For everyone who hates bureaucracy

When I first read about Weber and his conception of a working bureaucracy for effective governance I was entranced.

In practice, I hate bureaucracy. For those of you who have been reading since I started this blog, I'm pretty sure there was a post about how hard it is to get an Apostille on a document so that it can be internationally recognized. I screwed up the steps today (attempt 1...last time it took me 4 times to get it right, this time I think I will only need 2 tries) so for everyone else trying in the world here is what you have to do:
1. Go to your local police headquarters. You need a criminal background report but since you can't get an Apostille on that you also need a letter of good conduct (this will set you back $20 but really $40 since if you are like me there is a guarantee that somewhere along the way you will mess it up somehow). It must be notarized with the person who signs the document in witness.
2. Then drive to your County Headquarters and have the signature of the person verified. This costs about 3 bucks.
3. Then go to your state Certification office thingy and get the Apostille ($10).

Sound like a pain in the butt to you? It is. You can mail stuff but expect each step to take 2 weeks so instead I'm stuck driving all over Long Island and then taking a train into the city, again.

Why is this all bull? The document only certifies that I have no criminal record in Suffolk County, New York. I am forced to get an internationally accredited document to show that I have done nothing wrong locally. I have never had to work so hard to prove that I've never had so much as a speeding ticket.

On the positive side I saw the Kandinsky retrospective at the Guggenheim which was interesting.Below is for your viewing pleasure, in case you know, you don't know who Kandinsky was.

Wassily Kandinsky 1913, birth of Abstract Art" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" width="300" height="200">Image via Wikipedia

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]">

One House in Roanoke.

I'd like to title this entry 'a weekend in Roanoke' but the facts are I spent more time vegging with my brother in his house during the day and a half that I was there than actually being on the town. To be fair we went to the farmers market (longest running in the U.S.A), the O. Winston Link museum, out to dinner, out for brunch AND Best Buy. He needed an external hard drive and I realized that I can't wait until I get back to Korea to replace my headphones because there is no way I am taking a billion hour flight without a pair. I'm glad I got them here anyways because while I could probably get a pair of Hello Kitty headphones in Korea they don't sell purple headphones with skulls on them at E-Mart.

The O. Winston Link museum was fun but my ankles really aren't up to standing for very long. For those of you who don't know, Link was obsessed with trains and pretty much took the coolest pictures ever of them with some seriously sophisticated lighting, many of the tools for which he designed/created himself. It's not often you get a brilliant photographer with an engineering degree. My parents have one of his photographs at home and it was interesting to see the progression of his work and how it fit into the whole of his themes and obsessions.

Here is Josh and I in the parking lot outside of the restaurant where we had brunch before I had to go back to NY. Yes, he is wearing a football t-shirt. I never thought I'd see a Karpen in one of those; it's pretty entertaining. Except of course for my Sarah Lawrence football tee which says 'Sarah Lawrence College Football' on the front and 'still undefeated' on the back. i.e. It really doesn't count.

After watching me limp a few feet into the parking lot Josh insisted on giving me a piggy back ride. His wife asked him if he was still going to do that when he is 50. I have doubts but Josh will probably get a Darwin award for like breaking his spine when he is 80 giving me piggy back rides. :-p. Obviously, he is an awesome big brother.

On the Road

My Dad and I probably had the most uneventful drive down from NY to Roanoke. Aside from the fact that my Dad somehow managed to make his car stereo eat the audio book CD I got out from the library. So instead of listening to novels the whole way down we listened to my ipod which I had not prepared with neutral play lists of parent friendly music. Dad is pretty good about listening to whatever I want but he doesn’t like underground hip hop, really strange indie rock or anything that is the slightest bit hard in the rock department. He finally had me make up a play list of a mix of classic rock, the Beatles and some jazz (when it was my turn to nap). Not my favorite driving music but it’s better than trying to get decent radio on I81 heading south. Unless you really like listening to proselytizing stuff about Jesus, in which case you are all set.

