Thursday, July 27th
1:48 a.m.

I forgot to mention the AC in my last entry. It works! Actually it has for the last several days. My life seems so much easier now. Hooray for modern technology. . . but it gets really cold in this room now sometimes. . . . Koreans refer to air conditioning as “aircon,” by the way. . . .

One more thing that I found out tonight: I won third place in the essay contest that I entered last week! That means that my essay [Read it here] is going in the yearbook, and I’m getting forty dollars cash! Very useful right now as it doesn't look like any of my teaching jobs are going to pan out. I'm on a very low daily budget, but I still have a lot of shopping to do!

. . . Koreans are really into this thing called “pump dance,” where you step on a different square on the little floor depending on which arrow is moving up the screen. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ve heard it’s addictive, especially if you’re good at it. Computer games are also very popular. Just like home. :)

It gets dark very early in Korea - always by 8 p.m. . . .

I’ve already visited many parts of Seoul. Namdaemun is a bustling marketplace where I [saw a lot of inexpensive underwear and] adorable children’s clothes. Myong-dong is a very fashionable shopping area. Itaewon is little America, but it’s very dirty and sleazy, especially late at night. [It’s a great place for foreigners to shop, though, because everything is in English, but that convenience comes with a slightly inflated price tag.] Apkujong-dong is the Rodeo Drive of Seoul. Purses started at $1500.00 in a mall that I visited there. I’ve already described Shinchon and Insadong. I still have to visit Tongdaemun, the other great marketplace, and some temples and palaces.

Omigod, a couple of guys who missed curfew just tapped on my window and almost scared me to death! I can’t help them, though. I have bars on my windows because I’m on the ground floor, and I refuse to call the people upstairs and wake them up. They saw a light on in one room, and they managed to get their hands on a ladder, so I guess they’re going to try to climb up. I’ll have to follow up on this tomorrow.


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