Swimming With Piranhas

This past Saturday, Ryan and I met Kevin and Monica for dinner at an awesome Mexican restaurant. After the big meal, we walked around the area when Monica spotted a sign that said "Doctor Fish" on the seventh floor of one of the highrise buildings. Kevin and Monica got very excited which should have been our first clue that this place would be interesting.

We ascended the seven floors step by step. As we reached the 7th floor, Kevin tried to block our view from the inevitable. As we walked in the door we were instructed to remove our shoes. This actually isn't all that strange in a Korean restaurant. As we were led to our seats, the waitress began to explain something about a foot bath and fish and oil and I looked at her with a blank face. What is she talking about? Kevin explained after she left.

We were served tea/beer/coffee and cake and then led to foot baths where we washed our feet. We then followed the group to the middle of the restaurant where there was a huge pool with little fish. As we lowered our feet into the water, the fish swam to our feet. They began to suck all of the dry skin off of our feet. Apparently it's therapeutic. They tickled at first, but before we knew it, we had 30 fish sucking at our feet. (Well, except for Kevin, I think he maxed out at about 5 fish . . . he couldn't handle it). It was crazy! Only in Korea . . . and Turkey & Japan, apparently.

I Don't Want Your Socks!

Every night this week we've been stopped on the street outside our subway station at about 10:30 pm by the same two people. As soon as they see us, they run over and start reading from a card . . . "Hello, I am a student from Mongolia, I am having trouble paying for school and I would like to sell you some socks. 3 for $10. Will you help me pay for school?"

The strange thing is that hundreds of people walk out of our subway station every minute but they always zone in on us. They don't realize how many times they have stopped us. One night they followed us very close to our apartment so we took a few extra laps around the block so they couldn't follow us home. I'm not entirely convinced that they're even students or that they're from Mongolia. I'm going to start speaking French or Pig Latin next time.

Stone Age

January 24th - Christmas lights and Christmas trees are still in every major restaurant and retail shop. Is it like that in the States? I can't remember anymore . . .

On a side note, my laptop is now at the repairman. We are looking at 6 days without internet, phone, movies, etc. We drowned our sorrows today with Sbarro's pizza and Smoothie King.

That's Huge!

Ryan and I have grown accustomed to the smaller portion sizes in Korea. The soda cans hold about 9 oz of soda and all the restaurant meals are significantly smaller than the U.S. We visited an international grocery store and were shocked to see the usual American 12 oz cans of soda. In our eagerness to have a little piece of home, I purchased a Root Beer and Ryan chose the coveted Dr. Pepper.

As we began to drink, we noticed the cans seemed gigantic! We finished about half of the can and realized we couldn't drink anymore. We were defeated. We threw away the cans with half the precious sugar drink still in there. I feel a little ashamed as an American that I can no longer sit down and drink a full 12 oz soda can.

Kimchi Mondu

I constantly long for food back in the old U.S. Every now and then I'll have a craving for something that I can't find here. But, there is one food in Korea that I have grown quite addicted to. It's not the sweet rice cakes (good, have the consistency of bread dough covered in powdered sugar), Suneday (dried pig intestines), Dok bolki (rice rolls in spicy sauce), kimbap (rice& veggies wrapped in seaweed-still good), shrimp & prawn pizza or any of the other various local grub. My addiction to Korean food lies in the kimchi mondu. Even after I return to the U.S., I have a feeling I will crave this food. Even with my limited knowledge of the Korean language, I have ensured that I know enough words to order this tasty food from the street vendors or local restaurants. It's a bargain at 2,500won for a box - roughly $2.50. I can eat the stuff at any time of day and sometimes I wake up with a craving for it. Yum! Anyway, off to dinner . . .

He Can Cook!

We're now entering our six month in Korea and Ryan has seemed to finally find the kitchen this week. He has cooked two meals this week which is more than he has cooked the first 5 months. I don't want to jinx it but it's a rather exciting thing for me. He's in the kitchen right now watching his chicken cook and congratulating himself. It's really cute.

Winter in Korea

For the past two months, we have worn scarves, ear muffs, gloves, hats, heavy coats, long underwear, tights, long socks and occasionally face masks when we have left the apartment. I'm not sure if it's because it's colder here than St. Louis or if it's because we have to spend so much more time outside walking. In the U.S. we can pull up our car next to the door or into the garage and spend minimal time outside. Here, we have to walk everywhere. I can't wait for spring.

Additionally, I used to mistakingly consider shorts and mini skirts as seasonal attire. Apparently, I am wrong as Korean girls continue to wear shorts and mini skirts with tights and boots, even as the temperatures creep towards negative digits. My error.

Down For the Count

My computer is officially out of service. Every time I try to turn it on, it decides it wants to stay off. I have had the computer for a year and a half. The warranty was only for a year so I'm left out high and dry. Do companies know how to make products so that they make it just past the warranty? As I was a student of Marketing in my undergraduate days, I do think this is a good method to ensure that you maintain customers. I had no complaints about my Apple for its entire life. I never had one virus or even an error message. And now I am addicted to my macbook so of course, if it is unrepairable, my next purchase will be an Apple. It makes me a little sick how aware I am of these marketing strategies and yet I remain a victim.

Unfortunately, my computer was our only phone, internet, CD player, DVD player/television, weather channel, and it has all of my pictures on it. It provided hours of entertainment. Now, I just have Ryan. While we are in the midst of deciding what to do, we have been keeping ourselves entertained with the dogs that live on the roofs next to us. One of the roofs has over ten dogs on it at all times. There are two big dogs and 3 1 yr old labs and then 5 or 6 new puppies that are always playing. It's not quite as entertaining as my laptop, but it will do for now.

Precious Sleep

I assumed with our new schedules that we would be able to keep up with our blog more and keep in better touch with friends and family. After all, we aren't waking up at 5am anymore to arrive at school in time for our 6:30am classes. However, the 9+ hours of sleep we're getting has left us with less time. After all, we have to be at school for 8 hours, commute time can take up to an hour and our workout and shower time takes up the rest of our day. We agreed to work Saturdays this month for overtime with the misconception that we would have too much time on our hands. However, our mood during our waking time is much improved.

On a side note, it's January 17th and everywhere we go still has Christmas trees, Santas and Christmas lights up. I think they're confused.

Next, please.

My brother took us to this crazy sushi restaurant. When you walk in, the sushi chefs are all standing in the middle of the restaurant and they're supposed to yell something at you . . . but I think the sight of 4 non-Koreans threw them off a little and they just kind of stared.

The best part about this restaurant is that all of the food is on a conveyor belt that circles around to all of the tables. If you see something you want, you just take it off and eat it. You can try anything from sushi to shrimp to chicken to ice cream to mystery food. It's just passing by as you eat your meal.

At the end of the meal, the waiters count up the number of plates and you pay based on how much you eat. Each plate has a different color so if you grabbed a yellow plate, it costs $1 and if you took a black plate, it's $10.

I think all food should be served on a conveyor belt. It was so cool.

Zzzzz

We received new schedules for the month of January! We are no longer working from 6:30am until 10pm. Our first classes now begin at 2pm. We have gone from sleeping on average 3 hours a night to sleeping 10 hours at night. We are welcoming this happy change.