It's A Funny Thing

About a year ago I was recruiting for big corporate jobs in hopes of finding a job right after college. After I mentioned the idea that I wanted to go abroad my parents asked why? To them the U.S. provided an abundance of opportunities, so why go to Asia? Trying to convince me to go for that big corporate job my dad, hitting into the girly side of me, said I can buy pretty clothes to wear to work. Well, ironic how things worked out. I now work at a large corporate company and will have to dress nicely to work everyday, but all this is happening in a totally different country. So far it has been nice. I just moved into my apartment yesterday. It is quite small, but just enough for me to live for the year. Now it's just time to make it nice and cozy. =) Pictures below shows what I have been doing for the past week (most of it seems to be about food and eating). Next week I will show my studio and what my city is like (below is a sneak peek at my apt not made up yet).

Makgeolli-Korea's rice wine, it's sweet with a very low alcohol percentage. So much better than Soju I think.

Tofu Soup! (I need to learn writing Korean on the computer...hopefully soon)

Cold noodles.

My cool co-trainees for the week. Sitting on the floor to eat is very common here. It's pretty nice since the floors are heated.

Advertisement on one of the shopping buildings. I just thought it was interesting.

So we were looking for a bar close to an American one as possible. We found this "Western Bar," but it wasn't a bar at all! It was more like a restaurant and the bar was surrounded by mini kegs. It gets better, all the waiters were dressed in Cowboy outfits! The foreign beer there was ridiculously expensive ($6+ a bottle), so we stuck with our Korean beer (Cass).

Our Mackerel Casserole dish. I love all the mini dishes they always give us. It's different everytime. Here it is seaweed, pickled daikon, kim chi (always), and tofu.

An outside market near my hotel. It was endless, like everything else around here.

Octopus with its eye!!! Everyone is telling me to try eating the live octopus. -_-

Chili's!!! OMG...everything here is spicy spicy spicy! If it's not spicy, then it's sweet, if not sweet, then it is flavored with soybean sauce. Haha.

The darn masks they made us wear.

I had to wear this for a week, six hours a day! It was not a fun experience, my nose started hurting.

My training binder! There was so much to learn! Everything is planned down to the minute. I studied this thing as if i was taking a final!

Paris Baguette is an awesome chain bakery around here. So I was craving a sandwich and got this tuna croissant sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich for later. A bit disappointing though, the tuna was spicy (like it was mixed with some kim chi sauce) and the sandwich was sweet!!! Sighs...I'm still craving a good American sandwich from the Free Speech Movement Cafe (oh California Sandwich how I miss you).

This has been my daily breakfast for the past week. The triangle thing is my favorite! Kim Chi Kim Bap. =) It's so simple and good.

Awwww the Christmas tree in my hotel lobby. I hope I get a white Christmas here, it's one of my favorite holidays! Don't have too much fun with out me in the States!

More appetizers! (Not sure if that's what they call it). Here there is pickled daikon, buckwheat noodles, kim chi, soup, cucumber.

Bi Bim Bap!!!

All mixed up goodness with the chili paste.

I had to try the McDonald's. I ordered the Bulgogi Burger which was a big mistake (it was ubber sweet!). I should have just stuck with my Big Mac. The fries weren't bad though.

McD's delivers! This is just hilarious to me.

A Ferrari in the middle of Seoul's streets. Apparently there are only 400 of these manufactured. I don't know how this person keeps his car whole, Koreans are crazy drivers (well not really crazy, they absolutely can drive and maneuver the streets, they would be pro in the States)!

This was just so cute. Two doggies were in our van, one was dyed pink and one was dyed orange (ears and tail). People are pretty serious about their pets here. Dogs here get shoes, clothes, and apparently dyed hair! Haha.

A glimpse of my room! It's not too bad, I'm in the process of setting it up. My toilet seat has Hello Kitty on it! Haha.