Daiso Dollar Store Finds

Today, I ventured into dollar store and ended up buying some Hello Kitty junk and nothing that I needed. For 1,000 won each, could you blame me?

Delicious Food, Dude!

The food in Korea is glorious. The snacks are all cute as hell, sugary, cheap, and delicious. The cola chews are awesome! They are like 30 cents and those little cute cookies with the chocolate filling are my all time favorite. Hell yes.

Here is the cute bento box or whatever that I got from Daiso for $2. It has little compartments inside. I was inspired enough to cook some lunch to put into it.
How yum does this lunch look? Can you beleive I cooked this all by myself? I am normally a really terrible cook. Something magical is happening here and I am starting to wonder if I am part Asian somewhere far down the line genetically.
On the top left we have spicy tofu, in the center, sauted mushrooms, and kimchi on the top right. On the bottom left you will see fried tofu, sauted garlic, and kimchi spiced pork. I take a little lettuce leaf and put some spicy bean paste on it (called Ssamjang), then pile on a little bit of everything on top. I roll everything up in the lettuce leaf and then shove the whole thing in my mouth, which I am sure makes me look like a chipmunk!
Who wants to come to my house for dinner? Ha ha!

My Apartment

I love my new apartment!

A view of my apartment building from out front. I think these buildings look a bit European.

A view of the high rise apartments behind my house.

The super convenient corner store right next to my apartment.

Here is my super comfie queen sized bed. Sooo Ikea style, don't you think?

My TV, desk, and clothing shelves. I am thankful I brought the colorful fabric, as seen in the background. Always makes me feel at home!

My clean, white bathroom

My cute stuff always makes me feel at home, and I feel right at home here in Korea with all of the pink and cute stuff.

Here is what $20 worth of stuff at Daiso looks like. Gotta love that place!!!

The view of my apartment as I enter into the front door. I really like my rabbit trash can.


My tiny kitchen gets the job done, as if I would actually cook anything in it! Eating out is the way to save money here.

Sunday is Cleaning Day!

Today has been all about cleaning and making my apartment perfect! After waking up soo early today, I decided today would be the day to get things done. I cursed at the stupid washing machine all morning long, as all it would do is beep at me! Thank goodness for Katie, who lives right across the street- she was nice enough to come over and show me how it worked. Quite simple really once you know which button to push:) I washed all of my rugs and the new one must not have been that great of quality, because it literally turned into a mess of pink fuzz in the wash!

I explored some of the not so nice neighborhoods for cheap apartment stuff and found a discount home furnishings store kind of like Daiso- but also carries higher priced items such as blankets and electronics. I was on the search for an alarm clock. Apparently most Koreans like the old fashioned kind with the bells on the top! I ended up settling for one of the few digital alarm clocks I could find at Lotte Mart. Now if I can actually sleep well tonight, I will have something to wake me up for my first day of teaching at Poly School!!!

I scrubbed the apartment from head to toe today, which was not very fun but needed to be done. The kitchen sink and stove are now sparkling and I scrubbed the mold off of the wall in the laundry room. I also got on my hands and knees and scrubbed and wiped all of the floors so they would be perfect. It seems the swiffer I got never gets all of the dirt and it drives me nuts! Everyone takes their shoes off as you enter the house and the floors still seem to get sooo dirty! I am looking forward to winter in a way- the floors are heated and I bet that has to feel amazing on your feet!

After all the scrubbing was done, I went back downtown and got some Korean Dumplings. I think the lady at the dumpling place knows me now- today she taught me the Korean word for my new favorite food- Mandu. Mandu is minced pork with chopped veggies wrapped in a thin piece of dough and then steamed. How delicious!!! They are very gentle to the stomach so I have been eating them quite often. I have also been living off of: Gatorade, Diet Coke, Orange Juice, Pringles, and these little Korean cookies that have creamy chocolate in the center. Yum! Don't worry, to counteract all of the horrid eating habits, I am walking everywhere! And I like walking here, as my path to downtown is right next to the river. How relaxing to hear the trickle of the stream, have dragon flies buzz over the trail, and feel the tall grass tickle my legs. Sigh!

In my search to find an extra blanket, I have been pretty surprised on the lack of selection in the bedding department here. There are lots of bedding stores but they all have the same things- thin quilts in horrid feeling polyesters and terrible floral patterns. And how overpriced they are!!! Most of these aweful blankets are $40 to $140!!!!! Koreans don't know the comfort of a nice snuggly microplush blanket and so I don't get that comfort either. Darn it!

I am learning a few key Korean words now such as "Thank you" and "Hello". Going to the store is sometimes difficult because Koreans like to be helpful and often end up puzzled and esasperated in their efforts. I will try to learn some new words everyday but I know the process of learning a new language definitely does not come overnight.

I looked at pets today at Lotte Mart and they have some weird ones that we don't have in the U.S. such as hedgehogs and larve you can grow in to your very own beatle! They are sooo gross! The larve are about 1 inch wide and 4 or 5 inches long and kind of just wiggle in the dirt a little in a plastic cup. The cool thing about them is that you get to watch them transform into a beatle so educational, but super gross and ugly! Can you imagine if your pet larve or giant beatle got loose? Ew!