Unfortunately we made such good time that my brother isn’t out of work yet! Thus we are camping out in Starbucks and drinking coffee. I’m actually drafting this blog entry in Word since Starbucks in this country DOESN’T OFFER FREE WIFI!!!!!!!!!! Evil. There just isn’t any high end coffee competition over here. In Korea, TomToms, Angel in Us, Lohas, etc etc all make lattes (though none offer soy milk, thus my undying devotion to Starbucks Korea) so they need something to keep their edge I suppose.

After our lovely reunion my brother’s company has something called the ‘dork Olympics’ though I’m not sure if that’s my brother’s nick name for it or the official company title. It’s a combination of athletic prowess and mental athletics.

…At the moment there is a lady harassing the staff about the CIA and communications and different laws. Not to stereotype but she seems to be acting like she has classic paranoid schizophrenia if the real thing is anything like those doctor shows on television. Then again, I’ve never seen real life schizophrenia that I’m aware of so what do I know.

Back to the Olympics, my brother plans on using his pretty sister to distract the other teams and thus more easily assure his victory! The prize is free ice cream which of course as a lactose intolerant person I am so looking forward to that. Oh well, he did stock up on my lactose free milk and such for me at the house so I can’t be put out by dairy discrimination. What if there was a vegan who worked for their company? What then?!

This is terribly rambling because I am bored and don’t feel like reading or writing by hand in my journal.

Road Trip to Roanoke

Tomorrow at 5am I will be embarking with my Dad on a road trip to visit my brother and his wife in their new house in Roanoke. Embarking is perhaps too strong of a word; I will be passed out against the window while my Dad drives to a waffle house in Pennsylvania. I only agree to leave at such ungodly hours if I don't have to drive the first leg. My brain just doesn't function at 5am and can usually only string together sentences like 'coffee? where is the coffee?' Not to mention that whether or not there is traffic it's a pain in the butt to get out of NY.

Today I am busy with such glamorous pursuits as laundry, packing and assorted errands. My Mom won't stop thanking me for fixing her ipod. It didn't take much, I installed the newest itunes software, ran diagnostics, rebooted and voila, it worked. Then I wrote her a tutorial on how to do what I did in case it happened again along with a list of a few cool keyboard shortcuts she saw me use while we tested it out.

The food update:
Yet another glorious day of incredible food. For lunch I had left over squash soup and whole grain bread. Dinner was spectacular, we had lamb chops rubbed down with ancho chili powder and kosher salt, sliced mini potatoes oven roasted with olive oil and kosher salt and finally, a chopped zucchini and onion dish that was actually edible (I normally hate zucchini when it's not in a sauce).

After dinner, Dad wanted me to practice driving his full size pick up truck since I've never driven anything so big before (let alone tried to park in something like that).

Dad: Why don't we drive down the police station and back?
Me: Wouldn't Borders Books be closer?
Dad: ~laughs~
Mom: Why don't you drive down and get ices?
Me: Oooooooooooo dessert! Ices it is! But I don't have any cash on me.
Dad: ~Looks slightly annoyed/disgusted with me~ Do you ACTUALLY THINK I would let you pay for your own ice? Please. Let's go.

I love Italian ices though they are slightly less exciting now that I can't have the cream ones which have infinitely better flavors. I settled for lemon but my god are American portions huge. A small in NY is like a large anywhere else in the world. Ridiculous. Tasty but ridiculous.

Blog updates may or may not be scarce while I'm down South. We'll see.

Impractical and Rambling

Today I accompanied my mother to her organic food co-op pick up. Earlier this year my parents had considered putting in a vegetable garden in order to be more green and maybe save some money. However, after calculating how many trees they'd have to clear and how much deer fencing would cost it was the case of the $300 tomato. My Dad went down and signed up with the Hamlet Organic Garden or HOG for short. I am really proud of my parents, aside from the fact that the vegetables taste incredible it really makes a difference in your carbon footprint to buy locally. Forget the chemicals used to grown vegetables and the health or environmental side effects--just think of the fact that those California strawberries have to travel 3,000 miles to get to you and how much gas and emissions that is costing the world. Sure it's great to have out of season fruit in the winter but the rest of time it's ludicrous how much energy is expended to get that fruit to you. Anyways, this is besides the point I wanted to make. My mother and I showed up wearing cute shoes, her in gorgeous yellow leather sandals and I was rocking a pair of suede turquoise ballet flats with beaded ankles straps. The woman who checked our name off of the list was poking fun out how they weren't really practical farm wear, let alone for someone with a broken toe (my Mom broke hers a few days ago). Excuse me, first of all they were the only shoes that didn't hurt her toe and second of all, WHO CARES?! We not only picked out our vegetables but went and cut fresh flowers from the gardens in those 'impractical' shoes. The worst thing that either of us suffered from was a couple of mosquito bites.

