Improvement

Well, I'm now at Starbucks writing for you all. Had a bit of a harrowing trip here though. After I narrowly escaped from a parking car, I was forced to ride through a sandy spot under a tree by some inconsiderate (deaf to bell ringing?) pedestrians. Coming out of the sand, I was almost knocked over - just have a road bike with skinny tires. Finally made it here and as I was locking up my bike, a delivery guy on a moped got smoked by a car turning right into an alley. He got up after a bit so I think he was alright but today is definitely not the day to be on two wheels.

Anyway, today I'd like to bring you an update on my life in Korea.

Last time I wrote to you I was in a dark place. Since then (except my sidewalk adventure today) I've had some great days and am feeling renewed. Not perfect, but much better. I had my birthday, I spent 4 days in Seoul eating foreign foods and speaking English, and the weather has turned satisfyingly h-o-t. Eighty-two degrees hot, today. (Since my attitude has improved, I can attribute some of my earlier grumpiness to Seasonal Affective Disorder, which I think has affected me a lot in Korea.)

My birthday happens to fall on a great holiday in a few countries, namely Mexico (more widely observed in the U.S. and Canada) and Korea & Japan. Luckily for me, my school observes this holiday and as it worked out this year, I also got Monday off since it was field day. So Saturday DK and I KTXed to Seoul. On the itinerary were:

• Shopping for the latest fashions in affordable, trendy Dongdaemoon Market
• Haggling for RAM (memory chip) to upgrade my laptop in Yongsan Electronics Market
• Visiting one of my friends and one of his who had moved to Seoul
• Partying at Hongik University
• Sleeping in jjimjilbang to save money
• Consuming large amounts of Mexican food during the Cinco de Mayo party at Tomatillo Grill

We managed to shop, haggle (maybe not so successfully!), meet our friends, party, sleep (also not so successfully), squeeze in a city tour by bus, and consume a respectable amount of Mexican food. Unfortunately, after waiting in line for an hour and a half the restaurant had run out of many of their ingredients, despite the already limited menu. Then, while I was in the line for margaritas and a birthday shot of tequila, we were informed the Cuervo had run dry. What a Cinco de Mayo... Well, anyway it was a great burrito, and definitely made me feel better. I'll be back to have another soon, and I guess that was their purpose.

At Yongsan Electronics Market, we didn't have such good luck either. The first person we asked a price from ended up to be the lowest, and from there every offer was only more expensive! Usually, I've experienced the opposite to be true, especially if you tell the second person what the first had offered you - not so for us. When we decided on a vendor, the haggling was not so successful as I ended up paying what the guy asked.

Then at the jjimjilbang the second night, we were sleeping rather soundly in the co-ed sleeping area when, at around 2:30AM, the fire alarm went off. Now, you should know that in the 2+ years I've lived in Korea, I've never had a fire drill like I experienced growing up. So firstly, the sound was new to me and secondly, I took this alarm very seriously, as did everyone in the place. To me, it sounded like our tornado alarm from school so I immediately freaked out. Plus I had noticed the new sprinklers directly above us before we fell asleep so my first thought was "I'm going to be really wet in a minute." We all scrambled out into the corridor in our sauna clothes only to learn that it was a mistake, though no one knew what had really happened. About an hour after falling back asleep, it went off again, briefly this time. Maybe someone had reset the thing and decided to test it in the middle of the night. Typical. Everyone woke up again, but no one moved that time!

Upon returning home, I was dead tired and my feet wanted me to curl up and sleep... for a loooong time. Despite that, I felt new. And comfortable. That was a nice feeling.