Playing our cards right!

Also with Rhynie, we went to the conch shack and had a lot of great fresh, raw conch. Jenn may have even tried a conch penis, we think the man shelling the conch might have been high on them, he was eating penis after penis after penis. Ya seriously, it was pretty gross. The men were shelling the conch raw in preparation to cook them or soak them in citrus juice, and one of the procedures was to remove the penis.

Later that same day we went to Rhynie’s friend’s house, Jesse. His dad was a big bank figure on the island, may have been the owner of Scotiabank. This kid Corey lived in this old, deserted resort. The apartment itself, or whatever it was, was amazing. Incredible. He had at least 2 bedrooms in a totally modern apartment and he lived by himself. The patron and champagne was passed around as we giggled and got to know each other on his balcony with an amazing view. There were infinity pools all over the place, living room set-ups along the coastline, jacuzzis, beachchairs, you name it. Jenn and I decided we needed to go down and see it for ourselves, in person. There was no one there but it was a playground fit for a king, it was just me and Jenn galloping around alone. We felt like princesses, while our new friends overlooked us from a corner balcony. I’m not sure I had felt so priviledged in my life.

And oh, it gets better. The next morning Jenn and I went snorkeling and from there to Rhynie’s, we were taking a boat ride with him, his friend Mike and two of his girlfriends whom he had flown in for the weekend from NYC (yep seriously). We island-hopped while blasting music for everyone around us to hear, and had lunch prepared and ready for us upon arrival on another Turks island. Jenn and I both tried really hard to resist pleads from Rhynie and both girls to come with them to Vegas the next morning. Tickets were already reserved for us just in case.
I couldn’t do it; after all, I was here in the first place for work!

The next morning, Jenn and I went to breakfast. We laughed over and over as we re-capped the events of the weekend, it really was hard to believe what all just happened.

What a survey trip this was!

Poker Face

Jenn and I arrived back to our hotel room after meeting Rhynie and the gang. We turned on the TV, flipped through the channels, and guess who we saw. Rhynie’s face prime and center on the taped airing of the Turks and Caicos world poker championship. Jenn and I burst out with laughter. I guess he wasn’t lying!

The next day Jenn and I took a ride to the other side of the island to check it out. We just wandered… and stared in amazement at the beautiful blue of the ocean as we got lost. Once we got back, Rhynie sent for one of his security guards to pick us up and take us to dinner. We ended up at this really fancy restaurant at a beautiful hotel. Infinity pools surrounded us and we ordered nearly everything on the menu, far more than any of the 10 of us at the table could possibly eat. What’s more, the drinks kept a flowing towards us. I can’t even imagine what the bill could have been. We ended the night partying at a bar down the street, they were having a big locals party that we checked out. Jenn and I danced up a storm.

The next day we hung out like old friends over Rhynie’s while he had a hockey olympic party (hockey is actually huge on the island because there are so many Canadians that spend a lot of time in Turks and Caicos, and we know how Canadians love their hockey).. . we spent a lot of time playing cards, and even got the chance to play against the champion himself, while learning some important poker lessons of course. I didn’t do so well, but Jenn actually held her own. She may have even beat one of his hands… or so she thought! 

Post Jenn's arrival... if you can handle it

Jenn finally got here today. I was so damn excited that she was here I arrived at 230 pm at the airport to pick her up. She thought her phone was going to work but it didn’t. She finally came out around 3 pm. After settling in at the hotel, we walked down to the beach and chatted but it got cloudy and we went back to nap for a bit. In the morning before Jenn arrived I had taken a walk on the beach – I took in the water, the sand, the beauty of the island. It was an oasis. I often passed through stretches of deserted beaches, and this… this was a beautiful day in Turks. I was shocked and so pleased at the lack of people at the beaches. We woke up from our little nap around 730 pm and planned on dinner. Meals out here are so expensive because the quality of the food really is excellent and they can afford to charge as much as they do. We went to the Mango Reef at the Royal West Indies Resort (which was really much cheaper than most of the locations!) and got a very filling wahoo dinner. I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten wahoo. Afterwards one of the workers took a photo shoot for us. Then, we went out to hear the live band next to the hotel. We met David who worked for Beaches and invited us to come by and he would show us around on Monday. OK – hey why not right? Then, we went out down the street to Danny Bois, I kind of needed to convince Jenn to go, but I thought it would be a good idea. I was right. We met Rhynie Campbell who is a poker champion especially in Vegas who may be our savior for the week – a boat ride tomorrow, an Olympic party on Sunday? Hell ya! Why not? He is originally from Turks and Caicos. I always said I would eventually get onto one of these yachts and now was my chance. Our chance. Ah, what good times here. I still might never go home!

Wonderful restaurants, beach and good people = Lauren in heaven

The next night I went to this ritzy high-end restaurant called Anacanoa for dinner. I bet it would be beautiful to see during the day. Beautiful all white decorations, lots of pools, set right on the beach. I sat at the beach and tried to listen in on surrounding conversations. They were a little snobby but I tried to appear snobby and reserved myself. I enjoy causing people to wonder what I could be doing at such a fancy restaurant alone. Bajavascript:void(0)rtender gave me a free lovely cucumber drink; it was refreshing and delicious. I stayed until I was totally annoyed with the wind rustling my papers. I didn’t want to leave the restaurant, it was some sort of a dark, tropical oasis.

Ahhhh Jenn is coming tomorrow I am so excited! And I am up much too late. Today I finished up the survey… there were some crazy windy, violent thunderstorms that came through today and left huge puddles. I’m really hoping that the weekend turns out really nice. Tonight I closed down the restaurant Bella Luna, a cute and delicious fancy little Italian joint. I was the last one there chatting it up with the owners and waiters. I fascinated them with my job, they filled me in on the ways and gossip of the island. It was a fantastic end to the night.

Andrew, and the embarassing culture class that ensued

The next night, at the same bar, I met Andrew at the bar while he was being harassed by a crazy black man who is apparently originally from T&C but lives in NYC (makes sense). I had fun chatting with him and we planned to hang out more this week; he is alone staying at his dad’s and I’m alone, so why not? I think he’s a lot younger than me though; maybe Steph’s age 23 or 24. Or, maybe even 22, haha. Nice kid though from Montreal, big hockey fan.

Didn’t mean for it to be… but kinda went on a date with him the next night. Or, well it felt like it. There was awkward conversation and he even picked me up at my hotel. The most awkward moment was when I was leaving and he reached in to do the Canadian “kiss kiss” and well, I thought he was going in for it. So my thought was ok, didn’t expect this but I’ll close my eyes and pucker up. When I got a peck on my cheek and then turned to give me another on the other side, my eyes still closed, I was turning totally red and quickly got out of the car! Talk about an embarrassing culture clash. I always forget that not just Europeans are kiss kissers. But anyway, we had a nice dinner and some nice conversation. (Not one of the best restaurants I have tried though), but It was nice to not eat dinner alone.

Checking out the scene, 3rd world beach paradise

I arrived and checked out the scene. It was a cute little hotel, nothing like the resorts that looked like mansions compared to mine, but it was cute and comfortable and clean and the backdoor went right out to the pool. I had some time to kill and some work to finish so I went to one of the restaurants across the street to finish up some work. I was there until it closed. Drunkards surrounded me, an interesting mix of locals and visitors. I had a few sober (me) to drunk (them) conversations with some entertaining people, a couple of which had lived here all their lives. I could deal with that. One girl I talked to, her mother opened a travel agency on the island years ago. Well before the commercial airport had been built. I’m not really quite sure how that works, and I’m sure that would have taken much more time than I had given the work I was trying to finish.

The store manager today at the only nice grocery store on the island told me about all the celebrities coming in doing their grocery shopping dressed in their disguises. I want to see one! I love T&C. I haven’t even seen the ocean yet…. I just really love the smalltown feel that it holds. The downtown and the resort areas are completely different worlds. You forget that not everyone here is wealthy rich and in fact, there is a good share of poverty here. And workers have a lax attitude and no one picks up the damn phone.

Finally, Turks and Caicos... 2 parts; before and after Jenn's arrival

I was psyched to be here. Though I had no idea what a week I was going to be in for. There was before Jenn and after Jenn. I’ll start with the mild stuff.

First, I checked in to customs and told them what I was doing here. The lady was skeptical of my intentions and called over her supervisor to make sure it was OK that I was here. Totally laid back, as they are in the islands, her supervisor seemed uncertain of why she was doubting my intentions. Nah I think it’s fine. What kind of harm can that do? So down came the stamp and like that I was in paradise. Good thing I told the honest truth, cause a few days later on the small island in a nearly deserted grocery store I found her in one of the aisles where she expressed how she caught me in action. “Oh hi it’s you” she said; it took me a moment before I recognized her and then I proceeded to rethink to make sure I told her all the truth. This was another one of those moments where I could say thank goodness!

After receiving my stamp, I picked up my tiny box dihatsu which would be crunch chips if it ever got into a car accident (literally I kinda felt like Fred Flinstone), popped on the radio and jammed to some reggae as I drove down the only main road on the island. I felt like I had arrived at a tropical island, for sure. Sand littered the street on both far sides, and I didn’t pass one traffic light. All round-abouts only. I soon found out that only 37,000 people lived on the chain islands that make up Turks and Caicos. This was such a beach town. A small, sandy quaint beach town. I later found out the first commercial airport in the country didn’t open until 1995. I loved it before evening getting to the hotel.

The last thing you want to hear is songs of prayer not to crash on your next flight.

It was finally my last night in the dingy hotel room. I was so rudely woken up at 9 am by that damn music teacher I had told my hotel to. They gave him my room number at the front desk. Just another reason not to trust those “cheap” island motels. After telling him I was still sleeping and it was nice to meet him but please GO AWAY, I went back to bed for a few before getting up and walking across the street to the small beach out front. Aside from the bright colors, the beach was nothing to brag about but I still hadn’t set foot on it despite that it was just across the way. I laid down and closed my eyes trying to get a wink of relaxation before it was time to move on. I was quickly awoken by an attractive black man who wanted to show me around. I love when I can honestly say that I’m leaving and don’t run the risk of running into someone again. Well I got the normal “do you have a boyfriend?” “yes I have a boyfriend.” “Have you ever been with a black man?” “No I haven’t been with a black man.” “Well you know what they say, once you go black you never go back.” My thoughts: Yep I’ve heard that one before. My Mom had mentioned to me she also heard that, only about two weeks ago. Ha!