Tomorrow I have my very first meeting with a broker to discuss my investment plans. I want to start with some form of an IRA and plan out potential types of investments for my 20s and 30s. Is it weird that I'm super excited? Of course I already have a professional outfit planned. I'm just wishing I had something more chic to take notes in than my slightly beat up journal. I'd bring a legal pad but it doesn't fit in the purse I brought home. Whatever, I'm a 23 year old English teacher, I suspect that a beat up notebook sort of fits the image. My Dad's broker doesn't handle people with as little money as me BUT recommended another guy in his office who was very friendly on the phone.

This meeting promises to be much more interesting than how I plan on spending the rest of my afternoon: organizing and labeling my Mom's pantry. It's not that I don't love obsessively organizing things (and god knows my library really doesn't need yet another session of this neurosis) but food isn't really my thing. It's harder to come up with perfect categories and strategies for something that doesn't really appeal to me. I love doing closets, studios, offices and books (obviously) but pantries? Not so much. I told my Mom that this warranted more than hemming my jeans in payment when I realized how big of a project it was going to be. I might actually get my suit jacket finished before I return to Korea. If I'm very lucky.

Food Heaven

Today I was utterly spoiled with food. My Mom heard me get up and immediately left her studio and went downstairs to put pancake batter on the griddle. Not to mention the fact that she heated the Vermont maple syrup to be drizzled over them or the freshly brewed cup of excellent (locally roasted) coffee. After a leisurely breakfast of reading the New York Times and then watching Obama on health care we ran some errands. I finally got super adhesive glue (there is not 1 but 4 aisles devoted to scrapbooking at JoAnns, the local craft store) and some cool border thingies for my scrapbook. The scrapbook itself is more of a multimedia journal project but whatever, it looks cool. I have patience for about 2 pages at a time and then I usually give up and go read or play with Nicky. Of course since Nicky is a 17 year old dog 'playing' mainly consists of me petting him for as long as he'll put up with me.

On the way home from errands, we went out to Mexican food at this little hole in the wall taco place. Unlike "Mexican" places in Korea the staff is all Mexican, there are Spanish speaking people who eat there, actual cilantro and limes are used, and there are Spanish newspapers for the patrons. Then a freakish, freakish thing occurred:
Me: This taco, it's okay but it tastes kind of bland.
Mom: Well, add some hot sauce.
Me: But I don't do hot sauce.
Mom: ~Shrugs~ Well, they have Cholula and it's my favorite.
Me: ~Tries some Cholula~ This is much better but it's not really spicy.

Then I tried the HOT hot sauce and liked it. As my brother commented in an online chat later that day: "Where is my sister and what did you do with her?!!" Apparently, eating kimchi everyday has increased my tolerance for spicy food. Who would have thought I would one day eat spicy food and enjoy it?

For dinner my Mom prepared keenwah (no idea how to spell that whatsoever), an Israeli corn salad, freshly steamed string beans and turkey (with freshly made gravy of course). We split the leftover chocolate cake from Rosh Hashanah for dessert. Amazing. Going for a year without seeing my parents is hard but having my food preferences fawned over is most definitely not. I am being ruthlessly spoiled and my mouth is loving every minute of it.

Random errand highlight: I am now the proud owner of my VERY OWN COSTCO CARD which means I shall never be without cheerios, American Oreos or bacon again in Korea. Amazing.

Scrapbooking on hold...

I went and bought an A4 size black sketchbook to scrapbook in. I'm not much for the fancy papers and such, I kind of just like the idea of gluing things in and writing about it. They are more for me than anyone else. However, my glue stick isn't actually holding anything down.

