Okay, so we JUST got back from Costco and we are too tired for a real Costco post, so we give you:
The videos of our Costco purchases!
There were many more things we saw there that we could not purchase, but these were the essentials.
The video is in two parts because it's taken with my tiny camera and it only takes, like, one minute videos.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Catie: The Korean Bathroom
[caption id="attachment_112" align="aligncenter" width="369" caption="no bathtub, no shower stall"]
[/caption]
There are "western" bathrooms in Korea in the more upscale apartments, probably more common in Seoul, and bigger cities with more westerners. For the most part, though, there are bathrooms like ours (though ours is pretty big comparitively).
The main difference between the two is the lack of bathtub or shower stall. In the picture below, you can see the little cradle thing that we're able to hook the shower head into on the wall. However, our shower head (as well as all those we've seen so far), tends to shoot straight out at the mirror, instead of down... So, we just keep it off the wall. The whole bathroom is usually tiled, as it's assumed it will get wet, and there's a drain in the middle of the floor (ours is hidden by our pallets).
Our bathroom is big enough that we were able to put a shower curtain up to cordon off the toilet and medicine cabinet. That's also really nice because then we can hang our towels behind the curtain, too, instead of outside the bathroom, and they stay dry. Plus, our shower curtain reads, "heart full time when i see you it calms my heart you are my most precious treasure," just like that. And then, "have a nice time". We got the shower curtain, because in the picture at the store, the shower curtain said, "have a nice tim," and we thought it was funny. But I guess they got a spell check between printing the label and the last batch of curtains. Either way, I think it's funny.
[caption id="attachment_113" align="alignright" width="225" caption="I should have hung the shower head for the picture, but I wasn't thinking. Can you sort of see it?"]
[/caption]
On the floor, we have those pallet-looking things to keep people from having to step on the floor. Since you take your shoes off when you come into a Korean home (it's just a good idea after seeing the streets -- and what's done in the streets), you wear slippers around the house -- clean slippers. And you don't want to get them gross. So, you can have pallets, like we do, or shower shoes like those pink ones (so cute!). Most shower shoes are made with holes in their soles so they don't fill with water. Mine cost 2,000 won, which is less than $2.00. Rock on. But since we got pallets, they're my veranda shoes. I just put them in the picture because they're so cute.
The pallets are also nice if you have a slightly slow drain (like ours is sometimes) and water pools around it -- gross! The pallets lift you up off the ground so you're not in the grossness.
Moving on.
Because the whole bathroom is the shower, they've had to be creative about how they store things in the bathroom. The medicine cabinet is plastic, so it's immune. There's generally no wood in bathrooms (apart from pallets which can be picked up, cleaned, and eventually easily replaced) for the obvious reason that wood holds mold, bacteria, etc.. You can't really tell, but our toilet paper holder is plastic, too, and has a flap that moves up and down to keep the water off.
Another thing I think is cool, is that they have all these hooks and things for the bathroom, like our towel hook, that are all stuck to the wall with suction cups. Some come with hard, plastic, industrial strength stickers that you put on the wall where you want to suction the hook, and then you press the cup to the sticker and then twist a little knob which sucks the cup out a little and creates a seriously strong suction. It's kind of hard to explain, it took me a little while to even figure out what I was supposed to do. But, once one the hooks is on the wall, it's really on there until you unscrew it.
Also, there's no bathtub ledge or built in little shelves anywhere, so you get these little shelves that suction to the wall, too. We have one, but it's not in the pictures.
We don't have a bathroom fan because our apartment is older, so we keep the tiny window open to help dry things out and vent steam. Hopefully that will still work in cold weather.
And I think the only other thing is that there's a threshold about 4-5 inches high at the door to keep the water in. Probably in case your drain is blocked, or if you have a sick one like we do.