After dropping off my rental car, I called my taxi friend, who I thought was totally not sketchy – all week. Course I was totally wrong. He told me I should come back some day. In fact, he would pay for my airfare and my hotel room and he would show me all around the island for the whole week. Riiiiiiiiiiight buddy, keep dreaming.

To aid in my fear of flying, on the way out to T&C, passengers broke out in songs of prayer to prevent the flight from crashing. Or, to bless their souls if it did. This was totally representative of the presence of religion between these two islands. From the gospel music in the grocery stores, to the majority of radio stations and the number of churches on the islands, it was fascinating to see the religious presence here. Maybe this is why everyone was so nice?

Paradise Island

I tried to wake up early the next day, but that never works. So I left to head over to Paradise Island around 12, but I first took a quick drive over to the conch shack to get me some fresh conch. I was led into the back of a small wooden restaurant with a tight area for sitting where a man in a white cap and apron repeatedly cut up veggies, fruit juices and conch to fit every last order. There was a line of restaurants down the street specializing in conch, but someone had tipped me off that this was the place to go. So I watched him in amazement repeat the same order over and over until he handed me mine. On the way back to my car conch in hand, a man stopped me to talk. I entertained him with my life story, he was a music teacher for a bunch of kids on stage playing their instrument, and I needed to send these kids a postcard someday. I told him where I was staying which was right down the street, but didn’t know the next day he would come knocking at my door (literally) at 9 am.

Anyways, on to Paradise island. The island itself was beautiful; there was no sign of the poverty and danger that irked downtown Nassau. This literally was, a different island. I can see why it was so popular among expats. The Atlantis is something else. Sharks hang out in the pools, starfish are everywhere, and you could easily walk around anywhere you pleased – whether or not you were staying at the hotel. I found my way over to the bar where my waiter from earlier in the day was DJing and said hello before buying a drink and planting myself on the beach for some reading and relaxation. Shortly after I ended up back at the bar and of course, I closed it down (which wasn’t until about 6 pm). Of course I got a few free drinks out of it before heading out to a solo dinner – I definitely needed a little time to sober up after spending the afternoon in the sun, drinks in hand!

By the time I got home, I was completely out. I tried not to be, but I passed out for a good 4 hours and by the time I came to, it was time to give up and get some sleep for the night. My “plan” earlier in the day was to possibly meet up with DJ at a bar somewhere. That was very ambitious and was probably fueled by a couple drinks. That definitely wasn’t happening.

All you need to know is that I ate at the Poop Deck

For the rest of the trip, I ended up renting a car which was hugely appropriate. A bus was no longer going to cut it in the strange middle of nowhere places I was going due to time and safety, but especially time. The steering wheel in this car was on the left side (as I’m accustomed to) but I had to remember to keep left while driving. This really, truly messes me up – while back in the US I always need to second-guess myself when it comes to driving. Which side of the road am I suppose to be on? Driving in Nassau was a little bit less intimidating than I had expected. I met with my very last realtor who was extremely nice but spent hours and hours showing me some very irrelevant pictures of rental properties. I really didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was wasting both of our time. Granted, the market is saturated with expats renting properties in Nassau, but there were so many realtors located here that they have too much time on their hands – well this is what it seemed to me. Work for the rest of the day consisted of getting car prices, and checking out hotels in the area all of which were much better than my own. That evening I finished it all up and ended with dinner at the Poop Deck. Yup, you heard me right. The atmosphere looked fun and I needed a drink. There is no better feeling than the one you get when the survey is done and you know you can start to relax. Turns out, I had one of the best snapper I have ever tried at the Poop Deck. (As I usually do,) I asked the waiter what he would recommend and the super-fresh, caught-that-day snapper was his answer; sautéed with some evoo, lemon, pepper… he sold it to me for a market-price deal of $26. This actually is pretty decent; Bahamas restaurant prices are pretty steep. To boot, the waiter sat down with me (maybe he felt bad cause I was alone, or maybe he just thought I was cute) and we chatted for a while. He told me he worked also at the Atlantis (shhhhh) as a DJ and had some pretty cool experiences through them; including being sent to Miami and NYC for the sole purpose of checking out the music scene and what they play. He told me he was DJing the very next day at the Atlantis and I should come see him (maybe for some free drinks). My plan for the next day was to check out the Atlantis anyways, so I told him I would. It was an awesome end to my survey work. Now I could look forward to playtime.

If my room wasn't so creepy, I might have gotten some sleep.

I came back to the hotel and was feeling better. I secured a 2nd appointment and did a realtor meeting over the phone. I made my way back downtown to catch the “jitney”, or local bus, to the grocery store. I tried to make it to a mall beforehand but that didn’t work, a nice lady at a pharmacy I stopped in gave me a ride there on the way home. Another one who told me to be careful. Maybe I don’t look as bad-ass as I feel. This manager was very friendly, just like the one I encountered the day before when I started surveying the wrong grocery store (damnit!). Going home I had the taxi take me to a Japanese restaurant located next to my hotel. I had been told to check it out and I was so happy I did, the sushi was heavenly. I mistakenly ordered lots of sashimi. But that’s fine, it was fresh-off-the-boat quality and I just had to turn a corner to get back to the hotel. So much unlike last night. I had walked a long way in dangerous quarters to get my fried chicken and conch. (Conch is hugely popular here… kinda like calamari. I want to know what a live one looks like!) I’m still up at 315 am. Partly because of the irish coffee I had to top off the night, but partly also due to being scared of this hotel. Maybe if I wasn’t all the way in the corner it wouldn’t be so bad, but I keep thinking someone is going to appear at my window (and can see right in too). Ugh I’m going to stop thinking about it now and try to get some rest.

I was exhausted today since I didn’t fall asleep until about 5 am! So I woke up exhausted and started making phone calls at 10:30am. Things were going quickly, thank goodness, so I took a little 45 minute nap. My body clock was amazing because I had completely forgotten I had a phone interview at 1 pm (10 am California time) and hadn’t set my alarm; I started having nightmares that I was missing this interview and finally woke up (still exhausted) 5 minutes before I had to make the call. I was so impressed with myself! I finished the rest of the calls around 5 and jumped in the shower in preparation of starting a new grocery store, yippee! But, I arrived at the store and the manager told me I needed to call the head office tomorrow and then panic set in. It was only 6:30 pm and I had told my taxi driver to come back at 9 pm. And, I didn’t have his phone number. So, I mosied over to the liquor store (and after dealing with a creepy white owner who looked me up and down a few too many times), did as much as I could there, then the drug store, and then with everything else closed I decided to go back to the grocery store and just do what I could do before a) it was 9 o’clock or b) they kicked me out. It worked out fine, no one said a word to me and the manager was clearly aware of my presence. He didn’t seem too pleased that I was there though. I was happy to get out of there since I knew I wasn’t welcome and my taxi friend came to get me and whisked me off to the Hilton where I wanted to get some food. I ordered lamb chops which sounded delicious but was only so-so and extremely expensive, and I paid a $6 cab fair to go about a 5 minute walk because I was done with walking at night from the downtown area to my hotel. I decided it was the only safe option seeing that I had no other form of transportation to get around. Sorry AIRINC!

Bad Day in Bahamas

Today started out blah. I got some bad news, then more bad news, then more bad news. Nothing majorly effecting me, just enough to be a discouraging way to start a day knowing first that I had a lot of work in front of me, and second just being alone and having no one to distract you can also be difficult. And, it was raining! I was planning on walking to my first meeting, but so much for that idea. I tried to buy a bottle of wine before heading to my first meeting, but liquor store after liquor store was closed. Finally I caught the third one as they were closing down before 10 am to get a realtor gift. Why were they closing? Apparently it was election day and liquor stores can’t be open during election days! (There’s more reason to riot with a little liquor in you, apparently). Because of this setback, I was a little late. I stepped in a big pile of mud, and then my 2nd potential realtor meeting was “cancelled” because the realtor was sick. I was stressed and still had a lot in front of me. At the end of the first realtor meeting I actually managed to schedule, (a long-time contact), she literally rushed me out the door when I said I only had one more question. The meeting had only been 45 minutes which is short (well, on my standards). I was embarrassed but more like, it was just rude. I got cut-off and had to leave. She had already left the conference area. Times like those I wonder sometimes why I do this job. I walked around and did my thing collecting prices in the downtown and a dirty man with missing teeth begged me for a meal. Normally I ignore and walk by, but as I have said before, Bahamians are so nice and spiritual it’s hard to ignore them, plus I know food is so expensive here. This man was a painter/car washer (when there was no work). He hadn’t had any work that day. So, we walked to the local restaurant together (which literally caters only to locals) and I bought him a “cheap” meal for $10. That was my good deed for the day. I wasn’t sure if this made me feel better or worse. On the way back, a lady overheard me ask the missing toothed painter where a particular book shop was, so she walked me that way. Her goodbye advice was to stay around the main tourist locations. Come on girl, can’t you see the tough spirit of a girl who has seen much worse than the side streets of the Bahamas? Ha, if only my job allowed me to stay in such safe quarters…

Friendly, not lazy, couldn't ask for much more.

Everyone says how are you doing, darling? I wonder if the fact that a little blonde girl walking around alone in the sketchy downtown neighborhoods gains some respect in their eyes. But really, I have met some nice people on my travels, and I know I may say it over and over, but really; the Bahamian people are so very friendly. They go out of their way to help me out. And best of all – (which you often see south of the border) the majority of the people here are not lazy. I asked a boy (yes a boy – what age is working age here? I don’t know but I swear there was at least one 7 years old working) the price of a small bottle of soy sauce and he searched around everywhere; from books to calling other stores to get the price for me and came back to tell me almost a half hour later. That is dedication and service at its best. I even told him not to worry about it. After, I told him that the Bahamians were so very nice. He said they live by the theory of: treat others they way you would like to be treated. I wish everyone did that. Then the store manager bought me apples and oranges and drove me home because the taxi he called for me took too long. One thing I have felt about here, is that most places I go that are less well-off than the US the people seem to have a sense of resentment towards Westerners, or at least they try to take advantage of them. Here, it’s almost like they treat everyone the same. I feel respected here, like one of the locals even. That’s a very, very good thing. And, even better, people are more polite than they are even in the US! People actually say excuse me ALWAYS. It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. I’m not sure if they ever actually get mad. I have never once been anywhere that people have been so polite and patient. To further prove, there just is NO road rage. People beep if they want to be let in, to say please and thank you. What a great system!


