhere I looked it told me that Mastro card either wasn't accepted or it needed a special number from the card which mine didn't have. I need to be able to purchase airline tickets online to go back and forth. Ok, so we went into KB and told them my situation. The woman told Jenny that it was no problem, all I had to do was open a savings account tied to my checking account. I said ok and wanted to get started. Then the woman said that I would need 1,000,000 ₩ ($1000 U.S.) to put in a new savings account that couldn't be touched for 6 whole months. Now, I haven't been in Korea very long and I have technically only had one full paycheck since I have been here. I had enough money to do it, but I would be left with very little to live on until the next paycheck. So, I have to wait until I get paid again. Everything is so complicated here! Nothing can ever just be easy when it comes to the important stuff!

The final thing that I have to talk about is my trip to Lotte World. Jenny and I talked one day and I learned that she was going to take a couple of girls from school (students) to a place called Kidzania. She invited me to go and of course I went. At Kidzania, the kids can experience what it is like to work at a job of their choice. They have different stations and rooms where they kids can act out their career fantasies! It looks really cool, but we didn't get in because all of the tickets were sold out. Instead we went to Lotte World which is a indoor/outdoor theme park. It is Disney related, but I don't think it is officially Disney. We had so much fun with Hannah and Bella, the two students. We rode rides and took so many pictures. It really was very cool and I couldn't have asked for 2 better students to go with! We all left with cute headbands. Hannah and Bella got giant bows like Minnie Mouse would wear, Jenny got bunny ears, and I got cat ears. There were all really cute!

If you are interested in seeing any pictures, please check out my flickr! account. The link is just below. Copy and paste in your address bar.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keatonturner/sets/72157624467563326/

The photos are not uploading properly so I think that I am going to put them on facebook and you can look at them there.