Oh, how I miss having a kitchen!

So today is my 4th full day in Daegu and Korea!! It's still pretty surreal... It doesn't feel like a whole different country, except for the whole language change.

So here's what happened since I last posted:

Monday: I finally got my apartment!! It didn't have any furniture in it yet, so I had to sleep on the floor Asian style (with a mattress pad, comforter, and pillow), but it wasn't bad. Scratch that, it had a TV (which I still have yet to plug in). After work, the two other foreign teachers and I headed up to eat some awesome Korean BBQ, which was sooo cheap. And since I don't have anything in my kitchen besides a washing machine, cabinets, and a sink, I'll definitely have to eat out for the next week. (I'm supposed to get a gas range and a fridge, but the school's on vacation, so I'll hopefully get them Monday). It'll be nice to have when I want to go all hermit-y and eat by myself. Eating in restaurants alone is a bit strange and the closest fast food/take out place is about a 10 minute walk. Not bad, but definitely not as close as I'd like. Especially since I don't have any food at all.

Tuesday: Went to work again, and gave the speaking portion of the placement tests. I definitely need to improve on relaxing students and gauging their level, but I have an entire month for that. Thank god the speaking portion is only worth 5% of their placement. We ate at lunch with our Korean coworkers (so it was on the house), but it wasn't really "with" them. It was basically divided between the foreign teachers and the Korean teachers. Hopefully that will change soon. Oh! I got a bonus for working two days!! SWEET!! I also found out that it was the school's summer vacation, so I don't work until Monday. After work, we ended up at this bar called Hook (we being the other two foreign teachers and I). We basically got this HUGE pitcher of beer, soju cocktails (that were amazingly delicious), and chicken and fries (yum!). I definitely got a little tipsy (but it was so cheap! Only $20 for lots of food and lots of drinks). Then it was straight home. Accidentally overpaid the cab driver (gave him 20,000 won instead of 2,000 won [ 20 instead of 2], which sucks, but now I know to be more careful about what money I give out). And then I wasn't tired, so messed around on the internet and talked to people via Skype (I got the unlimited calling plan for the States! So send me your phone numbers, I can call you now!). My internet isn't set up yet, so I'm basically mooching off my neighbor... or someplace nearby.

Wednesday: Today was the day I walked to campus for the first time. Not bad, but I definitely need to get used to stares. I'm in a suburb of Daegu (30 minutes from downtown), so there aren't that many foreigners here. I attempted to get a cell phone.... major fail. After spending about an hour in the store, with the salesperson finally get a company translator on the phone, I STILL walked out without a phone. It turns out that my immigration card or something hadn't been processed yet, so I couldn't buy a phone. Who know buying a pay-as-you-go phone would be so hard?? I then walked to HomePlus (which has a Dunkin Donuts and also the place where I usually eat breakfast). HomePlus is basically like our Walmart. It has everything!! Even a small pet store (with three puppies for sale, so cute!). I basically browsed the store and ended up with an adapter (no converter sadly enough), a hamper, a trashcan, some antibacterial cleaning wipes (I think), a drying rack, and some washing detergent/fabric softener combo. A bit costly, but what can you do? Headed back to my apartment, watched a little TV online, and then I finally got hungry. Walked around trying to find a take-out friendly place, and ended up at Lotteria (I think that's the name). It's basically Korean style Burger King. Had a bulgolgi burger, which sounded tastier than what it actually was, and then passed out early... woke up early too, around 4:30 am.

Plans for the day: I need to convert the rest of my money into won, or at least the majority of it and then head up to Costco to see what I can buy for my apartment. Hopefully I can get more dry food that doesn't require refrigeration or cooking. Then it's cleaning my apartment and sorting my clothes. Oh, and translating my washing machine so that I don't wait until the last minute. I might practice my Korean a little bit too. I definitely need to start memorizing vocab.

I'll let you know how my first trip to CostCo goes!! Hopefully I can get a phone by Monday