Days 6-9 Life Without Internet

The view from my balcony.  I often stand out here as the weather has been perfect this week.

So we still don't have any internet though the landlord and DSL company say everything is fine.  Well that's news to me since we don't even have a modem...  They gave us a wireless router, plugged it into the wall and said it worked, but when I said it wasn't connecting to the internet they just said "slow connection".  No.  No connection.  lol  (I'm bumming from a sketchy connection with no password right now.)

TI is sending forceful emails because the apartment was supposed to be move-in ready, and we are missing batteries in remotes, missing one AC remote completely, the water jug spout didn't work, the water heater and gas were turned off so we had to figure out how to turn them on, two lights are burnt out, there were no towels or bowls, we only have one rfid key and they couldn't figure out how to put a code in the door for keyless entry (I finally figured it out myself a few minutes before the maintenance guy arrived), but then I took that opportunity to inform him that the fire sprinkler in the bathroom had started leaking.  Also we have no coffee table which I thought was optional, but all the other TI-ers here have one and nicer couches and better dining table and chairs, so the least we could be given is a small, cheap coffee table.  But I'm working on one thing at a time right now, since everything seems to move slower here.  

My contact to help with stuff is Ramon, who also comes by to clean our apartments twice a week.  He's nice, but I don't think he speaks great English because every time I ask him something he responds "yes" which apparently like Japanese culture means anything, because they don't like saying no.

UPDATE: I just texted the landlord and all of a sudden things started happening!  Apparently the news of what needed to happen wasn't being told to the right people, so all of a sudden everyone showed up to fix lights, replace remotes and fix the leaky sprinkler!  Now I just need internet, coffee table and second AC remote and we're in business for three months!  Yay!

Aside from the above craziness, the apartment and building are nice and don't feel too small for Chris and I to live in for a while (he's already cool to come back for a year, but more on that later-lol).

There's always a smell of smoke and haze in the air because people are constantly burning brush and I think trash, but I can't tell because it's mostly in the mountains.  But I'll see 4-6 fires a day just from my view on the balcony which faces North.  Which is nice because I don't get the afternoon or evening sun, so the temp is pretty constant all day.  Though I really like these small ceiling AC units and the remotes for them, and will like them even better once I know what 18-30 degrees Celsius is in Farenheit.  :)

We've gone to some nice restaurants so far and haven't gotten sick from water or wheat yet! Horrah!!  The prices for prepared food here aren't bad ($5 for single serve fajitas, $7 for a pitcher of frozen margarita) though fancy drinks and Cokes seems to be the same at about $2 per glass.  Clark where we are staying has more American and upscale places as does the SM Clark mall, whereas once you get off the beaten path and pass through the checkpoints, you find the lower-end, but not quite whole-in-the-wall places.  The food has been great at all these establishments (yellow seafood curry, samgyupsal, bibimbap, kimchi (not bad!), and more).

This is bibimbap (no meat) with kimchi in the top left, some pasta I didn't try, some fishy thing with a quail egg that was delicious, and miso soup.  We got these at the Food Mall at the Seoul airport.

That's all for now.  I'm off to eat lunch with the hubby and hopefully have internet upon our return.

Later I will tell you about our trip to the wine shop, the craziness and sadness of Walking Street, and about the other TI-ers I've met here (all really cool).  Until then, I leave you with a pretty view from the balcony after sunset.  I could get used to this.  :)

Days 1-5 Commercial Free

We left DFW at 10:30 Thursday morning, got into Seoul around 5pm Friday and then Clark at 1 in the morning Saturday. We were taxied to the nice Widus casino/resort and went straight to bed as we had been up for almost 24 hours. We got up and ate an interesting breakfast buffet with normal things (pancakes, sausage, mango juice) and odd things (dim sum, mixed fish balls filled with cheese, rice porridge) but all really good.
Then we were taxied over to our apartment where we met the lady that is helping us with visas and generally getting settled in. She introduced us to the guy (Ramon) who will be cleaning twice a week and refilling our water jugs (nobody drinks the water on tap here) and then drove us around Clark a little bit.
There are security guards everywhere. This is apparently due to bomb threats from an extremist Muslin group in the Southern islands though they are super rare and no bombs have been found but unlike reactionary America, they are precautionary here. So it's a just-in-case thing.  Also the malls and grocery stores have guards checking bags and receipts like at Costco.

The apt is pretty secure. There are guards at the front entrance and a guard at each lobby. They are all very nice.

Like other Asian countries I've been to, everyone here aims to please, though everything runs pretty slow here.  Service at restaurants takes forever, and bagging groceries is a slow process.  I have to put my American "go go go!" mentality away.

All in all it hasn't been great culture shock. The things surprising me so far are the children and adult beggars outside of the Costco-type store PureGold. They hound you as soon as you leave the store, all the way to your car asking you to buy food or "please can I have your blessing ma'am?" Then guys came over and helped us put our bags in the trunk to which I informed them we had no cash but they continued helping and then helped us back our car out. Chris tells me its these parking lot people you have to bribe if you want to keep your car safe, otherwise...something may happen to it.  Yea I don't plan on going back there.  The huge SM mall in Angeles city is very American-ish, though you're still not supposed to leave anything visible in your car but that's normal. 

The other culture shock is how the sales associates treat you as they hover over your shoulder. There are tons of them in every section of every store of the mall and at first I thought they were hovering in case I stole something but I've figured out it's how they show customer service. Anything I showed interest in they would pull off the wall and tell me all about it and show me all the features. Or you walk by a section and it's all "bed sheets maaam" or "casserole? Casserole?"  It's super awkward. Do I just ignore them?  I can't just say "no thanks" because I would be doing that every 10 feet (how many meters is that??). Anyway, we are viewed as billionaires here (so says the other TIer that we met and who Chris is replacing) so I get that they're just trying to make a sale, but stop it!  I just want to see what you have and take my sweet time in converting your Philippine pesos to my dollars (divide by 44--not the fastest number to get right).

That's all for now.  I will upload photos and more stories to go with them as soon as we have an internet modem in the apt (should have been here and they will send someone...whenever that will be. lol)
Until then I sit here and watch The Oscars at 10am Monday on HBO (feels weird).  And I haven't seen a commercial on any channel yet. What's with that??  Must research..

Thanks for reading!