Last saturday Joseph and I trekked across much of the city to end up at a lovely Apartment owned by a cute couple who have been in korea for several years, Candice and Mike were wonderful to open their apartment ( because all foreigners live in apartments) to about 40 english speaking foreigners for a great potluck dinner. Since at the time Joseph and I were relatively new to the cooking in a tiny kitchen thing, we just brought some chips and salsa, because they said they would have tons of drinks and stuff, just bring food, so to us, nothing is a better party snack and the generic mexican chips ( no toastidos here) and salsa ( Made in KOREA!!!! I would have even taken the stuff made in New York City! )
But we found ourselves surrounded by english speakers ready to mingle... some of them had even been on the Island a shorter time than Joseph and I! ( one girl had arrived two days earlier at 2am!) so our two weeks seemed like ages in comparison. We met many very nice people from all over. Tons of Canadians, some fellow southerners, a couple from NY that lives in the same section of the city as us, as well as some Australians, New Zealanders and some South Africans... we all had one thing in common, we came to Korea to teach!
As expected, the vibe was very laid back and jovial. Everyone was sharing stories about bosses and children and miscommunications, but what amazed me was a room full of complete strangers was able to find common ground despite different upbringings, some accent barriers and though it was hard to pull the Canadians away from their Hockey talk, everyone spoke to everyone, and it was fantastic.
We shared a cab home ( since we had walked to the party) with our new friends Willow and Sean. Hopefully we will be seeing them again soon.
Which leads to the next part of the title... Swine flu..., pretty sure we don't have it, but whatever we have has got to be close to it.
It all started friday at school, Joseph started feeling a bit ill. Trying to help him out we just went to dinner and then went home for a quiet evening of reading to prep him for saturdays foreigners party. If he was very sick saturday he didn't show it, and we made it to the party, had a great time and then woke up sunday sick as a dog. ( must have been all that fun, something had to ruin it!)
Then monday, the worst happens, joseph is feeling his worst, and I start feeling sick... isn't that how it goes... tuesday and wednesday are a bit of a blur of teaching classes, coughing and using about two boxes of home plus tissues. It was not pretty.
My wonderful co-worker Sen brought me a korean nose wash thing... I am not good at inahling salt water so it probably would have been more effective if i knew how to properly use it rather than just go at it with sen's broken english direction of ' Breath water in...drip out other hole"
It was interesting though I still think there is some salt water in my sinus cavity ( gross I know) but today is friday and we both are starting to get back to normal... but I learned I am much stronger than I thought I was... and I can ingest cough drops like they are candy when I have to teach each day. I so would have liked to use a sick day, but pride and not wanting to waste it on a head cold prevented me from doing so.
We are doing much better now, and even had our first trip to the pharmacy, i got some sore throat/cough pills that I didn't need a perscription for... it was 3000 won which is about $2.50 in american money.
When have you ever heard of such a thing! I was amazed... services here are very cheap... At restaurants you have a button at your table, so when you push it your table number lights up on a big board and a waiter will come to you. You can then order more food or ask for more drink... whatever you need, and all of this is included in the price of your food... No tipping...
We were asking some of the foreigners at the party ( weird to think of myself as a foreigner) what they did when their car window broke... " Ohh I took it to the mechanic and he fixed it on the spot in an hour for 7000 won and I got to sit and watch tv in a big chair in the waiting room"... 7000 won is less than 7 dollars to fix a broken car window... that would not even cover the parts in the states... forget labor...
It is interesting to me things that I always thought were expensive are very cheap here, but the latter is true as well... Hangers... here...cost... about 3000 won... for 2 hangers... in the states you can get 20 for 10 dollars, here is is about a dollar for each hanger... very expensive. Cleaning products are also very expenisve.. luckily Adam and jennifer left us alot of their half used detergent and dish soap, but it is about 10,000 won to replace each... ( like almost ten bucks for each)... crazy.
Korea is suprising us everyday!
This saturday we are going to go to Okpo ( Pronounced --"O--gdo) which is about 15 minutes away by cab, which will cost us about 6000 won ( cabs here are cheap!) so we may try to meet up with some "foreigners" there or at least look around and try to see new things or find fun new restaurants, I hope Joseph and i both feel well enough to go out tonight since we have been sitting in and eating noodles and PRAISE JESUS!!! they have campbells chicken noodle soup here... I don't even care that I pay twice for it what I would pay in the states... I got some, and I will continue to attribute my feelings of wellness to it!!!
But anway, hopefully some fun cool new pictures will be posted soon! For now you can enjoy the cool real live lobster claw game we found. It is hard to see in the tank but there are real live lobsters walking around, and yous pend 500 won to try and catch one... I won't let Joseph play because I am afraid he might actually win one, but it is fun to watch the Local try. Willow said she saw a guy win one, and he said he was going to take it home and eat it right then! Gotta Love Korea!
There is one in the corner if you look beyond the water on the plexyglass!
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