As I write this entry, I am actually so much more comfortable than I have been for all of the others! I actually have a desk that I can sit at now with a great office rolly chair. No more leaning over the short table while sitting on the bright pink couch with no legs! It feels fantastic! What is really impressive though, is that I got them both (the desk and the chair) home at the same time, ALL BY MYSELF! The boxes were rather large but I was able to fit them into a taxi, which, by the way, the taxi driver did not offer to help at all (they don't get tips here), and lug them up the stairs to my apartment. I even put them together all by myself with no problems. I have to say that being the daughter of a contractor sure has its' benefits sometimes! The desk is nothing special, but at least it is so much more convenient to use my laptop now. To make that even better, I found a girl on craigslist who wanted to sell her 4 month old wireless router for cheap because she was about to leave the country. Lucky me! Now, I can move all around the apartment with the computer. I can even type this on my bed if I so choose.
I also recently purchased something else off of craigslist. The only craigslist they have here is based out of Seoul, which luckily, is pretty dang close. There are not many people who post things on there, but the ones who do, generally have the stuff people need. There are really mostly only 2 kinds of Americans/English speakers who live here; the English teachers and the military boys and girls. Pretty much anything that one person living here needs, someone else is trying to get rid of because they are leaving. The other item that I purchased off of craigslist is a dvd player. Now, I have a PS3 that I generally use for dvds, but I recently was at Costco and purchased the newest Harry Potter movie. I know, I know, I am a nerd! The box is slightly different though because part of it is in Korean, which means it was made for this country. I don't know if any of you know this, but apparently dvds are given a special code when they are made. This code only allows them to work in one specific region/area. Also, the playstation has something similar in it as well. Needless to say, the movie didn't work in the PS3, so I had to buy a dvd player that was designed for this area. Again, it was very cheap and works just great. Craigslist is seriously the best thing ever and I can't believe that there is even one in Korea!
I have gotten only a few things in the mail since I have been here, and there haven't been any problems up until this last package. I purchased some clothes from Express online and asked Hector if he would mail them to me along with a couple other odds and ends that I realized I needed. The mailing process for him was supposedly very smooth, but once that rather small box made its' way into the hands of Korea's cutsoms people, the shit hit the fan! Because there were still tags on the items and everything was brand new, they assumed that I was some kind of resale person. They thought I was going to turn around and sell this stuff to the Korean people for dirt cheap. I literally talked with a Korean UPS agent at least 12 different times. The box got into the country on July 24th, but I didn't actually get it until August 6th. They held my package for that long, almost 2 weeks!! They opened it several times and they kept telling me that I had to pay taxes on everything that was in there. They would call me almost every day, giving me a new price and every day it got higher and higher. I am not even going to tell you what I eventually ended up paying for it, but if I hadn't originally invested so much money in the clothes that were in there, I would have just left it with them! Next time I know to have whoever cut off the tags and leave nothing in small boxes or in the original store wrappings. Right around the same time however, I did get a birthday card in the mail from my aunt and uncle that was very cool. It actually said happy birthday in several languages. I thought that it was very fitting and super cute!!
Another thing that I didn't really know about Korea before I got here, is that it rains ALL OF THE TIME! Seriously! I don't think that it has gone more than 2-3 days at a time without rain. I can remember a couple of weeks back where it literally rained for like 6-9 days straight! So I decided that since I live near a large market where the people just throw their old, spoiled unsold food remnants out into the street, and sometimes I have to walk through it, that I wanted some rain boots. The rain actually makes it much worse. It smells worse and there is a muddy mess of rotten veggies in the street. This all sounds really terrible, but the city is really good about picking these up every day! The worst day is generally on Saturday or Sunday because the people throw out more to make room for new product. Anyway, I bought some really cool Crocs rain boots and am a little bummed because I haven't had a chance to wear them yet! I know, I said that it rains all of the time, but leave it to the one time that I actually want it to rain, for it to hold back!
Things at school could be better. The boss fired one of the teachers because there were several complaints from the parents. The extra workload that we all have to take is excruciating, especially on me because I am the only full-time morning kindergarten teacher there now, which means I take up all the extra slack in the schedule. I also am now the only one who has taught one of the specific classes and knows where they are in the books. It is a little stressful for me especially when everyone else is complaining even when their workload hasn't changed! I also now have to do more lesson planning a month in advance for those morning kinder kids. I have to come up with the topics, write and record the dialogue, come up with the songs, and prepare for the phonics. UGGHHHHH!!! Too much! It is taking so long to hire a new teacher and several of us are going with fewer breaks.
Ok! Enough about the downers, I have another installment of "Welcome to Korea!" For those of you who don't know, these are just odd things that happen or don't happen in Korea that you wouldn't necessarily expect.
1. Couples like to dress the same from head to foot. With all of the clothes being so multi-gendered, this is not too complicated to accomplish. It is actually rather disturbing to me to think that if I had a boyfriend here, he could and probably would wear my clothes.
2. Bus drivers are crazy! They don't like to stop at all of the stops. If they see you trying to flag them down, they may chose to stop or not. If you push the stop button on the bus, it may not stop at the one that you had anticipated. You may get off 1 or 2 stops later and have to walk. They also like to yell absurd and evil things if people are not extra fast at getting onto or off of the bus. They like to start driving as soon as you set foot on the bus whether you have found your seat or not and they are not very gentle with the breaks. They slam them as hard as possible and rather frequently!
3. At restaurants, the servers are paid a base pay and don't earn tips at all, which means they don't ever check on you to see if you need anything. You have to yell for them to come over to the table if you ever need more of anything or you got the wrong thing, etc.
4. Many people don't have a lot of furniture in their house/apartment unlike in the States. Several families don't even sleep on beds and most people are accustomed to it if they need to actually sleep on the floor. Space is limited here so there isn't really much room for extra things.
5. Vanilla doesn't exist in Korea except the syrupy kind that you would put in your coffee. I was very upset when I found this out because I wanted to make french toast. I ended up buying the syrup and using it in my mixture. It was surprisingly rather tasty.
6. There is almost ALWAYS a coffee shop within walking distance of where you are.
7. Almost all air conditioners hang on the wall or the ceiling and have remote controls.
8. Even though several things are written in English, all over Korea, including signs, restaurants, t-shirts, etc., and parents are obsessed with their children learning English, very few people can actually speak the language. I find this rather surprising seeing as how there is so much of it here!
That is all that I have time for today! Hope that you have enjoyed my compilation.
I miss you, Keaton!!
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