This is the second in a series I'm calling "Yay, Korea!" There are a lot of things here that are just so brilliant, you don't know how you ever lived without them.
I have what you might call problem skin. Despite my repeated insistence that I'm a grown up, I get breakouts with all the frequency and vigor of a 13 year old. Usually they come and go, but sometimes they decide to camp out for a bit.
Due to a combination of factors, in the last 6 weeks or so my skin has become considerably less visually appealing than I would like.
Enter: Korean skin care.
Koreans are OBSESSED with cosmetics . There's a whole district of town dedicated to plastic surgery clinics.
I could launch into a (flawed, unqualified) analysis about the Korean obsession with appearance and its implications for the society as a whole, but I'll spare us all. Plus it's not like America isn't guilty of the exact same thing.
Anyway, this morning as I stared sullenly at my blotchy reflection, I decided enough was enough. With 5 minutes before I had to leave for school, I did a quick search for English speaking dermatologists in Seoul. It wasn't hard to find one. I emailed the first one I found that was moderately close to me to inquire about appointments this week. By the time I got to school, I had a reply saying I could come in at 5:30 today.
I love Korean promptness.
Cut to 5:30. I walked in the door of the clinic and was greeted by the friendly, English speaking receptionist. I filled out my info and sat down. I waited for less than five minutes before the doc was ready to see me.
I went into the office, answered questions for about five minutes, and was given a prescription for antibiotics and some cream. I was out the door before I even realized what was happening.
My visit and the topical cream combined came out to 34,000 won-- or about 30 bucks. Throw in an extra 13 for my antibiotics and you get... an insanely affordable trip to the skin doctor.
Mind you... none of this was covered by the National Health Insurance because it's considered "cosmetic." So yep... 43 bucks is FULL PRICE.
I fully expect to wake up tomorrow with the smooth, flawless skin of a Korean K-pop star.
Yay, Korea!
Nov 27, 2012
Nov 25, 2012
Let's Talk About Music
Let's forget about Korea for a minute. Thanksgiving is over... and you know what that means: BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!
Even though Sufjan Stevens' new Christmas EP, Silver and Gold, is out (and it's awesome), Songs for Christmas remains my favorite. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is my current obsession.
Enjoy!
Note, if you're reading this in an RSS reader, you may have to click through to see the embedded playlist.
Even though Sufjan Stevens' new Christmas EP, Silver and Gold, is out (and it's awesome), Songs for Christmas remains my favorite. "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is my current obsession.
Enjoy!
Note, if you're reading this in an RSS reader, you may have to click through to see the embedded playlist.
Nov 24, 2012
Some News!
A bit of mildly exciting news: I'm a real blogger now.
Starting this week, I am writing a weekly blog for esl101.com called "Get Off That Ondol!" It's about things for teachers to do on a weeknight instead of... you guessed it... going home and curling up on that nice warm ondol.
ESL101.com is an up-and-coming site dedicated to providing resources for prospective and current ESL teachers. The site is brand new, and more things are being added every day. I'm very excited for the opportunity to write for the site, and am looking forward to dragging my friends to do random stuff during the week under the premise of "IT'S FOR RESEARCH, GUYS."
So, if you have any suggestions for things I should check out, please let me know!
Starting this week, I am writing a weekly blog for esl101.com called "Get Off That Ondol!" It's about things for teachers to do on a weeknight instead of... you guessed it... going home and curling up on that nice warm ondol.
ESL101.com is an up-and-coming site dedicated to providing resources for prospective and current ESL teachers. The site is brand new, and more things are being added every day. I'm very excited for the opportunity to write for the site, and am looking forward to dragging my friends to do random stuff during the week under the premise of "IT'S FOR RESEARCH, GUYS."
So, if you have any suggestions for things I should check out, please let me know!
K-Fail: Costco
This is the latest installment in a series called "K-Fails", in which Meg does something dumb because she can't speak Korean.
So... I went to Costco. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Walking into Costco was total sensory overload. My brain started overheating as I looked around. I CAN READ EVERYTHING WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!
We were like... actually, we looked exactly like this.
Costco was overwhelming for two reasons. The obvious one was spotting deals on things we'd forgotten even existed. Like bagels. and cheese. and OH MY GOD THAT'S PUMPKIN PIE.
I went with a few other girls, which turned out to be a very wise move. The first one was that one of those girls has a Costco card, so that explains that.
As it turns out, Costco members (in Korea?) can only bring two guests in with them, but the lady apparently saw how excited we were and let all 4 of us in. This turned out to be oddly foreshadowing of our experience.
The other reason was more practical. For those of you who have never been to Costco, it's where one would shop if one had to feed an army American family. You can't just get single-person-sized versions of anything. So we decided to divide and conquer. One person bought a bag of bagels, another bought a 3-pack of cream cheese. See what we did there? We all walked away with a reasonable number of bagels and a tub of good ol' Philadelphia.
The plan was to shop, check out, and then hit the food court for some real Costco cuisine (hot dogs).
Everything was going smoothly until we got to the front of the checkout counter. My total was about $73. I handed over my card.... and the cashier froze.
Yep. In my excitement over being at Costco, I forgot that I was... at... Costco.
For those of you who have never experienced this most American of institutions, Costco is a bit finicky about the payment types it accepts. In America, it'll take debit cards, but not most credit cards. However, apparently in Korea, it only accepts cash or Samsung cards.
