Verbosity

Yesterday was a happy mail day. One of the packages I've been waiting for showed up (thank you again, Mom! The teachers at my school believe you to be highly concerned about my nutrition - and with the horror of the cafeteria the past few weeks, you should be) and one was totally out of the blue and a wonderful surprise from Dave and Shannon. Between cereals and chocolate, all bases are covered - I can find the diet coke here to complete the trifecta, and I think the combination of the three might be the most perfect thing ever. EVER.

Thank you all so much. I really do appreciate that folks are thinking about me, and it was so wonderful to feel loved.

Also, I was able to figure out how to pay my bills. I know that sounds silly, but being able to do a basic transaction like that on my own (without an interpreter or someone telling me what to do every step of the way) was huge. Here, you have to go to the correct bank in order to have the money transferred to the account for the given company. Some banks will process payments for all the utilities, for others you have to go to the right bank. After some hit and miss, I found the place that would let me pay for everything all at once. Go me - being able to take care of life skills independently.

Today I found out that the South Korea Apple store has an English-speaking customer service rep. And they will accept bank transfers for payment. This is huge, and a little dangerous, as I was able to send money from my bank account here to a bank in Seoul and in 3-5 days will have a new toy on my doorstep. And there was much rejoicing.

I went out to dinner with the folks from my elementary teacher's workshop tonight after class, and it was incredibly good. I think the main reason I'm down on Korean food right now is that most of the Korean food I eat is cafeteria food. And the only good cafeteria food I've had was at the country school I go to most Fridays (which usually is VERY good, and when it isn't, it makes me sad). But tonight, there wasn't a single tentacle on the whole table! (Let's not talk about lunch, which was tentacle surprise. Again.)