This is Won stupid money system!

Whoa! I took a hell of a long time to write this third post. I've had a camera for a while now, so I don't even have a real good excuse. I would tell you that I will be writing them more often (again), but I don't want to shatter your hopes when I don't deliver (again). Especially since I will be going to Thailand for Christmas, and I definitely won't write one next week. I am sure I will have some stories to write about, and some great pictures too. That won't be until after New Year's though. A wise man once told me to "be patient, for a patient ma.....". I don't know the rest of what he said because I was late for work. Anyway, be patient. I will write more eventually.

Alright. Let's get to it. The Korean currency is the Won, and it is a stupid money system! The smallest bill denomination is the 1,000 Won. It absolutely equates to the U.S. dollar. If they had a dollar store in Korea, everything would cost 1,000 Won. So why the hell do they have so many zeros? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. Hardly anything costs less than 1,000, just like in the States. Their 500 Won coin spends just like 50 cents, their 100 Won coin spends just like a dime, and their 10 Won coin like a penny, except you hardly ever need or receive pennies (more on that in a minute).

Now check this out. You've already passed one picture of the 1,000 Won bill (AKA 1 dollar).
















Here's the 5,000 Won bill (AKA 5 dollars).


























Here's the 10,000 Won bill (AKA 10 dollars).












Do you want to see the 20,000 Won bill (AKA 20 dollars)? Too bad. There isn't any! That's right, Korea's highest bill denomination is the 10,000 Won (A freakin' $10 bill!)! Wait, it gets better. A lot of places, especially Korea's famous markets, only accept cash. Korea has a couple of famous electronics markets, and several other shopping markets. I still don't know how legit they are because I have never gotten a receipt, and they don't allow returns/refunds. However, they are huge. The electronics market I've been to, is inside a mall and outside in the streets. It is definitely NOT an underground operation. They even have their own subway stops, and are clearly marked in English, and not so clearly marked in Korean (it's only not clearly marked if you don't know how to read Korean. If you know how to read Korean, it is clearly marked also). Anyway, they only accept cash. The sell cameras, computers, and anything else electronic you could want. I will say again, they only accept cash! That means that if you choose to buy your electronics from this huge discount electronics market, you have to bring hundreds of thousands of Won (hundreds of US dollars) IN 10,000 Won INCREMENTS (IN 10DOLLAR BILLS)! Imagine buying a $1,000 computer in $10 bills. That's Korea's money system for ya.

I will say one good thing about Korea's money system. Well, it's more about the pricing in Korea. In Korea, all the taxes are included. It is awesome, and it is one thing I will miss when I go home. If something costs 5,000 Won, you hand the cashier 5,000 Won. If I want a beer for 3,000 Won, I just take out those three stupid 1,000 Won bills, and I can have a beer. By the way, Korean beer is crap. I will save this topic for another blog because I can go on about this for a while. Oh yeah, back to the pennies. This is why pennies are practically unused. There isn't a stupid 7% sales tax making a 3,000 Won item cost 3,021.

As you can see, these other pictures do not relate at all with the Won stories. I just told some of you that I would post more pictures of my mansion that I live in. If any of you people visit me, I clearly have lots of space for you to sleep here. As long as you like to sleep on a fake wooden floor.
Stay classy! Someone's got to pick up my slack.

Humility Room

Sorry for the long wait. I swear I will pick up the pace. One of the new teachers from school has graciously let me borrow her camera for a couple of days, and I finally got some pictures from some friends I've hung out with. So now, I have some pics to work with. I plan on doing one new blog post a week unless I start running out of material (which I highly doubt. This place is a goldmine). I will also apologize for those that know about this blog story already, but that's what you get for pestering me with Emails. Just kidding, please pester me. I did write it differently, and I've added some random notes and info about Korea, which I will try to do often. I also added a few more pictures, and info to the original blog post. I italicized all the new text for all of you lazy bastardos that don't want to reread the whole first post. There are two new sections of text added, and I will also add some pictures of my place soon. Wouldn't you know it. The camera that I borrowed didn't have enough battery power to transfer all of the pictures to my computer. Now, let's get to it.

Nori bong. Direct Korean translation- song room. What it be- karaoke room. What it really is- humility room. Just kidding, who cares when you've been drinking amongst friends. They would never make fun of you at a later time. They are your comfort and support group. At least they might be if you don't have friends like mine.
Nori bongs are soooo much fun. You get your own private karaoke room for your group of friends. It's awesome! You can act like complete jackasses, and only your friends will know (unless you go blogging about it for your family, and the world to see). Each room has a big screen TV or several stacked TV's, a disco ball or colored light-ball-thing, two microphones, and some tambourines. One of the ones I went to, pictured here, even had some wigs for us to wear to complete our breakthrough into super stardom. They have a nice thick book of songs. Almost half of them English songs with a full range of music artists. To sweeten our voices, we also sneak beer and *Soju in with our backpacks. Who knew I was such a rock star? I sound awesome! As an extra bonus, you can marvel at the wonderful videos for the songs. For they don't use the original videos for the English songs, you see. Instead they create Korean videos for every song. They really try to match the song lyrics to the videos. They had a video depiction of a war going on for "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel. I can see the relation.?.?.?.?.?.?

