I Like Lists

Ahh, so many thangs to share...

1. My Korean life has just gotten THAT MUCH BETTER. I finally got a cell phone and it's good. Came with a camera (duh), it plays music (sweet), it has a full subway map (indispensable), and it plays TV. Yeah, TV. You just plug this itsy bitsy antenna in the back and presto, broadcast TV. I feel truly Korean. Oh, and the plan? $13 a month. Suck that, Cingular.

2. I finally got the stitches outta my lip on Friday. I'm still rocking a chipped tooth, though. Two more weeks. And I have to say, of all the injuries I've sustained in my lifetime (and there have been many), this was quite possibly the bloodiest, ugliest and LEAST painful. Although, when I think about what happened I do get a little sick to my stomach. I haven't taken the stairs since.

3. Oh, my job. Do you really want to know about my job? I just realized I've been blogging for a month and have completely failed to mention WORK. Hmmm... The days are long, the kids are squirrely and I get to sleep in everyday. I think that about sums it up.

4. It has taken a month, but I finally found something I love. Yes, love. Kimchi Bokumbop. It's fried rice mixed with kimchi, topped with a fried egg, and served with seaweed paper for wrapping. It's truly delicious, although I have to refrain from eating it everyday. Hello, it's fried.

5. And another thang. I was completely unprepared for the amount of food Koreans eat. With every meal I am inevitably served banchan, or Korean side dishes. Normally I would LOVE to see free food brought to my table, but banchan is different -- no french bread or mozzarella sticks or tortilla chips or anything else I would normally associate with the words "side dish" and therefore put in my mouth. Banchan is stuff like kimchi (obviously), seasoned tofu, fish cakes, vermicelli noodles with vegetables, bean sprouts and pickled garlic cloves. And it's quite a spread. Yesterday I went to lunch by myself and was utterly horrified at the amount of food left completely untouched at my table, because really, all I wanted was the bokumbop. Sad.

6. The other day a small Korean girl told me I had big boobs. Kids are so observant.

7. Young, fashionable Korean couples love to coordinate their clothing -- matching shirts, hats, you name it. So cute, yet slightly bizarre and more than a little emasculating, no?

8. Korean TV skips the commercials during programming and airs them all when the show is over. Genius.

9. My friend Amanda and I can't decide which came first, the anime-style cartoon characters or the anime-style bowl cut. Ahh, the timeless chicken and egg conundrum...

10. I saw an add on the subway today. It pictured some badass abs of steel and fried chicken, side by side. I can only speculate as to what the ad was selling, but in my head it went something like this: "You see these abs of steel? Everyone wants them, and contrary to what you've been told, fried chicken will ABSOLUTELY help you attain them. So chow down."

My that was long. I apologize...