Doing boring stuff in America vs. Doing boring stuff in Korea

Korea wins. Although the last few days have had no real highlights, there have been plenty of moments that have been exhilarating.

Example One: Buying a table. In America this is an everyday procedure. You hit up your local Ikea, Walmart, etc. Purchase the table, haul it in your car, assemble and WALA! Here, when there are literally 12 stores per one side of the block, all stuffed full of random things, with signs you can't understand, buying a table can be very difficult. Not to mention, I don't have a car (which turned out not to be a problem actually). So, after work on Monday my boss asked if I needed help with anything and I felt that this simple table and chair set would really make my shoebox come together like a proper home. For those who need a visual of its placement, see my prior video of my apartment and imagine moving that awkward hanger thing on the right of my room behind my tv, and plop a table and two chairs where that was. All I had to do is go to not One, not Two, but Three furniture stores all within one block of my house and find the perfect fit. And, as I hinted towards before, they deliver it for free! Luckily my boss was there to help me because I probably would have tried to awkwardly haul that thing out with the two chairs in three trips. I can just imagine the Korean shop owner laughing at my misery.

Now for Example Two: Taking the city bus. In America this is definitely not something to write home about. But here it's like climbing Mount Everest. However, once again I can't take all the credit for this remarkable feat. I had help from my new friend. She explained to me what bus to take (#1) and what the name of the stop was by her house. When we discussed this she had said that the bus stop for the #1 was right by my house, but there are like 1,000 stops by my house... So I stopped into my school at around 7:30 (my boss works 12.5 hours a day so she was still there!) and asked her if she knew where the stop was and which direction I get on. Not only did she take me to the stop herself a few blocks away but she also waited for me to get on and even told the bus driver where I was going. Luckily some other old lady was listening to my boss talk because the bus driver didn't tell me when it was my stop, but I could kinda, sorta, decipher it over the loud speaker. Actually it just sounded more like "blahblahblahblahhamneeeda" because they put "hamneeda" on the end of practically everything. Needless to say, I made it there and back in one piece and got to see a good 25 minute chunk of Gwangju!

Another thing in Minnesota that I wouldn't be too excited about is getting on the bus to somewhere 4 hours away (ie Duluth). But here, I'm going to be taking a little mini weekend trip to Busan. Feel free to Google it, it's Korea's second biggest city, it's in the South Eastern region and should be fabulous. I'm going with three other lovely gals I met last Saturday night and I'm sure we'll have a great time. On the down side I'm worried that I'm blowing through all the money I brought a bit fast, but starting a new home is always spendy. Not to mention, I will eventually be making a fair amount of cash and I always have that money I got from selling my car. Hey, when in Korea... (or is it 'When in Rome'?) You get my point.

For tomorrow I have a Christmas party/bookclub meeting in one lined up. Luckily it's at the same apartment I stopped by today so i will know how to get there and back! I will probably meet another 5 or 6 people and enjoy cookies and other Western delights. I should be getting to bed now, it's midnight and the latest I've stayed up in a while, which is actually good because I keep waking up at 5am!