I will no longer listen to advice from the men at my hotel. They told me it was fine to walk around into the downtown area at 10pm. Sunday it felt ok, there were lots of people out and about (President’s day weekend/Valentine’s day) but last night it was just deserted. I felt fine walking there but walking back I almost wanted to run. I had received a few comments from people driving and sitting in the shadows and it was not comfortable. I won’t be doing that again. I got back with my take-out and a Bahamian girl said to me, “you went there all by yourself on foot to get some food? Wow you are dedicated!” And just another justification why I won’t be walking alone again.

You would think things would be better in the Bahamas...

Today was a frustrating day. Of course, I only slept 2 hours last night. I get to the airport and my boarding pass does not have a seat number. When I asked why, the lady said well, the flight was overbooked but 9.5 times out of 10 when this happens you will get your seat. So, the idiot I am, I get to the gate about 2 hours in advance and spend 1 hour and 15 minutes of it sitting and eating breakfast at Legal Seafoods and don’t even ask about it when I go to sit down. Dumb. When I’m finally the very last person to board the plane, I decide to mention that I don’t have a seat number. “We have been looking for you forever!” They say. Bullshit. I was sitting right there for the past 45 minutes! So, after some misunderstanding and frustrated chit chatter while holding up the DIRECT flight from Boston to Nassau, I was kicked off and re-booked on another flight that was going through Charlotte adding on another 3 hours to my would-have-been nice and quick transit time. Damnit and oh well.
Luckily my luggage was patiently waiting for me in an off-to-the-side pile at the airport and I had a friendly taxi driver who told me all about the island. He also mentioned that the way that Bahamians survive is through sharing everything amongst a group of people, especially money. Everyone works and they share the money they make; one week one person gets it, the second week another person gets it. It’s a traditional African way of life adopted in the Bahamas, apparently.
I had conch for dinner. Food here so far is pretty good! Though it was heavy; fried. I heard there were lots of great restaurants here so I’ll be checking them out. There are also lots of resorts with restaurants too… I will have to stop by them at some point to get prices anyways, so there is some high-class munching to be done anyways.
My hotel is pretty ghetto. I found a black hair in my bed. There are bars on my window. We already had a blackout at the hotel. The appearance is just dirty. I guess that’s what you get for $120/night in the cheapest room of a crappy hotel in Nassau. Luckily, I do have free internet though. Too bad this would only matter if I actually had to pay for it myself. I’m sleeping with my lights on tonight; and every night to come in that room, that is if they don’t black out again anyways. At least I’m in “warm” (70 degree) Nassau, right? I hope I get some sun to prove it!

San Ramon, boring San Ramon, again

San Ramon, in all honesty, was pretty boring and there was nothing special to write home about. It was my second time going there for survey so luckily I felt like I knew it inside and out which made the work go by that much faster; though I didn’t really get a chance to see the real estate agents that I wanted to meet with – (getting anyone to talk to you in the US for free information on the rental market is nearly impossible and such a pain in the ass). Luckily I got a chance to repeat a visit with a realtor I had met with before who was so very friendly (and was content enough to give up information for a free bottle of nice vino), so we had the chance to catch up. But aside from that, the only notable thing that happened was that I got sick with a terrible ear infection so I had to go to the doctor – and waited in line for hours to do so. He prescribed me medicine and pretty much told me this better get better by the time I had to fly home or it would be possible that my eardrum would perforate. I wasn’t totally sure what that meant but all I could picture was my ear drum exploding. It didn’t sound pleasant. Luckily everything turned out fine in the end; the high-dosage of strong antibiotics he prescribed for me did the trick.
I swear to God during the week I was there they were holding the annual Wal-Mart conference nearby. Either that or it was the red-neck extravaganza. I tried, really hard to listen to conversations to see if I could get snippets of what was going on. No luck. The characters coming through the hotel, well staying at the hotel were humorous. Big fat ladies who hadn’t seen a gym in her life, men with long hair and beards with clothes that were far from fitting. It was comical, I couldn’t believe my eyes. We were in California not Arkansas and these people did not belong.
I ate at In and Out Burger. Yum. I was given a large pizza for the price of a small at Papa John’s. I missed Mom. And then I went home for the weekend; I got a break from the madness to refresh and it was very nice.

Lombard Street, the sexy painted ladies, and Haight Ashbury... of course

The next day we scored a free breakfast which was completely unexpected, apparently it came with the hotel reservation which was not even expensive. On the way home we took the tourist route through Sonoma. I tried to figure out where I had stopped to eat when I had come last time (Feb 08) and eventually we ended up passing it, bringing back memories. But really, I hadn’t remembered how beautiful Sonoma actually was. It was breathtaking; we would never had gotten back to San Francisco if we actually stopped to take all the pictures we wanted to take.
We made a few stops along the route before arriving back “home”. Sausalito was the first one. The scenery was a windy mountain that provided beautiful views from the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Artisans with entertaining parrots and balancing rock towers occupied the streets as tourists walked from shop to shop. Mom bought an artsy little night-light and we visited a few art galleries in her honor before crossing the Golden Gate. We stopped for a photoshoot once we got back into San Francisco, it really was breathtaking to see in person. We almost blew off the cliff though since the wind was so strong.
From there we took a crooked drive down Lombard Street, stopped to view and photograph the sexy painted ladies (and the flower pots made out of shoes located in the park across from them) and ended the evening in Haight Ashbury where I got more hippiness than I ever could have wanted back when I was in the junior high. After being convinced, I decided against buying a super cute hippy dress but devoured a crepe instead 
My bittersweet visit with Nicole was done. Well, at least I still had Mom. We dropped Nicole off at her apartment and said our goodbyes, I’ll see ya when I see ya and from there, Mom and I hit up Le Colonial, a restaurant suggestion from one of Jason’s girls (hehe). French-Cambodian food. I must have had gained at least 10 pounds that trip! On full stomachs, we drove the hour away to San Ramon to check in at the Marriott hotel. I had to drive all the way back in the morning to drop Mom off. Yahoo….

Weekend trip to wine country

What an excellent weekend we had! Wine country is just as beautiful as I remember it being. We left the Westin early after finding a lovely French bakery to get some fresh oats, fruit and OJ from. We picked up my hot little red rental car and were on our way up north. Besides running into an oil spill on the way up (no big deal) it was smooth sailing after GPS helped us around it. The first winery was expensive but awesome ($40 for tour and tasting). The wines were probably the best I have tried, and we got to try them straight out of the oak barrels – name was Del Dotto – or as a guy from another winery stated – Del Blotto cause they give you so many to try. The second tasting was a quick stop and we got to taste for free. I stole a couple lemons that had fallen from a lemon tree in the backyard. I’m so badass. By the second tasting (and the best dessert wine I had ever tried!) I was feeling a bit tipsy but onward we went to the third at Miner and they didn’t even try to charge us. It was straight to the wine we went. We decided to break out the snacks we had bought from Safeway by the end especially since I didn’t think I would be able to drive without getting a little something in my tummy. We checked into a ghetto Hilton Hotel and immediately were a bit put–off. They had screwed up my reservation and gave us one king bed instead of the 2 double beds I had asked for. A lady came to our room, dropped the bed off and scurried off without even offering us some help. But, we laughed about it and drove about 20 minutes back out to wine country to try the restaurant Martini which Nicole had suggested. We were all done with drinking for the day (I think we were all feeling a little hungover already) as well as still full from all of the snacks we ate on the porch at the winery (while enjoying the Napa sunset). But, we were there, and we had to try the food which looked delicious. The decoration of the restaurant was completely French-rustic like, it had an earthy wooden feel to it. We ordered a few things and just about all of us got something with mushrooms because this was the restaurants’ specialty and man, it was just incredible. With a menu consisting of mushroom options like this, how can you resist?

Olive Oil Poached King Trumpet Mushrooms
Mascarpone Cheese / Artichokes / Olives / Radishes / Meyer Lemon

Sautéed Morels
Risotto / Sweet Peas / Tarragon / Parmesan Cream

Pan Roasted Maitake Mushroom
Asparagus / Polenta Cake / Red Wine Sauce

We were completely stuffed after not even ordering that much and made our way home.

Health food tax?

Officially, I love San Francisco. The people, the food, I’m even OK with them having a “healthy food” tax because… well really? Healthy food tax? I have had more than 2 taxi drivers that have told me to keep my money when I tried to tip them. Really? Where am I, peace world? I always thought that Boston has pretty good food. New York has pretty good food. But, San Franciscan food is creative, innovative, all natural organic AND fresh. Who has ever heard of short rib lasagna?
I’m so happy that mom is here to share this with me. I love it. If I were to describe SF in one word, I would call it organic. And, not that I need to actually say it, but I love organic food. From the bums (many happy and hilarious), to the very pleasant weather and excellent food (heavy organic accent!); I found my most favorite city in the US – (sorry Boston!) I finally just finished my work today, after spending more hours sitting at my computer. 2:30 PM I was done after going to bed at 3:30 am the night before and starting to work at 9 am. I think my body is SERIOUSLY fighting a major sickness from lack of sleep. At least I have eaten good food every single night. Monday – Italian, Tuesday – Mexican, Wednesday – Spanish tapas, Thursday – Southeastern Asian and Friday – French Californian. Wow. Seeing Jay yesterday was great. And even funnier that my Mom was there too. Maybe completely inappropriate – (she hasn’t stopped texting him) - JUST KIDDING. Today we rode the cable car. A must do in San Fran. And then we ate and drank more. I love this city.

FEB 2010: Welcome to San Fran!

