"Laundry day" literally meant "laundry day" today.

I used to love doing laundry. Well, I loved it in the sense that if I could pick any chore to do, laundry would be the one I chose. Easy-- throw clothes in the wash machine for like 20 minutes (or until you don't hear rumbling in the laundry room)... switch them to the dryer and wait until the buzzer goes off. Then fold a bunch of nice warm clothes, towels, whatever. End chore.

Today, however, I decided that while I'm in Korea I'm going to dislike doing laundry. Not only did it take a good chunk of my morning trying to figure out what the Korean labelled settings on the wash machine were (thank goodness for the internet), but I also had to do about 4 loads because the machine is so tiny! Plus, the absence of a dryer makes for this wonderful sight sitting in the middle of my kitchen/living room area:

 Obviously, I'm not a master at hanging clothes, nor do I care to be... so this will have to do. My desk chairs also have multiple articles of clothing hanging on them. I guess investing in an iron might be a good idea.

I'm not sure if the normal setting always goes for an hour and a half, but it definitely took that long for each load today. So.. four loads, plus an hour and a half each... well... yeah. Until I figure out what the rest of the settings are... that's how long it's going to take I suppose.

On another note:

I have a runny nose today. I really hope I'm not getting a cold. I think my body is all messed up (even though I have been drinking my Orange Juice!). But, hopefully by resting this weekend I'll feel better. I'm dying to go exploring, but I also really, really don't want to get sick. I found my camera book I brought though, so I think I may do some Korean language and camera studying.

I was going to post pictures of my tissues all over my desk to emphasize the point, but I figured I would spare everyone.


Korean Dinner with coworkers:

I really wish I had pictures to accompany this topic and show what it was like, but I didn't think about it at the time. It was really cool going to eat with my director, supervisor, and three other girls that I teach with. Obviously, to them it was just going to eat and nothing unusual, but for me it was a new experience.

 We had to take off our shoes at the entrance (which is very common here) and proceeded to a small room where there were only two tables. I'm assuming it was a private room for parties or groups. The table was on the floor (as it was in the rest of the restaurant as well), and we sat on little square mats. There were two burners on the table and so three people would share one burner.

The waitress came and placed a large bowl on the burner then poured some sort of broth into it. Then, she brought a tray of vegetables and a tray of meat. Rachel, my supervisor, began putting the vegetables and meat into the bowl as it began to boil. She then told us to go ahead and eat, so with our chopsticks we just all picked out different items from the bowl to eat. We were also given a plate of kimchi and some other dish that reminded me of coleslaw with honey mustard sauce. At the end of the meal, we were brought a bowl of rice which we put into another big bowl with broth and waited for that to cook. Everything was really good.

I also tried Korean beer! My director and some of my other Korean coworkers drank soju, but I stuck with the beer. One tiny glass was enough for me, but the director offered me more, so as not to be rude I accepted. Luckily, we finished dinner before I finished my second glass. It was actually pretty good though.

Again, I was proud of my chopstick skills even if I really didn't have a choice but to use them last night.

Well, this site is being slow and annoying so I'm going to stop writing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my dinner with everyone and am loving trying all the different food. So good!

This quote is going to be my new motto by the way:

“I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don't have any clean laundry, because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life?”