Ok, on a roll now...

Well it's been one month since we've arrived in Korea.  We have gotten used to everything already and it's been a blast.  We made new friends, met our students, and moved into our new (and much larger) apartment.  After living in an apartment meant for one person, this new apartment (for couples) is like a mansion.  We actually have two rooms we can go into, not including the bathroom and laundry area. It's amazing. Here is a look at the old place:

Our apartment number

Outside of our building

A view of the apartments nearby

Another view - Suji power plant landmark. Very helpful when getting a taxi home since we can't say our address in Korean

A bed/table/sitting area on the floor. Just a mattress

Basically the whole place

Kitchen area/front door (to the right)

Bathroom. If you can spot the shower, you win a prize!

It wasn't so bad living in that smaller apartment.  The apartments in general are nothing to complain about. You get heat, hot water, cupboard space, a bathroom with a Western toilet, and windows.  The basics.  I do really enjoy the fact that the heat comes through the floor.  It takes a little guessing to figure out which switches are for on/off, floor heat, water heat, both, etc. but Mr. Kim, our school's maintenance guy/manager/everything comes over to your apartment and explains it the best he can in broken English.  By the way, Mr. Kim is amazing. He's so very nice, he's very helpful, and you can go to him if you need anything at all as a foreign teacher.  He took us to the hospital so we could get our health check (our first week here) and then proceeded to drive us to an all you can eat meat buffet/galbi place since we had to fast the night before.  I will get some pics up of him soon. I will also take pictures of our new apartment soon so you can see how much bigger it is.  Oh did I mention it actually has a desk AND a wardrobe in it? Serious upgrade.

So, there have been a few interesting things about Korea that we've learned along the way.  Not to mention some very helpful things.  Our friends and co-teachers who've lived here for 2 months up to 6 months, have helped us learn the bus lines.  We can get to and from the Shinsegae and E-Mart mall (major shopping/grocery shopping area in Jukjeong/Suji/Seoul area) on the 11 bus; we can get to and from school on the 5 or 2-1 bus (if we don't feel like walking. Walking only takes 15 minutes); we can take the 8201 or M4101 or 5500 bus to other parts of Seoul such as Itaewon, or Gangnam for shopping, Myeongdong Market, movies, etc.  Gangnam, by the way, is similar to Times Square, only less people.  Then again, I haven't been to Times Square in many years, so I may be remembering it wrong. It just reminds me of a big city like New York.  I should say, there are quite a lot of people there.  My friend/co-teacher Dennis is from New York so he may have to verify this.  We haven't taken the subway anywhere yet. I know! I know! We will have to soon once we decide to travel out more and spend money (after we get paid in April. Yes, I said April).  The greatest thing about public transportation is not only that it's very easy, you can also use your T-Money card.  You can put money on this card at basically any convenience store and you can use it on the bus, the subway, and most taxis.  You can also just put it in your wallet and hold it up to the scanner and it beeps and you can read your remaining balance.  You can't forget to scan it again once you're leaving the bus, or you'll be charged for the whole route. It's very simple. I don't have a picture of the busses, but you've seen them before. Same thing as in the States. Oh wait, I do have one pic:

The 8201 bus home from Gangnam (40 min for $2). Very comfy

When it comes to grocery shopping, or getting basic stuff like an iron or hairdryer, we go to Lotte Mart or E-Mart.  Shinsegae is also a place to shop, but that's more clothing and stuff.  We haven't needed that yet. Nor do I want to find out how many things I don't fit into since I'm about 2x or 3x bigger/taller than most Korean women, down to the shoes. Think of Lotte Mart or E-Mart like Target and Wal-Mart mixed into one.  You get floor after floor of food and other items, instead of the warehouse layout.  They make special grocery carts with grooves so that you can take them up the escalators that look like conveyor belts to get to the next floor.  The one thing I haven't been able to find anywhere is garbage bags. I can't explain that. It's one of those things I really miss. So we have to just throw our trash directly into the dumpster, but I'm thankful Jim does it for us. When we stopped at E-Mart Mall in Jukjeong (there's a smaller E-Mart in Suji as well), we ate at the food court.  This food court was better than any food court I've seen. You have about 50 choices and the meals are huge and delicious.  It was amazing.  You go up to one counter and order, then they give you a receipt with your number.  There are 10 different food stands and you wait until your number is called at the one you ordered from, then you go pick it up.  Afterwards, you drop your tray back to where you got it.  Very slick.  Anyway, enough about that. We went to Lotte Mart a lot when we first got here. That's also because they had a payphone. Now we have a temporary cell phone for use here in Korea, not for international calls. Here's a view of Lotte Mart:

Huge!

Ahhh! Everything's in Korean! But it's ok, it's easy to figure out most of the stuff. This is the beverage isle. I know, very interesting.

Aloe Juice?

Going up!

And up!

Most of the time we've been here, we have had to eat out. Fortunately, we were able to get some groceries recently and start cooking at home.  We started with a lot of ramen, but the ramen is delicious here.

A delicious bowl of spicy ramen (or rameyon as the Koreans call it) that Jim made for me.

