Spent most of the day yesterday unpacking, cleaning and getting settled into the apartment…It is a studio apartment with a twin bed, small bookcase, desk and a nightstand. There is a washing machine and a cook top stove, no oven or microwave. There is plenty of cupboard/cabinet space for my “stuff”. I do have A/C. The heating is in the floor…interesting. Prepared my first Korean dinner last night… chicken, spinach, peppers, rice, spicy sauce…yum! Also found a great bottle of wine, Majuang Red (just under $7/bottle) from a winery here in Korea, Kyungsan Winery. Lovely! Note to self…potential field trip. Today I’ll go to the hospital to get my physical that is required prior to starting work and then to the bank to get my account set up. Someone from the school will be taking me around to get this done. Had my first panic moment yesterday…I went to the store and got a cart full of household stuff and food. When I got to the register it wouldn’t take my card and I then spent about 10 minutes trying to communicate with the store clerks who didn’t speak any English. None of the Korean that I have learned helped much… “Hello”, “Thank you” and “Where are the bathrooms?” just didn’t seem to help the situation along any. They ended up having to take everything back and put it on the shelves. I then went to the ATM, got cash and went back to get my stuff. Whew!