My stomach clenched. All my cash was upstairs in the storage locker where I was forced to put all my stuff. To get back up there, I had to go through the checkout area, get on a packed escalator, push my way through the crowd to my locker, retrieve my wallet, circle around through the whole store to get to the 'down' escalator, circle around through the store to get back to the checkout area, duck under the rope, and sneak past the 50 people in line.
All of that happened while my stuff was piled up at the end of the register. 5 minutes later, I made it back, only to realize that I didn't have enough cash. At this point, the cashier just piled my stuff along the side and kept ringing people up. I shoved my way through the crowd to the ATM, got my cash, and paid.
Phew. Crisis averted... or so we thought.
We were all famished from our experiences, and were looking forward to parking the cart and sitting down for a true American dinner (again: hot dogs).
So you can imagine our surprise when we realized that there was no way to get to the food court from the checkout! We found ourselves being pushed along with the crowd back UP the escalator, and before we knew it, we were unceremoniously dumped outside the front door, into the 40-degree chill of the evening.
We looked at each other, aghast. All we wanted were some hot dogs.
We decided that two of us would stay with the cart, and the other two would venture back into the fray for snacks. My friend, R, and I fought our way through the crowd and eventually made it to the food court. That's when we realized that we had to somehow get 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, and a chicken pot pie back up the escalator... with only 2 sets of hands. Not to mention the fact that everyone wanted different things on their hot dogs. We were going to try to bring cups of ketchup, etc. back up with us, but quickly realized that idea wasn't feasible. We ended up texting our friends to get their condiment requests, and I ducked and weaved my way BACK to the checkout line to find the same cashier who rang us up. I begged her for one of the old orange boxes they were using to put peoples' groceries in. She smiled and gave it to me.
Hoisting it over my head in triumph, I went back to R and our pile of food. We loaded up, delved into the sea of humanity heading up the escalator, and finally delivered the food to our eagerly waiting friends.
I'm sure, had we been able to read Korean better, we would have realized that we couldn't use our cards, and couldn't reach the food court after we'd checked out. I've never worked so hard for a hot dog.
K-fail.
So... I went to Costco. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Walking into Costco was total sensory overload. My brain started overheating as I looked around. I CAN READ EVERYTHING WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!
We were like... actually, we looked exactly like this.
Costco was overwhelming for two reasons. The obvious one was spotting deals on things we'd forgotten even existed. Like bagels. and cheese. and OH MY GOD THAT'S PUMPKIN PIE.
I went with a few other girls, which turned out to be a very wise move. The first one was that one of those girls has a Costco card, so that explains that.
As it turns out, Costco members (in Korea?) can only bring two guests in with them, but the lady apparently saw how excited we were and let all 4 of us in. This turned out to be oddly foreshadowing of our experience.
The other reason was more practical. For those of you who have never been to Costco, it's where one would shop if one had to feed an
The plan was to shop, check out, and then hit the food court for some real Costco cuisine (hot dogs).
Everything was going smoothly until we got to the front of the checkout counter. My total was about $73. I handed over my card.... and the cashier froze.
Yep. In my excitement over being at Costco, I forgot that I was... at... Costco.
For those of you who have never experienced this most American of institutions, Costco is a bit finicky about the payment types it accepts. In America, it'll take debit cards, but not most credit cards. However, apparently in Korea, it only accepts cash or Samsung cards.
My stomach clenched. All my cash was upstairs in the storage locker where I was forced to put all my stuff. To get back up there, I had to go through the checkout area, get on a packed escalator, push my way through the crowd to my locker, retrieve my wallet, circle around through the whole store to get to the 'down' escalator, circle around through the store to get back to the checkout area, duck under the rope, and sneak past the 50 people in line.
All of that happened while my stuff was piled up at the end of the register. 5 minutes later, I made it back, only to realize that I didn't have enough cash. At this point, the cashier just piled my stuff along the side and kept ringing people up. I shoved my way through the crowd to the ATM, got my cash, and paid.
Phew. Crisis averted... or so we thought.
We were all famished from our experiences, and were looking forward to parking the cart and sitting down for a true American dinner (again: hot dogs).
So you can imagine our surprise when we realized that there was no way to get to the food court from the checkout! We found ourselves being pushed along with the crowd back UP the escalator, and before we knew it, we were unceremoniously dumped outside the front door, into the 40-degree chill of the evening.
We looked at each other, aghast. All we wanted were some hot dogs.
We decided that two of us would stay with the cart, and the other two would venture back into the fray for snacks. My friend, R, and I fought our way through the crowd and eventually made it to the food court. That's when we realized that we had to somehow get 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, and a chicken pot pie back up the escalator... with only 2 sets of hands. Not to mention the fact that everyone wanted different things on their hot dogs. We were going to try to bring cups of ketchup, etc. back up with us, but quickly realized that idea wasn't feasible. We ended up texting our friends to get their condiment requests, and I ducked and weaved my way BACK to the checkout line to find the same cashier who rang us up. I begged her for one of the old orange boxes they were using to put peoples' groceries in. She smiled and gave it to me.
Hoisting it over my head in triumph, I went back to R and our pile of food. We loaded up, delved into the sea of humanity heading up the escalator, and finally delivered the food to our eagerly waiting friends.
I'm sure, had we been able to read Korean better, we would have realized that we couldn't use our cards, and couldn't reach the food court after we'd checked out. I've never worked so hard for a hot dog.
K-fail.
Dunkin Donuts Understands Me
This was my coffee sleeve this morning.
On a related note, I'm catching up on a lot of writing today, so new posts and a mildly exciting announcement coming soon!
On a related note, I'm catching up on a lot of writing today, so new posts and a mildly exciting announcement coming soon!
Nov 23, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)