Fresh food every day! (warning: dog meat)

The market is so wonderful. It is in the "alley" behind the apartment building. There is really about 6 alleys that make up the major part of it, and smaller offsprings from that. There is just so much to see and buy here. Plenty of fresh fruit, veggies, fish, seafood, and meat. Anything you could possibly want. There is also lots of shoe and clothing stores. Not that any of it would fit us.

On the weekends the market is very busy and crowded. But I went yesterday and it was just a few people. Very laid back and easy to walk through. The pictures I was able to take really say more than I could. The fish is one of the most amazing things. There are humongous fish in little buckets just flapping around. There are large tanks containing live octopus, squid, more fish, and eels. Only once so far I saw some dog meat. It is pishon here. We are learning the symbol for it so we don't ever make the mistake of ordering it.

We already have our regular places to buy in the market. There is a nice little supermarket for frozen goods, detergents, etc. There is a shop that I have gone to several times already. It has almost anything you could want for the kitchen or bathroom. Even bowls and cups and toilet seats!! It is so stuffed with things that you can barely walk down the aisles. Everything is much cheaper there.

As I was walking through the market yesterday, I came across a little llasa apso dog. It was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and it's tail was many different colors. Obviously a very spoiled little dog. Not the first or the last spoiled dog that I came across yesterday. Several tiny dogs in girl's arms or in bike baskets. Cute little mutts.

Along the same lines as shopping, on Sunday we went to Sung-ton. It is the town that was built up around the Air Base. Mainly for foreigners. We got the most softest blanket in the whole world, as well as the cheap dvds there. Tim got us on base. We had some American food for dinner and hung out with him in the dorms. This probably bad, but I now know that Cheesecake Factory cheesecake is available to me for 4 american dollars. Mmmm.....

Speaking of food, that will have to be it's own post too.

Studio living

I was surprised when we got here on Friday to find that we are in a studio apartment. They had made it sound like a one bedroom. It is an awesome place though, and the building is well-situated. We are on the 8th floor out of 15. The school says we should be getting a bigger place once I am further along in the pregnancy. We are hoping for 2 bedrooms. We do have a midwife coming to stay with us!

It is a very different apartment than I've ever seen. To open the front door, there are no keys. You type in the pin number and it beeps at you then unlocks. If you aren't careful, it will slam behind you as you walk in. Beeps again, then locks. It is korean, so you remove your shoes at the door. There is a nice little bathroom with a shower, sink, and a toilet that has a LOT of buttons. Not sure what they do yet. I'm sure when Justin figures it out he will have a post dedicated to it. :)

We have a nice little kitchen with a toaster, fridge and microwave. There is the tiniest dishwasher, no oven, and a very nice gas stove. We went all over the place this weekend to get the necessities for the kitchen; rice cooker, knife, cutting board, kettle, etc. We were able to find everything very cheap in the market behind us. But that will be in the next post.

Our bed is SO hard. You cannot find soft mattresses in Korea. We've already gotten used to it though. It helped that our friend Tim brought us two mattress pads. There is a tv, we just bought a nice little dvd player for those cheap movies we bought!

There is an enclosed balcony that has a washing machine. It took me several tries (I won't say how many) to figure out how to use it. No dryer, gotta use a drying rack or clothesline. The wooden floors are heated. That is the heat for the whole place. Even when our apartment's heat is off though, it gets warmer from the other apartments around us. It is really nice.

I've already gotten my first couple plants. I have an idea that I will be getting at least a few more. During the summer, the balcony is going to be great for growing all sorts of things. My first plant I got at the Lotte Mart down the block from us on the first day we were here. It is a very tiny succulent. Yesterday I got a medium/small sized Rosemary plant in the market. Very good price for 3,000 won. Rosemary is my favorite herb, so it is no surprise I already have one. Even though I brought seeds to grow my own. I actually brought quite a few seeds, but most of them got lost on the flight inspection, it seems. Only the rosemary, chamomile, and snow peas made it.