That, my friends, is a Korean bathroom. And, let me tell you, it may seem annoying, but once you get used to it, it's kind of awesome. There's so little bathroom cleaning to do (not that it would make any difference in our creepy bathroom!), you just spray things down with the shower head and it all drains.
Seriously. Awesome.
Soon, I will run out of rooms in the house and then you will be free of my explaining posts. Regarding the house anyway.
- catie
[/caption]There are "western" bathrooms in Korea in the more upscale apartments, probably more common in Seoul, and bigger cities with more westerners. For the most part, though, there are bathrooms like ours (though ours is pretty big comparitively).
The main difference between the two is the lack of bathtub or shower stall. In the picture below, you can see the little cradle thing that we're able to hook the shower head into on the wall. However, our shower head (as well as all those we've seen so far), tends to shoot straight out at the mirror, instead of down... So, we just keep it off the wall. The whole bathroom is usually tiled, as it's assumed it will get wet, and there's a drain in the middle of the floor (ours is hidden by our pallets).
Our bathroom is big enough that we were able to put a shower curtain up to cordon off the toilet and medicine cabinet. That's also really nice because then we can hang our towels behind the curtain, too, instead of outside the bathroom, and they stay dry. Plus, our shower curtain reads, "heart full time when i see you it calms my heart you are my most precious treasure," just like that. And then, "have a nice time". We got the shower curtain, because in the picture at the store, the shower curtain said, "have a nice tim," and we thought it was funny. But I guess they got a spell check between printing the label and the last batch of curtains. Either way, I think it's funny.
[caption id="attachment_113" align="alignright" width="225" caption="I should have hung the shower head for the picture, but I wasn't thinking. Can you sort of see it?"]
[/caption]On the floor, we have those pallet-looking things to keep people from having to step on the floor. Since you take your shoes off when you come into a Korean home (it's just a good idea after seeing the streets -- and what's done in the streets), you wear slippers around the house -- clean slippers. And you don't want to get them gross. So, you can have pallets, like we do, or shower shoes like those pink ones (so cute!). Most shower shoes are made with holes in their soles so they don't fill with water. Mine cost 2,000 won, which is less than $2.00. Rock on. But since we got pallets, they're my veranda shoes. I just put them in the picture because they're so cute.
The pallets are also nice if you have a slightly slow drain (like ours is sometimes) and water pools around it -- gross! The pallets lift you up off the ground so you're not in the grossness.
Moving on.
Because the whole bathroom is the shower, they've had to be creative about how they store things in the bathroom. The medicine cabinet is plastic, so it's immune. There's generally no wood in bathrooms (apart from pallets which can be picked up, cleaned, and eventually easily replaced) for the obvious reason that wood holds mold, bacteria, etc.. You can't really tell, but our toilet paper holder is plastic, too, and has a flap that moves up and down to keep the water off.
Another thing I think is cool, is that they have all these hooks and things for the bathroom, like our towel hook, that are all stuck to the wall with suction cups. Some come with hard, plastic, industrial strength stickers that you put on the wall where you want to suction the hook, and then you press the cup to the sticker and then twist a little knob which sucks the cup out a little and creates a seriously strong suction. It's kind of hard to explain, it took me a little while to even figure out what I was supposed to do. But, once one the hooks is on the wall, it's really on there until you unscrew it.
Also, there's no bathtub ledge or built in little shelves anywhere, so you get these little shelves that suction to the wall, too. We have one, but it's not in the pictures.
We don't have a bathroom fan because our apartment is older, so we keep the tiny window open to help dry things out and vent steam. Hopefully that will still work in cold weather.
And I think the only other thing is that there's a threshold about 4-5 inches high at the door to keep the water in. Probably in case your drain is blocked, or if you have a sick one like we do.
That, my friends, is a Korean bathroom. And, let me tell you, it may seem annoying, but once you get used to it, it's kind of awesome. There's so little bathroom cleaning to do (not that it would make any difference in our creepy bathroom!), you just spray things down with the shower head and it all drains.
