Living the Life in South Korea

After a long and somewhat uncomfortable flight, we made it to our new destination! As we arrived we were cordially greeted at the airport by Mr. Kang who held a sign with our names neatly written on it. Mr. Kang, though amicable, did not speak much English, he pretty much spoke to us in two word sentences. However, we broke the language barrier through kind but swift gestures. He helped us get on the bus to Pyeongtaek, our new hometown.

We drove 2 1/2 hours to our new city. It was a very scenic ride with little, rich farms plush with crops to gargantuous buildings in Seoul. We saw familiar places like: 7-Eleven, Hooters(surprisingly), Samsung, and Subway on our way. As we finally arrived in Pyeongtaek we were met by our boss: Ryan. He picked us up and took us to our new abode. It was very dark when we arrived. We were actually very surprised when we got to our new "home sweet home" because it was a duplex that was right next to Camp Humphrey rather than an apartment next to the school(which we originally thought we would be staying in). Ryan has assured us that if we want to move to the apartment that is close to our school that it would be no hassel whatsoever. Here is a picture of our home right now:
It has three bedrooms inside and is much bigger than we expected. It is still up in the air whether or not we will stay here or not. However, the decision is completely up to us which is very nice to have.

Saturday, we slept in and rested as long as possible, so that we could recover from jetlag. After waking up, we were quite famished so we decided to go find a breakfast place to eat maybe a brunch. Consequently, after walking the streets near our home, we come to find out that most Koreans don't eat breakfast. And if you do by chance find a place that serves a Korean breakfast it usually consists of cold fish, seaweed, and if you're lucky an egg. Therefore, we decided that it would be best to either buy some food for breakfast or make our own. After traversing through the winding streets, we found a convenience store called "Kosa Mart." We found the basic necessities: chocolate cereal, of course,(a kind of like Cocoa Pebbles, but spelled in Korean so I don't know the official name), milk, orange juice(which is tantalizingly amazing), and some more water.

We decided to explore our small side of the city. Pyeongtaek is huge! We walked the streets of their small town square which is directly across from Camp Humphrey, the US military base, therefore, the restaurants and shops were very much geared towards Americans. It was quite enertaining seeing the names of some of the shops. One of the shops/club/bar was named: James Dean and had a cowboy hat next to the title. We found a place to eat after finding a friendly army soldier to recommend a place called: Puffins. So we decided to give it a whirl that evening.

On our 3/4 of a mile trek back home, we came across a quaint, little playground with vivid playstations. At this playground, we noticed several unusual contraptions to the side of the play area. After messing around with the objects, we found them to be outdoor exercise equipment. It was really fun testing them out (:


The following evening, as we walked are trek down to Puffins, we saw at least ten older women working out on the machines above. It was quite shockingly humorous and very encouraging to know that somebody actually uses those machines. We are coming to learn that Koreans are very much NIGHT people. The night life is hoppin'. You go out during the early morning and early afternoon and you don't see very many Koreans. While dining at the very Americanized Puffins restaurant, Grant had some zesty enchiladas while I had some very tasty quesadillas(actually the tasties quesadillas I've ever had). They used a ton of spices which of course I love! On top of that, I had a Mudslide drink, it was definitely up to par! The waitresses at the restaurant were so wonderful! They were trying so hard to pronounce and use their English correctly. It was quite endearing and precious! They also taught us some Korean or at least tried to teach us (;

On our way home, we stopped off at a dvd store and bought 3 dvds for $10!! They even had the movie Wall-E out, of course they were bootleg copies. We quietly jaunted home and enjoyed relaxing while watching a movie before bed.

Korea has a very advanced recycling system. This picture is taken from a street recycling center where all of the recycling is divided and sorted in different bags. Jillian you would be so proud!

This is the view from our front porch!