Happy New Year! In January, E-Mart became one of my favorite places to shop. It's like Costco, only... bigger, and more Korean. Although as of writing this, I still have yet to visit a Costco in Korea, so it's quite possible they're just as big - although I've heard, not as Korean.
The Mouse became a huge fan of the small victories she encountered while adjusting to Korea. From the aforementioned Lotte card, McDonalds delivery, ordering food and using taxis, to the arrival of my health insurance just in time for her to use it. The Mouse had been sick and coughing for over a month when Sung insisted on taking her to the hospital, and she got a round of antibiotics and other medicine to combat the bronchitis that had taken up residence in her chest.
But she and the Mouse Fiance also went to Shinsegae for the first time. Shinsegae is a massive mall and the one we visited in Cheonan had a movie theatre, where we sat in the deluxe mega-awesome theatre with couches and free tea to watch The Hobbit.
January also brought The Mouse's first trip ever to Seoul with The Mouse Fiance and The Mouse Friend, Andrew, who is in the Air Force and was stationed in Korea at the time. We had our first ride on the KTX (Korean bullet train), got to see the Trick-Eye museum, 경복궁 (Gyeongbok Palace), the Blue House (Like the White House, but it's blue), Namsan tower, Chungyecheon stream, Namdaemun market, the making of some traditional Korean candy, and just Seoul in general. It's a much bigger city than Cheonan, and the atmosphere was really inviting, if somewhat crowded and hectic.
It was also the month of the Pina Colada Bubble Tea and the introduction of the Korean seafood barbeque, complete with abalone and followed shortly thereafter by sannakji (raw, moving octopus).
February 2013
The sock obsession didn't begin here, but this is where it escalated. Jenji bought 13 pairs of socks from the mart under the school in a single day, and The Mouse became a little bit hooked on cute fuzzy Korean socks as well. At the time of writing this, she doubts she still has any socks left that were purchased in the states. They have all been replaced by cute Korean socks, most of the fuzzy variety.
Jenji's birthday is the day before The Mouse Birthday, and we celebrated on Lunar New Year at a buffet restaurant, complete with a birthday cake and fluffy socks given as presents by June... with a huge house-party-meets-bar-hopping night of awesome followed by a hungover morning. The Mouse Friend Kershea's birthday followed a week later, but was much more tame (this is not a bad thing - the amount of drinking in Korea can get the best of you after a while!), with lovely Indian Food, hookah (which The Mouse found she doesn't particularly care for, but hooray for new experiences!), and a girls' sleepover complete with Henna, cheesy (but good) movies, and games.
March 2013
March was not incredibly interesting. Like all places, Korea has had its more boring or laid-back times, and this was one of them. It saw cheeky students, the discovery of National Samgyeopsal Day, as well as Nutella in the mart under our school, staff dinners that left us needing haejangguk the next day before work, and plenty of lovely cafe time. That's really about it!
April 2013
April was pretty much the same deal as March. Norie Cat time, cafe time, and just generally settling in to life in Korea. The Mouse and The Mouse Fiance found some cool stuff at Lotte and E-Mart, particularly fresh basil and thyme, Arizona tea, new tennis shoes, a scale, and other necessities we'd had yet to pick up. June and Jinney both quit Easy English around this time, and were replaced by the awesome Shia, and by Jack himself.Sung quit not too long after, in May or June, and Jenji's contract ended in June. She was replaced by Ella, who was later replaced by Tania (More on the teacher turnover rate at Easy English later).We also visited Korean Independence Hall and Taejosan's Gagwonsa Buddhist Temple, home of Asia's largest surviving bronze Buddha sculpture. It was quite an interesting look into Korean culture, both ancient and modern.
May 2013
May saw corn ice cream (Whaa?) and students preparing for school exams, which meant busy busy busy time until the end of exam prep period.
The Mouse learned in the second week of May that her babies back in the states (That is, Ally, Dusty, and Misty, our cats) were surrendered to the local Humane Society and likely to be put down. They were all elderly and extremely sick, but that didn't make it hurt less. The Mouse found out on a Friday and cried all weekend. Since then and up until the move to Seoul later in 2013, she visited Norie Cat every single Sunday. Rest in peace, babies.
June 2013
In June, we saw again the importance of both staff dinners and discipline at Easy English. It was not a particularly fun place to work at times, especially near examination time, but at least there were dinners and such things to keep us relatively happy. As mentioned before, Sung and Jenji both left around this time.
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