Seriously. Awesome.
Soon, I will run out of rooms in the house and then you will be free of my explaining posts. Regarding the house anyway.
- catie
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Catie: Funny Kongrish and Engrish
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="475" caption="where you can be as naughty as you want?.... !"]
[/caption]
Kongrish, a short name for the funny, nonsensical English translations that Koreans come up with is one of the best parts of being here.
We're going to start taking pictures of what we see, it just seems we haven't had the camera on us often enough lately.
Until then.. check these out:
- Ask the Expat: Common English Mistakes Made By Koreans - Read the comments on it, too, you will laugh.
- Eat Your Kimchi: Someone Please Translate This For Me! - Make sure to be checking out the videos with all their posts. It's the best part.
- www.engrish.com - The good old standby, always a wealth of A-mazing English at engrish.com.
Oh! And FYI, we're going to Costco and possibly a Korean McDonalds (we hear they have shrimp burgers?) on Saturday, after we get paid, so expect a full report soon after! We're excited!
- catie
[/caption]Kongrish, a short name for the funny, nonsensical English translations that Koreans come up with is one of the best parts of being here.
We're going to start taking pictures of what we see, it just seems we haven't had the camera on us often enough lately.
Until then.. check these out:
- Ask the Expat: Common English Mistakes Made By Koreans - Read the comments on it, too, you will laugh.
- Eat Your Kimchi: Someone Please Translate This For Me! - Make sure to be checking out the videos with all their posts. It's the best part.
- www.engrish.com - The good old standby, always a wealth of A-mazing English at engrish.com.
Oh! And FYI, we're going to Costco and possibly a Korean McDonalds (we hear they have shrimp burgers?) on Saturday, after we get paid, so expect a full report soon after! We're excited!
- catie
Catie: Chuseok!
[caption id="attachment_84" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="our chuseok gift"]
[/caption]
This was our Chuseok (Chew-sock) gift. Two shampoos, two conditioners, one body wash, two bars of soap and six -- yes, count them, six -- tubes of toothpaste.
I'd heard the Korean's were big on dental health (Korean Toothbrushing, from eatyourkimchi.com), but seriously. Six tubes of toothpaste? I don't even know if we can brush our teeth enough to use up that much toothpaste in a year.
The set is pretty awesome though. My favorite is the bottle that doesn't say anything but DAMAGE. Our best guess is either that it's a bottle of certain demise, or a bottle of intense conditioner for very damaged hair. Most likely the latter, though we do enjoy hypothesizing what sorts of damage such a small bottle could do...
[caption id="attachment_89" align="alignright" width="145" caption="DAMAGE!! -- not so reassuring..."]
[/caption]
So, around Chuseok time, all the stores sell these sets. There are ones like this, with beauty products, some with tea and little tea pots, coffee and cups, and then there are the scary ones with hard alcohol, like jack daniels and scotch, and there are SPAM Chuseok sets. With up to 6 cans of different types of SPAM (they like to mix meats -- more on that later). Apparently, though, SPAM sets are considered a little low brow. I just think it's hysterical that they sell a set of spam at all.
Did we ever explain Chuseok? I can't remember. It's a harvest festival that's considered, "The Korean Thanksgiving", by foreigners and it is bo-ring.
Not to Koreans, obviously. They get presents, they get traditional Korean food, they get to clean the graves of their ancestors. All very enviable things. And we got a present. We got the shampoo. Thankfully, without having to clean any graves.
It's just boring because.. you know how in America, if you find out that someone doesn't have a place to go on a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, you ask them to come to your house? You know? Even if you don't like them very well, because otherwise you'll be afraid that someday when you're alone on a major holiday, no one will invite you over (maybe that's just me..). Well, in Korea, most people aren't too big on including foreigners in holidays or traditions. You get included if you're married in and.. that's about it.
