photo opp.

Here's a quick photo recap of the last 4 weeks. 

Dunkin Donuts: all over this city. Overpriced. Bagel? $5. Whatever. Better choice? Kimche Croquette - Kimche is a fermented cabbage that is THE food of Korea. It is pretty strong, but growing on me - especially grilled. The Koreans eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Seriously- that and rice. It is every meal. The coffee on this peninsula is DREADFUL - up until last weekend, I was drinking what most Koreans consider "coffee" - instant crap which includes sugar and powdered creamer. Real, real, REAL bad. Luckily, I was rescued by a French Press. Ground coffee is pretty expensive, but believe me, worth it. 

Bottom left is my apartment building. there are twelve apartments on four floors. I live in the back on the third. Jade is right across the hall. We have one neighbor and one empty room on our floor, although I have never seen the neighbor. I just hear his door (there are no keys, only electronic locks that play a jingle when they lock&unlock.) It is brand new, the whole complex is, which is nice. I live right next to a school-but then again, schools are on every block, it's pretty hard to live FAR from one. Korea<3Schooling.

About 10 minutes from my apartment, in Osan, is a US Air Base. The fact that over 50% of the people there are American is ironically bizarre. But you can get lots of American things, exchange money, and best of all, PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH! There are no piracy laws in Korea, so bootlegs are everywhere. I got Avatar (haven't seen it yet), A Simple Man (pretty good), and Gentlemen Broncos (Uhm, hard to put into words - Napoleon Dynamite meets the 90's unicorn fad, on crack) for under $10. Pretty awesome.  There are a bunch of US restaurants, Korean restaurants with English speaking employees/signage is very useful. Boxes of kittens and puppies on the street, however, not awesome. Very, very sad. sigh. But I am beginning to volunteer at a no-kill shelter this weekend, looking forward to animal love <3 <3
(p.s. i miss my cat)

I-Chung, part of Pyeongtaek-Si, is the smallish city where my Hogwon (private English school) is located. There are about 4 square blocks, which have businesses from the first floor to the third, fourth or fifth. It's really nice, clean, and safe, but a bit small - I have to travel to do anything besides eat and work. Which is good in a way, but there are very few English teachers, let alone English SPEAKERS. But people are nice. There are TWO 7-11's .. really?! I travel halfway across the world...gah. No slurpees, though.  The streets are full of vendors on nice days, selling everything from clothes to vegetables to bed rolls. There are 1 or 2 city parks, one of which has a ginormous screen that shows the World Cup (BIG thing here.) In fact, my school closed down tomorrow night in honor of Korea's game against Argentina. 

Korea mega-marts are pretty intense. E-Mart, a Walmart equivalent, is huge, crowded, and anxiety inducing. It is 4 floors and has EVERYTHING - including a full food court complete with a McDonalds. I found a calmer alternative, Home Plus, which seems a little more Targetish. Products are interesting, and alot is lost in translation. Anti-Calculus toothpaste? what? I bought Corn Flight (Corn Flakes,) Men and Women's matching underwear is a big thing, and tampons on foreign - apparently what women want are 42 CENTIMETER!! long diapers i mean maxi pads. Ew. Certain things are ingenious - a fold up spoon with a cup of ice cream?! (Which later, I discovered, was vanilla ice cream with strawberry swirl sitting on a bed of ... apple italian ice? uhm.. ok.) But the best thing - STAIR-LESS ESCALATORS. USA - where have you been? Carts have rubber "feet" which stick to the metal of the escalator, so they stay stationary, as you navigate the many floors of the Korean mega mart. Who says Koreans go to school 6 days a week for nothing?! 

Being foreign, a lot of things come across as just plan ODD. For example, women's clothing on make mannequins. Not drinking from glass bottles. (Things are just BETTER that way, South Korea!) Hat/glove/scarf combinations. Ginormous dogs. Old military bombers turned cafe. (Ok, thats pretty cool.) And the fact that Jade and I are given two forks, one knife, and  zero chopsticks when we go out to eat. 

xo.