so far so good.

Korean supermarkets. Lord save me now. As someone who only recently started eating meat that isn't chicken.. I'm already really picky and a lot of meat freaks me out. The market is full of dead fish with the eyes still in tact. There's freaky looking baby lobsters and all sorts of things you'd find in the ocean that probably don't belong behind some plastic wrap. I am trying to be adventurous but I cannot and will not bring myself to buy something that makes me want to vomit all over it. -_- Ugh.

There's also all different kinds of meat. Regular looking meat, freaky looking meat, I dunno. I'm skeptical. Apparently Koreans are big on hotdogs because there's an abundance of those in the supermarket. I'll stick to tofu and noodles for now. Actually, they pickle just about every vegetable you could imagine. Pickled vegetables are really delicious, surprisingly. I bought a bunch of those and told myself I was being healthy. Fruit is really expensive here. A regular pack of $2.50 strawberries cost about $6. Ridiculous.

Anyways, teaching has being going well. The director is really fantastic. She's going to help me set up a bank account tomorrow and Friday, she's going to drive me to Costco (about an hour ride on the subway). Friday, there's a field trip to some Science center. I'm excited for that even though I'm sure it will all be in Korean and I'll have no idea what's going on. I found out that I have a long weekend coming up. It's the New Year here in two weeks so I have Thursday January 30th (MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!) and Friday, the 31st off. I wanted to maybe go to Japan that weekend, but I want to save and do that at a later time. I'm not sure what I'll do on my long weekend. I'll probably couchsurf (couchsurfing.org) my way through Busan so I can discover what it has to offer. I definitely want to make the most of it and do a lot of exploring. My hotel roommate is coming to visit on Sunday. We're going to some ski resort or sledding or something that involves being cold in the snow. I'm excited though. Something to do.

Let me give you some information on my city. So Yangsan is a new city here in South Korea. What's a new city you ask? It's only been around maybe 10 years at the most and they're still building it. There happen to be a lot of new cities here in Korea. I guess they have so much space they are able to just build brand new cities. It's not like this is a small city either. I mean, it's not Seoul or Busan, but there are tons of coffee shops and lots of skyscrapers. It baffles my mind that they can just up and build a brand new city. Meanwhile, in America, we have abandoned cities (RIP Detroit). It's just another culture difference that I find really mind-boggling.

How cute is this bottle stopper?

One last thing before  head out - I am joining an organized trip to the DMZ sometime late February. DMZ = Demilitarized Zone.. which is the closest you can get to North Korea. You can actually see into North Korea, buy their currency (why the fuck would anyone want to do that), and technically "step foot" onto North Korean land, technically. I think it's a really cool idea. The trip is about 45 bucks and you get your transportation covered, guided tours, and a free lunch. Not a bad bargain. Granted, a lot of cool stuff like this trip are organized from Seoul. So, I'll have to take that four hour bus ride to Seoul. I plan to stay the night with my awesome English godsend friend, Owen. If I stay the night in Seoul, I can get more done and it will make that four hour ride worth its while. It's kind of like spending a weekend in NYC. Lots to do, just far to get to. Anyways, that's it bloggers. Stay safe.