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30 October 2003 (Thursday)

They are starting construction on the second Beverly Hills apartment building now; I hope it doesn't last too long and that it's not too noisy! We're not moving today, but maybe tomorrow or next week.

I drove around for a while today. I went to Gohyeon and walked around in a couple of different neighborhoods. I didn't find anything to buy or really too much of interest, but had fun anyway. A lot of the stores carry the same things, so it's hard to get too excited about much of it until you see something new (and that you recognize!)...

Something I've noticed a couple of times here is that many Korean merchants will be happy to send you home with your purchase and let you pay them back later. This has happened to me three times:

1. At the Import Store, I didn't know that the woman there doesn't take credit cards (and we are so used to just paying for everything with credit at home). I had picked out a lot of stuff (this was my first visit) and had only a portion of the total amount in cash. The woman said, "It's OK, take it and come back later with the rest." She took my name and number and then I ran down to the Family Mart (the only convenience store in town that takes foreign ATM cards) to get the cash and brought it back right away.
2. One day at Coffee Morning, there was a man selling some Korean silk art. I was sort of interested in it (but ultimately decided that I didn't love it enough to spend as much as he was asking for it) and I told him I'd think about it and might come back later when I had my wallet. He said, "Take it now and come back later to pay, I'll be here until 7 PM." This man had apparently traveled for a couple of hours (?) to get here from Mokpo, which is on the western coast of S. Korea, and he was willing to let a total stranger take his expensive art and trusted that stranger to come back later!
3. We still have not given the car dealer the money for our car and I've had it at home for two days. All we have is a piece of paper saying we're paying for it and they're selling it to us. We explained to him that we were transferring money from our US account to our Korean account and he said, "Take the car now and pay whenever--this week, in a month, it doesn't matter."

I suppose one could argue that they do have our information (the import lady and my # and the car dealer has Craig's info), but I can't think of a time in the US when I've been told, "Take the merchandise now and come back to pay whenever you feel like it." I also suppose that this wouldn't happen at every store in Korea, it's just something that's happened three times in our seven weeks here and not ever that I recall at home (unless maybe there was an ATM nearby but then they'd still send you to get the money before they handed you the merchandise...). The car I can maybe see, but it still feels a bit strange (maybe because of the lack of paperwork involved)! Don't worry though, dear reader, Craig is taking the money over to the dealer today, so you can breathe a sigh of relief that the car will be paid for in full by tonight.

29 October 2003 (Wednesday)

My Matiz II! 10/29/2003

I am so excited about my car--this is the first car that I've owned that isn't the bottom of the line. OK, maybe the Matiz is the bottom of the Daewoo line, but this is not the bottom trim-level. Anyway, it has power windows, locks, and it has a remote so I can lock & unlock the car, set the alarm, and start the car! I don't know that I'll really ever start the car by remote, but it's fun to know I can! Here are a couple of photos that I took this afternoon of my cute little car! One more tidbit that Craig would like to add is that it has a continuously variable transmission. To me, this means that it shifts really smoothly which is really nice since we've got a lot of big hills around here.

We are likely moving into our permanent apartment tomorrow, and I will post pictures of the apartment once we're settled. The space is a little smaller, but I'm glad we're moving now because we can really move in (we've known that this terrace apartment was temporary).

In other apartment news, it looks like they're finally thinking about putting the apartment sign back up at the top of the drive (it blew off in Typhoon Maemi last month).

28 October 2003 (Tuesday)

We bought my car yesterday! We got a previously-owned 2001 Matiz w/33,000km. I'm super excited about it but have a secret fear (I guess it's not-so-secret after all!) that it's a lemon... I guess time will tell! You can read a review of an older Matiz here and check out some more stats here. I will post a picture of the car when we actually pick it up!

Craig would probably also like me to add that he felt the "slimy-used-car-dealer" was an international phenomenon. I'll reserve judgement on the sliminess of our dealer until we sell them back the car at the end of our stay and I know how often (if at all) I have to take the car to the mechanic.

24 October 2003 (Friday)

I have done nothing at all interesting this week as I've been sick since Tuesday (and I missed Taekwondo Wed & Fri!). I'm feeling much better today though and hope to go to the hash on Sunday. We are also going to start shopping for my car this weekend!

