Jeeez did my feet hurt yesterday. The chantwins came up from their home city of Ansan to really kindly babysit me around the furnishing of my kitchen and then other little essentials that i needed. We started off outside lottemart at 11-- no wait XD I started outside lottemart at about 10:30 'cause i overestimated the amount of time it'd take me to find a taxi, and the twins were late due to subway holdups so we actually met up about 12:15. I bought myself a watch while I was waiting and made a panicvisit to a pc station to find their phone numbers - and then investigated korean public telephones, which despite their elusivity prove to work rather well - and very cheaply, too.

We wandered into lottemart, and after grabbing a huge trolley [cart on wheels to you american types] which i didn't think we needed but we proceeded to fill to overflowing >> we plodded around the store accosting various assistants. Eventually we made it to the checkout with:

*steamer
*rice cooker
*sharp cutting knife
*tongs
*kettle
*iron - i didn't bother getting an ironing board. That's what laminated floors are for ;)
*water filter jug thingy [you know the brita thingymajigs. i've never bothered with 'em before but it cleans up the tapwater here a right treat so, a VERY good buy imho]
*two rubbish bins
*bedspread and pillow / pillowcase.
*a small dinner service [four rice bowls, four soup bowls, two mugs] that was on sale - \o/
*two glasses - i can't imagine i'll have any more than 3 people over at once.
*a small portableish cd / cassette / radio player - i've not had one of these for years through uni but with no computer and my mp3 player swiftly running out of charge... well. i can't survive without music to lunk on as and when i need it. i get twitchy.
*coathangers [which means, yes ladies and gents, i finally managed to unpack last night]

i can't remember the exact total, but it was under 350,000 won, which is around 190 british pounds or around 340 US dollars.

Because I wasn't sure of my address, we couldn't get it delivered, so we just lumped all of it plus the three of us into a taxi and shot off to the apartment. There we threw everything out, had a drink, took a few pictures, and then tromped right back out the door for my next lesson in korean life: the subway. Which actually was REALLY easy 'cause it's exactly like London's - only cleaner, less stuffy [even the totally underground stations seem to have thier platforms on the surface somewhere - there are probably less of those towards the centre of seoul, but either way] more spaciously built, and the trains are smooth running. All in all it was a pretty pleasant experience - which I can never say for the london underground XD I got a travelcard while I was there that you can put money on and it saves you having to buy tickets every time - apparently I can use it on the bus and in taxis too, which is a bonus. We didn't go into Seoul proper, as it'd started to rain off and on by this point, so instead we went over to Samseong and Kwak's [not sure about the spelling] mall. It was HEAVING because it was a bank holiday and everyone was out shopping their socks off, but it wasn't too crowded that we couldn't move. It was also here that I saw the first westerners I've seen since hitting Korean soil. There was this kinda lingo going on between us, like a sort of invisible salute every time you caught eyecontact. Like "sup dude. still alive? cool. carry on the good work, yo..." all in the space of a minute head tilt. It was amusing. So there I spent another metric assload of money, this time "necessities" that the director had asked me to get hold of or I'd need for studies - barring the notable exceptions which you will be easily able to spot XD

*one pair trainers [sneakers] - necessity. Quick on and off at the door - going to be used for walking or biking [when i get said bicycle] to school. Amazingly comfortable - they should be considering we tromped ALL over the mall looking for some I remotely liked >> I nearly sunk so low as to buy converse .... but saved myself in the nick of time and bought some stylish red/black/white Basics instead. My Korean shoe size is 240 - actually it's not, I'd say they're more a 235, Chan Yeon, for future reference. The shoes are a little big on me, but nothing too major. My left foot's the biggest by a full UK size [and thus a full US size] so I'd assume my right foot is around a 225/230. For the first time in years I think I have roughly "average" shoe size. It's weird. [NB a bag came with this >> I'm sure you all know the string over the shoulder basics bags >> i'm using this temporarily until I a) find a bag I like b) can afford said bag...'cause the basics one will be fine for running around with back and forth from the school on a bike.]
*one pair small heeled work shoes. I have never worn shoes like this in my life. They're smart >> but so NOT my style XD I like 'em though, in a kinda ..."jesus I'm an adult now ;o;" way.
*notebooks / pens / zipper carrying case. <- half of these are all black and white with a panda motif that says things like "ouch!", "YA!", "Uuuhum", and "oh~no! Dark circle!" No, I couldn't resist it, either.
*3 copies of the Korean "Blaze Away" TRAX single - yes, I did just walk right up to the shelf and pick three off like I'm some loser obsessive. Admittedly there were three of us there, so it probably didn't look as bad as it could've... but even so ;). Contest winners, I have the cds. Next step is to battle the Korean post office vocab and get it sent to you ;) I'll let you know when they go out.
*1 copy of the new SG Wannabe album.
*one Korean textbook with audio cds / one English/Korean conversational dictionary - both in hangul and romanised. I started in on the text book last night and it'll be good i think.

