shopping in korea sucks.
ugh. i travelled a hour into seoul today to find decent clothes for open class.
they told us that we had to wear skirts or dresses.
looks like i'm going in pants. might throw on a necklace just make things proper.
the style here right now is short dresses. so what do short dresses mean on me?


shirts.

and since i'm not allowed to wear slacks underneath...hmm.
even the shirts...fuck, even the tank tops...couldn't fit.

went to the bathroom and saw a tag in the floor for the gap. considering going back tomorrow....eek! we only had time to go to one store. i met up with friends at 8 after getting off work, went for dinner and the shops all closed at 10.

tomorrow i get off at 5:20 so maybe i'll go back when i'll have more time to browse more stores.


UGH!

this sucks more than you know.
all of my clothes are falling off of me.

also...

bear was alone for 16 hours today. now he's going insane and i'm tired and cranky.
i don't know what i'm going to do when i go on vacation and leave him for a week.
hopefully whoever is in charge of feeding him will also stick around to play some.

-
kimmie

my day

today i woke up to the sound of the skype buzzer, i had a call! CALLLLLLLLLIE!
bitch better hurry up and get a passport. i slept in but still managed to take a shower. i woke up able to smell myself today. not a great thing. then i was walking to work and standing at a cross walk that was taking FOREVER to change. i was getting ready for my morning commute smoke when a car pulls up and slams on the horn.

immediate thoughts "FUCK! i know i'm white but leave it alone"...okay, actually i've only had one adverse reaction to my being here and it was from a little girl. i walked by and she screamed WAEGOOK! eh, oh well. it was my teachers handyman! he yelled at me to hurry up and get into the car, haha. i asked him how his weekend was and he said bad, then he asked me if i had a boyfriend yet. this dude is married. and speaks broken english. there are some attractive korean men, most definently, but mr. yoon is not one of them.

get to school, open day practice again! i think that i've written about this nightmare, but today was actually....really good. if you discount the fact that at lunch i was eaten alive by little red bugs, i guess it comes with the territory!

so after work i decided to run by the atm to see if i had been paid yet...tada! i had...and a day early too. i guess that means that i get to go into seoul tomorrow instead of wednesday, tuesdays i get finished with school a wopping 40 minutes early, but still...thats 40 minutes earlier that i'll be in town. especially since where i'm going takes over an hour on the metro.

i digress. my friend told me about these pants that she bought at Lotte Castle (yes, it looks like a castle). walked around all million floors of this place. if you think phipps is swanky, come to Lotte. and mine is a small one. I even got to tour the grocery store, and OMG! but i imagine the prices are a bit higher than HomePlus so thats where I'll stay.


I finally found the store i was looking for, find the pants and go to try them on. i should have known that you have to take off your shoes to even go into the dressing room. i've been here long enough to know the rules about shoes (when in doubt, remove them). i've taken to being one of those people i hate and only wear flip flops. i know...so i go into the dressing room, was kindly asked in korean to remove my shoes and then come out and DUDE HAS TURNED THEM AROUND SO THAT WHEN I STEP OUT I CAN WALK INTO THEM....

at first i was like "oh, wow thats nice" and then i thought "oh shit, he touched my nasty ass flip flops"...what a job.

didn't buy the pants, came home instead. pleasant surprise 100000000. i got my apartment bill. i figured it would be insane since i had the AC running all month and it not properly working...at all. instead SIXTY BUCKS! looks like i'm buying myself a new cell phone and more clothes tomorrow :)

alright. off to take bear bear to the vet for more shots, dinner, pharmacy run and then groceries.

-
kimmie

fan death, open class, and delicious pizza

It's been a while I realized since I wrote a real post about what all is going on with me over here. I feel it's kind of pointless as I tslk to most of you a good bit, well those of you who I know are reading. Who in the hell checked my blog from Italy?

oh, well. I'll start out with a little tidbit about fan death. I'm not sure how many of you have ever heard of this. Apparently the majority of Koreans believe this. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

I heard about it and asked a co-worker, she avidly believes it. Apparently it even stretches so far as to say that you should not have your AC on in your car without the windows cracked because you will suffocate from the lack of air circulation. My belief on it is this: Koreans don't use their AC. I think they all just die of Heat Exhaustion, whatever.

I just figured out how to get on demand movies, totally watching Pearl Harbor. Not sure why. On the screen the movie titles are in Korean so you have to know the pictures from the DVD.