The food here is great and I love trying new things.  There are a lot of dishes with fish and seafood, which is ok, but I am still kind of wary of squid and octopus, and dishes that smell or taste very fishy.  Other than that, I'm set. We have a delicous galbi restaurant down the block that is so great.  The actual word for galbi in Korean is Sam Gyup Sal (pork galbi).  Basically it is grilled meat. All dishes at restaurants come with some, or a lot of gimchi:

First you get your meat. Use the tongs to pick it up and grill it, and the scissors to make it smaller after it's grilled

The put a screen over hot coals (really hot) and you just make sure you don't burn your food. Yes, you are in charge of cooking it.  They will come over periodically to change your screen once it's charred.

Ahh, my favorite part. Dipping your grilled pork or beef into some 'samja' sauce (bean/chili paste that's made from Heaven), placing it into a lettuce leave along with some peppers that you "sliced" with your scissors and whole cloves of garlic. Grilling the garlic is your choice. Wrap it up and eat it. No, there are no plates.

Here is my work of art. I added some rice to mine. Rice is optional and you have to say you want some.

Lettuce, peppers, mashed potatoes (cold, with rasins in it) and soup.

Every galbi restaurant gives you some raw onions in broth with or without lettuce "salad". This is very delicious. Put the onions in your lettuce wrap if you want.

What you're seeing is grilled meat that I didn't want to overcook so I put it in my onion salad along with a grilled piece of compressed rice, called dokbokki.  Compressed rice = delicious.

So many side dishes! And I'm losing weight. Go figure.

More side dishes.

Tofu side dish with a little sesame oil.  Very soft and jiggly and delicious.

Soup that is not delicious. No thanks. I don't know what that is.

Mmmm.

We found a place in downtown Suji which is what is called (by foriegners) a Gimbap Shop. This just means it's a small little restaurant that serves the basic foods such as gimbap (like sushi), dungas (breaded pork), ramen, etc. This place is soooo good. The best dish they have is omurice (thin layer of egg wrapped around rice. There are varieties of omurice like gimchi or sausage, or hamburger, etc. It's covered with sauce, which is really just ketchup and mustard.This originated in Japan.) We love this place. Here's our meal from today (hambak omurice for Jim which is a hamburger on top of omurice, and I had the spaghetti hambak steak with a side of broccoli (one tiny spear), pickles, and rice.

Look at the designs they made with the sauce!

Mmm. I forgot to mention there were fries with it.

 


The total cost of these two meals was about $12.  Gimbap shops = great deals.  The funny thing is most restaurants have silverware in a little box on the table which consists of metal chopsticks and large spoons. The Koreans, as I'm told, do not like eating their rice with chopsticks. They'd rather use spoons because they don't want to be like the Japanese who invaded them years ago.  I could be wrong, but it sounds right.  There are also really small napkins in a despenser on all tables. They seem to be meant for a resting place for your chopsticks, not for moping up your hands or the table. So be sure not to get messy.  You are supposed to rest your utensils on the table, not sticking out of your bowl or plate. Most meals come with soup as a beverage, but you can order water. Sometimes they bring you water in a water bottle and small metal cups that come from a sanitizer. It's not often that you get a drink menu, but once you get the hang of it you can order some beer (Cass beer is quite popular and I like it much better than most domestic beers back home).  Soju is very popular as well. It's like a 'light' vodka drink in a glass bottle the size of a beer bottle.  They are also sold at many convenience stores. Total cost: $1. And it packs a punch!  Makeli (MOCK-el-lee) is a rice wine that also comes in a bigger bottle at most convenience stores. Also cheap.  If you want to go fancy though, you can get some bottles of wine at the grocery store for about 12,000 won ($11) up to 30,000 won ($29) and higher. I have seen maybe one liquor store here, but that's it.  You can just get your liquor at the convenience store or grocery store.  The convenience stores are everywhere. We have a Family Mart down the block below the galbi restaurant that's open 24-7 and is great to have nearby for quick things like juice, or eggs, etc. There is also a little hut store near by the Family Mar that sells things for cheaper. We get our water there because it's only $1 for a 2 liter. It's just a bit smaller than a 2 liter actually. But in America, you can't even get a 20oz for less than $1.50 or $2 most of the time. By the way, the woman who runs it is the sweetest woman in Korea! She says "kamsahaminda" or goodbye with such a singsongy voice. We love going there. She also sells ice cream in a freezer outside. Another thing I like to get when shopping is Chilsung Cider. It's like Sprite but so much better.  Why is it called cider? I have no idea.

Some other great food is over at Paris Baguette. There's one on just about every corner.  I went with two girls from Ireland last week to Gangnam to see a movie (The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon. Pretty good movie!) and we stopped at Paris Baguette.  I got a coffee there and admired the pastries. Wow. Just wow. You have to see it in person to believe how amazing this stuff looks. I haven't tried the cakes yet, but I can't wait!



I want some.



How adorable is this coffee????





Wow.



And these are the two lovely Irish girls I hung out with. Sarah on the left (she's also a wonderful teacher and friend at my school) and Elaine. We grabbed a little Mexican meal before the movie. Also delicious.

 

So anyway, the last thing I'll say about food is the street food.  There have been some great things such as mandu (dumplings) and these little fish shaped pastries that are flaky and filled with red bean paste or shukreme (yellow custard). They are shaped like fish, but have nothing to do with fish.  Jim tried a mandu dumpling one day that was huge and he says it was very very good.  I can't wait to try one.

Well that's it for now. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!