babble
i have no sense of time here.
happy july 4th at home! hope you are having a smashing fun weekend. *o*
had an eventful weekend. my co-worker joe decided to have a beer & grill gathering at his place on friday. I went to Costco with him on Friday morning to go shopping.
~sigh~ yes. I went to Costco. And I liked it. TT~TT Yes, yes, yes, that was on my list of things never to do, since I could do that at home. At least I haven't been to McDonald's yet (though I went to Subway once... and Dunkin Donuts once... and KFC once...bugger). eeeeep. All right, no excuse, I went to Costco and I LIKED IT.
oh well.
The things I miss from home are people and food. Go figure. I could live in Korea for many years and be pretty happy, I think, provided I learned the language and made more friends. There are so many things I love about this country. Most of the things I miss from home, outside of all of you irreplaceable people, are little conveniences. Cheddar cheese that doesn't cost $10+ for a block the size of a deck of cards. Goat cheese. Any kind of cheese other than processed, cheddar, or fake brie. Lettuce that is washed and packaged and (usually) bug-free. Clothes that I can try on at the store to see if they fit instead of holding them up to a mirror. Hell. Clothes that fit. ~lol~ An oven. Chocolate chips. Little things.
There is so much to remember. I don't want to forget when I go home. Good and bad. Embarrassing and exhilarating. Quiet and frantic. Sometimes I don't know if it's the country I love or if it's the fact that I am finally starting to like who I am and enjoying me, faults and all. Probably a bit of both.
Let's see. Said I was going to write about the good and bad. Hrm. Bad first. Will keep an outstanding list.
BAD (or, Not Quite as Cool as Good for those glass half full folks):
~ Being invisible when hanging out with white people.
Bizarre but true. When I walk around with my caucasian friends here, I am pretty near invisible. People often approach them to speak English, to see if they need help with anything if we look lost, to just make a friendly comment and strike up a conversation. Parents often want their kids to speak with native English speakers. I am invisible throughout. If I am noticed, I'm spoken to in Korean. When I don't understand, there's usually an awkward silence, they think I'm from Japan, or they go back to ignoring me. Aish. I'm sure it's not pleasant to be stared at all the time, as some of my co-workers have said.
However, being invisible has a positive flip side.
~ Being pushed around and stepped on by people who don't acknowledge your existence.
This doesn't bother me as much as it does some others. It's midly annoying if I'm in a good mood, and it brings out my vindictive passive aggressive pushy childish side if I'm in a bad mood. :D Not everyone is like this. I've had people step on my feet and apologize profusely. The pushy behavior usually happens at E-Mart or waiting for the subway.
~ Focus on appearance.
This is an appearance driven society. Makeup is essential. As is looking good all the time, weighing less than a toy poodle, proper fashion, proper accessories, name brands, good hair, etc. eeesh. Everything I'm not good at.
~ Fresh food is EXPENSIVE.
This is sort of petty, but dang, fresh food is expensive here. So are lots of things like shampoo and shaving cream and random toilitries. It's much cheaper to eat out.
Grey (I can't make up my mind. Big surprise there.):
~ The Subway.
I loved riding the subway when I first got here. Now it's a little tiring. I want to see the outside. I want to see what the city looks like when I'm traveling. Of course, when winter comes along I will be grateful for the lack of car. Right now, though, I want to see green. Also, the subway tunnels are awfully humid and muggy. Still, I love how convenient it is. I love how inexpensive it is. I love people watching on the train. I love the people selling random oddities. I've seen two different men selling this contraption that slices cucumbers paper thin. He gives a demonstration and then walks around the car laying the slices on random people. Most of the passengers let him lay it down whether they want it or not. Very few shake their head no. Very few buy the thing, too. -_~
Good:
They are numerous and many and I will save them for next time. They are big things and little things and manymanymany. And I will save them for the next round when I am not sleepy.
Oh. ohohoh. I am going to miss Korea horribly when I go home, yet I miss all of you horribly when I'm here. There's no one place to be whole and happy. That's the way it works, though. *O|_|O*
Anyway, links to photos here. These are of the World Cup night at City Hall. Once you're in there, you should be able to click on a link to "My Albums" and be able to see other Korea photos. Here are a few others:
Lotte World with Michelle and Noah:
Rod making me an awesome checkerboard:
Betty and Crystal, Junior 4:
Flora, Junior 4:
Jenny, Chantelle, and Sarah, Senior 4:
happy july 4th at home! hope you are having a smashing fun weekend. *o*
had an eventful weekend. my co-worker joe decided to have a beer & grill gathering at his place on friday. I went to Costco with him on Friday morning to go shopping.
~sigh~ yes. I went to Costco. And I liked it. TT~TT Yes, yes, yes, that was on my list of things never to do, since I could do that at home. At least I haven't been to McDonald's yet (though I went to Subway once... and Dunkin Donuts once... and KFC once...bugger). eeeeep. All right, no excuse, I went to Costco and I LIKED IT.
oh well.
