Thursday, August 27, 2009
Today I got off to a rather late start. Due to lack of alarm clock, I slept until noon, and woke up from my boss calling me on the hotel phone. She asked me to stay put until she dropped off a reading packet of training info for me to read before we meet Saturday, but two hours later she called saying she couldn't make it, so I was free to go exploring.
I met up with Melissa, my coworker who arrived from the States a few days before me. We have been spending a lot of time together, since we're two newbies arriving at the same time. We will also be neighbors, living in the same building together. She just moved in yesterday, and I get to move in on Monday. My accommodations will be virtually the same as hers, so I have a sneak preview. They are pretty small, by North American standards. I'd say the entire apartment (or office tel as they call it) is about 1.5x the size of my bedroom my old apartment above Village Grec (in Lennoxville). I imagine I will be spending little time there though: the trend seems to be meeting with friends out in the city, as opposed to hosting guests at home. It is much cheaper to go out then it is in Canada/the States, and with our teacher salary we will have more than enough pocket money to go out regularly.
Melissa and I decided to check out the Yongsan Electronics Market, which is an enormous 8+ story building that is floor after floor of every electronic item under the sun. Melissa and I both picked up outlet adaptors, I got myself an alarm clock, and I bought myself four English books (a little pricier than they would be in the States, but nice to have some more reading material: plus the newest edition the Lonely Planet Guide to Seoul!).We also had ourselves an early dinner, which was much appreciated as it was my only meal today (my stomach is still jet-lagged, so I haven't gotten the meal pattern down yet). Here you can see a pic of the meal, and a pics of Melissa's mini squid that came in her soup.