First week

Day one we arrived, tired and cold. With a 4 degree weather, an hour drived seem like an eternity. After 13 hours in a plane, Fifi, our Malshi (maltese/shihtzu) dog was ready to relieve herself and run around even if it was in 11 inches of snow; she only stands a mere 8 inches high! We were also anxious to walk around and stretch out our stiffened joints.

Finally 12am the next day we arrived in our hotel room, straight to bed we went. By about 6am we were ready to get up. Jet lag. In the next few days, 3am we both wake up, go to the bathroom and struggle to return to slumber. However, by 6am we are wide-eyed and bushy tailed, ready for another cold day.

Friday we did attend a meeting where we learned about the Korean culture as well as a few words and phrases to get us around. Some tips to get us through life here and other cultural must-knows.

Saturday morning we planned on a day out after being imprisoned in our hotel room. We woke up in routine, 3am, then again at 6am. Lounged around ate some breakfast, went over what we were looking in an apartment and got ready. The first apartment was such a let-down. Grungy and stinky I must say. Also, I should add it was dirty. I thought for sure we'd get something more trendy looking? But no, this sketchy tiny apartment in a questionable area. The second apartment however seemed to be more promising regardless of the narrow winding alley ways. And the third showed potential, a little renovation and you got yourself an awesome single-family home. But we don't have the time nor money or energy to do another renovation! The next couple of apartments were perfect. Great area, nice kitchens and bathrooms, which is what we are looking for, near work. Once we were done for the day, we decided we'd walk around town for a while, get to know the place.

Also, we were starving, at 1pm we still were searching for some grub. The more we walked and passed places with pictures of food we got hungrier. Finally, we saw somewhere we would like to try, of all places in Korea we decided on a Japanese restaurant. I should have seen the signs coming of what we were about to experience.

The menu was short, written in both Japanese and Korea (we recognized the characters used) Also a short description in English. Which served us no use. We walked in and immediately you see peoples shoes left behind, so we followed suit. But oh no, this time we were wrong. We needed to take our shoes off before we were seated. We ended up leaving them near the bench, which was also a step into this enclosed room where there is a table and seats with no feet. Yes we sat on the floor to eat. Hubby decided to order for both of us. He points at what we want, "lunch special" one for both, we were going to share. In the confusion that exists when things get lost in translation and weird sign language, our waitress picks up our menus and exits, sliding the door closed behind her. Brings us tea, and a space heater. With my aching knees and hubby's long legs, we finally managed to sit on the floor. Cleaned our hands with the hot towel and sipped on our hot tea as we awaited what we ordered.

Surprisingly, it was nothing we expected! First course, a miso soup, salad, and some interesting looking stuff on another plate. Feeling adventurous and brave we dug in. Soup was good, salad was good, the other stuff however would just now go down. We were definately not expecting such different tastes and textures. Then the waitress comes in again brings a larger plate, shashimi salad. Except it was 3 pieces of salmon and other chewy fish and another that tasted like trout. One thing I couldn't even bit and gold dust. You bet you ate all the gold dust! I'm kidding, it doesn't taste like anything and it was stuck to the questionable fish on our plate. We began to be disappointed at what we ordered. But there she came in again, with more food. A small plate of two small fish, one plate each. The little guy, I had to decapitate, I couldn't bite it's head, plus he tasted funky. The larger one however was yummy. Then more food! Soup, sushi rice. We were already full and had to order beer to get through all the other tastes we weren't too fond of. We'd already been there at least an hour and all we noticed was her bringing more and more food. I wanted to tell her to please stop but I didn't know if I should say it in Japanese or Korea. Considering we were greeted "Konichiwa" not "An-nyeong-ha-se-yo", the latter being "hello" in Korean. We realized it was the end when she brought some sweet drink, tasted somewhat like a cider and was delicious. We only like a few items of the infinate plates. But we learned our lesson on being quick to pick.

We left, full and confused on what exactly happened in the last couple of hours of that feast. Also, instead of ordering one thing for both, it was two, one for each, hence the never-ending feast. On our last bit of exploration we came across a secondhand store, which we saw a couch we'd like and a coffee table, very cheap! The couch is orange leather. Yup! ORANGE! :) We'll need to go back once we get an apartment.