San Francisco’s sure got charm and character. I just arrived today half-awake and already I can tell I will be enjoying my stay. I stayed up last night a little too late (well, it was a crazy weekend and to top it off I went to an Ani Difranco concert which got me home at 11pm but had my body all out of whack since my body was in super-excited mode to see her. We got home around 11 and I spent between 11 and 4 finishing up a few things and especially finishing packing. This left me only an hour for sleeping. I didn’t realize how little sleep it would actually end up being. I didn’t get a ride from my regular taxi buddies this time around cause I tried contacting them too late. But, thankfully I made it on time to the airport and I had to fly United and it was a mess. The system for checking bags in was down so once checked in, we all had to make a very narrow line to check in our bags before we could make our way through security (which hasn’t changed at all despite everyone’s worries, in my opinion). I got an omelet for breakfast (it was so nice to not have to spend my own money once again), got on the plane, and passed the f out for the whole 6 hours. I can’t say that I was refreshed when I awoke, but I felt a little better than I did when I was getting on the plane. But, my skin still hurt, all over. Since your skin is an organ it just makes me shudder as to what this lack of sleep and screwing up of your whole system actually does to your body.
Anyway… I arrived at the Westin hotel and have a cute little room with two queen beds (which is convenient for Mom’s visit) and a much too comfortable bed. I got organized and set out to get some work done at my first grocery store. I walked around in amazement at what was in arm’s reach of my hotel room – including many of the major targets I needed. I had a good vibe, and it made me smile. I ventured to use the local bus system to get to the grocery store – successfully. Meanwhile, as I stood there waiting for the bus to approach with my $2 in hand a man walked up to me and gave me his transit card which he said was good until Feb. 3. I made it clear to him that I was very thankful and he made my day. It’s things like that which make the world go round, happily. Already I was noticing the interesting characters. But with these characters came unpleasant smells (like the man who sat near me with the long, pee-looking stained gray hair). Ewww… a hippy gone old and bad.
After (nearly) finishing my first grocery store, I met up with Mike and Nicole and saw their super cute apartment and then we ate down the street at a super delicious Italian restaurant. It was so nice to have some company (especially friends that I know I don’t get to see often). I felt good, I felt comfortable and I feel happy to be away from home for now. I’m excited for this week, let’s just hope I can get all the work done in good time.

This girl got into Delta's elite lounge :)

Ulsan to Seoul was a very early, short flight and I needed to transfer immediately to another airport upon arrival. The transfer was much easier than I expected, and I even had time for one last bibimbop meal before getting on the plane. Once again, I fortunately slept 10 out of the 14 hours I was on board but had a 6 hour layover in New York before arriving in Boston. I somehow talked my way into the Delta Skymiles club and hung out there drinking free drinks and eating free yummy food until boarding to fly to Boston. I was suppose to be in first class but the large plane I should have been on was bumped down to a really tiny one, so there was no first class anymore. Anyways, Colas picked me up at the airport which was the best welcome home I have had thus far coming back from survey :)

Adventures in Geong-ju

Of course I went to bed late, as normal; but this time I was trying to finish up my work so I didn’t have to worry about it anymore – until 4 am. Because of this, I didn’t get up early to go on my adventure day like I had wanted to. I got up at 11 am and wasn’t ready to leave until 12. I went back and forth about whether I wanted to take a bus or take a taxi to Geong-ju – the ancient capital of South Korea. Because of the little time I had left, and also due to the hotel pushing me to do so, I took a taxi there. This took about 45 minutes and cost me 60,000 won, which is equivalent to about $50. Not the #1 thing I would like to spend my $ on, but maybe was necessary since it was so late in the day. Once I Had arrived and told the taxi that no, I didn’t want him to wait for me (sorry you can’t convince me to pay you $70 just to hang around!) my first thought was OK, so how will I get home? So I bought my ticket and then tried asking someone if they could help out with that. Obviously there was no English, but another guy standing by overheard me trying to ask a question so he called his English-speaking friend who helped me out. In the big parking lot you can take a bus to the inter-city bus station, she said. Ok. I was relieved, I would worry about it after that’s all I needed to know.

I went in and walked about the temple, it was chilly out but not uncomfortably cold; like October in New England. Though unfortunately, I decided to use my gloves and of COURSE I lost one of them. It was beautiful, but was very similar to the other temples I had visited and I was annoyed that they requested no picture-taking inside the temples. The foliage was electric. I didn’t think anywhere in the world had foliage like we did back home. A fashionable looking mother called me over with “excuse me! Excuse me!” She wanted to know what I was given as a guide. At first I thought maybe she was from another Asian country and couldn’t speak Korean so she wanted to know if I had something that could actually help her too. But no, she was just looking out for me and wanted to know if I had any questions. Her daughter had learned about Bulguksa (the name of the temple) in school and they had talked about coming here many times before it actually happened, today.

After taking photo after photo of temple and nature, I went out where I came from and pondered what I would do next. A guard saw me standing around and came over and handed me a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. (When I got home I decided to try it and was so confused. It was very, very sour/bitter and had an uncomfortable texture. So I asked someone about it and they told me it was a quince. Quinces are meant to be cooked and eaten, not eaten raw.) I decided to walk up a trail that was nearby, I didn’t really know exactly where I was going but I wanted to get to the Grotto which Joe had also recommended. During the start of my hike, (and it was a hike!) I took out my map and an old lady yelled to me where I was going. Then, apparently her son who was up the hill about stopped me and asked me further if I needed help. He spoke English decently and apparently lived in Newport, RI way back in the 1990’s while attending navy school. He gave me his cell phone # and told me to call him if I needed anything.

I started walking up, up, up and it was beautiful. It was 2 kilometers and I thought it would only take a half hour to get there but it was already past 4, would be dark soon, and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get a bus to the bus station so I decided to turn around. On my way down I met an small older man with a walking stick taking a hike. He tried to say my name and I tried to say his and we both cracked up as we realized how different our languages were, and how we couldn’t even closely pronounce them. He couldn’t get Basler, but at least he got Lauren right. He spoke very little English so we communicated as much as we possibly could and he offered to drive me to the bus station. I said sure. I didn’t really know exactly how I was going to get there yet anyways.

We got in the car and he asked if it would be alright to make a stop at his house first, so of course I didn’t really have much else to say besides sure. We walked in and I took my shoes off. He called to his wife and kids to come meet this American girl. The kids didn’t come but his wife did. We sat Korean-style (on the floor) around a wooden table and drank some “Korean-style” coffee which was very good! I asked him if his wife had a kimchi fridge which is a necessity in all Korean homes, and he pointed it out; it was a huge freezer-like container that was larger than the refrigerator. And this is rice wine! He said and handed me a small bottle to take. And this is fruit! And he handed me a fruit which looked like a tomato, but wasn’t. It smelled ungodly horrible so I didn’t even go near it, but I took the rice wine in my baggage home to the US.

Then, we left. He must have told his wife he was driving me to Ulsan, because he told me he wanted to in the car. Then, his wife started calling non-stop and was clearly very upset about it. We tried going to Ulsan but the traffic was terrible, so he wanted to turn around, go back to Geong-ju and try again in a little bit. So he pointed out some of the sights, and his wife was still calling, some of which he answered and hung up on her and some of which he completely ignored, until he eventually shut his phone off. Geez, I felt horrible. He said sorry Lauren, but I can’t drive you to Ulsan I will take you to the bus station. Which was all I wanted in the first place! He helped me buy my ticket and then we got a bite to eat; gim-bap which is rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with different vegetables – it’s almost like vegetarian sushi. It would have been great with some soy sauce. We said our goodbyes and his hug lingered a little too long and it creeped me out a little bit, but I was getting on a bus. Good luck answering to your wife mister! Maybe you should think twice about picking up an American next time, haha. It was a good, peaceful day and now it was time to pack for home.

Making Friends

Today… was just frustrating. I felt like nothing got done. I woke up late for my 10/1030 meeting, (got there right on the cusp of 10:30, luckily after waking up at 9:40 am and needing to shower). It was a good meeting but then I went all the way back to the hotel and (after a family discussion via skype – woohoo Steph for finally downloading it!) I had to go back to the exact same area I just was without realizing it. Koreans are so hesitant to speak English and even to just understand what you are saying – I got nothing from the two places that I needed to go. It sucked. I spent FOREVER looking for a cab in apparently the wrong place and finally managed 10 minutes to go re-ask for permission to survey the grocery store at the other Home Plus (30 minutes from where I just was) which I was granted for tomorrow.

I went to dinner with the girl that helped me out significantly with phone calls, and it was … pretty good, OK. She was very hard to read, she seemed happy to invite me out but she didn’t seem that happy to actually be out with me, if that makes any sense at all. I think she was just really shy, as I have come to realize the Korean personality just is. It was difficult to make conversation, and I even fell asleep on the car ride home (though I totally blame this on the butt-warmers on the seat). Her name is Ms. Bea – I can’t remember her Korean first name, she studied in England for a bit and she told me that she asked everyone to call her Lisa because that was easier for Westerners. So this is what I called her. She did try to teach me how to use chopsticks the right way (and I failed miserably as usual). We went to a nice buffet restaurant, and she explained to me what everything was. On the way out a Korean girl (probably just a little younger than myself) was waving profusely at me through a glass window; at first I thought she was waving at someone else (and I was a bit embarrassed) but I turned to look and there was no one there. Strange. When I got home, I fell asleep almost immediately; I was exhausted and I was forced to get up 11 hours later for a realtor meeting. But, I felt very refreshed the whole remainder of the day and even had trouble sleeping that night.

Yesterday I had a pointless realtor meeting at 10 am on a Sunday. He was a source we had met for years but I think he was getting old and his brain was getting slow. He was having a difficult time interpreting any of my questions; his young assistant was explaining things to him after I would try twice. Ugh it was frustrating. I got to practice the art of handing over your business card with two hands though. One of the other realtors I had met with (the first one from the UK) had mentioned this to me and it kicked in after I handed over the first one; I was rude (without even thinking) and didn’t give one of my cards to the assistant, but when I did I made up for it by getting this rule right. Everyone has the same last name here. There are millions of Oh’s, Kim’s, which especially stand out. I met 3 people with the last name of Oh just during my short trip in Ulsan.

