Ding Dong!

I would like to reiterate my apologies for not keeping up, hopefully this the first in a chain of new posts...let's just keep it simple this time around.


So this woman just ran my door bell and looked super embarrassed when I opened the door, I figure there could be three reasons...
1. Ringing some random person's doorbell after 10 at night.
2. I got them big scary round eyes.
3. My naughty tank top that shows my shoulders and my chest.

I kinda hope it's number three but that's mostly because I'm still up and doing stuff and I'm sick of getting stared at.

In case I haven't mentioned this before shoulders are a bit of a no-no here.  The president (yes the new female one just voted into office) signed a law very early in her term to impose a fine on women who are too scantily dressed.  It was pretty loosely worded so shoulders (which are improper to show here) and super super short shorts (which everyone wears) could both be included.  Basically anything that makes someone else "uncomfortable" can get you fined about $45.

Hurray for progress, way to vote in the only non-progressive female who would ever run for office.

Now, because all I have are crappy translations in snarky "foreigner" magazines and websites I'm not sure if this applies only to females or to males too; those bedazzled ties really make me uncomfortable and they could make a fortune clearing those out of my high school alone...

Sorry the picture is pretty terrible, I just took a quick shot with my cell phone.  I wasn't planning on posting it.  But yes it's pink, flowery, and covered in rhinestones.

 

So some guy made a video showing the great variety of these ties...and it's from 2009 so this isn't just a passing fad...I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing.  So funny yet so so awkward.  I can't get the video to embed so check out all the shiny goodness here: Bedazzled Ties

As a last note I just want to point out that shoulders are ok in the US and other western countries  but super shorts are frowned at (especially the way they're done here) but shoulders aren't ok in Korea but short shorts are almost an expectation.  It's interesting how the two norms are totally reversed.  It's kind of representative of life here in general.

iherb

Sorry I suck at keeping up with my posts :(

So I want to tell you about this fantastic site 

First, they ship super cheap to Korea.  Shipping to South Korea starts at $4 and goes up $1 for each pound over 4, this will go up to 15 pounds.  So I ordered one of those big tubs of protein powder and some vitamins and it cost $8 to ship.  It only took about 4 days to get here.  I say "about" because it's currently Wednesday and it arrived first thing this morning, and I placed the order over the weekend so I don't know exactly when it was packaged and shipped. (Check out all their international shipping options.)

Here's what was the clincher for me, I was having problems putting in my address (part was my own stupidity, part was the system) and I got an actual response.  I hate when I ask companies a question and they pick out one key word and they copy and paste the FAQ from their website.  Thanks for absolutely nothing jerks.

But no, I got a real  answer from a real person.

So what did I screw up?
1. the "-dong" and "-gu" should go on the same line and I didn't realize this, I was originally told to put them on separate lines...I think this may be solely for sites like this but I really don't know.

2. Their website is originally built for the US so I had to put "Busan" in the "state" box.

So that's it and I got my package a few days later.  Sweet.

Oh, and if you're in the US they ship for free if your order is over $40.  Here's all the US shipping info.

Now if you are actually interested in checking the site out, you could be SUPER awesome and use my referral code. This gets you $10 off your first purchase over $40 or $5 off your first purchase under $40.  If you don't use my code I'll only hate you for a little while :P Really though, you should check them out with or without the code  WGB768 

Dirty roads

Every time you go somewhere around Korea expect to find disgusting roads. People spit everywhere, sometimes drunkenly pee in the streets or have their kids squat over grates (I've seen it, promise I'm not making this stuff up) and just generally do disgusting things.

This doesn't include the trash. They have people who's job it is to ride around in the morning and toss business cards onto the side of the roads. In popular areas people hand out fliers and immediately drop them on the ground. Sometimes you'll see someone come around with a broom and one of those big dust pans to clean it up. I don't know if they're paid to do this or just hate how gross things are, but that's the way it is.

When you're walking around and you need to throw something out you either have to carry it until you get to the subway/ home or hold onto it until you find a trash pile and just drop it in top.

Today I was walking home and there was this huge puddle of blood (knowing this road someone probably got hit) and how did they take care of it? Someone literally dropped a towel over the worst of it and walked away. Yummy. So the towel sat there and got run over by cars and I wonder how long it will take to get cleaned up...if at all.