So, on Chuseok, most foreigners are sunk. This year, it was on Saturday, so naturally, everything was closed from Thursday until Monday. That makes sense. Sure.
No, it does not.
It's probably because we're from a capitalist society that I'm so outraged, and that makes me feel bad. Because, capitalism.. seems gluttonous and everything. But I still like places to be open! Even on Christmas Eve! And, therefore, even on Chuseok Eve, and especially on the two days following Chuseok!!
But, whatev. It's over. And we're not genuinely upset. We're still totally in the Korea honeymoon phase, loving it here, even when nothing's open and we're hungry. Because the Family Mart (convenience store) was open, so we got some bowl noodles and gim-bap (more of a kim-bob sort of pronunciation.. or a cross between the two.. hard to describe.), which is a lot like sushi in that it's white rice wrapped in seaweed, but in the middle they put cooked meats. Like ham and tuna and crab. Like I said, they like to mix meats a lot here. It doesn't seem like we do a lot of that in the US. But they're all bold and nonchalant about it, selling weird sandwiches called, "Ham Tuna Potato sandwich" and "Pork Crab Meat Sandwich".
It was a good Chuseok.
Check out AsktheExpat's blog: Chuseok Gifts and the Foreigner Experience. He's one of my favorite blogs since getting here and he has way better (and probably more upbeat) information on Chuseok. It's interesting.
His blog and eatyourkimchi are my most favorites. They're probably not as awesome unless you actually need the information in order to be able to wash your clothes, turn on your stove, figure out what that weird thing is a convenience store, etc.. but we like 'em.
More later, for now.. I need to go find more food. The constant journey.
- catie
[/caption]This was our Chuseok (Chew-sock) gift. Two shampoos, two conditioners, one body wash, two bars of soap and six -- yes, count them, six -- tubes of toothpaste.
I'd heard the Korean's were big on dental health (Korean Toothbrushing, from eatyourkimchi.com), but seriously. Six tubes of toothpaste? I don't even know if we can brush our teeth enough to use up that much toothpaste in a year.
The set is pretty awesome though. My favorite is the bottle that doesn't say anything but DAMAGE. Our best guess is either that it's a bottle of certain demise, or a bottle of intense conditioner for very damaged hair. Most likely the latter, though we do enjoy hypothesizing what sorts of damage such a small bottle could do...
[caption id="attachment_89" align="alignright" width="145" caption="DAMAGE!! -- not so reassuring..."]
[/caption]So, around Chuseok time, all the stores sell these sets. There are ones like this, with beauty products, some with tea and little tea pots, coffee and cups, and then there are the scary ones with hard alcohol, like jack daniels and scotch, and there are SPAM Chuseok sets. With up to 6 cans of different types of SPAM (they like to mix meats -- more on that later). Apparently, though, SPAM sets are considered a little low brow. I just think it's hysterical that they sell a set of spam at all.
Did we ever explain Chuseok? I can't remember. It's a harvest festival that's considered, "The Korean Thanksgiving", by foreigners and it is bo-ring.
Not to Koreans, obviously. They get presents, they get traditional Korean food, they get to clean the graves of their ancestors. All very enviable things. And we got a present. We got the shampoo. Thankfully, without having to clean any graves.
It's just boring because.. you know how in America, if you find out that someone doesn't have a place to go on a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, you ask them to come to your house? You know? Even if you don't like them very well, because otherwise you'll be afraid that someday when you're alone on a major holiday, no one will invite you over (maybe that's just me..). Well, in Korea, most people aren't too big on including foreigners in holidays or traditions. You get included if you're married in and.. that's about it.
So, on Chuseok, most foreigners are sunk. This year, it was on Saturday, so naturally, everything was closed from Thursday until Monday. That makes sense. Sure.
No, it does not.
It's probably because we're from a capitalist society that I'm so outraged, and that makes me feel bad. Because, capitalism.. seems gluttonous and everything. But I still like places to be open! Even on Christmas Eve! And, therefore, even on Chuseok Eve, and especially on the two days following Chuseok!!