I went back to the RIGHT Homeplus and did the survey there; the people were very friendly and were nice about saying sure. There were very few people who bothered me though I did have a lot of stares and someone asked me just “where are you from?” and I said “America.” They said ohhh and that was it. The little kids are so cute. They see someone who doesn’t look like them and immediately try speaking English. I have gotten many “hi’s!” and “hello’s!” from children learning English in elementary school. One even said to me “my name is ….” So I said, my name is Lauren. Then he got shy, said bye and ran away to go tell mom he spoke English with a foreign girl.

After having a similar meal to the one I had the night before (at the buffet restaurant at the hotel this night), Ms. Bea had made a ton of phonecalls for me – (even though a bit boring, she’s still pretty awesome!) so I checked these and headed down to the bar downstairs where I got a drink and did hours and hours of work writing up all my housing reports and clearing up all the C&S stuff. Two Phillipino girls were on stage in sexy little outfits trying to appeal to the foreign men with their sultry voices. Ms. Bea (Lisa) had told me that the Phillipino girls come up to make a living this way normally, and many times doing immoral things with foreigners.

Hi are you American? Can I have your phone number?

In the grocery store a girl walked right up to me and said “hi! Are you American?” Yes…. “hi nice to meet you. Can I have your phone number so we can keep in touch?” This lady was definitely NOT Korean. She was Phillipino and asked me to come to a Phillipino/Korean cultural event she was holding tomorrow. So very random.

I got to my dinner meeting late. I hadn’t yet had to deal with traffic and I had a whole lot of it going back to the hotel. I showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with Mr. Neal Kim. We drank coffee while discussing the market and then we shared some dinner – Korean BBQ over a grill in the middle of our table. It was excellent and the Korean side dishes were plentiful. Then we had a beer at a Westernized bar and discussed politics and life. I tried to tell him about some of the bad experiences I’ve had here (though most have been nice) and he said that in general the Korean culture is quite friendly. I would agree with that, only if you can exclude the hotels. Also, I feel like some people look down on me a bit because I do not dress up all the time. He also didn’t know what my friend Surin/(Heather?) told me about the fact that girls wear whitening skin lotion. It was very interesting to hear about him saying his mom (and her family); when she was very young could barely afford to eat rice. Now she drives a Bentley. The Korean economy boomed over the past 30 years or so.

Ulsan is the largest manufacturing facility for Hyundai in the world. Everything here is Hyundai – the cars, the trucks, the equipment, the departments stores, my hotel, etc. etc. I have seen a ginormous boat lined with cars which I’m sure will be shipped to some undisclosed location soon. This is also a ship-building port. You don’t want to breath too much around this area, so I have been told. And there are “love motels” EVERYWHERE. For decent hotels, there are really only 2 in the city. But “love motels” are widely abundant. You can only guess what the name signified. Within such a shy culture, it’s very shocking to see such a thing as these very “loudly” advertised motels. OK I must head to bed. Goodnight!!

A Study? Yes. Ok

Today I remembered that I was told that Koreans don’t like the Japanese. In fact, they don’t like Chinese or the Russians, and the older generations tend not to even like the Americans. Today was a good day, but a bit frustrating as well. After trying to finish up some last-minute things at one of the major grocery stores and realizing that things just didn’t seem completely right (almost all of the restaurants that were previously there were gone?), I realized that I surveyed the right grocery store in the wrong location, so I need to go back to another one (the right one) either tomorrow night or Saturday, ugh. I spent too much time pacing around the around trying to figure out where everything could have possibly gone. The security (basically whose job it is is to be nice, greet people and bow) must have thought I was nuts, Luckily, most likely the prices will be the same so I won’t need to make any major changes (just check on a few prices and check on the additions I made to see if they are there as well), but it’s still a pain regardless. I was hoping to use Saturday as a day-off but instead I think I’m going to need to spend some time filling up some holes and later, sipping tea at the restaurant and writing up my reports. On the way back from lugging my groceries (which included 3 bottles of wine for realtor gifts), I had a very talkative taxi driver who couldn’t speak English. He went on and on in Korean with an English word thrown in here and there and I think he wanted to believe that I could understand him, so I tried to nod my head, smile and laugh as much as I could to make him feel good. That’s an awkward situation which all you travelers out there know exactly what I mean, you’ve been through it.

I had lunch with a British guy who was married to a Korean woman and was responsible for housing at the Hyundai Foreigner’s Compound (which is a very popular place to live for foreigners who live in Ulsan). He brought along a guy who works for him who was from Boston, go figure. From there, I took a cab downtown to go to another department store to survey the grocery store. The manager the day before (as I mentioned above) told me it was fine to do the survey, whether or not he understood what that meant didn’t matter to me, so I tried to use his card in the grocery store when I was asked over and over what I was doing. One manager pointed out to me; “but this guy is only the director of the women’s department; I’m sorry but..” but I persisted over and over that he had spoken to the Lotte Department store in Seoul and everything was worked out and I was told it was fine. I was visibly getting frustrated. I think if you had to put a description to Korean attitude, it would be – “as long as you’re happy everything is ok”. They left me alone; all of them, once I started being persistent and becoming upset. It was great; anywhere else in the world you would be kicked out. Really, all I had for proof that my entry was approved was a flimsy business card from a man who oversees women’s clothing. How serious can you really take that.

Everywhere else I went to – book open throughout the rest of the departments – people hang around you and become very curious until you ask them to help you find something. There seriously must be one worker per every 3 feet squared in these crazy Korean markets – you are always surrounded by someone who is meant to be there to help you. They all took their job very seriously, too – and luckily didn’t ask too many questions except for… study? Yes. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Ulsan - Home of Hyundai

… Is a weird city. Very industrious here. Actually, this is the city where Hyundai manufactures all their cars. Everything is Hyundai Hyundai Hyundai, even all the heavy equipment. And, it’s a shipbuilding port. I have never seen so much heavy machinery in one place in my whole life. Yesterday after napping (since I only got a couple hours sleep at night), I went out to HomePlus (Tesco) to do the survey. I had almost finished and someone stopped me to ask what I was doing and told me no. A girl younger than I was. This made me mad. Of course, I didn’t have the name of the manager who told me it was alright and apparently she couldn’t reach him (it was around 11pm at this time, he had probably gone home from this 24 hour supermarket). Man, was I frustrated! I could feel my blood pressure rising. She ended up letting me finish since I was almost done, but she clearly disapproved. This pissed me off.

I got home much too late (I couldn’t believe for a second that it was already 12 am!) and room service wasn’t operating. I couldn’t eat dinner; I hadn’t eaten since about 7 am. I tried the well-expired Pringles and some well-expired mango juice from the mini-bar to hold me over. I couldn’t finish the Pringles though, they were very stale.

Once again I went to bed much too late. So, I didn’t get up until noon. I went to the front desk to ask about translator help and a girl offered to help me, well – a guy at the front desk offered for her actually, haha. She didn’t think it looked like many calls (little did she know) so she said she’d help. It took about two hours, and we weren’t finished but she needed to go to a meeting. She reluctantly said that we could continue when she was working on Saturday. But, then I offered her a good tip for her services. She refused, refused refused, but I insisted over and over and finally she accepted, but she wanted to take me out to dinner with it. What a deal, right? Not only that, she said she would prefer to come in on her day off to help me out and then we could go to dinner together. Good deal.

After that, I assumed incorrectly that part of the survey was at the Hyundai department store that was right next to my hotel. I wasted time asking for permission there. Good thing I planned to go to Lotte department store before finishing up with Hyundai, because there was another Hyundai downtown (where Lotte was – about a good 20 minutes from my hotel) that I was suppose to go to. When approaching Lotte, I saw it so I needed to double-check my notes. Getting permission at Lotte was very frustrating. I asked a manager who spoke little English. Literally, we went back and forth on the phone with a girl who was helping out in English trying to explain both of our sides to each other. He made about 1,534,574 phone calls before saying that he was sorry but he couldn’t help me for some reason that the “translator” gave me that I couldn’t understand. Then, I said well I did the same thing at the Lotte in Seoul and for some reason this created a different story. He made another 2,533,645 phone calls and finally said that it was OK, and I thought he said it was OK because they had confirmed that I did the same thing there. If that was the case, that would be funny because we got a very unofficial OK from the supermarket manager who said that “normally this is a very big process but I’ll close my eyes if you do the survey today”. This whole painful experience put me off about a full hour which sucked. When I finally walked away, I turned back to see him with his head down laughing hysterically (or maybe he was crying? Haha). Well buddy, I need to deal with this daily, so it can’t be that bad.

Then, I decided to re-ask at Hyundai downtown. Apparently my co-worker Joe was stopped and scolded by a manager, but I walked right up to someone who was not a manager (when I was looking for a manager) and they said it was fine, so I just proceeded finishing the survey without asking first. It was grand, I had no problems, and everyone was very willing to help out.

I went to Outback for dinner. Apparently you can order a Korean dish at Outback, so I did it. The meat wasn’t that good, but the shrimp and veggies on skewers was. So was the fried rice. I was starving, my stomach was beginning to eat itself since I hadn’t had a decent meal in days. I’m still so happy to be completely full. All for today, more tomorrow!

I have been to Russia

Here, in Yuzhno, they drive on both the right and the left side. When I told Yulja I was surprised, it seemed to her that she didn’t even know that some drove on the left side. Most drive on the right. But, on the way to the hotel my taxi was driving on the left side. Like I said, Yuzhno is nothing to write home about – stern people, soviet-style housing, seemingly very little driving organization on the road, and everything is dark, dark, dark (including the weather while I was there), but they have beautiful mountains in the near distance. I was very observant of these after it had snowed, the day after Yulja’s and my trek back to the hotel from another hotel where we had our dinner, in a snow storm. At first she had told me that she needed to go home and cook dinner for her husband, (because a good wife does that), but her husband was preoccupied with a friend so she was able to eat with me.

When we were in one of the electronic stores Yulja pointed out a guy to me who was playing with a chain in his hand. She said, do you see that man? Yes… we watch out for these guys. Usually the Russian mobsters do things like that. They are dangerous people, you have to watch out (not just tourists but local people) because they’ll come up to you and ask if you have any sunflower seeds or cigarettes and they get mad if you don’t have the right answer. I don’t really know what “mad” meant, but I really didn’t want to find out.