Come to think of it...there's a shop there that I don't think has been closed since I've been here. I hope it wasn't that poor old woman that owns it.

So I'm a little behind...

So more than a month after my last post (sorry!)

I'm going to have LOTS of free time coming up...three weeks of deskwarming.  Woohoo.

But that doesn't start until next week, for now I'm just going to give you this picture and the site it's from:


This is from http://koreanstudentsspeak.tumblr.com/

I thought it was really interesting to look through from "I want to dream, not study"  and "Dokdo (or east sea) is ours" to "I love K-Pop".

Until next week...

Dunkin' Donuts

                                            

So I finally ventured into a Dunkin Donuts...and let's just say it's a little different.

The only place you can get any large drink, that I've noticed at least, is the movie theater.  And it comes with two straw holes to make fatty Americans feel like shit about themselves :'(

So we go to Dunkin' Donuts and like all other pastry shops it's self serve for any baked goods so you grab your tray and tongs and go peruse the selection, and you get fine choices like the banana doughnut and the Slimmy:

Wanna be slim?

So you bring your tray up to the counter and order your tiny drinks.  Now I love Dunkin' Donuts hot chocolate, especially mixed with the white hot chocolate...which they of course brought back the year I'm gone :(

Anywho, I order a cookies & cream hot chocolate because that just sounds amazing...turns out here they make the fancy hot chocolate with Godivas chocolate and steamed milk and....yeah it just wasn't the same.  And really not that good.  And more expensive then back home because it's a stupid fancy drink.

So yeah I'm really sad that I can't get a good cup of ANYTHING at Dunkin' Donuts because everything is weird and just wrong (not to mention tiny and expensive)

Luckily Angel's In Us is on the first floor of my building and they have some awesome stuff (amazing cookies and cream "blended ice drink") and Cafe Bene across the street isn't too bad.

Random note, Cafe Bene were the first with Christmas decorations up (before Oct 20th I think...) and the main one on the door is so fantastically terrible, it's this super feminine computer designed guy in a sexy Santa suit...I'll have to get a picture and post it later.

Luckily you can find Swiss miss everywhere so I can get simple awesome hot chocolate at home :D

International Shipping

OK, so you want to get stuff from home?

Well, here's what I've noticed.

1. Priority flat rate from the USPS is the cheapest way I've seen for someone to ship to you from the US.  It's worth looking into to see if there are other options but so far that's it.

2. There are sites here (like gmarket.co.kr) or you can order from sites back home (like iherb.com)
As for the giant sites like Amazon...well I don't suggest Amazon unless you have it shipped to family or friends and have them forward it.

Now instead of Amazon I'm going to suggest Overstock.  Overstock will give you the price in US or local amounts AND they will provide you with the EXACT cost of shipping, importing, etc.  And you pay all this upfront so you don't have to worry about a surprise fee later on.  I have not had a chance to use their services yet but I wanted to let you know. AmazonGlobal claims to have a unique service that estimates these...

Amazon...I'm a little upset about this service they have.  It's like the Super Saver Shipping back home, but global.  If you buy more than $125 worth of stuff they'll ship it for free....to INDIA.  They call the service "Global Saver Shipping"  That's like North Korea calling themselves the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...it's just a total freakin lie.  Hurray for India Saver Shipping!


3. DON'T use a forwarding service for packages.  You will have to pay a huge amount to ship it and you won't know how much until the service receives the package.  Not so bad for regular mail though...at least from what I've heard.

Now really your cheapest option is to find someone in the military to get your packages at their APO address, long live free shipping!

Teacher's Fees

Some schools charge a teacher's fee.  It covers the cost of snacks for the office, sometimes the dinners out...

Some schools charge 20,000 per month, some 30,000 per semester...it all depends on the school.  They'll then put the food in the office (where you get some) or hand it out at meetings (and then you're screwed).  Our teachers just bring in the food themselves to share.

My school apparently doesn't charge this but I was told I only got the first teacher's meal free, the rest I'll need to pay for.  Luckily my school doesn't do these too often.  

I know some people pay over 50,000 per meal at these...I hope ours don't get that high...