On lamenting the lack of things to do while feeling sick and unemployed, my Mom commented that I should update my blog more often. Thus I say the boring content is "ALL HER FAULT." Or not.
Anyways, I am feeling much better today and decided to get out of the apartment and run some errands to help reduce my frighteningly long to do list. No, I have not color-coded it--yet. After months of hand washing sweaters (and dear God is that annoying) I decided I needed to brave the dry cleaners before winter hits. My winter coat needs some buttons sewn on (3...and I suck at button repair, I have already sewn the same one back on twice. Enough is enough, time to get a professional.), and I have 4 cashmere sweaters that could really use a nice cleaning, pressing, whatever. I managed to communicate what I want using gestures, bits of Korean and English (huzzah!) and even gave him my address (I saw him write it down, IT WAS CORRECT). I'm thinking this is going to cost a fair amount and since they deliver, I wanted to make sure that I would have enough cash on me. Can you guess how much it costs? 16,000 won (about 13 bucks). At first I thought he said 60,000 won and I asked him to repeat it but no, 16,000! The repair job alone would have cost me a chore around the house (my mother and I have a very good arrangement in NY, she repairs and tailors my clothing, I do housework for her that she hates). Not to mention the dry cleaners in NY are uber expensive. The best part is, I don't have to remember to go pick it up, or find time to do so, they will show up at my door with my clothing. How many days does this take? One. 1. Seriously, tomorrow night at 8 they will bring me everything. I love Korea. This is going to make me rethink my rule of avoiding dry clean only clothing when shopping. I also scored a free magnet for my fridge with their phone number on it.
Among today's errands was a mission to look fabulous. I have an interview for a job I'm dying to get later this afternoon (don't worry I'd still be coming home for a bit) so I got a hair cut and manicure. I woke up and realized I had to get my hair cut before I went home, I might as well time it and have them style it so it looks great for the interview. Waegook (foreigner) business is picking up at my favorite place in Anyang. The stylist provided me with an English magazine to peruse while he styled and he learned some new small talk phrases in English. Afterward, I was going to just go home and veg out but I looked at my hands and knowing how image conscious Koreans are, opted for a manicure. Over a decade of playing the violin means that I never got good at giving myself manicures and if I want it to look great, someone else needs to deal with it. I'm glad I did though, taekwondo is giving me strange calluses. I must say though, never again will I go without my ipod. Deathly boring. I already exhausted the things I wanted to think about during the hair cut. I spent 20 minutes reading every Korean sign and trying to figure out what they said. Then I spent another 10 minutes doing it again. I contemplated the colors. I drank my free tea followed by an intense fantasy about the book in my bag. I got similar cravings for the notebook and cellphone in there too. Usually, women cure manicure boredom by chatting with a friend or manicurist but since my Korean is minimal, as was her English, the conversation was limited to her asking me if I wanted more tea and me inquiring as to what type of tea it was and how delicious I found it. That took a total of 2 minutes.
I have officially killed as much time as I can updating my blog. I'd upload a picture of my cute new hair except that the battery port on my Dell died. I'm not going to deal with it until I'm back in NY. Thank GOD for 5 year warranties. Right now I'm sitting in a PC Bang (Korean internet cafe) with about 15 other middle school boys all playing the World of Warcraft. Did they get distracted when I walked in? Absolutely.
I apologize for the overly mundane entry. Tomorrow I plan on going to a museum, a more interesting post may occur.
5 comments:
The interesting part is how you deal with the "mundane" in a foreign country. I loved the bakeries and grocery stores in Germany, and even the post office in Barcelona made for a good story (and how I couldn't buy stamps there). So, don't worry. We like reading about how you deal with the mundane, and the awe inspiring not so mundane.
A picture from the party would be appreciated. You know how much I love to see your cute little face.
Forget buying stamps, I COULDN'T FIND THE POST OFFICE most of the time when I was traveling. I sent most of my touristy post cards from Europe back from my 'home' post office in Paris. Oh well, still had cool pictures on the front.
Mom, OF COURSE THERE SHALL BE PICTURES. So long as no one gets their flaming doctor pepper on my camera, in which case, there might be a bit of a delay...
I agree with Rachel, your "mundane" posts are more interesting to read than you might think!
Alright, if you really want to hear about my dry cleaning adventures and the like, they shall be written!
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