But, after all, now I can say I have been to Russia.

My new favorite thing

When leaving the hotel, I left a good tip for Zoya, the girl who helped with phonecalls for me, and many groceries for the maid (a product of not getting kicked out of the stores). I had hoped for some time to wander around and take some pictures, especially after the new snowfall, but I didn’t have the time. I went to bed much too late and slept much too late, of course. Yesterday was a good day. Well, besides hearing about nana having a heart attack! Yulja went everywhere with me; back to the grocery store to finish it up without problems, to the automobile store for tires (the lady working there spoke English and was super nice!) to the real estate agent, to a couple malls…so I took her out for dinner in the end. She made everything so much faster for me and said things like “I’m not going to leave you until the end because I feel responsible for you”, and I got a bunch of “is it OK if I ask you a question?” and the question would be something simple like, “are you married? I wanted to ask you since we first had our meeting. Why aren’t you married?” Etc. Etc. She is 21 and just got married, with beautiful blue eyes that make you wonder if she’s wearing special makeup so that they stand out. Bright red hair. Pretty girl, very nice girl. She can speak English very well but has a much harder time hearing and understanding it. She was one of the few reasons I had a decent time in Yuzhno. 2 days ago, we mastered the supermarkets together, we even had the security guard that was pacing the alcohol section helping us out with finding wine brand after wine brand. He didn’t question what we were doing and even recommended a good wine/alcohol from time to time. Little did he know I had my precious voice recorder held so stealthily under my scarf. I love my voice recorder. It is my new momentary favorite thing. At one point, Yulja said to me, he likes you. He was recommending certain bottles, he wouldn’t do that if he didn’t like you. My response was, good! Less chance I’ll get kicked out. In the grocery store, I ran into a lady from Texas. I asked if she was an expat and she said no, we are retired teachers who moved here to teach English. I didn’t want to offend her but I wanted to ask her… what?? Why? If I was moving from my hometown, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk would not be my top choice.

We had a traditional Russian lunch together at a new restaurant that was set up cafeteria style, I had traditional soup, salmon covered with cheese, some rice with lamb in it, and a typical Russian dessert made from cottage cheese with a dash of sour cream on top. It was a lot of food, but it was good. Yulja didn’t feel well after the 2nd grocery store, so we decided to finish the next day. I trekked on through the driving rain, snow and darkness alone to some of the other locations I needed to get to. Finally, enough was enough and I was soaked through. I went to Mishka pub for dinner in the basement of the hotel and grabbed some fish and some Russian baltika beer. I didn’t know the difference between two choices (of baltika) so I asked which one was the best and they ended up giving me one of each because they couldn’t understand me. Someone asked me in English, probably an expat, if I was doing homework and I said “something like that”. I didn’t explain further this time. Maybe because I didn’t want to be up all night.

Not all Koreans are nice..

I’m procrastinating on writing. I’m not sure why I don’t have the same desire to write this time around. But I have a whole lot of notes ready to be written up. I am back in Seoul, my home away from home. I still don’t know what I think of this place. The people at the airport were very friendly and helpful, but then I got off the bus and wanted to take a taxi and the taxi driver didn’t budge from the car to help me put my baggage in. Actually, an old lady picked my bag up for me to help me out. I couldn’t believe how rude that was, and on top of it; of course he didn’t help me take the bags out of the car either. I wish I told him that I would pay him once he helps with the bags. What a jerk. He was even a jerk when I asked him to go to the hotel. After that experience, I was feeling discouraged. So, I took a nap and got up at 9 to get dinner, but I couldn’t get dinner anymore. Great! I utilized the minibar instead, in one package there were two beers and a pouch of beef jerky. Well, one beer would have done just fine but the pack came with two. What a great dinner it was.

The flight back to Seoul (the best airport in the world) wasn’t too bad. I do love this airport. The flight was bumpy, and at one point they came on the radio and said “we were experiencing severe turbulence so please fasten your seatbelt and keep the kids seated”. But, it wasn’t that bad. Nothing I hadn’t experienced before. We got a hot meal (thank goodness cause I hadn’t eaten yet!) and all the drinks and legroom we could ever want, and the staff are very friendly. I guess that’s what you get flying on “the best airline in the world”. They didn’t even charge me overweight charges this time!

Welcome to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russia)

What a trip it is here. I got in yesterday and was exhausted, I probably should have done a little bit more than I did but really, I was exhausted. I didn’t sleep much the night before in the really sketchy airport hotel I had; uncomfortable mattress and pillow, in a loud area, the internet wasn’t working, it just was certainly not the best situation. And, I needed to be ready for the shuttle at 7 am. Ick. I took Asiana airlines over though; apparently the “best airline in the world” flying out of the “best airport in the world” for the 4th year in a row. I was soooo happy that my schedule worked out this way because otherwise, I would have had to take some really sketchy Russian airplane. I didn’t meet anyone interesting on the plane. When I arrived, they checked my tourist visa (yep it was fine…. Shhhhh I’m actually here for work), and I was declared free of any H1N1 virus, and then they scanned all our bags over again. I got a taxi outside; it was very expensive for a short ride, $20 USD. An 80 year-old man took me to the hotel in his little old car which was about to fall apart. The scenery was intriguing, surprisingly probably one of the most run-down, dreary locations I have ever been to. There was building after building of trashed or torn-down, or REALLY old buildings around the area. It was cloudy, the ground was hard, cold and gray and everyone was dressed in dark clothes. The hotel isn’t excellent, but it’s really not bad at all; I don’t mind staying here. It’s got a kitchenette, is relatively clean, and everything and surprisingly, the people working here are very nice. (Though one of them took me to my room and tried to open the wrong room; used her master key to do so and it had been locked by the people that were staying in the room! Whoops.) I took a little nap and then ventured out to see if anyone would give me permission to survey their grocery store, and I got negative answers at both locations. UGH, I hate stealthing, especially in small marts. I was a bit depressed by this and very tired, so I came back to go to bed early, especially since there are no streetlights here, and only some of the intersections have pedestrian lights. One of the girls at the front desk was going to help me in the morning with some phone calls.

And, she did. She was a typical Russian girl, smiles very little, very stern and serious but she said she had spent time in Washington. Everyone there in America was very nice to her, so she wanted to help me out for free. I even offered her money and she refused, but offered a smile when I did so. That was enough. She helped me for three solid hours. After that, I went to visit Mr. Valentine Kulik who works at one of the companies where many foreign executives live when they stay here in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The taxi could not go into the gate, so she left me outside and I waited for him to come. I didn’t see him, but a guy who was there tried to talk to me in Russian but of course I could not understand. He put me on the phone with someone who spoke some English and I tried to explain why I was outside. He was offering to drive me wherever it was that I needed to go within the complex. But, Mr. Valentine was coming to pick me up and I couldn’t get ahold of him, but I had waited for him for a long time. Somehow we figured out that we missed each other, but my new friend Mr. Aura (who is the manager of the compound) took me to visit Mr. Valentine. Nice guy but didn’t smile much, but that’s the common trend anyways. We only needed to speak for about 20 minutes.

I came back to the hotel and tried hard to get motivated to go into that grocery store. After a short nap, I did it. Well, I did half of it, and it wasn’t that bad. But, tomorrow I need to finish what I did not get to, and hope there will be different employees there – and I need to do the whole other grocery store, ugh. I spoke with the previous surveyor’s translator. She is another person, didn’t seem excited to hear from me but her words told me that she is free all weekend and is so excited to meet with me and to practice speaking in English. She is going to walk around with me in the grocery store. We’re just going to pretend that we’re shopping together, and I’m going to talk out loud and use the voice recorder which has so far come in lots of handy. I love it, and even though I hate having to use it, I’m glad he’s good to me. OK bed time, super busy day tomorrow.

One last meeting

The next day I had one meeting left in the morning before leaving the hotel for the airport. We had a 3 hour meeting (which I didn’t expect of course) and even had to rush to finish it up. We must have veered off subject for at least 45 minutes, but I let this happen because I thought we had the time. He also wanted to take me out for a nice typical Cantonese lunch. But, I had to leave and anyways – I think I’d had enough “typical” food to last me a good while.

One crazy Taiwanese lady who lived in Canada

The next day, Summer picked me up a bit late. I wore working attire because I really didn’t know what to expect. He drove me down the street to their office and I was sitting next to what looked like a present and I had a strange feeling it was for me. When I walked in, Annette handed me some information that was pretty much of no use to me and then told me we would have lunch in about a half hour. Annette was talking on and on about this and that and she said “would you like to meet the Mayor?” So, I didn’t really know how to respond to that so I said “sure?” She had her assistant get on the phone immediately to see if we could work out a meeting with her, but she needed 24 hours notice and tomorrow I didn’t have time. But, just the thought of it made me feel special and silly at the same time. What would I say if I met the mayor of Kaohsiung? Thanks for having me, you have a great city?

After that, we sat around and did nothing; no one was really doing anything including work. Really, I wasn’t surprised; despite being the 2nd largest city in Taiwan there really wasn’t too much going on here. Lunch was made by the company maid/cook. It was served family-style on a table-top that rotated. The food items in front of me were things I wouldn’t normally eat. Don’t get me wrong, they were not atrocious by any means – but there were things like shellfish that didn’t open on their own (I was told at home that if it doesn’t open automatically when cooked, then don’t eat it!) and there were pieces of bones with bits of meet and lots of fat on them. Not my idea of a great meal. Asian food is just different, I’ve come to realize. Much different than I’m use to and it takes an acquired taste to get use to it. After lunch, for some reason, we needed to wait another 45 minutes before we could leave on our “tour”. I checked my mail mean-time and Annette sat down in the waiting area up front and fell asleep. Literally. Can you imagine? What if a customer walked in, maybe that was normal? I just hung around, took out my phone and started playing games, and at times just stared at the fish because I had no idea what else to do.