Me: Dad I think I need stronger glue.
Mom: Why, what are you using?
Me: A glue stick.
Dad: That should work. How old is it?
Me: I don't know, I stole it from Mom.
Mom: ...Possibly quite old, I stole it from you while you were gone.
Me: Maybe they make special scrap book making glue!
Parents: ~looks sceptic~

In any case, Mom and I are going to go to JoAnns tomorrow and raid their scrapbooking aisles. Mozilla keeps telling me that scrapbooking isn't a word though google search gets 18,800,000 hits for it-- without a spelling suggestion thingy popping up.

Today I also did $140 damage to my savings. To be fair, it was all things I had planned to buy: tank tops from the Gap (SUPER ON SALE, 4 bucks a pop) and more sports bras for taekwondo. I did get a lot of bang for my buck though. Everything was so marked down that it was just as cheap as getting it in Korea (if what I wanted was available in Korea). I also had a 40 minute video Skype chat with Salsa Boy which greatly improved my mood. Not to mention a slice of AMAZING CHOCOLATE CAKE that my mom made.

Chocolate cake solves all ills ...except possibly obesity.

Wanted Ads for Life

Earlier this evening my Mom pointed out to me that I really didn't need to reorganize my library for the millionth time, what I need is a hobby. It's true that I'm going out of my mind a little bit just reading and writing. I have an obscene amount of energy physical activity makes me happy. Given my ankles, this is obviously a problem.

So I did what any other person my age would do: I got on google and searched for hobbies. There were 102,000,000 results. Hobbies seem to have 3 categories: sports, arts and collections. Sports are a no go for the time being, collecting doesn't actually entertain me (and given my mobile lifestyle it's not really practical either), and I hate doing most arts and crafts given my inability to sit still. Learning a language was on there but attempting to make Korean stick in my brain is on break while I'm in the states. I might start a scrapbook though given that I have shoe box upon shoe box of letters, pictures, post cards, ticket stubs, and assorted other memorabilia waiting for me to do something. I have the sneaking suspicion this is going to end with my newly cleaned and organized desk as a disaster zone. I don't know. I'm dying to go to the Kandinsky retrospective with my Mom at the Guggenheim (which just got a stunning review from the New York Times) or the Georgia O'Keefe abstractionist exhibition at the Whitney but since standing for an hour is agony the probability of me going soon seems to be slim. I think I'm going to attack myself with ace bandages and ibuprofen for the Kandinsky. They are bringing over work from this museum in Munich that I've never seen (as well as from the Pompidou C enter) and I bet they will have a good translation of his essays on color in the bookstore... [My resolve not to buy books does not extend to such extenuatingly tempting circumstances as an artist's retrospective at the Guggenheim. What bibliophile/art maniac could resist?!]

How does a person pick a hobby when it doesn't come naturally?

This is me in boring mode...

I don't do anything in NY. I live an hour and a half from the city and tend to spend most of my time alternating between replenishing my book stock at the library and rotating which comfy chair I sit in at home to read the books. I check my email somewhat compulsively. I spent a day and a half in Boston visiting a college friend in which I drank a lot of lattes, wandered Newbury street before my ankles gave out and went to a movie. (9 was awful. It had great visuals and almost no plot. Take it out on DVD if you are a die hard fan or something.)

Today I ran around on errands for my Mother who is preparing a Rosh Hashanah dinner for 6. I managed to find a new store without my GPS and without making a single wrong turn, huzzah! I also recycled a bag full of old notebooks in an effort to declutter my bookshelves (and of course make room for the ever growing number of books in my life). My notes from college were so ridiculously meticulous and color coded. It almost felt sacriligious to throw them out but really, do I need to keep my discrete mathematics notebook from freshman year? Absolutely not. I will admit that I couldn't bring myself to recycle any literature or political science books or papers. However, I now remember why I never (or rather, rarely) slept in college and yet was continuously convinced that I did not work quite hard enough.

I love being with my parents, they are fabulous. However, there are only so many hours I can sit still. I hate that I'm not allowed to do any physical activity at the moment (did I blog about this? I screwed up my ankles again). Maybe I'll reorganize my library again. Last time was according to the Dewey Decimal system. Any suggestions?

My life in NY is far too boring for a blog.
Dear Police Department,
Please send me my criminal background check already so I can GO BACK TO KOREA.
Love,
Alex

Home! and culture shock...

