Settling in and Finding Food

I slept surprisingly well, given the fact that my mattress is all springs and no comfort... And it is SO nice having my own place, to not be sharing a bathroom, and to not be living out of suitcases.

I went out for breakfast (Paris Baguette, yum!) and went on a small shopping spree at Daiso. Daiso is one of my most favorite stores. It is the dollar store of all dollar stores (it's four floors). I found a bath mat, storage bins, fly swatter, ironing board (my apartment already had an iron), hand "wash" (I was hoping for soap, but "hand wash" means sanitizer...), clorox (good thing I googled that one to know what the bottle would look like), kleenex, and more house slippers (you probably can't ever have enough of these, especially at 2000 won a pair).

I came home and Skyped my fam. I love them, by the way. And then I dressed up and walked to school, laden with gifts for my principal and mentor teacher. Unfortunately, I got there too late, so only the principal and a few other staff were around (not my mentor teacher). Earlier, I had asked my Korean friend how to tell my principal "Thank you for having me at your school" or something to that affect. I wrote it down on a piece of paper, but at the last minute, chickened out and just gave him the note in Hangul along with my gift. After I put the gift on his desk, he got up and gave me a gift of his own (a towel in a box, if you were wondering). The gift exchange was kind of awkward, and I realized too late that I may have handled the situation wrong. I was taught in orientation that it's polite to refuse a gift twice before accepting it on the third offering...oops, my principal probably thought I was so greedy...to have a hand towel.

I wandered the halls and took pictures, since no one was around...

I'm so excited to decorate my classroom!

The view from the elementary.

Our school has a giant dirt field.

The hill I will walk up every day to get to school. It's really not a bad walk, though.

I realized just now that I didn't even get a shot of the school. Oops. Monday.

I went out for more shopping! (You can only do so much at a time because you have to carry all your purchases walking back to your apartment...)

Looking left down the street of my apartment:

Looking right:

There's a cool church right behind my building. A useful landmark if I ever get lost, haha.

A random street shot. I walked into this World Mart shown on the right. It smelled gross and had a lot of weird non-Korean (but still Asian) foods. So I didn't purchase anything.

It was about dinner time during my second shopping trip, so I went on a hunt for food. 

But I got distracted in the most adorable store called Artbox. It is also 4 floors. Kind of pricy (for Korea), so I only window-shopped...on all 4 floors. They have everything from stationary to makeup to clothing to dishes (aaahhh, I want all the dishes!) to suitcases. Everything is super cute and fashionable. Aw, so cute. Oh, and they have a million and a half pencil cases, all adorable. That seems to be an Asian thing.

Okay, back to the food search. I went to the underground food market that I stumbled upon on my first outing. A lot of people seemed to actually be closing up shop (*note to self: grocery shop in the morning). But I just walked fast. I walked by a shop that had pillows and bedding, and almost walked past, but I gathered all my courage and stepped in and said hello (in Korean). The cute ajuma seemed a little surprised, yet happy, to have a white girl come in. I took off my shoes and stepped on a little platform that was piled high with comforters and quilts. I pointed to one blanket and tried asking how much, but she didn't understand. She just showed me the size of the blanket. I looked around and attempted to figure out the organization of her little shop, if it was by price or size of blanket or what. But that was hopeless, so I finally gave up and settled with a white comforter with pink flowers (not my favorite, but I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPEAK KOREAN, haha). The ajuma was so cute and wrote down on a piece of paper how much money it was (35000 won). She also tried to sell me an additional blanket at what I assume was a discount. I declined, but I'm planning on going back before winter to buy a heavier comforter from her. Because she was so kind. :) She even tied my plastic bag into a carrying handle, and made sure I was carrying it properly before I left.

I stopped at a fruit stand and bought some expensive nectarines, because it was the only normal looking fruit and because I wanted to give them my business.

As I left the underground market, there was a really old lady with a few piles of fruit on a small cart in the middle of the path. She didn't look like she was getting much business, so I bought some grapes from her. She talked to me in Korean, so I just smiled. Next thing I knew, she was trying to pile in all four of her big grape bundles into my bag. I motioned no, so she stopped after two and said some more Korean. I think she was asking how much money I was willing to spend, so we settled on 4000 won and she threw in some nectarines. I have a lot of nectarines now.

Also, the grapes are black-ish in color and have seeds. The skin is really chewy and sour and falls off from the inside fruit when you eat it. The inside has an interesting flavor, but is really sweet. Maybe someone has had these grapes before and knows a magic seed-extracting trick. Please share, because I have a lot of grapes to eat...

Okay, what you've all been waiting for: bathroom pictures! 

My bath mat from Daiso is so cute! So Asian.

MY SHOWER!! Haha, yay... The sink has a dial that either lets you have water from the faucet or from the shower head. Unfortunately, it leaks from the shower head no matter where you turn this dial. So I just wear shower shoes at all times and lean away from the wall when I'm washing my hands. 

I spy 2 minions.

Aww, I decorated!

A floor mat so I can kneel to say prayers. I might upgrade to a cushion one day.