*P.s. Soju is like the moonshine of Korea. It's extremely cheap, awful tasting, made with some crazy fermentation processes, not too alcoholically strong but can cause black-outs (so I've heard), and sold at every restaurant and convenient store on every corner. All the businessmen and old Koreans drink it. Women drink it too, but usually mixed with juices or other flavored Soju (yes, it comes in flavors too). Drinking Soju, and drinking in general, is a big part of Korean culture. I will explain more in a different post. I just wanted to give you an introduction to Soju for future stories. Let me just finish this paragraph by letting you know that I've seen a businessman passed out on a bench more than once. I don't see it all the time, but it is not rare.

Here's my random bit of info on Korea: Koreans' ages are 1 to 2 years older than us. They are born 1 year old. They count the pregnancy period, which also explains why abortions are illegal here. I'm not quite sure about the other 3 months. Last time I checked, it's still 9 months, even in Korea. Anyway, EVERYONE'S birthday is January 1st. At least, that's when they age themselves one more year. They still celebrate their birthdays with cake and gifts and such, but they don't actually get a year older on that day. I said 1 to 2 years older than us because when they are born matters. If a Korean is born on December 31st, they will be 2 years old on January 1st! Two years old right out of the chute!

Self Titled

Here we go! This is the long awaited first post. All the pressure. I finally have some pictures to put up. Once I either fix my broken camera, or buy a new one, the stories will start pouring in. I figured for the first post, I should start with how I named the blog. It was the first very unusual thing I noticed about Korea. I found out, very quickly, that in South Korea it is very common to have the shower and bathroom as ONE room. There is no separate area for the shower. That's right. The area under the door is elevated, and there is a drain on the floor. There is a little metal flap to partially cover the toilet paper from getting drenched. There is a metal-springy-hose thing attached to the faucet which has a shower head. I could literally take a dump while showering, and it technically wouldn't be that gross. I haven't done it yet, but it is sooo tempting. Also, that means that throughout the day, if you shower in the morning, you still have to be aware of a wet toilet seat, and a wet floor. Make sure your shorts don't touch. One last comforting note, while your standing in a small amount of draining water, there is an uncovered electrical socket in my 5' X 5' bathroom shower. Since living here, I have developed a good system. I take my hanging towel, and put it outside the shower. I pull my hand towel down on the towel rack to cover the toilet paper better. After I shower, I turn the shower head to face the wall. Unfortunately, I learned that trick the hard way after forgetting to push the valve to make the water go into the sink. I also lift the toilet seat up after I shower to help it dry off faster. Sorry ladies. And to think, you did such a good job training me to put the lid down when I'm done.

So there you go... my title: Poopin' in the Shower. I have heard it is very common in South Korea to have bathroom/showers like this (not to poop in the shower). I'm guessing it is to save space. South Korea has a population of 48.2 million people! That is incredible for a relatively small peninsula. Because of this huge population, Korea has major problems with pollution, garbage, and housing. My whole city is nothing but tall condo style housing. I have not seen one single house anywhere near the major cities. Only far out in the very small towns have I seen some single resident housing. So, we are all piled up on top of each other. Forget about privacy. I can see into several apartments from my windows, and vice versa. The only thing that separates us is those fuzzy glass windows.

My Crib
Small, small, small! A rectangle about 20 ft by 11 ft. No sunlight. But hey, it's my own. Actually, it is the first time I've lived by myself in all my 32 years. Pretty sad. I have a mini fridge with a freezer that can barely fit two ice trays, a toaster oven, a small T.V. with 3 Korean channels, a toaster oven, a 2 burner gas stove, a washing machine, a gas water heater/floor heater for winter, a computer speaker system that the school teacher that lived in the place before me left behind, and a computer desk, but no dining table. My school just recently gave me a microwave, which I am extremely happy about.
For plates and utensils I have no fork (they use chopsticks in these parts), and my plates are this really flimsy plastic that are barely a step above paper plates. I will put up some pictures of my place as soon as I can. I have very hard, and undrinkable water. Since I have to hang my clothes to dry, and the water is so terrible, My clothes are wrinkled to hell and stiff as a board. I would buy fabric softener, only I can't read the labels to see if that's what it is (Korean, you know). I have met some Korean friends recently. Maybe I'll get them to show me, or I could just take a guess.

By the way, I suppose you CAN drink the water. You just may end up being in the shower all day.

Feel free to comment on the blog; what I wrote about, font, or look. I will be working on the overall design of it. It is not a big priority just yet. I'll get some stories up, work on getting some more pictures, and eventually make the blog look cooler, or poopier.