Today I have handed people money and papers with my left hand touching my right elbow, bowed to someone in thanks and fumbled with a fork. Oh culture shock, you are truly something else. When visiting a country I tend to be very gung ho about getting immersed in the native culture and just going with the flow. However, after so much conscientious integration I tend to feel overwhelmed when returning to my native land. I thought it was intense when I came back from France...this is something else. The biggest thing is that I'm not used to hearing background noise. For so long other people's conversations have just been white noise. All of a sudden I can understand everything they say (I really wasn't missing anything). Today I made a trip to CVS, the library, the post office and police headquarters (for a new criminal background check). CVS, a pharmacy/convenience store, was baffling. I didn't choose the brand that I could understand the most packaging on, oh no! I got to compare things. I understood the sale signs. There was even small talk made at the register. The whole experience was bizarre and surreal. The library was overwhelming, I ended up getting flustered and grabbing just ONE book before fleeing. For anyone who knows me, even just by reading this blog you know that I rarely walk out of a bookstore with one book let alone a library where it is free. Obviously, I am not in my right mind.

On the other hand, some things are absolutely lovely and not overwhelming at all. For instance, last night for dinner we had Colombian take-out. Where else in the world can you do that outside of Columbia? NO WHERE. Well, maybe Texas or California but still. Also, I have been gorging on Cabot's lactose free cheddar cheese. Last night I had 2 pieces of cheese for dessert. My Mom half-halfheartedly suggested that I at least eat them on crackers but I just wanted the cheese. I had cheesy bread and cucumber salad for lunch. I foresee myself eating a lot of cheese while I'm home. Perhaps I shall figure out how to bring a block with me to Korea. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to some sort of art exhibit on the east end and shopping with my Mom. I'm not entirely sure what the details on any of this entails, I am just going with whatever she suggests. Enjoying time with my family is lovely. I have no idea how I'm going to keep myself occupied while I get visa paperwork. I asked my Mom what I used to do when I was home and she laughed and we both said "homework" though I also did lots of research (though that counts as homework in a way). I forgot my GRE book in Korea so I can't even study that. At the moment I'm too restless and discombobulated to even want to read. I'm going to blame it on jet lag and set myself goals or something for the rest of the week.

More soon! I have far too much time on my hands!

Life is Overflowing with Activity!

So I should have blogged everyday for the past 4 days since I definitely have enough to write about. Unfortunately for you the reader and me the obsessive writer I haven't had time to write! Sometimes I write on the subway in order to be more time effective but the new Pynchon novel, Inherent Vice, sucked me in and then I decided I just had to start with Gravity's Rainbow and you see where my subway time went. It got eaten by ENORMOUS BOOKS. I am flying for NY tomorrow and am not sure when I will recover enough from jet lag to actually write. My estimate is about 3 days, we shall see. So here is a recap:

-A checkup at the dentist cost me 3,000won. About $2.50. I am not even joking. A special treatment they recommended will set me back a grand total of 40,000 won, about 30-35 bucks. I love Korean health care. A lot. The dentist actually apologized to me that it cost so much but I'm a foreigner and don't have dental coverage. So instead of being free, it's ridiculously cheap. Amazing.
-Salsa Boy and I threw an Flaming Dr Pepper party. We didn't burn anything but the drinks and it was an outstanding success. There shall, one day possibly be a video of exactly what a flaming Dr Pepper party entails.
-I have spent an obscene amount of time out for 'one last drink' with friends who I might not see for years since they are leaving while I am gone. Also drinks with people not entirely convinced that I'm coming back.
-Monday night I went to the shooting of the 'Korean equivalent of American Idol,' I'm not sure what it's actually called. They want to make it look more popular and foreign so if you were white and showed up by 8 you got 3 free drinks of whatever you wanted. Was pretty fun. Made me very happy I didn't have to work Tuesday morning.
-Had an amazing lunch date yesterday in Itaewon at Le Saint ex with my friend Melissa. We were at a grown up restaurant and couldn't help remarking that we felt like the characters in Sex and the City, meeting up for a swank lunch date...Minus the having to go back to work part.
-Salsa Boy is cooking me a goodbye dinner, arroz con pollo, Puerto rican style.
-I landed funny during jumping exercises in Taekwondo class and screwed up my ankles again. My Korean doctor scolded me. I am supposed to avoid walking (whatever) and NO TAEKWONDO FOR AT LEAST A MONTH. Convenient timing but it still sucks. Acupuncture and I are new best friends. Costs a big 7 bucks.