When it was time to go, Summer went out and cleaned the car and we hopped in. Just as I thought, Annette mentioned that the gift in the backseat was for me. We drove to a part of the town listed on my grid and oh look, we happened to be driving by a mall. Would you like to go see the mall? She asked; I could tell she wanted to go in so I said sure. Not like I haven’t had enough of Taiwanese malls after seeing all the major malls in Taipei as it was. So we did, we went in the mall. Just before getting in to the department store, there were some umbrellas that caught her eye, they’re good and they are cheap, she said. So we walked in the store and checked it out. She picked one out, a UV protection umbrella, bought it and said here; this is for you. This is to prove that the Chinese are nicer than the Taiwanese. HAHAHA – after she had already bought me these really nice bath salts. Annette was my suga momma apparently. We walked through the department store and into the mall where there was a store that sold all sorts of exercise and relaxation equipment. So of course, we stopped to check it out and try it out. There was one that we both got on that did nothing but shook your fat. Apparently it was the new way to lose weight! Very popular in Japan. We did that for about 10 minutes until moving on to the foot massagers, and then the back massaging chairs. Poor Summer was just hanging around saying nothing (as usual) and looking bored. Annette decided to buy the fat-shaking machine (even though she was a super skinny little lady) and we sat in the massaging chairs until the transaction was approved. Two girls who worked there went off for a bit to go and get something, and came back with some passes and a huge stuffed something or other which Summer carried for Annette. She said to me, I don’t know what I would do without him. He was an agent and she was his boss and she used him as a chauffeur, etc. So funny.

Our passes allowed us a trip on the (very slow) ferris wheel so we went up to the top and pretended like we were children. What a crazy day. From there, we went to the seaside where I took some pictures of some beautiful temples and Buddhist statues. Then Annette thought it would be nice to visit the old British consulate location, so we did, and here she bought me a magnet to take home with me. We took a ferry to a small island where we walked around a bit looking at the open-air seafood markets and decided to eat at one of them. We had some fresh raw tuna slices, bamboo, fish soup, etc. All of it was chosen off of the ice where previously it was sitting out raw, and it was all paid for me! I was a little nervous, once again; but it was pretty good and I ate as much as I could stomach.

We concluded our night with some “ice cream” which was more like a frozen drink. Annette asked Summer if he had a girlfriend – to which he replied no, and then she asked him if he had a female lover – which he replied no. Then she said “as a boss, I try to keep work and personal life separate. I don’t ask those sorts of questions” and I tried as hard as I possibly could not to burst out laughing. She was one crazy Taiwanese lady who had lived in Canada.

The most comical realtor meetings ever

Despite bad luck with sources in the past, I was able to get meetings with 4 different people; all of which seemed to be fairly decent sources. However; all of the realtors except for one, LOVED to veer off the subject and talk about everything but the topic I tried to focus them on which was extremely frustrating. Because of this, I was only able to cover little ground despite meeting with them for a lonnnng time.

The first lady I met with, we talked for an hour (and again, didn’t get through half of the things that I hoped for) but she offered to take me on a housing tour of the city which was quite amusing. Her driver took us around in her car and we went to all the different neighborhoods on my housing grid, and in between tour stops, I tried to get as many additional answers out of her as I possibly could. Though, we visited some properties and I was able to see first-hand the different characteristics of the properties that expats would live in here. We drove around for about 2 hours (after a 1 hour meeting at the café) and she wanted to take me to lunch but I needed to get back for a 2 pm meeting. The people at the café must have thought I was nuts; they saw me sit down with different people 3 different times throughout the whole day, and every time I ordered the same thing and had the same waiter.

The people from the second meeting also drove me nuts. One of them was a guy who spoke no English – (whom I later found out was Annette’s constant companion), and the other was Annette who was so nice and lived in Canada for 10 years, but again it was difficult getting information out of her. These realtors made you wonder if they even knew the market at all; they kept on changing their story, and everyone’s information seemed to be completely different. I met with Annette and friend (his name was Summer) for an hour and a half and I had another meeting in minutes so I wanted to get them out the door before the next realtor came and saw me sitting there with other realtors. Sneaky sneaky, and it all went down just in time. They left and Julia walked in. I needed to run upstairs quickly. Annette had offered though to take me on a tour the next day, I didn’t want to say another realtor had already done that so I said sure sounds great. I had no idea what I was in for.
When I came back down, we sat at the coffee shop (yep my 3rd time of the day and literally, this time I had just gotten up from the table) and I ordered the same thing from the confused waiter. Julia was great. She was to the point and appeared to know her stuff even if she didn’t at all. (I think she was a great source, but not as great as I initially though). We got through the meeting in normal time and she was pleased to meet me; she said she never knew this type of job existed but she was happy to help.

This was it for today. 3 meetings down and I had one more on the day I was to leave Kaohsiung with a loyal source we had met for years. Tomorrow I had a few things that I wanted to do but didn’t know how long my “tour” with Annette would last; well we’ll see!

Welcome to Kaohsiung! (Taiwan)

Kaohsiung was my favorite as far as nice people go, but also my hotel was excellent. There were about 14 restaurants in my hotel alone; none of which I really had time to eat at because I was so busy. The hotel had an older style to it, but very pretty and all the staff were very helpful. The hotel was huge, and even had a mall attached to it which came in a lot of handy for buying realtor gifts.

Everyone I met here was just really pretty awesome, starting with the way over. I met Mr. Lee (who everyone called Tuna) who was in the fishing business. He was Korean, and sat next to me on the plane and talked talked talked, half of which I couldn’t understand at all. He helped me get settled when I went there and asked me if I wanted to meet up with him at some point and get dinner or something, so I said sure, why not. While I was in Kaohsiung, he sent me an email and I sent him one back late at night. We had spoke of meeting up maybe the next night but we didn’t know our schedules so we would see if it worked out. The next evening, he called me when he got in and it was nearly 12 at night and he wanted to know if I wanted to get a drink with him or go to a night market, or something of that sort. I was like, really? Do you know what time it is now? I politely declined but we realized that we would be on the same flight the next day back to Seoul so I would see him then. The next day, once again he helped me get situated – called the hotel to have them come and pick me up and even waited for me until they got there.

Finally some sightseeing in Seoul

Today, I saw the side of Seoul that I had been waiting to find. I knew it existed but I was too lost in surveyland and the snobby standard Westin hotel to see where its’ life was hiding. I decided to take the “economical full-day tour of Seoul” and it was very nice. The tour included a Buddhist temple, 2 palaces, lunch, 2 Korean outdoor markets, and special amethyst and ginseng shops that they take you to in order to rip you off. I met two Guatemalan women during my trip. The amount of people were scarce because the weather wasn’t that great, it poured during the first half of the day. So, it was just me and the two Guatemalan women who worked for Save the Children. The first stop was seeing my first Buddhist temple; I was able to take pictures of the temple and everyone in it. The colors, and the feel of it were beautiful. We went to the National Museum of History after that and walked through a few of the exhibits. A Chinese guy a little younger than me asked me something in Chinese relating to his camera… could I take a picture of him? I didn’t know what he was asking me. He clearly was getting frustrating and I was too so I just said OK just to see what would happen. With his whole family behind him, he started focusing to take the picture of just me in the National Museum. I was a bit shocked, I wasn’t sure if I should feel flattered or shy or surprised. But regardless, I walked away smiling. We stopped to have a typical Korean lunch at a pre-arranged tourist restaurant but it was nice. We took off our shoes and had lunch sitting on the floor the way a Korean family would normally. I ordered bibimbap and the two ladies had beef bulgogi and we shared a little of everything. Our tourguide and our driver sat at a separate table but the tourguide frequently came over to take pictures for us and check to see how we were. I liked our tourguide, he was a very nice guy who tried his best to make sure we were very happy. After lunch, the two Guatemalan ladies and my tour guide left me, that part was over and only I was continuing on for the second half – a tour all on my own! My tourguide was a young girl who had actually studied in Boston at Berkeley. She was psyched to have a fellow Bostonian with her, (never in her history of tours had she gotten a Bostonian in a tour) and she really took me under her wing and took care of me.

When in the ginseng snack store, I didn’t want to try any of the snacks in fear there may be nuts involved. My tour guide (Heather in English, or maybe she just likes that name because in Korean it’s something like Surin) told one of the workers (who was insisting that we try the snacks) that I was allergic to nuts so I didn’t want to try anything just in case. So, the girl replied, very confused – why are you allergic? Shows how normal allergies are here!

The people you meet: Julie, Linda and Joe

We have had a couple translators while we were here, one of them was alright, the second one was awesome though, apparently (says Edit). I called the international university nearby to see if someone would want to work for us and a guy on the other end named Joe helped out tremendously. When he couldn’t find a student to do the work, he went out of his way to find a friend to help us the very next day. She was alright, but she wasn’t persistent enough, really. She gave up much too quickly so we didn’t get all the information we needed. The second time we were stressing and needing a co-worker, it was 10 pm at night and we were about to give up (or hire one for a minimum $400) when the realtor I was going to meet the next day called me in my room to discuss where to meet. I told her about our predicament and she called 15 minutes later with someone who could help us out. We were so psyched.

Julie is the assistant of a realtor I met with. And, Linda was a real estate agent, one who we had never met before but she is the representative for BP in Korea, so I was asked to meet with her. Both ladies were amazing, and I had an absolutely wonderful time with them. With Julie, we talked about smiling – how Koreans don’t smile at someone they don’t know. The difference in our cultures (they aren’t friendly and warm until they know you well enough) Julie has an “idea” that all Americans are fat, friendly, independent and smart (she said to me, oh so you studied in the US? You must be really smart!) She also said to me, wow it seems like you eat a lot, how are you not really fat? I meet a lot of Americans and none of them are really fat. But your portions are so large! It was really funny, I laughed a lot. She told me that Koreans don’t tell jokes. They were shocked when they saw our president on TV at the inauguration dancing with his wife. That would never be broadcasted in Korea! Also, just as people don’t normally tell jokes, it would be a disgrace for the president or the first lady to say anything sarcastic, just joking around. Also, when I told her about the health care issue we have going on in our country right now, she was shocked that we don’t have some sort of health care reform. I would have loved to continue talking with Julie, it was so much fun to get into the intricacies of the Korean culture.

