"maybe 'ghtyugg inh englANd' is Romanian"

OK OK I get it. I know I haven't blogged in a few days but I've been a bit busy/sick/exhausted. What has happened in the past few days? Um...let me think. OK I got it.

On Friday

Every Friday Erin and I want to go to the street market in front of our school. Sadly we never have time to go because we arrive at the school minutes before we have to be there. This time we arrived early and perused the goods and handled the merchandise. People were selling everything from clothes, bed linens, dried fish, spices, purses, etc. Erin and I were down to our last few bucks when she notices purses. I was shocked that Erin stopped at all because she doesn't enjoy shopping whatsoever. She noticed a purse that looked like it was made from a newspaper. It was very cool and I was surprised that she picked it out. When we looked at it we noticed that the words on the newspaper didn't make any sense whatsoever. I originally thought it was Romanian or old English but upon closer inspection we noticed it was gibberish. I gotta say it was quite amusing. We then checked out the clothes at another stall where I noticed a long-sleeved grey shirt with Marilyn Monroe printed on it. They only had it in one size and after some pondering (it took me exactly 5 seconds) I decided to buy it. I figured I was getting paid so why not? Also it was only about five bucks.

Erin and I had to go open bank accounts so that we could get paid. A small Korean guard at the bank asked us what we needed then proceeded to give us forms...in KOREAN of course. She was quite rude but we filled out all the papers anyway. We then had to wait for a bank rep to create our accounts. My lady took exactly 40 minutes making the account. She spoke zero English so she just said quite softly "pin number" when she wanted me to punch my pin number in the little machine. She asked me to do this 12 times. I was getting pretty annoyed because I thought to myself "what could possibly take so long?". Erin then gets called up by the other bank lady. This woman decides to handle 2 customers at once. She takes Erin's papers and gives her a bank card in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile I am still sitting in front of the slowest teller on Earth. To be fair though she read through my documents and the computer's info roughly 3 times. When she finally finished she handed me a lovely bank card and a booklet with all the information that foreigners need to know...if you live in Seoul. Which we obviously don't. As Erin and I exited the bank we compared our brand new super cool bank cards and we noticed a few key differences. My card has my last name then my first. Erin's does not, in fact her names are mushed together. My name is highlighted in chi-chi gold foil. Erin's name isn't highlighted at all. In fact you can barely read her name because the letters mesh with the card. I guess my slow lady took forever but she did it right. 

That evening I was made to switch classes with Miami. We are doing the same class but Ruby separated the class between the "smart" kids and the "slow" kids. I was originally given the "slow" group. These kids were just very very shy and didn't like raising their hands. Eventually they came out of their shells and they would yell out answers. Our 1 hour class would just whiz by. Apparently the kids in my class would talk about it to  Miami's class  (both classes would gather for one giant class taught by Ruby at the end of the night). Ruby then said to me "I want you and Miami to switch because the other kid's want you". When I was given the new class I decided that I automatically disliked these kids. The reason that they are considered "smart" is because they are more vocal. They also believe that homework is sort of not necessary. They are little punks who really think they are God's gift to humanity. I want to backhand each and every one. But I won't because that is what their teacher's at the public schools do.

On Saturday

I had a full blown cold. I lay in bed feeling like death. Erin was out so I had the place to myself. That evening I went to the supermarket because we literally had 3 eggs and half a bottle of water in the refrigerator. FYI- Korean beef is obscenely expensive. I paid about six dollars for a quarter pound of beef. I bought enough food to last about two weeks. Then I slept for the rest of the night.

On Sunday

Erin went to see a UFC match at California's place. I was invited to come but I refused because 1. I was deathly ill and 2. Narky lived there. Something you may not know about me is that when I get sick I get very upset/mean. I was afraid that I would have punched Narky. Right in the face. It's so horribly tempting at times and let me remind you that I am not a violent person. 

Around noon, I started to feel a little better. That's when Christina our Korean friend Skyped me and asked me what I was doing. I told her nothing just resting when she suggested we head out shopping. Now, I would have said no under normal circumstances but the opportunity seemed too good to pass up. How many times do you get to meet and become friends with one of the natives? I met Christina at the Starbucks by the Shinsegae department store. I was treated completely differently at the MAC counter with Christina there. The snobs there even gave me a frequent shopper pass. Christina then showed me something that caused my heart to palpitate and my eyes to tear. A GAP. Ladies and gentlemen a bona fide gap in the Middle of Nowhere, Korea. I ran to the shirts and touched to my heart's content the corduroy pants and the khaki chinos, the striped button ups, and the jeans! Oh my- THE JEANS! I went over and rubbed my hand over them and that's when I noticed something peculiar. The sizes at Korean GAP only go up to an 8. Also the prices are exactly double the US prices. A pair of jeans were roughly $125. I gasped in horror but then remembered where I was and shrugged (it's an annoying little habit I picked up from the French).

After Shinsegae, Christina took me to Lotte where Erin and the guys met us. We saw that they had a nail place with a tank full of little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. Erin immediately said "I wanna do that!". We decided that we were gonna meet up there this weekend to get mani's and pedi's. Apparently spa stuff is pretty cheap here so Erin and I plan to do this every month. Christina informed us that the regular spas where you get massages and facials etc. are open 24 hours. Christina then informed us that they are co-ed and they are fully naked affairs. They don't even provide robes at these places. Everyone sashays their way from the pools to the saunas completely and utterly naked. Erin and I just stared at each other. I thought to myself that I already get stared at for being different and I have my clothes ON. Imagine if they were off. Oh the mortification. There isn't enough dirt or Earth for me to bury myself. Christina then told us it's OK to wear a robe (even though nobody else does). That's... doable. Still makes me cringe but doable. Apparently we are going to the spa on Monday and I feel that I will come out of there more tense than when I went in. Just wait for THAT blog. I'm positive it'll be full of interesting anecdotes. Adios for now!