The things I miss from home are people and food. Go figure. I could live in Korea for many years and be pretty happy, I think, provided I learned the language and made more friends. There are so many things I love about this country. Most of the things I miss from home, outside of all of you irreplaceable people, are little conveniences. Cheddar cheese that doesn't cost $10+ for a block the size of a deck of cards. Goat cheese. Any kind of cheese other than processed, cheddar, or fake brie. Lettuce that is washed and packaged and (usually) bug-free. Clothes that I can try on at the store to see if they fit instead of holding them up to a mirror. Hell. Clothes that fit. ~lol~ An oven. Chocolate chips. Little things.
There is so much to remember. I don't want to forget when I go home. Good and bad. Embarrassing and exhilarating. Quiet and frantic. Sometimes I don't know if it's the country I love or if it's the fact that I am finally starting to like who I am and enjoying me, faults and all. Probably a bit of both.
Let's see. Said I was going to write about the good and bad. Hrm. Bad first. Will keep an outstanding list.
BAD (or, Not Quite as Cool as Good for those glass half full folks):
~ Being invisible when hanging out with white people.
Bizarre but true. When I walk around with my caucasian friends here, I am pretty near invisible. People often approach them to speak English, to see if they need help with anything if we look lost, to just make a friendly comment and strike up a conversation. Parents often want their kids to speak with native English speakers. I am invisible throughout. If I am noticed, I'm spoken to in Korean. When I don't understand, there's usually an awkward silence, they think I'm from Japan, or they go back to ignoring me. Aish. I'm sure it's not pleasant to be stared at all the time, as some of my co-workers have said.
However, being invisible has a positive flip side.
~ Being pushed around and stepped on by people who don't acknowledge your existence.
This doesn't bother me as much as it does some others. It's midly annoying if I'm in a good mood, and it brings out my vindictive passive aggressive pushy childish side if I'm in a bad mood. :D Not everyone is like this. I've had people step on my feet and apologize profusely. The pushy behavior usually happens at E-Mart or waiting for the subway.
~ Focus on appearance.
This is an appearance driven society. Makeup is essential. As is looking good all the time, weighing less than a toy poodle, proper fashion, proper accessories, name brands, good hair, etc. eeesh. Everything I'm not good at.
~ Fresh food is EXPENSIVE.
This is sort of petty, but dang, fresh food is expensive here. So are lots of things like shampoo and shaving cream and random toilitries. It's much cheaper to eat out.
Grey (I can't make up my mind. Big surprise there.):
~ The Subway.
I loved riding the subway when I first got here. Now it's a little tiring. I want to see the outside. I want to see what the city looks like when I'm traveling. Of course, when winter comes along I will be grateful for the lack of car. Right now, though, I want to see green. Also, the subway tunnels are awfully humid and muggy. Still, I love how convenient it is. I love how inexpensive it is. I love people watching on the train. I love the people selling random oddities. I've seen two different men selling this contraption that slices cucumbers paper thin. He gives a demonstration and then walks around the car laying the slices on random people. Most of the passengers let him lay it down whether they want it or not. Very few shake their head no. Very few buy the thing, too. -_~
Good:
They are numerous and many and I will save them for next time. They are big things and little things and manymanymany. And I will save them for the next round when I am not sleepy.
Oh. ohohoh. I am going to miss Korea horribly when I go home, yet I miss all of you horribly when I'm here. There's no one place to be whole and happy. That's the way it works, though. *O|_|O*
Anyway, links to photos here. These are of the World Cup night at City Hall. Once you're in there, you should be able to click on a link to "My Albums" and be able to see other Korea photos. Here are a few others:
Lotte World with Michelle and Noah:
Rod making me an awesome checkerboard:
Betty and Crystal, Junior 4:
Flora, Junior 4:
Jenny, Chantelle, and Sarah, Senior 4:
posted by smochs at 1:34 AM
4 Comments:
Yes, well, it's the same for me. I love you and want you to be happy, and then you go off to be happy and I miss you heaps. :) I hope you're having an awesome time with Jeany, though! We had a fun 4th--I'll post party pix today. Who's coming to visit you next? We'll send cheese with them. HUGS!!
no worries, chicky. i can splurge on parmesan at emart. :) or i can keep stealing the parmesan packets that come with pizza when people order it at work. ~lol~ happy post-4th!
... it's already Thursday there? (Wed. 3:30 in the afternoon here and now)
I understand that fresh food is expensive, but from the amsa picture it looks like all that eating out is really starting to take its toll. You actually look shorter! And you should make sure to wear more clothes in the pictures you put on the 'net. You'll find yourself on some loincloth fetish site, if you aren't careful.
... not that I would know any loincloth fetish sites...
-A
~LOL~ oh adam. forward me the loincloth fetish sites you've secretly visited, pleeeeeeeeese!? er. not that i'm really interested in loincloths. right? right.
and i am shrinking. i'm gonna be 30 soon.
and it's already Friday morning 3:22 am. Thursday afternoon at home?
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