But, whatev. It's over. And we're not genuinely upset. We're still totally in the Korea honeymoon phase, loving it here, even when nothing's open and we're hungry. Because the Family Mart (convenience store) was open, so we got some bowl noodles and gim-bap (more of a kim-bob sort of pronunciation.. or a cross between the two.. hard to describe.), which is a lot like sushi in that it's white rice wrapped in seaweed, but in the middle they put cooked meats. Like ham and tuna and crab. Like I said, they like to mix meats a lot here. It doesn't seem like we do a lot of that in the US. But they're all bold and nonchalant about it, selling weird sandwiches called, "Ham Tuna Potato sandwich" and "Pork Crab Meat Sandwich".
It was a good Chuseok.
Check out AsktheExpat's blog: Chuseok Gifts and the Foreigner Experience. He's one of my favorite blogs since getting here and he has way better (and probably more upbeat) information on Chuseok. It's interesting.
His blog and eatyourkimchi are my most favorites. They're probably not as awesome unless you actually need the information in order to be able to wash your clothes, turn on your stove, figure out what that weird thing is a convenience store, etc.. but we like 'em.
More later, for now.. I need to go find more food. The constant journey.
- catie
Catie: HappinessChurch
[caption id="attachment_77" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="we are here. in daejeon, which was formerly spelled, T-A-E-J-E-O-N. but now it's not. okay."]
[/caption]
When Ben was looking for jobs in Korea, we were thinking a lot about where we wanted to live: big city or small city? And what sorts of resources and transportation we would have access to. We were also -- sort of -- thinking about whether or not there would be familiar food available, because so many people in the onlines told us there would be absolutely none.
And let me just give a quick disclaimer: We have been eating Korean food! We are just super poor (and have been pretty much since we arrived) until tomorrow. Which makes things difficult. When you have a certain amount of money allotted for each meal, with no groceries at home to cook, and you are in a foreign country, knowing nothing of what tastes good and what is mostly squid tentacles and onion greens with fire-hot red pepper sauce.. you have to be careful. One wrong move and you've got scary food in front of you with no backup plan. You just have to skip that meal. So, we haven't been eating familiar foods because we are afraid of Korean food -- what we've tried so far has been real good -- we're just afraid of running out of money at the moment. We will be posting many delicious Korean food excerpts once we get paid. Rest assured.
Now, moving forward. We moved to Daejeon (the fifth largest city in Korea), knowing the
[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignright" width="300" caption="delicious spaghetti -- yum!"]
[/caption]
transportation was good, that the cost of living was significantly lower than that of Seoul (the only reason we aren't living in Seoul), and thinking it would very likely be impossible to find familiar food outside of Costco.
Well, as stated earlier, everyone on the internet lies.
And this is our proof!
Look at that delicious food (assuming the red, wormy stuff is ground beef -- the jury's out on that until we taste it)! And we bought it all at the Dream Mart, which is.. maybe three blocks from our apartment?
They sell everything important. Peanut butter, jelly, bread (only white though - eh.), everything for spaghetti, and.. we just found grated mozzarella the other day! Real cheese. Not the, "processed cheese food product" american cheese, or whatever it's called -- which is mostly all they have here.
So, tonight, we get to have delicious spaghetti.
[caption id="attachment_79" align="alignright" width="300" caption="happinesschurch!"]
[/caption]
In closing, I give you.. happinesschurch.
I don't know if you can read it.
But it says, "HappinessChurch". What kind of a church is HappinessChurch? I do not know, but it sounds pretty sweet to me.
It was left in our apartment by the previous couple who taught at Ben's school and we think it warrants a little blog recognition. It's over our bedroom door.
Who knows where it came from. but it's shiny, gold and it makes me laugh.
