Novelty Wearing Off... Perfect Timing!

Rice cooker!

We got a new appliance early this week... a rice cooker!! Bought it for just 10 dollars & we've been having rice with dinner ever since. It's so easy to use, even if it is all in Korean. We already love it so much! And we found out that you can buy up to a 10kg size bag of rice from the store; that's 22 pounds! But we only got a 4kg. It will still last us a very long time though.

We got a little bored this week. The novelty of our town has basically gone. We have found our pizza place & our chicken place in our neighborhood that we go to for dinner sometimes. We even found the pharmacies & the stationary stores. What we need now is the money & Korean knowledge to venture out to other areas in Daejeon as well as outside of Daejeon! But our boredom has come at the perfect time. Nicole was paid her first full month's paycheck on Friday, we looked at a new apartment in a new neighborhood we are moving into, & we might be going to Japan this weekend!

Nicole got some Jeju chocolate
from a Korean coworker. Tasted
like orange sherbert covered in
chocolate!

Getting paid on Friday made us both really happy. Next month we can start transferring money into our accounts at home & saving more that way. John will be getting paid on the first of every month so he will be getting his first full paycheck in 3 weeks. Now we can legitimately plan trips & not worry so much about having the money! We are beyond thrilled.

The apartment that we looked at yesterday (Sunday) is the apartment that John's school will provide for us. Nicole talked to her boss today about moving & turns out it'll work perfectly! She is not sure how much extra she will be getting per month but it will be something! The apartment we are in now is only a 1 bedroom with a really small kitchen in it. We have our table for 2 & a small refrigerator. There is room for nothing else. Seriously. And no counter-space. The apartment John's school would provide us with has 2 bedrooms. One is as big as our current bedroom & the other could fit a couch & a desk easily. The kitchen is also much bigger with a double sink, more cabinets, & space to put an oven! Bathroom is the same size but we don't have complaints about our bathroom. The distance to Nicole's school is a bit further but it's only an extra 10 minutes by bike. So 25-30 minutes. Same distance for John to his school. We can't wait! We will probably be slowly moving our belongings over the next 30 days.

Hanging out in our current apartment.

Japan for Buddha's birthday! Yes, we are going to Japan for our long weekend but not for Buddha's birthday. We are going to officially get our work visa stamps. Our numbers finally came through & we have to make a quick trip to Japan (mostly paid for by the schools) & then we will be back to South Korea. Maybe we can buy phones here after that so we can contact people we know here without having to get on Facebook. While we are in Japan though, we will be using our time wisely to see some amazing things. Our dates of travel are not finalized yet but will be within the next 24 hours (hopefully!)

Last night we were excited to go to a new restaurant in a different part of town with some friends. The restaurant sells platefuls of Korean pancakes. There was a kimchi pancake, seafood pancake, tofu pancake, egg/sausage pancake, spicy vegetable pancake, non-spicy vegetable pancake, & spam pancake. Between the 5 of us we at 2 large plates & 1 small plate in about 10 minutes (but to be fair, Nicole was the only girl). It was delicious! And a place we will return to another day.

We are thinking about putting a memory foam mattress or bed topper at the top of our list of big things to get. Nicole is turning into an old lady with back problems & hip problems. But good news is that if she needs a hip replacement, it will cost way less here! We don't understand how Asians sleep on these beds (or the floors) every night!

More updates to come soon... everything seems to be changing again! We are moving soon (yet again), we are going to be traveling a bit more, & even John's school is changing curriculums. Which is kind of a bummer. He gets just enough time to get used to what they currently do & then they are changing it at the beginning of June. But it will be better! We feel as if we are in a strange bubble where everything seems to be working out so well but it will get popped soon! We're actually thrown off by things making sense & working out. Especially since we are still paying off our non-refundable flight tickets to China... But Korea has been treating us WAY better!!

John's energy drink went
to the disco! ...with his iPod.

Random facts:
-Korean "police" are about 93% useless
-Our doorbell plays 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'/'ABCs' tune
-On rainy days, it's tradition for Koreans to make potato pancakes (like latkes) & have mok lee to drink