Six weeks and counting

It's been six weeks already, and time is just speeding up! Everyone warned us about this, but we didn't believe them, especially after how long the first month took. We are almost finished the first school term (though they don't call it that here), and we're already making plans to visit China just before the Olympics. All very exciting stuff!

To our disbelief, we seem to have a much more active social life here than in South Africa. Last weekend we met about 15 other foreigners, all based in the surrounding area. And as luck should have it we really get along with a lot of them. Just for some perspective, Korea seems to attract some really odd people. A significant proportion of the foreigners here are the kind of people you'd probably avoid like the plague back home. Thankfully most of the weirdos seem to congregate in Seoul, not the bundus where we are.

So most of last weekend was about going out and meeting new people. Now this is not really what Carin and I enjoy doing, but it was a really great to get out of Pocheon and meet some new people. Being isolated does wonders for your social life, it seems.

Pretty in pink (and purple)

Other than that we are starting to explore some new places to eat and shop. Trying to find new clothes has been a hassle. Clothing is not that cheap here, and for the guys the selection is TERRIBLE. I'd probably be super happy if I had a tendency towards tight fitting clothing in interesting shades of pink and purple. I have this fear of trying on some clothes in a store and only realising afterwards that I was trying on women's clothing. It's a major problem. I'll probably hang on with my clothes shopping until we visit China in July.

What the food?!!

On the other hand, we've been enjoying the food. There is nothing quite like not being able to read the menu to expand one's culinary horizons. We've resorted to walking into restaurants and hoping that there are pictures of the dishes. This worked really well during our last trip to Uijeongbu, the major city close to where we are. We walked into a restaurant called FoodJoy, and ordered something which was apparently their set menu.

It was HUGE! I can't believe we finished all the food, but we did. We weren't sure what we were going to get, but it ended up being a noodle soup, rice and a crumbed chicken breast. All for less than R40 each, or 5,000 won. Food here isn't the cheapest, but compared to other meals we've had here, this was a bargain!

We were in Uijeongbu to meet up with some of the new people we had met over the weekend, and we ended up having a fun evening with them. We started out in an Italian restaurant, of all places, where we enjoyed cherry cokes and some interesting pasta dishes. The cherry cokes were not what anyone expected. It ended up being cherry cooldrink and coke mixed together. Nice, but VERY sweet.

The evening ended at a coffee bar called Dr. Fish. Yes, that's right. "Why Dr. Fish," I hear you ask. Well, apparently there is a species of fish that is used medicinally to cure skin problems, especially on your feet. So a chain of coffee bars offers this for your average Johann (or rather Kim) in the street. For 2,000 won (R16) you can get your feet eaten...er cleaned...by friendly fish. Carin gave it a try and loved it!

The coffee bar itself was fantastic! They even offered Rooibos on the menu. The decor was really comfy, with plush chairs and wood floors. We'll be heading that way again.

MacGyver and the joys of Korean television

We've also been enjoying the super fast internet with no bandwidth restrictions. So MacGyver has been featuring high on our weekend entertainment. I has been really funny to watch the old episodes. The acting is really bad, the storylines are absolute rubbish, but man are we enjoying every last minute of it. And it's definitely better than the average viewing on the TV channels we have access to. We can sometimes get something halfway decent on the few English channels, but other than CSI the viewing is a bit scanty. We have even resorted at times to watching Spongebob in Korean.

But I have to admit some of the Korean gameshows are just awesome. We can't understand a word of what they are saying, but they do look like fun. There is this one where people have to take part in all sorts of bizarre obstacle courses, with a guy in a ringmaster outfit overseeing the resulting messy endings. The best part is how the contestants really get into it. In last night's episode the contestants were diving into a mud pit to try and catch a ball that they'd just sent through a giant pinball machine. Fantastic!

What will the next week hold? Ah, the unknown...

Check out some of our latest photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20658&l=17a5a&id=517113801