- catie
[/caption]When Ben was looking for jobs in Korea, we were thinking a lot about where we wanted to live: big city or small city? And what sorts of resources and transportation we would have access to. We were also -- sort of -- thinking about whether or not there would be familiar food available, because so many people in the onlines told us there would be absolutely none.
And let me just give a quick disclaimer: We have been eating Korean food! We are just super poor (and have been pretty much since we arrived) until tomorrow. Which makes things difficult. When you have a certain amount of money allotted for each meal, with no groceries at home to cook, and you are in a foreign country, knowing nothing of what tastes good and what is mostly squid tentacles and onion greens with fire-hot red pepper sauce.. you have to be careful. One wrong move and you've got scary food in front of you with no backup plan. You just have to skip that meal. So, we haven't been eating familiar foods because we are afraid of Korean food -- what we've tried so far has been real good -- we're just afraid of running out of money at the moment. We will be posting many delicious Korean food excerpts once we get paid. Rest assured.
Now, moving forward. We moved to Daejeon (the fifth largest city in Korea), knowing the
[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignright" width="300" caption="delicious spaghetti -- yum!"]
[/caption]transportation was good, that the cost of living was significantly lower than that of Seoul (the only reason we aren't living in Seoul), and thinking it would very likely be impossible to find familiar food outside of Costco.
Well, as stated earlier, everyone on the internet lies.
And this is our proof!
Look at that delicious food (assuming the red, wormy stuff is ground beef -- the jury's out on that until we taste it)! And we bought it all at the Dream Mart, which is.. maybe three blocks from our apartment?
They sell everything important. Peanut butter, jelly, bread (only white though - eh.), everything for spaghetti, and.. we just found grated mozzarella the other day! Real cheese. Not the, "processed cheese food product" american cheese, or whatever it's called -- which is mostly all they have here.
So, tonight, we get to have delicious spaghetti.
[caption id="attachment_79" align="alignright" width="300" caption="happinesschurch!"]
[/caption]In closing, I give you.. happinesschurch.
I don't know if you can read it.
But it says, "HappinessChurch". What kind of a church is HappinessChurch? I do not know, but it sounds pretty sweet to me.
It was left in our apartment by the previous couple who taught at Ben's school and we think it warrants a little blog recognition. It's over our bedroom door.
Who knows where it came from. but it's shiny, gold and it makes me laugh.
- catie
Ben: Law School Personal Statements
Let me just preface this post by saying that it really doesn't have much to do with Korea, except for the fact that I am in Korea writing it. In the long ordeal of applying for law school, there are many hopes necessary to jump through, including:
Much like the personal statements many of us wrote for undergraduate, law school personal statements are the type of vague, non-bragging bragging. In all honesty, the personal statement is proving to be the most difficult component of the application process for me. While the LSAT was tedious to study for, it was also fairly undemanding. Test memorization I can do, personal statements are suspiciously similar to creative writing, or perhaps non-fiction fiction. This is about as far from my area of writing strength and comfort as it is possible to get. Reports, essays, and boring papers I can handle with ease, but there is something about creative writing that freezes my blood and makes my brain go blank. Hence the reason I am writing here instead of my personal statement!
- Law School Application
- LSAT Score
- Law School Data Assembly Report
- Resume
- Letters of Recommendation
- And finally, a 2-3 page Personal Statement
Much like the personal statements many of us wrote for undergraduate, law school personal statements are the type of vague, non-bragging bragging. In all honesty, the personal statement is proving to be the most difficult component of the application process for me. While the LSAT was tedious to study for, it was also fairly undemanding. Test memorization I can do, personal statements are suspiciously similar to creative writing, or perhaps non-fiction fiction. This is about as far from my area of writing strength and comfort as it is possible to get. Reports, essays, and boring papers I can handle with ease, but there is something about creative writing that freezes my blood and makes my brain go blank. Hence the reason I am writing here instead of my personal statement!
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