Speaking of and address

---

We’ve officially been here for three weeks, our apartment is feeling more and more like home- we just got the internet, that’s a big step. As with anyplace I’m sure, there are positives and negatives that, while still being funny to us and probably always will, we have come to expect as, ‘just how it is.’ It seems to be similar to an adaptation or evolution… at first things were shocking (“are they seriously feeding us fish bones?”), then hilarious (“dude, the crazy drivers never stop!”), now quite normal-ish (“So… ah… I think I may be coming around to kimchi a little bit.”).

We have worked ourselves into a little routine. The mornings crack me up nearly every morning. Learning English is a nationwide focus now in Korea since the present president has taken office, and we are finding many English language learning programs on TV and the radio. We found one on the morning radio called EBS (educational broadcasting system). Every morning I take a wild guess at what the topic could actually be, and every day it surpasses my most outlandish guess. My favorite to date was, ‘How to break up with your boyfriend because he is cheating.’ I won’t even try to do this program justice, you can only imagine waking up to, and all in the typical Korean accent, ‘I don’t think you gave me a fair shake. I saw you at the club with another girl. And you had the nerve to walk by my house with her. You cheated on me.’ It is absolutely hilarious. It does a good job, that is their topic sentence for the day and they pull out certain phrases and explain them in Korean and English. For example, ‘a fair shake,’ would get explained, so it is helpful, and comes out of left field which really brightens the smog riddled mornings!

Speaking of routine, now that we have internet, I am downloading the Today Show podcast so get our fix of American news everyday. Podcasts are free downloads from itunes you can use, they come in a variety of topics and genres, music, news, sports, TV, movies, comedy, etc. It is only the first hour of the show, but is commercial free and is quite comforting being able to see my good friend Matt Lauer everyday. My epiphany yesterday was that we aren’t so much getting the news as that we are just finding out who is murdering who back home. It’s terrible.

Speaking of terrible, it has become second nature in only three weeks to be on your highest alert when within any reasonable distance to a roadway. I really don’t think I’ll ever completely comprehend the driving laws here. It seems ok to run red lights, maybe when you are on the outside lane (?), scooters should more appropriately be named kamikazes and can use the sidewalks for what ever reason, parking is optional literally anywhere (I’ve seen sidewalk parking and sideways parking and even parking in the middle of the road- Cass’ crazy friend Mrs. Moon likes those spots). But I tried to rationalize the madness by saying the cars are so stinkin’ small it’s ok. They literally look like a hatchback mated with a roller skate and gave birth to Korean automobiles. Kia is a Korean company, so they are all over, and little bitty models I’ve never seen either.

Speaking of little bitty, the coffees here are toddler sized, and that’s not good from a person who could have his way with an entire pot in the morning. I was very skeptical at first, about the coffee, because I didn’t see it anywhere, just electrical percolators (as a side note, I’ll be purchasing one of these brilliant machines in a few hours). I asked if coffee was popular one day and was instantly handed a cup. Everyone drinks instant coffee, and I know what you all are thinking, but the Korean have figured this stuff out, is very good. The Dixie cup I was handed, half full, made me feel like Hagrid in Harry Potter, but it felt so good when it hit my lips. The small shot of coffee was very cappuccino-like, and this was the regular stuff. They come in little stick-like packages, almost the size of string cheese, and I bought a bag of 100 that very same night.

Speaking of goodness, I have come up with a fail safe strategy for dealing with the school food. No matter what is on the tray, I’ve found out that whatever is in the top right hand corner will ALWAYS be good! No matter what, I practically researched it and scientifically proved that everyday will have something good in that tray spot. The others usually have a smattering or some version of fish skeletons, rice with tentacles, ‘dissolve your stomach walls away’ spicy hot dish, (new this week) chicken ribcage noodles, or dirt soup. My three week project was only fouled up once, and I attribute that to human error, when I rotated my tray the wrong way while getting served and my drinkable fruit yogurt milk container thingy ended up in the top left corner, so I am only on the cusp of 100% accuracy.

Speaking of accuracy, if you haven’t see the Korean washing machined do their thing, you would get a kick out of it. It is located in one of our back hallway/ glass rooms of the apartment. This room has a drain in the floor, like the bathroom (where there is no shower curtain, hence the drain), and the washing machine is just placed there. When it reaches that point of the cycle, and I think you know where I’m going with this one, the water starts spewing from underneath in all directions. It circles a few times and finds the drain, a pretty simple way of doing things, but this is a back hallway with a view, not a laundry room in the far corner of a dark basement. Again, it is what it is, and I just make sure I’m wearing shoes when I unload it.

Speaking of spewing, I have found out what the random nasty stinks are that plague every hundred or so yards of sidewalk on any walk any where in asia. There is a tree that, right now has beautiful gold and yellow leaves, but also has a berry the size of a small cherry. I picked one up the other day at lunch, and smelled the exact same putrid-ity that can only be found from this berry. I though of Cass’ brother Ryan try to describe this smell to me from when he was in Thailand, and I’m not kidding, this is the most disgusting thing imaginable, it has to be the same scent. Apparently they are dried here and snacked on with beer, and lose the stench in the process, but I’m not buying that one.

Speaking of getting a kick out of something, my co-teacher, Mr. Kim and his family came over this week because they had some traditional Korean chestnut cake they wanted to share. It was very cool that they want to spend time with us; he has two of the cutest daughters of all time. It was also a good idea until Cass and I realized we don’t have anything yet. And I mean anything. They brought some hot dogs to eat, but we don’t have a pan to cook them, or forks to eat them. They brought ice cream, but we don’t have spoons to scoop it with. They brought a couple Cass beers, and thankfully they were in cans, because what mugs we had were being used as ketchup dishes. So, and they were very good sports about it, we pretended we were camping. I put the six dogs in a coffee mug, microwaved them, grabbed a bunch of chopsticks they brought and made corndogs!! Even better yet, his daughters Dasom and Dabi ate their ice cream with the corndog chopsticks!! Hilarious!

I found out my school’s website; jbe.es.kr, but it is all in Korean so some of you may not want to waste your time, there are a lot of good pictures on there if you are curious. I am planning on heading over to a national park to get some ‘fresh’ end quotes ‘air’ end quotes this weekend. I hope the weather is nice, the leaves are turning and it’s really pretty right now here. Have a good weekend everyone! Go Panthers, Prospectors, Phillies (they beat the brewers, that’s the only reason) and Packers! Some of you have also been asking for our address. Here goes…

103- 902 Gangnam Apartments
Gyori Yeojueup Yeojugoon
Gyeonggi Province, South Korea

---