Work resumed....

So I know it's hard to appreciate how bad the living condition is with the pictures I have posted before. Pictures sometimes don't do it justice because the person taking the picture is also standing in part of that small space..... so we took some more pictures showing how hard it is to just have your own private area in the dorm.

That's me. Slouching over just so that I don't hit the ceiling. Sometimes when I wake up at night, I had to remind myself not to get up too quickly lest I might hit the ceiling.

Author in action. That's me trying to type this blog post. Yup, now you know how these posts are made. Either on my bed slouching over, or feeling very lonely in the kitchen sitting on a chair and small table.

That's Joyce having trouble drinking her water. I mean, Joyce is already not tall to begin with and her head is hitting the ceiling. She had to tilt her head to one side in order to drink her water -_-.

This is me almost hitting the bathroom ceiling. No, I'm not standing on a stool. That's literally how low the ceiling is.

Many times a night I would get so scared that if a fire breaks out, none of us would get out. Last night I feel so stuffed that there is no fresh air in the place, I got up quickly and went to the kitchen so I can open up the window there. This is getting really bad.

So Joyce and I spent the entire morning visiting 5 hostels to see if we can live there. Most hostels in Seoul are actually quite nice, although many of them are not cheap, around $70 a night. The best one we saw was actually around $40 a night. We really really wanted to stay there since the accommodation is nice, people are nice, common area is big and clean (and filled with food), but they don't have any opening over the weekend, so we would have to move to another place on weekends and move back (this place is right inside Hongdae). Super disappointed!!

We ended up deciding on just an Airbnb place with good rating, although we couldn't see the place. It's still close to the Sinchon area. The plan is to move out this Friday.

What did we do the rest of the morning? Well, we went to Seoul Station to buy train to Busan. Did I just say Train to Busan? Yes. Hopefully no zombies will be involved.

The whole process is quite simple. There is a foreigner's discount according to the chart below.

This is actually a really good deal! We got the flexible 2-Day pass for the day we go and day we return. We were able to book the leaving time and seat (we're leaving tomorrow) super fast. 

So the plan is that we would take our luggage with us to Busan Tuesday after our shift finishes at 5:30pm (our train is at 8pm), get there at around 10:20pm, return on Friday around 3pm or so, check in at the Airbnb after 3pm, work our night shift, then start living at the new place. So tonight is going to be our last night here! I honestly dread coming back everyday.

After buying the Busan tickets and finding a hostel/Airbnb, we went to a jjimjilbang to take a shower. Yeah... it's that bad. Joyce has pushed my limit of acceptance to spa-like facilities. I truly still cannot be in places with public baths..... but I'm trying to accept it more. 

While we were in the onsen and cold onsen, a grandma started talking to us in Korean. She asked where we were from and when I said we are from America, she asked if we were originally from Taiwan. Dude, that was the second time someone asked if we were from Taiwan today.... do we look that Taiwanese?! When I said we were, she started talking about this thing they sell at the market that is "tubu". I don't know why, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what she was saying..... I asked her what "tubu" is and she said "kong! kong!" I was like.... kong?! After like 3 minutes of strenuous thinking about it, I said, oh!! Tofu!! Ah crap! All the Korean going out of my brain... and I remembered that she was trying to tell me that it's made out of soybean -_-. OMG. She was trying to tell us that they sell these stinky tofu at the night market. Smells bad, but tastes good. I think she gave up trying to talk to me after that. :(

So what Joyce got is called 묵은지해장국.... I know it's a hangover soup since that's what it said in English and Chinese, but I still don't know what each part of the name means.

It was good to finally have taken a shower. We walked over to Hongdae area and ate at this place with a lot of sundae. Joyce saw this soup and wanted to ask the lady if there is meat in it. I tried my best to ask her that in Korean, but I don't know if I did something wrong to offend her, but she was quite annoyed and said in Korean "it's the one you just saw. Can't you tell if it has meat or not?" Then Joyce and I both tried to Google it to see if it has meat..... but still couldn't tell from the picture, so we just went with our gut feeling that there was some meat in it and ordered it. It has meat.

I, on the other hand, just tried the pork guk bap (돼지국밥). I actually don't quite know how you're supposed to eat it.... so I just kind of eat it like tofu stew. It was good... but needed some salt :p. I actually wanted to get this sundae bokkeum, but she said she can't make it for just one person..... que lastima! Next time then.

After that, there was more strategizing at a cafe because..... we can't go back to our place :(

So we went back and worked four hours at the cafe. It was much better today for both of us, probably because we're finally 90% over our jet lag and can carry on conversations without wanting to fall asleep. Joyce and I told them that we just couldn't tolerate the living condition - it's just too uncomfortable and unsafe, so we are at the most going to work until Sunday. They were very disappointed since they already have a set schedule of volunteers and losing two people means that they're going to have some problems. Well... the working experience today was pretty pleasant, so we may reconsider it... but we'll see.

It's been raining in Tokyo and Seoul so much that it's actually cold during summer! I don't remember being cold at all last year (and soooo many people warned me this year that it's gonna be stuffy all the time). But it's really cold for me! I was really considering buying a jacket! Hopefully the weather is much hotter in Busan...

Last night at the dorm. Good thing we're leaving because the people living here brought over a friend and started drinking outside. Hope they don't get crazy and go drunk. I've always avoided these people during college years and I'm sure I wouldn't want to be in this condition 14 years later.....