Monday, October 17, 2005
October 17, 2005: Yes.. already
Hi. I know I just sent an email, but I have more to say. :P And pictures and a website to show you. (theexecutives.blogspot.com) Both photos show our hike up Samaksan. The pictures of me are very dark... but you get the idea. I kind of like the effect. Ben and Lisa are the couple. You can read about them if you want.. but they're basically from Canada, 25 & 26 yrs old, and have been married for 4yrs. They're super cute with each other after 10yrs of being together and are very cool. I really like them so far. :P
Their site gives you an idea of the life in Chuncheon and their pictures are the only ones I can really show you right now. You also get to see everyone I hiked with this weekend and the amazing view of Chuncheon and surrounding area from the top of the mountain.
Other than that... here are recent adventures:
1. Laundry. I have a machine in my room, but my first attempt at using it was two nights ago. All of the buttons are in Korean and setting it does not work like ones back home. So, after figuring the thing out with telephone help from some Korean friends, I started the machine. The water dripped slowly and I could have sworn it was landing in a hole, cause the thing was not filling up. I gave up and started it up again the next morning before I left for the hike. I was very worried. I just hoped the thing filled up and ran and didn't overflow and didn't ruin my clothes. When I got back, the machine was only half-full and it didnt look like it had done anything. Anyway... it's broken. But luckily there is a communal machine downstairs in the building that works fine. BUT, that meant I needed to try to read the Korean instructions over the phone to Hyunae. Trust me - not an easy feat. My pronunciation isn't so good. So, after a struggle (as most things are here) I got it to work... but I chose a crazy long program.. like 2hrs. But it worked! For my second load I was able to figure out a 55minute cycle. :P But they dont really use dryers too much here... so all clothes are hanging. And they will hang in the winter too. Apparently I should expect to wait 3 days for dry clothes once it gets cold out.
2. Grocery shopping. First of all, Koreans eat rice with everything. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So, they're not too big on bread. And what they do have in the way of bread includes many different forms of white bread: White pumpkin seed bread, white sesame seed bread, white something else bread.. I don't know. Weird. I just want whole wheat damn it! I'm able to buy "Brown Rice Flakes" cereal and bananas from most stores, but the bread is another issue. And they don't really do cheese here. Their idea of cheese is processed slices. Yuck. And the majority of the milk is really fatty and pretty gross. I'm able to find 'low fat' milk though, so I'm ok. The biggest container you can get though is about 1.5 litres. And I have yet to find a "dark" chocolate that is very good. Ah well. I guess that's a good thing. But TODAY I ventured out to the big Walmart-like supermarket in town (GSMart). It was a 35 minute walk and a $3 cab ride home (also my first time cabbing it alone... success!). They've got some things there that you can't get at other places. I found some Brie and mozzerella cheese... so I snatched them up. And some "brown bean and rice" bread which is about as close to brown bread as I think I'm going to get. I also bought lettuce and dressing - woohoo!! I get my fair share of veggies with lunch and dinner, but never a salad. Good times ahead! :P Other than that, specific fruits and vegetables are only available at certain times of the year and their prices go up and down depending on teh season. So apples are about a buck a piece right now, and some other things are just outrageous. Anyway - I spent about $100 at the GSMart, but that included a bottle of wine (good Australian Shiraz that's not too easy to find) and a laundry basket and towel. :P Oh ya - you can buy alcohol (beer, whiskey, you name it) at any local corner store. It's pretty funny. Apparently some of the foreigners had a 'Family Mart' crawl one night and just went from store to store buying beer and drinking it on the street (which is also the norm). So funny.
3. Garbage. For the first few days I had no idea what to do with my garbage. I soon found out that you have to buy specific garbage bags from a convenience store and put it all in there and then just find where people leave their garbage by the building. The bags cost me $5 for ten!! nuts.
Ok. I'll stop now. I know there's more I've been meaning to tell you, but holy cow this is getting long. Are you guys SURE you want to stay on my mass email list??? :P
Later skaters.
Their site gives you an idea of the life in Chuncheon and their pictures are the only ones I can really show you right now. You also get to see everyone I hiked with this weekend and the amazing view of Chuncheon and surrounding area from the top of the mountain.
Other than that... here are recent adventures:
1. Laundry. I have a machine in my room, but my first attempt at using it was two nights ago. All of the buttons are in Korean and setting it does not work like ones back home. So, after figuring the thing out with telephone help from some Korean friends, I started the machine. The water dripped slowly and I could have sworn it was landing in a hole, cause the thing was not filling up. I gave up and started it up again the next morning before I left for the hike. I was very worried. I just hoped the thing filled up and ran and didn't overflow and didn't ruin my clothes. When I got back, the machine was only half-full and it didnt look like it had done anything. Anyway... it's broken. But luckily there is a communal machine downstairs in the building that works fine. BUT, that meant I needed to try to read the Korean instructions over the phone to Hyunae. Trust me - not an easy feat. My pronunciation isn't so good. So, after a struggle (as most things are here) I got it to work... but I chose a crazy long program.. like 2hrs. But it worked! For my second load I was able to figure out a 55minute cycle. :P But they dont really use dryers too much here... so all clothes are hanging. And they will hang in the winter too. Apparently I should expect to wait 3 days for dry clothes once it gets cold out.
2. Grocery shopping. First of all, Koreans eat rice with everything. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So, they're not too big on bread. And what they do have in the way of bread includes many different forms of white bread: White pumpkin seed bread, white sesame seed bread, white something else bread.. I don't know. Weird. I just want whole wheat damn it! I'm able to buy "Brown Rice Flakes" cereal and bananas from most stores, but the bread is another issue. And they don't really do cheese here. Their idea of cheese is processed slices. Yuck. And the majority of the milk is really fatty and pretty gross. I'm able to find 'low fat' milk though, so I'm ok. The biggest container you can get though is about 1.5 litres. And I have yet to find a "dark" chocolate that is very good. Ah well. I guess that's a good thing. But TODAY I ventured out to the big Walmart-like supermarket in town (GSMart). It was a 35 minute walk and a $3 cab ride home (also my first time cabbing it alone... success!). They've got some things there that you can't get at other places. I found some Brie and mozzerella cheese... so I snatched them up. And some "brown bean and rice" bread which is about as close to brown bread as I think I'm going to get. I also bought lettuce and dressing - woohoo!! I get my fair share of veggies with lunch and dinner, but never a salad. Good times ahead! :P Other than that, specific fruits and vegetables are only available at certain times of the year and their prices go up and down depending on teh season. So apples are about a buck a piece right now, and some other things are just outrageous. Anyway - I spent about $100 at the GSMart, but that included a bottle of wine (good Australian Shiraz that's not too easy to find) and a laundry basket and towel. :P Oh ya - you can buy alcohol (beer, whiskey, you name it) at any local corner store. It's pretty funny. Apparently some of the foreigners had a 'Family Mart' crawl one night and just went from store to store buying beer and drinking it on the street (which is also the norm). So funny.
3. Garbage. For the first few days I had no idea what to do with my garbage. I soon found out that you have to buy specific garbage bags from a convenience store and put it all in there and then just find where people leave their garbage by the building. The bags cost me $5 for ten!! nuts.
Ok. I'll stop now. I know there's more I've been meaning to tell you, but holy cow this is getting long. Are you guys SURE you want to stay on my mass email list??? :P
Later skaters.
# posted by Keri May : 2:47 p.m.