I think that is most everything about our apartment. I really like how centrally located it is. Haru coffee and 3 pc bangs across the street, the huge market behind the place, Lotte Mart down the block, and the school just down the alley. I will post about the market next.

Hello! I am finally posting again! I have not felt "comfortable" posting yet. We don't have internet in our new apartment yet, so I've been going to one of the local pc bangs. It is a bunch of pcs that you pay about 1,000won per hour for. Mainly set up for gamers. I found a coffee shop right across the street from the apartment that has free wireless. That is where I am now. It's called Haru Coffee. Good coffee, nice place, and I can use my own computer for free. The coffee names are in english too!!

So, as for me, I've been good. I had a little bit of a rough time at first. Jet lag + 1st trimester = icky. I've been getting better each day. The food and smells are pretty hard to get used to, but I'll get there.

It is a cool sunny day today. Past couple days have been warm. Nice clear weather. No yellow haze yet. *crosses fingers*

I've got so much to talk about, I'm going to break it up into seperate posts. The next post will be about our apartment.

Movies...

For 25,000 Won (which is about 16 dollars) we bought Harry Potter 4 and 5, the first season of the Office, and the first season of Weeds. Pretty good deal aye?

First days in Korea!

Hey everyone. So no pictures for you yet but I thought I'd give you some idea of how things are going here. Lots of funny little details are different here. They have a lot of back alleys for instance. At least that's what I thought at first. Upon further inspection I realized that the "back alleys" are actually the roads. They have big just for car roads but most of the roads aren't like that. At least not where we live. Most of the roads are very small and don't really have sidewalk. People walk on them, cars drive on them, its a kind of free for all really. And there are nooks and hidey places all over. For those of you who roleplay it's the very world of darkness. Lots of little shops which are packed as full of stuff as possible. We also have a market nearby which is freakin cool. Most business is done out front of the shop. The market streets are covered which makes sense. Tons of fish both alive and dead for sale. Its hard to describe the market. I knew it would be when I saw a tank of octopus and squid on the street. Sick people wear masks like a doctor in surgery would. Since there are so many people and no conception of a "personal bubble" its about the only way to keep from spreading germs. the sidewalk often has "braile" paths for the blind. Right near our house he have a PC bar and a massage parlor. The massage parlor, according to Tim, is the sort of place where the "endings are very happy" and the massages kind of suck. I'm sure he's not talking from personal experience on this though. Apparently the massage parlors are marked by barber poles. If there is one, it's actually a massage parlor. If it has two poles...well you know. PC bar is kind of cool.They bring out out a little ash tray with some liquid in it for washing oils of your fingers and a little cup of really delicious coffee. Also it's open 24/7 so until we get the internet at our house, which will be soon I hope, this is our connection to you guys. Went and ate with Tim and some linguist friends of his at a nearby restaurant (and there are a bunch of nearby restaurants). They have a grill built into the table where they cook the food, you get about 6 different sides, they cut the meat with scissors. Its a pretty cool experience. I'm really looking forward to really getting our feet around here. So far its been a very cool experience. More later.

Hi from South Korea!

We are here now safe and sound. I'm gonna keep this post short for now since im at a PC bar. Once we get some pictures of our place and some details figured out we'll make a bigger post. I just wanted to let everyone know Caroline, I, and the blueberry are here.

News

Here is the skinny my friends. We are currently in Reno, NV and heading out to California. Due to baggage issues we determined that it would be cheaper, easier, and more fun to rent a car and drive out to Cali stopping in Salt Lake City and Woodland to visit Caroline's friend Clint and my Grandma respectively. We have hit a small snag in the weather though and had to stop in Reno as well. However we are getting ready to head out to Woodland now.

This all leads up to catching a plane Thursday around noon and arriving in South Korea on Friday. We can't wait!