Happy October everyone!!!
I don't know if everyone else is as surprised as I am that fall is already here and the leaves are starting to change color. We even had a cold, windy and rainy storm last night that brought me back to my wonderful years in the PNW. Unfortunately there isn't much to update everyone on in terms of any trips that I have taken over the past couple of weeks as I am waiting to receive my first full paycheck tomorrow :D But there are a few minor normal life details that I thought you all might appreciate.
The first was my experience with paying September's bills. I don't have a bank account yet, but it's proving to be unnecessary as any banking service can be done at any bank regardless of whether or not you have an account there. While this may seem bizarre to those of us operating on the US financial system, there are a few things that I should explain first about the way the banking system works in Korea. First, there are no such things as personal checks. Only banks may write checks and even then it happens on a blue moon. Second, debit cards may not be used for making purchases, only for withdrawing cash from ATMs. Third, all credit card transactions are run on electronic signature which ensures more security than simply signing a piece of paper to be filed later. This leaves Korea with a mainly cash economy. So in order to pay one's bills, one must go to the bank and pay in cash there. It was quite a strange experience to walk into a bank, hand over my statements for my utilities and internet and then simply have them stamped as proof that I paid them. Even better, my transaction took less than five minutes including my wait time to be helped. If only my days at BofA went that smoothly.
My next normal life tidbit involves my cooking situation. So I have literally gone about a month without figuring out how the stove-top in my kitchen worked and I had given up all hope until my co-worker carefully explained to me the several step process to get a flame going. So then I decided to make a grilled vegetable medley and headed off to the grocery store. From now on I will only refer to zucchini by it's Korean English name of "green pumpkin," and I will never forget how cheap cauliflower is back home. Also, can we please talk about how amazing seedless grapes are? I don't know if I just grabbed the wrong batch seeing as how I can't read any of the signs, but it is a pain in the --- to pick the seeds out while you're trying to enjoy a delicious grape.
This past weekend was the Korean version of Thanksgiving called Chuseok and I had the pleasure of enjoying a three day weekend to catch up on all of my American TV shows. Some have really impressed me so far this season (House, Grey's, Fringe and Flash Forward) while other's have really left me feeling unsatisfied (One Tree Hill, Mercy, Trauma). But we do have the season premiere of Ugly Betty in two weeks and LOST's final season is looming on the horizon. So, for the holiday season apparently the thing to do is to give everybody food. I got several pieces of candy from my kids, a coffee and apple juice from my co-workers and a MASSIVE box of pears from my boss that I then got to carry home all by my lonesome. Originally I thought the box was full of several normal sized pears, but I was horribly mistaken.
How am I ever going to finish these?!?! It's a crisis like this that makes me miss my hetero life partner who I know would happily take a few of these off of my hands.PS: I found a stationary store in downtown Nonsan that may be a little disorganized, but I was completely content to spend almost an hour sifting through all of their awesome stuff. I'm starting to think that I need a boyfriend... :(
I feel your pain about seedless grapes. I accidentally bought a bag as well. Not cute.
ReplyDeleteI would totally have loved sifting through stationary too! But you are not allowed to get a boyfriend while you're there unless he is willing to come back to the US with you. Bottom line. ;)