Money, Money, Money, Money!

Queue the Apprentice theme song.

Alas payday has come! Just as I thought I was about to go broke...I got paid. The fun part was that I had just received my alien card, which was my ticket to opening a bank account in Korea. I opened a bank account the day I got paid, which meant that I wasn't going to get direct deposit...nope, I was going to get cold, hard CASH. They handed me an envelope stuffed with Two Million Won. The highest Korean denomination is 10,000KRW, which is about 10 bucks. I had this incredible stack of bills stuffed into an envelope for me to carry home with me that night from school. It was pretty awesome though, a great way to start my weekend for sure!!

This weekend was super low key. We have been on the go since we got here, so we really decided to take it easy this weekend. We did the typical -- wake up early, go to Korean lessons an hour away from here. Then afterwards we decided to go to Itaewon to grab some phone cards and chill with some coffee and then head back to my apartment to chill some more. Erin, Matt and Sarah came and so it was them, plus Me, Rob, Derek and Sarah just hangin out in Chang-Dong. We decided to make it a western night (not as in country western, but the western hemisphere), so Rob, Derek and Matt went to Costco and got some meat and we had a rooftop bbq -- STEAKS! Beef is really not typical in Korea and so it was nice to have some meaty goodness for a change. Mostly in Korean food you get a teeny bit of pork or egg that serves as your protein. Oh yeah, and don't forget all the Tofu...

Anyway, it was a good time. We have a pretty sweet roof at our apartment, the only crappy part is that we're a five storey building in the midst of many twenty storey buildings, so we can't see over anything. But the view is still pretty good, there are mountains around us, so it reminds us of home a little (well, those of us from BC, not necessarily Derek and Sarah, cause they're from New Brunswick --- Sidenote: did you know that it can snow on the beach and stay there? Ever watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Snow on the beach! Apparently it happens all the time on the east coast. I thought that was the most mind blowing part of the movie and I haven't met someone from the west coast yet who is familliar with this environmental phenomenon!).

Sunday was again chill. Erin slept over at my place and we ended up staying up till 5:30am talking, so church most definitely wasn't in order on Sunday morning. Call it irrisponsible or undiciplined on my part if you want, I don't care. I'm in Korea. Remember? Haha.

Anyway, being in Korea like I've said before has allowed me to feel kind of cut off from the world that I'm used to with my lack of media connections. However, I've probably written more just for the heck of it than I have in the past few years, and for that, the isolation is wonderful. I wouldn't say for a minute that I'd want to do that forever, but I've been allowed to think quite a bit without worldly distraction, which is really nice. I have been coming up with many ideas. One being imagination...no, that's not my idea :). I mean, I think that as a whole we are all afraid to be alone and fully removed from communications. We are afraid because we love to control our thoughts, we don't let our "imagination run away from us" because that would lead to "bad thoughts" or scare us, or something. Remember being told that as a kid? Well, I've always told myself that I don't have an imagination, but I figure, I've got such a harness on my imagination and I don't allow myself to use it. Maybe, if I cut myself off from most of the communication that I"m used to, I'll actually once again begin to have free thought! I think we are all afraid of being alone, because we are left with our own thoughts and feelings and we are somewhat forced to sort them out.

Anyway, I'll cut myself off there. Maybe one of these days I'll publish one of my "real" journal articles. None of this blogging garbage. :)

Well, it's been nice to hear from those of you who have called an emailed. Keep the contact up, I really appreciate it. Also, please note that Korea doesn't have time change, so calling times have shifted. So if you're trying to figure out what time it is in Korea. Add four hours and switch from am to pm. It's probably best for you to call between 5pm to 9pm PACIFIC time.

I hope to hear from you soon!

Love Andrea