Cliff's Notes

Hello, my dear readers.  I have been lax on the blog-front lately.  Not because I have nothing to say or no adventures to share, but because it is a pain to write a blog, save it to my jump drive, go to a pc bang or wait until I get to school, and then upload everything.  In short, I’m lazy.

Anyway, that trend my soon change.  I finally have my Alien Registration Card and can get a phone and internet…

Oh, internet.  I asked my coteacher about setting up my internet and she looked a little confused and then said, “Oh, I think it may be included with your apartment.”  Really?  I mean, really?  Because that would be awesome to not have another expense each month...but really?  Because I have been living in a veritable Fortress of Solitude since I got here.  I mean, no big deal, because I have gone without much more for much longer, but still.  Ah, such is life.

Anyway, for you my dears, I am presenting the Cliffs Notes version of my top 3 adventures since my last post:

1. I washed my hair with conditioner.

So, I only brought travel-sized shampoo and such.  I ran out of shampoo and since everything is written in Korean could not decide what to buy at the store.  So, after a good 10 minutes of staring and pacing in the aisle, I picked one at almost random.  I go home to take a shower and the stuff doesn’t feel quite right.  I think that maybe Korean shampoo doesn’t lather the same, so I squirt some more out (it comes in a pump, by the way, so you can’t smell or check it in the store) and scrub away.  My hair feels super sticky after its dried.  So I ask my fellow GETs and they agree that they think I jut washed my hair with conditioner and go with me to buy the right stuff.  I washed my hair three times after that...yeah, it was that good.

1. 2. I have been to two Buddhist temples.

So, just like I like going to Catholic churches for the beauty and the symbolism, I love going to Buddhist temples.  However, unlike the feeling that I could be smitted...smote...err, that God will smite me...at any given moment in a Catholic church, I feel relaxed and at peace at the temples.  I would like to do a temple stay while I am here and learn more about Buddhism and the practices.  And the temples are just beautiful...colorful and happy...even when crawling with tourists.  The one on Songrisan Mountain was where a Bruce Lee movie was filmed and home to a giant golden Buddah.  The one at Botapsa is run entirely by female monks, and I am told is absolutely gorgeous in the spring.

3) The ATM ate my bank book.

I went to the ATM after hours, mostly because despite having a school job I work 9 to 5.  I just wanted a little cash and to update my bank book.  Korean banking is really a thing of wonder.  You can do everything from the ATM: take out money, deposit, transfer money, pay bills, and yes, update your bank book.  You are supposed to just put your book in, press a couple of buttons and the ATM prints out all your transactions since the last update.  Pretty cool.  Anyway, I thought, “I can do that” and proceeded to insert my bank book, press a couple of buttons, and...nothing happens.  No-thing.  So, I fight down the urge to panic, cry, and scream and look around for context clues (like a big red help button).  So, there is this phone thing in the ATM with me, so I think that it must function like the help button in an elevator (BTW, they do work if you are ever stuck on an elevator) but all the buttons are in Korean.  So, I push one at random.  A Korean woman picks up and does her spiel in Korean.  I apologize that I don not speak much Korean and ask if there is someone who speaks English.  She repeats her Korean greeting a couple of times.  Finally, I just hang up.  Now, I am dangerously close to crying.  I look around and there is a young-ish Korean woman also in the ATM vestibule and I stop her with a very polite and timid “excuse me, but my Korean is bad.”  Turns out she has enough English to get the help line woman to send someone to come get my bank book for me.  My new friend told me to wait, someone would be there in 20 minutes and I thanked her profusely, which she was super-gracious in accepting.  Sure enough within 20 minutes a security officer had shown up, gone inside the back room and, bank book in hand, I was back on the streets and on my way home.