This is the worst blog entry ever. Ugh. I swear there shall be more normalized writing, once I stop running 20 million errands a day.

Buh buh buh BLOGGING!

So there has been a quiz night going on at the new expat bar in Beomgye, Happidus. I went once and decided not to go again, not because it isn't fun, but I really need to be in bed by 11:30 on a school night, not coming home at 12. So I made my usual excuses and declined to go to this weeks. However, I was walking home from taekwondo and realized, I AM NOT EMPLOYED AND CAN GO OUT ON A WEEK NIGHT IF I WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a lovely realization. So instead of going home and cleaning my apartment, I took a shower, threw on some clothes and went out. I had a blast. I met new expats, played darts (I only lost by 7 points in some sort of freak accident. Obviously my team partner was a much, much better player than I am. I did manage to hit the dart board though. Mostly.), played with the bar dog (Dodo!), and just talked to people. The only downside? This conversation:

Me: Oooo popcorn! ~Proceeds to eat a handful~ Uh, oh. Could this sweet popcorn have butter on it?
Korean sitting at my table: No! Of course not, Koreans don't put butter in their food!
Me: Well, not in Korean food no, but they put it in western food (ahem and ORANGE JUICE, but I didn't say that) and this is popcorn...
Korean: No, there is no butter in that!
Me: Are you sure?
Korean: Positive, no butter on that. Why would there even be butter??
Me: Okay! ~Eats a couple bowls of it over the course of the evening.

Fast forward to early this morning....I was sick for a few hours from the "butterless" popcorn. Grrrrrrr. This is delaying my museum plans as I really do not want to get on the subway until I am sure my stomach won't rebel.

Plans for the day/weekend:
Friday: Go to the National Museum of Korea, doctors appointment (UGH but sooooooooooo much cheaper here, hello effective government subsidized health care), taekwondo, and a party. What party? My party! Salsa Boy and I are throwing a "flaming dr pepper" party (yes, on our roof, not inside). I had never heard of or seen a flaming dr pepper shot (which ironically, does not involve any dr pepper but coca cola) until Korea but Salsa Boy used to throw big parties and knows how it's done. I leave it up to him. My job is to make sure people are having a good time and such. I'm excited.

Saturday: Sleep off the party. Lay in bed. Watch a movie. Go out to lunch/brunch/meal at some point. Go to a roof top barbecue/party in the evening.

Sunday: Dubu brunch/lunch with friends in Sanbon! Dubu is Korean for 'tofu' and you have not had tofu until you've been to a dubu house in Korea. Eat until it hurts and then EAT SOME MORE. This shall probably be followed by a nap. You know you've been in Korea for far too long when lunch and dinner food becomes acceptable breakfast food. I'd like to say that I'm going to do something touristy but the farthest I'm going to get from home is a restaurant, or maybe a movie theater.

Pictures for sure at one point this weekend, probably Sunday if I remember to get on Salsa Boy's computer. Mine needs some minor repairs that I'm going to deal with in the States. I don't trust my Korean enough to try it from a PC bang computer.

It's all her fault!

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.

The not so exciting truth

I decided the job I was possibly going to take on Monday was a bad fit. So I'm doing what most expats do in between contracts: go home, get visa paperwork, a job and some serious R+R. I probably could have gotten a different job in the week before my visa expired but I decided I really just wanted to go home and see my family before signing up for another year.

In the mean time I had planned on doing some tourism. What am I doing instead? Laying in bed sniffling. I have a cold, not swine flu like the rest of Korea but a silly cold. A miserable cold. I hate being sick. Last night I went to bed at 6:30pm and woke up at 9:30am. Luckily, I have wonderful friends who bring me take out and such. Tomorrow I shall endeavor to make it past my door and to a museum. In the mean time...~cough, hack, sneeze~