First weekend in Mokpo approaching...

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I got off work not long ago and my roomate is going to show me the foreigner watering holes around Mokpo, conveniently a minutes' walk from my house. I really mean a minutes' walk. I live on the third floor on a building with shops below. One of the things I like about Mokpo is how most everything I'd ever want is within walking distance. Even within "American Walking distance" of a block and a half and then stopping to catch your breath and ... eating a cheeseburger or something.

So today I was waiting for some new passport photos to be developed (you use them for everything here, alien id card, hospital visits, etc) and went into a McDonalds. I saw four westerners and sat down next to them. They're the first non-Mia/Dylan or friends westerners I'd seen in Mokpo. Two of them were shipbuilders I think, an Irishman and a guy from the Netherlands. The other two were English teachers, one teaches near Mokpo and the other is his wife. I sat with them and joined the conversation, turns out the irishman and dutchman saw the other teacher and decided to join them as well, they talked as if they were friends and knew each other a long time so I thought I walked in on a meeting or something. Nah, they just kind of sat down and talked with them. So I got a phone number and I'm glad I was able to make some connections in Mokpo. Next thing to check of my list is making Korean friends. Tonight in a bit I'm heading out to the Korean bars to hopefully make connections with other waegooks (foreigners).

Oh yeah speaking of phone. The guy who I replaced gave me his phone cuz it's the phone work pays for. I don't know the number or anything. It's a VERY NICE SLIDING samsung phone with video and all that crap I never need/want in a phone but wow is it a nice phone.

Going back to passport photos. They airbrush out any blemishes or moles in their pictures, so the extra skin I have on the right side of my nose? GONE, the red dot on my chin? GONE, any peircing marks from my eyebrow or ears? GONE. They do this because they want to make people look pretty and fix natures' mistakes in pictures. They're big on plastic surgery here. BIG TIME. But unlike America, there seems to be no weirdness about it, again, it's to fix nature's mistakes.

Everything is either Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte mart, or any number of major Korean companies. Hyundai owns the apartment buildings next to mine. I don't know if it's because there's no anti-monopoly laws here (or if there are) or because the companies offer more diverse product lines than in the states.

One big thing I gotta remember and I really mean it, is I've got to speak slower and more clearly when I'm talking with Koreans who understand english. Just because they know English, doesn't mean they can converse at my pace. I'm sure I've ticked off my boss and her husband who works for immigration and others.

So check this out: I can go to a dentist and get my teeth looked at and it shouldn't cost more than 10,000 won (less than 10USD with the rates.) But they don't give pain medicine in Korea... For anything. And if they do, according to my roomate who hurt his back, they put so much caffeine in it that you don't feel the sedation effects just pepped.
Eyecare? Less than 30,000 won and I'm in and out with my glasses cut in the clinic 15 minutes top.

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Photos

Me at the teachers' lounge
Lil' Ol me at work.

Comments

[A Korean]

'Hyundai' is a brand.
Hyundai constructions (or more likely, one of its subcontractors) had built your apartment building, but the apartments themselves are sold to individual owners. Rental apartments are still rare in Korea.

[CarlF]

I didn't know that. I simply saw it and had assumed they owned it since their logo is on the building. There's still a lot I'm learning about Korea while I'm here and I like it here in Mokpo a lot.