Linda was awesome, probably one of the nicest realtors I have met. She understands what we do and has never met with us before so she wasn’t tired of my questions. We met at a really cute little French café and she insisted on buying the coffee for us. We sat and talked for 3 hours; mixing between personal talk (again on culture) and housing talk. She confirmed the discussion I had had with Julie that Koreans were very friendly once they got to know you, but cold up front. She had lived in Cambridge for a year so we had a lot to talk about. After the 3 hours, she asked me to go to lunch with her, but I needed to get back to Edit. I was a bit bummed cause she wanted to take me to a typical Korean meal. Then on the way out, after all her help (she was ready for me to keep going and going with questions!) she turned to go back in for a second and I said oh! I think I’ll take some cheesecake for my co-worker (since Edit loves it) and she went and bought the blueberry one; I said is this for me? And she said no. Once the man handed it to her she gave it to me and said “Lauren this is for you”. After buying me coffee, giving me a whole 3 hours and planning on taking me out to lunch after, she bought me a whole scrumptious cheesecake. If I was relocating to Seoul, she would be my first pick as a realtor/relocating agent. Above all, everyone around the world is really the same. We may have different mannerisms and different culture, but deep down we are all the same person defined by our morals and the characteristics that make us who we are. She was genuine, and that’s the best quality you can find in a person, I think.

My friend Joe from the University called me to check and see if everything was OK; he had heard that we had not finished our work and wanted to see if we needed someone else to help out. What a great guy.

We got our nails done in Asia

I am sightseeing tomorrow, and really excited for a day to hopefully have fun and see the culture. Seoul has been a whirlwind of malls for me and I’m tired of it. I’m happy that no one really approached us and got super sketched out by what we were doing, though; it was pretty nerve-racking to have someone watching you every single step of the way, since there was someone on every corner meant to help out. In honesty also, I’m a bit sick of people who don’t smile when you approach them, and are really overall a bit unfriendly and cold; aside from the realtors that I met; all of them were very nice, especially Linda and Julie. Edit called me tonight and she had a wonderful day in Pusan where she nearly finished the survey in one day. I’m really hoping that my last stop in Ulsan will be like that. It would be nice to end with an easy survey and get to look around a bit; see the real Korea that I have heard so much about since everyone should be very friendly here, because that is what I was told and why I wanted to come in the first place. Plus, I haven’t really tried too much of the local food because I have been nervous about what I’m eating. Some of the local stands we have walked by have an awful, awful smell to them that I can’t place. (Reminded me a bit of Taiwan….) Some sort of cooking meat probably, but I thought that food was suppose to smell good. This smells fried, stinky and unhealthy. I really don’t want to accidentally eat it. I have tried some of the local food, and I’m surprised at how unhealthy a lot of it is. Fried, thick and heavy. How do these people stay so thin?

A lady asked me what I was doing (in a Gap, I couldn’t believe we found it, and a Marks and Spencer’s!) I told her I was doing a study. She hesitated and said OK, but no cameras. What made her think I wanted to take pictures? Edit is learning how to speak Korean with her new dictionary. Top of her priority was to learn “may I please have a train ticket to Pusan?” so the lady gave her a student ticket; Edit is almost 30 years old! But, she certainly had no complaints. The department stores here are at least 10 floors with high-end brands branched throughout the floors. If you want to find Tommy Hilfiger, GOODLUCK. And the malls are a pain in the ass confusing. They are usually in some sort of building (an office building) and you need to figure out how to get to the mall. And they are huge, and normally you end up walking around in circles trying to get to where you are going to because they are so confusing. The weirdest thing I found was that availability of many products (including some groceries and random things like DVD players and microwaves) was so much better in Taiwan. Some of these things were just impossible to find in Korea, and they were so spread out. It was so strange; grocery stores were organized in the weirdest way I have ever seen. But at the end of one of our shopping trips, we got our nails done. What a typical thing to do in Asia, but it was nice to pamper ourselves, we needed and deserved it!

Gamsa Hamnida

The subway systems here, both in Taiwan and Korea are pretty amazing. We could learn a thing or two from them; especially Taiwan. When you buy a ticket, you are given a coin. The coin goes in and out of the machine when you enter the subway, and you need the coin to get out of the subway (you put it in the machine again), then the coin is gone. Talk about efficient and cost-effective! Not only that, but the subways appear brand-new. They come every few minutes and have very clean, nice-looking gates which open when the train appears to prevent anyone from falling and/or trying to commit suicide. And, don’t even think about chewing gum or taking food on the system; you’ll get a hefty fine. All in the name of keeping it clean. A really nice girl saw Edit and I looking at a map and stopped to ask us if we happened to need any help, she helped us through the whole process of getting a transit card and which stop we would need to go to. It’s people like that who will just make or break your day. She was one of the few people we met who spoke English very well.

Another day, another grocery store. This one wasn’t as spread-out as the last and the manager didn’t think twice about telling us it was fine to write down prices; he was super nice about it. Not as many people tried to question my work or stare over my shoulder; (though a good portion of them still did that). Here, people are much more pushy than in Taipei, and if they run into you they are much less likely to apologize. I may even venture to say that some people were quite rude. I wasn’t expecting that after all the great things I heard about Korea!

I have been told, and have noticed, that products that are created here are not imported; such as soy sauce and rice. It makes it a pain in the ass to record symbols on the survey book though; and it makes for bad comparisons. The fresh food here though is surprisingly amazing. When it comes to baked goods? Move over France. The selection and quality is just incredible, and I have never been so tempted to eat cake. During lunchtime, I walked around the whole mall about 3 times trying to decide what I wanted to eat. Dumplings? Sushi? Some concoction that looked amazing but I didn’t know what it was? The best looking donuts ever? A fruit smoothy? Home-made tarts and cheesecake? Ice cream? A burger from Burger Project? There was too much to choose from so I bought lunch and then got a pizza with Edit (sat down at a restaurant). I decided to save my lunch for later.

If I come home and continuously bow for no reason, don’t be surprised. I think my stomach muscles are getting stronger from the need to show the locals some respect with the simple gesture of bowing a little when saying hello or goodbye, especially since I don’t speak any Korean and I’m not quite sure how much they understand “thank you”. I’ve always seen it in movies but it’s cool to actually experience it and know how important it is in their culture. Many of them say hello and goodbye with a bow so I have tried to do the same thing, without the Korean. “Gamsa homnida” is thank you, but I’m pretty sure I have absolutely no idea how to say it correctly. Korean is a pretty language, they drag out a lot of words and have strange accents for others. It’s interesting how being emerged into a culture can really show you the beauty of the people. I never really found Asians very attractive, but now I am seeing things a bit differently.

I talked to Mom and Uncle Bobby over skype tonight which was very nice. I am somewhat worried that I will find myself a bit lonely when Edit leaves. The more and more I do this job, the more negative sides of it come out, I think. But, I still love it enough to keep it for at least another year. I worry immensely about life after surveyland, I really do. Laurel is passing in her resume on Monday, I wish her great luck, how crazy would that be if she got the job???

Adjusting to Korea

Oops didn’t get up in time for the gym, but hopefully I will tomorrow… I haven’t updated my phone for the current time here in Korea, it’s still an hour behind Taiwanese time. So, when Edit called me at 9:45 the first thing I realized was that it was 9:45 and not 8:45, oops. 2 days in a row I got up late! What’s new. It was rainy and gross out today, we started late (around 12:30 pm!) and we didn’t have any luck with the business center (they wouldn’t do our phone calls for us), so the day wasn’t starting out too well. When we arrived in the mall they had a system so that you wouldn’t get rain on the floor; you put your umbrella in the plastic bag and rip it off, and you have an umbrella cover! Brilliant. We asked for permission and the manager of the grocery store used a lady who spoke English and manned the coffee counter to translate for us. What he told us is that technically we need to go through the marketing department on Monday, but if we wanted to do it today he would “close his eyes” and pretend he didn’t see anything. So, we kinda had permission, at least we knew we couldn’t get in trouble. When the manager was leaving (he appeared to have really important meetings to attend to) Edit and I performed a series of low bows to express “thank you I know it’s not in your place to say that it’s OK to write down prices in the whole mall, but we appreciate that you will allow us to”. Not many managers would ever do such a thing. There were many people who said “no prices” and wanted to know what we were doing, and many others who clearly disapproved, but we got through it without anyone trying to kick us out. A few ladies even stared over my shoulder as I wrote down the information, without saying a word to me. One lady at the counter where we initially asked for permission signaled to me that I had a pretty face. I’m sure she doesn’t see much like it in the sea of beautiful Asian people (they really are quite beautiful).

When we moved into the clothing section, one girl laughed at me as I was writing down the prices, and another one looked pissed when I knocked over a shirt – she reached down to grab it out of my hands and rearrange it herself before putting it back on the hanger; I was taken back by her rudeness. But, no one said I couldn’t write down the prices. There were 3 people at every corner trying to help you out which was quite annoying especially when I don’t even know how to say hello or goodbye or thank you in Korean (it’s really not easy to remember, I swear). Overall, the nice employees outnumbered the rude ones, but it’s so much easier to remember a bad experience. We had a lunch of some weird pumpkin and salad sandwhich, I had a chicken skewer with veggies, and we also shared a squash with cheese and seafood on top. All was very good grocery store food. I also may have had a krispy kreme donut for 2 days in a row (MAN are they addicting!)

For dinner, we tried to find grandmother’s bimbimbap amongst the “business clubs” for men looking for a peep show or maybe even a prostitute, but we found another bimbimbap restaurant after having absolutely no luck with English and striking out after looking for help in a Texan restaurant – (at one point during the explanation he said his memory was clean, whatever that means!). (Seriously, so much less English here than Taiwan!) The bimbimbap was really good. Shrimp in the middle, and a medley of cucumbers, mushrooms, cabbage, egg, lettuce, onions, etc. etc. which I mixed around with some kimchi, rice and pickled jalapenos made for a great meal, and a semi-healthy one too.

I couldn’t get in touch with the realtor today to go out for Halloween tonight, I was bummed a little, even though I really wasn’t in the mood to go out. I think her mailbox was full and her direct line kept on ringing and ringing. Oh well, I didn’t go to bed early tonight anyways.