the dong.

Q: What do you call a couple of fruity Korean guys?

A: An Asian pair. 

HAHAHAHAHA!!! 

That is 100% JSeymour original material, don't take credit.

and this porridge was JUST RIGHT

General life:


So, it is Sunday, and another week/weekend has passed in the dong.
I cannot believe how fast the work week flew by, and suddenly it was Friday again.  
The disgustingly hot and humid weather relented a bit in the beginning of the week but came back towards the end and made me wonder again how I could have any sweat left in me at the end of the day. 


Tim and I are both getting into routines.  I usually get up around 6am and go to the gym before work.  Tim sleeps later and goes to work earlier.  


I don't do too much prep for my classes.  I have an hour break during the day and so far that has been enough time to plan my afternoon for the day.  I  have warned myself not to get stressed over the job because it just isn't worth it, and gets me nowhere in the end. 


I have  a lot of great kids in my classes, and only one class that I can't stand.  They are about 12-13 years old, and there is a group of 5 boys who have this Korean song made up that they sing at me which ends in 'che che che CHEETAH'.  I can only assume that they are referring to my freckles.  Pretty clever, guys!


Food:
I finally found some real donuts at a little bakery around the corner from our apt.... DANGER!
These are full-out, Homer Simpson pink frosting donuts, and I ate about 5 in 10 minutes. Amazing.  


Food is definitely the biggest 'barrier' I have found in Korea.  There is no shortage of it, and prices are fairly reasonable for most things, but I find it very hard to get full! Noodles are great, but they leave you hungry an hour later.  Most protein sources are full of fat or are ridiculously expensive:  beef sells for about 18$ a pound, from what I've seen. 


We are going through a lot of eggs, which come in packs of 10, not 12, and cost about 2.50- 3$.


On Thursday, we went to a porridge restaurant where we had spicy beef/leek, and crab porridge. Very similar to a thick barley soup, and SO good. top 3 favourite Korean foods so far. Probably cause it tasted so western....


There are many many Korean treats, which I have been dutifully trying out.  Lots of cookies, and lots of chips, but the chocolate leaves something to be desired.


Everything seems to come with ridiculous amounts of packaging.  Each box of crackers comes with the crackers packed into individual 7 cracker packs, and I have heard tell of individually wrapped chocolate covered almonds.  Ridiculous! Which brings me to my next random category:


Garbage:
Garbage is picked up every other day in the dong. On alternate days, either cardboard or plastic recycling is picked up.  The catch is this:  in order for your waste to be picked up, you must put it into special plastic bags which you buy at a grocery store, and cost about 4$ (for a big one).  This makes a lot of sense, because it means if you have more garbage, you pay more.  It definitely makes you think twice about buying bottled water, etc.  


Of course, there is lots of garbage that just gets left out 'secretly' in regular plastic bags, and eventually gets picked up anyways, so I am not sure that it is the best system possible. 


Jjimjilbang:
As I think I mentioned before, my gym has a bathhouse within the change room that I was too scared to go into.... until now!
On Saturday, after our oil tank for our hot water heater had to be refilled (100$ and only a 1/4 of a tank later), I decided to start showering at the gym. You know what they say: 
"necessity is the mother of invention" or something like that. 


So, after the gym, and 18 gallons of sweat, I made my way to the pools.  What an amazing experience!
The room is fairly big, probably the size of a small school gym (strange size reference I know) with 4 or 5 pools of different temperatures, 3 saunas of different temperatures, 4 rows of sitting showers, and a wall of standing showers.  This giant room was full of naked Korean women of all ages, some with kids.  People in Korea go to these bathhouses with their families and just hang out there.  Tim was telling me he saw an old man in the men's floor just having a nap on the floor.  (Again, napping ANYWHERE in Korea seems to be normal.  I almost tripped on a middle aged Korean man on the steps at the gym today, splayed out with his graphic novel, green tea sippy cup, and bowl of boiled egg shell remnants)


As the shower in the jjimjilbang was much better than ours at home, and costs nothing extra, I will be using it again for sure (slash did already today). 


Last night:
We took a cab to Kyeongsong again last night to meet up with Christine, Hailey and Jen for a Reggae concert at a bar called 'Vinyl Underground'.  On the way, we finally found a bank machine where Tim could use his bank card ( thank God, because 100$ for the next month, would likely not cut it).  


The band was awesome and the bar was packed, hot, and tons (tonnes?) of fun.  I am pretty sure the bar tenders were just rinsing out the used glasses with a sink of water, but I am still alive, so, no harm done. 


Following some dancing to sneaky beats, we went on a mission to Mickey Dees.
For our first course, we had a number 2 and a number 4 (big mac and bulgogi burgers), and then followed this with a 10 pack of chicken nuggets. 
For dessert we ( I ) enjoyed a Lotte chocolate ice cream cone.  


And now this entry is one trillion pages long, and it is time to sign off. 


We'll SEE YA!


-JaeKae.