Pizza and pickles

After doing pretty much nothing yesterday, except rot away in front of my computer and feel like a terrible person for not doing more (I did go out exploring a bit, got frustrated and came back home), today was much more productive. And it ain't over yet!

I still don't know my own phone number, my tv doesn't work, and apparently I have mold in the corner of my room that my landlord is going to clean/fix while I'm out on Sunday. And then today as I tried to take a shower, I noticed that my hot water isn't working. Michelle (the director) called to ask if my gas was working and it wasn't. Apparently someone else's gas and hot water is out, but Jennifer's was working and she invited me to take a shower at her place, which was nice because I was disgusting. After that, I declared us bffs because hot shower=awesome.

The only thing I'm concerned about is my phone number because it would be nice to have the rents call me. I miss them bunches.

Anyway, after my delicious shower and watching the season finale of Grey's Anatomy (sorry, I got sucked in), I met Don and Natalie and Jennifer for lunch. Unfortunately, the place they wanted to go was closed so we walked to the area where we'd had drinks the other night. That restaurant was closed as well, so we (in fact, they) decided that we'd go to another area that has lots of shopping. So we did.

We had pizza for lunch, which, not surprisingly tastes exactly like American pizza. Although, I've been told that Koreans like to put pickles or relish on their pizza.

We passed a lot of clothing/shoe stores on the way to this high-rise building that is complete with a department store, a grocery store (it kind of reminded me of HEB or Whole Foods), and a movie theatre on the 11-14 floors. The grocery store had lots of bright, shiny packaging and made me want to buy everything! They also had samples (and I'm a sucker for samples) but I restrained myself because I don't have "Thank you" down yet and no one else (in our group) was getting samples.

We checked out the movie theatre on the 11th floor. We had to wait for a very long time for elevators because there are not just 16 floors of the building but there are 6 levels of the basement. And once an elevator is full it won't even stop on your floor, it just keeps going to where it's going. So you move from elevator door to elevator door, trying to figure out which one will make it to your floor first without filling up. It's a very exciting game.

We finally made it up and Don and Natalie explained that when you buy your seats you buy which seat you'll be in, like at a concert. Also, movies in English will be in English with Korean subtitles. Sometimes movies come out before they do at home, or sometimes after. I guess it just depends.

Ok, on to the excitement. We rode the subway home! My first time in the subway here. To be quite honest I was a little bit nervous about figuring out the subway system but it was fairly easy (possibly because we had two pros with us). And it was cheap, which is good, because I'm running low on funds. That is, currency. I have to go to the bank on Monday and exchange some money.

On the walk home from the subway, I was talking to Don as we passed this restaurant with fish tanks in the front. I kept trailing off because I kept looking at the squid or fish or eels or whatever caught my eye in the tanks. It's kind of funny because it's not an uncommon thing to see and yet it's totally strange for me. But cool.

And tonight we are going to a part of the city near the US Army base where it's a little more touristy/foreign. I'm excited because there's an English bookstore. And I'm excited because I get to see a different part of Seoul, which was why our venture out today was nice. I got to see 2 other places (or subway stops) around where I live(about a twenty to thirty minute walk). And tomorrow, more central Seoul!