20 October 2003 (Monday)

Craig and I went to our first Korean Language class tonight. The class is free and it is in the "Okpo Shopping Center" building that has the foreigner's club, the import lady, etc. There were about 10 students in the class who all have been going for about one month so we were a little lost, but the teacher was really nice and I think we'll do fine. We'll have to study the alphabet a little harder tomorrow to be more prepared for Wednesday's class.

19 October 2003 (Sunday)
(Happy Birth Day Raisa!)

A biked parked in the market. 10/19/2003

Congratulations to Corrine, Scott, and Owen on the arrival of Raisa Helene today!

We spent the day in Busan where we tried to go to the Jagalchi Fish Festival but sort of missed any of the activities. The market was much more active than when we were there last time. We also went to Carrefour and to the bookstore to buy some travel books (Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam) so we could plan some vacations while we're here.

18 October 2003 (Saturday)

Me in my dobok, showing off incorrect moves. 10/18/2003

Yesterday was the first time I wore my full dobok to class. This was the first class I have been to (in my whole week--4 days--of attending) where we kicked each other. Of course we had our protective gear on, but I wasn't sure how it was going to feel. It actually wansn't bad and I'm not sore from it today, but each kick set you back a little. I don't have all my TKD lingo down yet, so forgive me while I learn!

Last night was the "teambuilding" get-together for Craig's work. There was a buffet with not-too-scary Korean food (although I did note that barely any kimchi was touched). The evening was fine except for the karaoke and, to be honest, maybe even because of the karaoke. We all had to sing. Craig sang "Kung Fu Fighting" with John and then "Help" with Paul. I sang "Michelle" with Bob. Yes, too much fun was had by all...

14 October 2003 (Tuesday)

Today I saw a woman walking down the street with a purse in one hand and her little dog on her shoulder. The dog was essentially "surfing" this woman's shoulder/back. Too bad I didn't have a camera ready for that one! It's not like she had her hands full, she could have carried the dog, but maybe they both think it's fun to get around town this way...

11 October 2003 (Saturday)

Dried frogs in the Tongyeong Market. 10/11/2003

Today we explored parts of Tongyeong which is just on the other side of the bridge from Geoje. First we went to the Nammang Open Air Sculpture Park where we also saw this spider. In town, we saw George Clooney and then we checked out the market and the harbor.

10 October 2003 (Friday)

I started Taekwondo today instead of waiting until Monday. Let me just tell you that I'm already sore and it's only been three hours since I got home... I'm wondering what else will be sore tomorrow! I enjoyed the class, but because I hadn't signed up yet, I wasn't allowed to do the kicks (I assume for safety/liability reasons) which was too bad, but I plan to sign up on Monday and then I can do it all! Well, all that I can do, that is...

Craig and I will be going to our first hash on Sunday--I hope it's an easy one! Click the following links for more on hashing and on hashing in your neighborhood.

8 October 2003 (Wednesday)

Words of wisdom for any day. 10/5/2003

Not much new to report here. I will start taekwondo on Monday 10/13.

5 October 2003 (Sunday) (Happy Birthday, dad!)

Woman carrying fish to the market. 10/5/2003

Sunday we went to the Jagalchi market, which was pretty dead. Maybe Sunday isn't a big market day for the fish market. We then went to Busan tower to look out over the city which was pretty. There was also a large bell under a pavillion here, but I am not sure what the story is behind it. Craig had the idea to take a photo every third window and stitch them together. So, I took the photos and here is the view from Busan tower!

We walked back to the ferry terminal for our 2 PM ferry but when we got there, it wasn't leaving until 3 PM. Since it was 1:00, we decided to take the 1:30 ferry to Gohyeon and take a taxi from there. The Gohyeon ferry is much slower which was a drag, but we did make it home faster than waiting around for the Okpo ferry!

An observation from walking through Busan: Koreans drive on the right-hand side of the road like we do in the US. Not that there are any rules about how to walk on a sidewalk, but I think that because we drive on the right-hand side of the road, we tend to also walk on the right-hand side of the sidewalk (at least I do!), too. Here for some reason, Koreans walk on the left-hand side of the sidewalk and when you are walking in the same path as someone coming toward me, my instinct is to move to the right to not run into them. This instinct left me feeling very frustrated very fast. Note to self: stick to the left when walking on a sidewalk! (Also, some crosswalk intersections will have arrows pointing in the direction that you're going and more often than not, it will be marked that you will walk on the left-hand side of the crosswalk to get to the other side of the street.)