Open Class is my nightmare. It is the day where parents come to school and watch us prove that their money is being well spent. It is my nightmare. My school doesn't think that I am friendly. Well, only Director. The kids all love me and the majority of the teachers do, although today, I swear one of them shooed me out of the room. We have been practicing NON STOP! I think there has been only one practice that hasn't ended in my tears. Tomorrow we get to do it again :). I have 10 classes to do and the Korean teacher that I am working with likes to change things up on me at the last minute and make me look like a fool. It's pretty fabulous. Other than that life is just, life. I work all of the time. I don't really get out and do much. On Thursdays I make it a point to go to Punk Night for about an hour.

Friday, and Saturdays I generally make my way out but I'm always so tired that I'm a grandmother and go home early. People here stay out all night long, and most every night. It's crazy. Korea is definitely a party place. I just wish everyone could see Seoul on a weekend. It's white people everywhere! One good thing about Seoul on the weekends: Kabobs. I can't believe that I had never had one until here, they are delicious.

Speaking of delicious. There is some really great pizza by my school. I tend to order a pie every week. I wonder if they think that I'm a glutton/lazy foreigner for always eating pizza. It's so good though: Potatoes, Corn, REAL BACON!, and onions. Mhmm!

Speaking of good things: I had my first trip to Costco this past weekend. I'm going to go back soon and get a membership. I think I could live off of the items stocked in Costco. Sidenote: if you want to see a fat Korean, go to Costco. Everyone here is stick thin, but not there! I guess they have little sleeping cots in the back! AND it's only 2 subway stops away!

There is more, but I'm being lazy and thinking about pizza.

OH!

Bear is doing great. He's getting so big. If he would sit still long enough I'd snap some pictures. He's getting tall and his paws are so big. He's going to be a very big Bear cat. He is a wild man but so sweet. He sleeps under the covers in my bed but I always feel bad because I toss and turn so much. That is his payment for waking me up at 6am everyday going INSANE.

-
Kimmie

OVUEEN!

just so you know. i totally made friends with a Korean Queen Cover Band. and their pretty fantastic. get to see them play July 4th after a day of White Water rafting. I'm pretty excited about that too. it's going to be a long day :)

reasons i love korea.

And walking around at 10 pm and seeing this....on a daily basis. Korean's do not drink to enjoy themselves. They drink to end up like this. You see this.....all the time. You get kind of used to it.
Fresh food! I'm learning to cook, and to enjoy my fruits and vegetables. After 25 years, I imagine that it's about time! I've learned to love strawberries! They are my absolute favorites. A big glass of orange juice is always a treat. I really want to learn how to start cooking with fresh ingredients. I've been looking up recipies...we'll see what I come up with!
Not having a dryer. I have a dryer but it doesn't have a heating element, therefore would use a lot of power. I hang all of my clothes on a rack and a drying rack. I think that this is also something that I will continue at home. There is not point in wasting energy if it isn't needed. I wash everything and immediately put it on the rack. I hang everything up with hangers, and granted my clothes dry indoors but it works perfectly. Less than 24 hours hours, clothes are done. It reminds me of simpler things and those are things I'm learning to enjoy.

Kimchi! I've been afraid of trying it because, I don't know. Look at what it looks like. But it is delicious! Mhmm. Fermented Cabbage in a spicy sauce. Korean's believe that eating kimchi will cure all ailments. It is eaten with every meal. Every food here has a meaning behind it. They believe that some foods are good for the liver, some for the lungs, etc. All of this while drinking soju and smoking like fiends.
I really enjoy eating with chopsticks. I think that this is something that I will continue to do once I return home. I make most of my meals at home and eat with traditional Western utensils. Meaning, spoon, fork, etc. I enjoy meals out so that I can practice my chopsticks skills. Their quite fun to eat with! At first it was a little tricky but not hard at all to master.

korean pop music

i love it. it makes my terrible day better. i got the one with english sub titles...learn some korean!



if we have free time we sing this in class. shh. don't tell anyone.

day at the park

baby bear

so...i have a kitten. poor thing is so sweet and cute. i wish that i had a picture of his tail. it looks like it was slammed in a door. it probably was poor thing as sick as he is. i got him 3 nights ago and he has yet to poop! he has peed only twice! he eats his food but does not use the bathroom. honestly, i don't think he likes his wet food, which is strange, but good for me!

tonight i decided to take him to the vet near my house, thank goodness they speak english. although at one point the doctor asked me to slow down, haha. but it was so cheap! I got an x-ray, fecal exam, first round of shots, heart worm protection, an an enema for about $60. not bad, i told him that in america it was very, very expensive. when he gets big enough for me to buy him a real litter box (right now he has a cardboard box i salvaged from recycling) it will be expensive. he also needs a shower but i cannot find kitten shampoo! his fur is a little matted, but he seems to be cleaning himself pretty well...

here he is! i have more pictures on my camera but the batteries are dead. oh, well. i'll get them up eventually..
karla and i with our kittens. yodi and bear!