In the midst of said shopping spree [slaughter, or so my feet thought] we had lunch at a Korean restaurant and had Bim Bap [i think that's what it was called]. It was extremely tasty. And yeah, I've forgotten the word for "delicious" that the chantwins taught me yesterday already - I'll remember it for next time though ;) esp with the studying I'm doing. Then on the way out we went to a restaurant / shop / ice cream place called "Red Mango" whose speciality was yoghurt ice cream - and dude it was le yum. I was an instant convert - although in my eyes anything with "mango" in the name has to be good [and yes i know there wasn't any mango in the ice cream itself!] I also attempted to explain to Chan Yeon what "dude" means - that's possibly one of the hardest slang words to explain, y'know? Especially as offline I never use it XD only in type. That took some work, but I hope it was remotely understandable. The "worst" bit of the trip was the CD shop... it was like taking a child into a candy store full of 406840689 of its favourite treats and saying "whatcha want? Pick one." Korean music shelves, Japanese music, normal rock and pop and blahblah... ;o;o;o;o;o;;;;;;; I was SO good, just picking up the necessary trax cds for the winners [and one for me >> cause the krn version has all the comments in >>] and the sg wannabe >> i didn't mean to pick up that but it kinda fell off the shelf into my bag. You know how it goes.

By this time we were all z_______z so it was time, we thought, to find our way back to the subway station and head towards home. The twins left me at Sodang so they could head back down to Ansan, and I made the rest of the way home myself. I did get lost once XD well not lost, I got on a train headed on the line I needed to be on - but the line split and the train said oo i'll go down THIS way.... to which I said "nooo" and got off. Well. Four stations later when I realised, anyway. So a quick platform change, and a hop onto a train back to the interchange station, and then it was all smooth sailing homewards XD. The last few stops I was sat next to another westerner - I think he was of greek descent, he had that look about him, but he was so OOZING american in like, everything he did. Right up to when he sat next to me like :> hei beibei. Unfortunately for him he did it just before Sonhak [my station], so other than a :> and a ^^;;; we had no conversation, 'cause I said baibai and toddled off.

random: I stopped at a little station shop for a drink on the way - and picked up one of Bi's little endorsements - Vita500. And It. Was. GREAT. It tastes like concentrate oj - without the bitterness, and without making me sick like said oj does. I'mma be buying more of that like SO much, seriously. I could get hooked on it like woah. Go Bi for choosing sensible endorsements ;)

So then I got a taxi home, this taxi driver spoke a little english so we conversed, and I didn't get lost this time when directing him through the little spaghetti mess of streets that make up the little area where I live [I did with the first taxi home of the day with chan yeon and chan hee...]

I'd planned on going to the pc place last night to update and blather but instead got wrapped up in unpacking and sorting out my closet and yay it feels so good XD I have a bunch of clothes underneath my bed at the moment because there's just nowhere to put them - no hangers for them or they won't hang. So I need to get some of those little containment boxes or a stack of trays or something so i can put them in. Pref something small so i can hide it away alongside my suitcase in the closet itself. I took pics, natch. Of course I can't upload yet... whenever I DO manage to get a fxxking laptop, there's going to be a backlog of about 40698460948609 pictures XD with captions you'll all misunderstand. Oh well.

I got out the cd player, and, as appropriate, christened it with TRAX. Grooved around a bit. Listened to SG Wannabe, then decided although it was lovely it was just too mellow to be unpacking and sorting and shit with, so I threw in some of Covenant's [that's NOT the dodgy metal band, thx] Northern Lights [that album is the serious love] and then introduced the quiet suburb where I live to Frozen Autumn's Sperm Like Honey XD; not loudly though, because it was about midnight by this time.

Then I had a shower and studied a bit while waiting for my hair to dry, and then kinda gave up when I fell asleep over the books XD; and threw everything onto the floor so i could die appropriately.

The one thing we DID figure out - yay - with the twins' help, was my address, so I can now sort that shit out. Yay for that.

---

This morning my Director popped in at about 8:45. I thought it was a work day so I was already up and starting to get dressed, bringing me some fruit [aww!] and asking where i'd been yesterday because they'd come up to see if I wanted to go see the beaches XD and after refusing them on saturday >> I was like oops ... so she said phone me when you go out so i know next time ne? I said >> sorry I can't >> I have no phone line up here and I can't get a cellphone yet :D;;; so she said oh. pop by the office and tell me then okay? I said sure! And so she wandered off. I finished getting dressed and decided to put my day away to studying Korean and getting myself some basic vocab before risking the city again tomorrow for work, and then toddled off to the office to tell her - and she said oh... we were going to an amusement park - do you want to come? i was like >> well why didn't you say anything up there ?XD I didn't say that obv. But I'd already planned out my day by this time so I said no, next time maybe :)... I feel a little guilty for saying it - they probably think I'm really antisocial or something, but I'm not >> this is a family festival and it feels a little like I intrude on them... and yeah, I'm tense around most of them. Possibly because Mrs Lee is the boss etc. or I dunno, I'm paranoid about being laughed at into the face of the earth. Nah, I'm not THAT bothered, but I do hate changing the plans for my day once I've already made them, you know? There'll be other times.

Anyway, she did notice while she was there - bringing me fruit and other fridgery stuff - that I had no fridge! she said we'll organise a fridge for you later okay? ...after the bathseat promise a week ago, I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm not too worried!

List of shit I still need to get:
*boxy container things for nonhangable clothes
*a small table type thing for the space by the plugs in the kitchen - i don't like the idea of having the rice cooker and steamer etc. on the floor and the plugs are too far away from any kind of surface. If they then get a fridge in later, I'll sort it >>
*incheon streetmap
*laundry detergent and stuff. Should really do laundry sometime soon.

And John's now emailing me asking if we can meet up XD ...I haven't even set foot in the school yet outside of that first introduction... oh well!

'Til the next!