Days 2 & 3

I want to tell this little story first because I find it amusing:
On my first day at ChimSan, I met my coworkers, and the very first thing they asked me was if I had my own company. I had my name monogrammed on my LLBean shoulder bag, and my British, Korean, and Canadian coworkers had never seen such a thing. They thought it meant I must have my own brand that I named after myself. Cute, eh?

And unfortunately I did not get to try soju. We went to an American bar, of all places, because although it was my first night in Korea, it was Anto's last night. Anto is the name of the teacher I am replacing. I did have some Korean beer, though. It's called Hite, and it tastes a lot like Budweiser and that ilk. I met a whole bunch of other MK teachers from various branches in Daegu (there are 18 branches in my city). I got to know my Korean partner teacher, Young Kyung, who is very sweet and very attracted to tall, blonde men. When I told her my boyfriend was nearly six inches taller than Mac (the tallest teacher in our office), she was swooning.

I've been informed by several people that there is virtually no crime here. Any crime that does exist is mostly generated by Westerners and between Westerners (bar fights, etc.). I've heard of countless incidents of purses, phones, wallets, etc. being left in some public place and being returned to the owner with nothing missing. Pretty cool.

So I finally ventured out of my apartment today and found a little bakery and coffee shop with free wifi. This coffee shop I'm in has no employees that speak English so when I asked for internet they just stared at me. I tried to think of a word that sounds the same in Korean and English, and computer/computah was the only one that worked. They knew what I wanted, and led me over to their laptop. Of course, everything was in Korean, but I was able to ascertain that they had wireless internet here so I whipped out my lappy and found an unsecured network. Ta da! Free internet. Unfortunately, I will have to find a new location when I move to the ChimSan district on Tuesday (I'm temporarily living in the SuSong district). But at least there is a market right up the street from my new apartment so I won't have to walk 20 minutes in the freezing cold with my groceries.

Alrighty, I'm off to do more adventuring, but I'll be sure to post when I have more to share. Love from the Far East <3