It wasn't the subway. The underground metro here is amazing: take the Moscow metro, but replace the beautiful, historic architecture with efficient, sleek gadgetry, throw in some mini-malls, a shopping center or two, and garnish with an exceedingly confusing system of exits and understreet crossings, and you've got a network of tunnels that a person could get lost in for hours. Believe me: I, uh... have a friend who did that. A few times. And had to buy lunch underground because he lost all sense of direction, time, and smell in the deep places of the Earth.
It wasn't the kimchee. Stuff smells like death incarnate, but the taste isn't exactly bad. What is disgusting are the rice cake patties. I bought ten for two bucks, and barely made it through one of the suckers. It's like eating silly putty.
It wasn't the job. I'm already getting used to the fact that contracts are more like guidelines over here than legally binding documents -- this having been made abundantly clear when, within 6 hours of getting here, I found out that my hours, location, and housing had all been changed without my knowledge. Also, this Friday's a holiday, and instead of getting the day off, I'm working a double shift:
What did it was the laundry. Here's what I'm working with: (click for large view)
And here's my "Instructions for Silly American Who Thought He Could Handle Korean Laundry" --
Notice anything missing from the picture? Go ahead, look again.
If you answered "A START button!" you are correct. We would also have accepted "Abort Mission," "Add Hot Sauce," or "Nuke the North."
Besides the ludicrous amount of time it took me to figure out how to start the dang thing, other obstacles included my purchase of fabric softener instead of detergent and assuming 'Standard' meant regular cycle, not 90 minutes of crazed tumbling. Cleanest undershirts EVER.
That's all for now, folks. Tune in next time, when our Hero tames the mystical creature that is the Korean Cellphone.
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4 comments:
Awesome blog, I can't wait to read about your experience!
Oh Yay! You became a blogger. What got you to want to go teach in Korea?
Haha wow! Sounds like quite the adventure with everything so far. When I dated Chris he said that the first time he went to Sweden for work he had to take pictures for reference so he could get home. He knows the place pretty well now, but I also don't think that had a million of the same types of places either. Well good luck with that washing machine lol, at least part of you will be clean huh? :P
You mean the washing machine doesn't talk to you in several different languages? I'm so dissappointed....
Ike
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