Day 2 - Exploring the neighborhood

Saturday started early for us. Stacy was the first to try out the shower. Unfortunately, we had missed the tutorial on how to get hot water, so he took a cold shower. We unpacked our suitcases. Believe it or not I'm actually happy we only had 1 bottle leak.

We have lots of storage too! If you have ever seen House Hunters International, you will know what I'm talking about when I say wall closets. The next time you are in IKEA, go into the closet section and they have customizable wall closet solutions. That is exactly what we have and I love it!

Close to lunch time we decided to go out and see what we could find to eat. We walked through our neighborhood and saw a playground and outdoor work out equipment. No excuse for not exercising! We probably walked about 2 miles. We found several stores, a couple resembled convenience stores, others were more like mini, rundown Walmarts. It's so funny how when we try to communicate with the Koreans, we talk to each other like one of us is going to miraculously know the language. We now know how the Native Americans and the English must have felt. Lots of signs and hand usage. We picked up some dumplings and something else that I don't know the name of from a street vendor. We paid 6,000 WON for this meal. I pointed to the pictures and she said "one" and pointed to each picture. Glad she understood me but frustrated that we couldn't ask what was in it. This is called blind eating. On our way home we stopped at one of the convenience stores and picked up eggs, butter, soda, cheese and a few other snacks. We couldn't eat half of our lunch because it was so spicy but the rest of it was pretty tasty.


After a 3 hour nap, Ethan and I woke up to news that we now have HOT WATER! That was music to my ears. We have a tankless water heating system. You have to let it run for a few minutes but, otherwise it works perfectly. After getting cleaned up we decided to go out and explore again.
 
Round 2 of exploration! We went a different direction and found a magnificent Catholic church, a whole section of flower stores, and lots of car detailing shops. There are very few signs that have anything in English. We have yet to find the Quizno's, Starbucks, or McDonalds. When we turned back to head home, we saw a sign for Paul's Italian Cuisine. Ah, finally something recognizable! We trekked, yes trekked, up a steep street to get to this restaurant. I'm pretty sure we got our heart rate up! This was a VERY upscale restaurant. We did NOT dress for this but still ate there because, well, it was ITALIAN FOOD! The food was expensive but, delicious. Poor Stacy, I feel sorry for him because they have no Dr. Pepper. He is having to make due with Coke and other sodas. This upscale restaurant served coke from a can like it was some expensive wine that they leave on the table.
 
Going down the hill was much easier than going up. Stopped at the HI mart convenience store to pick up a few more goods. While Stacy was paying, I took Ethan across the street to peek into a furniture store where I spotted a beautiful white antique-looking Italian vanity. Talking price with hand gestures is difficult, but I think we got him down to half off before deciding to hold off. :) With it only being day 2 of living here, we thought it might be a bit hasty of us to go furniture shopping. I'm not going to forget about it just yet. We have some hefty shopping to do on the 28th and 29th when the school takes us to a big department store. We were told that E-mart is the equivelent to Walmart. Can't wait to check it out!
 
We haven't tried out the bus system yet but it's on the list of things to-do.
 
Can't wait for day 3!!!