4 October 2003 (Saturday)

Saturday we decided to go to the theater on the other side of town. We got there a couple of hours early but got tickets for the first show we wanted. However, we had to sit in the first row--at least this time we got to sit together! This movie was better than the last. We did a lot of waiting around, but we walked to the beach, went to a PC Bang, sat in the coffee shop, walked through the market, and went to a bookstore.

For the last movie, I decided to get some popcorn and pop (although there was a popcorn maker there filled with popcorn, the popcorn I got was not fresh. Maybe popcorn isn't the favorite snack at the movies here because mine didn't taste very fresh at all). While I was doing this, Craig had sat down next to a young Korean couple and the male of the couple started up a conversation with Craig. They seemed pretty nice and he said that his girlfriend was the movie-buff and they were going to 12 movies over the course of the week! Sounds like she and Craig would get along pretty well!

3 October 2003 (Friday)

A woman walking toward the Busan Ferry Terminal with her bag on her head. 10/3/2003

Happy National Foundation Day! Read about this and other Korean holidays here.

We spent Friday through Sunday in Busan and went to three movies at the Pusan International Film Festival. We stayed at the Lotte Hotel located in central Busan (a short walk from the subway stop that is the intersection of the two subway lines) which was really convenient.

Friday morning we took the ferry from Okpo at 8 AM and then it was a 45 minute ride to Busan. From the ferry terminal in Busan, we walked to PIFF Square which was right across the street from the Jalgachi Market. There were a lot of people in line at one theater but the movie we wanted to see was at the other, with a much shorter line. We were in luck!

We had had some difficulty purchasing tickets online but we weren't sure if it was just our PC or if it was because the English site wasn't working properly. We finally determined (at least on Friday) that it was too late to buy the tickets online, so we had to wait in line. Unfortunately, after waiting over an hour in a line that moved about 5 feet total, (and then about 15 feet in 20 minutes because they opened another window) when we finally got to the ticket window (and we showed them the movies we wanted tickets for, offered cash, etc) they said we couldn't buy the tickets--and I'm still not really sure why. I still can't figure out why the line didn't move though (this was more annoying to me). There was just no reason (that I can think of) that a relatively short line to PURCHASE MOVIE TICKETS was so s l o w.

Frustrated, we took a taxi to the hotel and started on a plan B. The hope was that the crowds would die down later on in the day since the ticket offices had just opened when we arrived in the morning. So, we checked out the Lotte Department Store and ate lunch at TGIFriday's.

We did get back to the theater later in the day and got tickets to the movie. (We saw these street scenes on our walk to the theater from the subway.) While Craig waited in line for the tickets, I went to Seattle's Best and bought some iced-coffee drinks. Craig met me there and then we sat down to enjoy them. We got a pen "gift set" for buying tickets, and I read my first Korean word. It's one of the few words I recognize from hearing it, and I took it from context, but I'm still proud enough to show you "kam-sa-ham-ni-da" ("thank you")!

We had a lot of time before the movie started so we went to the batting cages and played games at the arcade (Note that Craig is about to play the drums (second photo) to "You Give Love a Bad Name" by BonJovi--watch out, Tico Torres!), and took lots of photos. There were signs everywhere that said "no cameras" were allowed in the theater so we rented a 2 megapixel one from the hotel because we didn't want to check our digital. This worked out well, but we ended up bringing ours on Saturday anyway since they didn't check your bag for a camera at all.

Some of the things we saw while walking around were: parts of the Gukje Market, people enjoying/selling various types of food, a "Touch Crain" filled with alcohol, and a questionable parking job.

Finally, after running out of ways to fill our time, it was time for the movie. We saw Young Adam which Craig liked and I did not. It was a little too disturbing & depressing for me--and not (to me) worth the hassle we went through to see it!

On a side note, tickets at the movie theaters here are for assigned seats. Since we bought tickets just before the show, we didn't get seats next to each other. I was just one seat in front of Craig, so it wasn't that big of a deal, and in normal circumstances (i.e. not a film festival) assigned seats may be kind of nice!

1 October 2003 (Wednesday)

We got our Alien Registration cards yesterday and we got our passports back.

We are thinking of going to Busan this weekend for the Pusan International Film Festival. We need to find a hotel though or else we'll be stuck ferrying back and forth if we want to go for more than one day (and we do!).