Turkey and phones

A couple of times a year I really miss being in America. Thanksgiving is one of them. The thought of missing out on the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and, of course, pumpkin pie always makes me a little sad. Especially when I walk down the street and am forced to choose between 김치찌개 (kimchi stew) or 김치볶음밥 (kimchi and rice) for the thousandth time. As much as I've grown to love Korean food, something seems wrong about eating it on Thanksgiving. Picturing my family and friends huddled around a table cutting into a juicy turkey makes me wish I could take a few days off to return home.

Fortunately, near my new school is a Subway sandwich shop, so I was able to at least have a turkey sub on Thanksgiving. Though, to be honest, it was completely unsatisfying and made me long even more for a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Also, that night I made myself some mashed potatoes to go with my pork as a weak attempt to make myself feel like I was celebrating the holiday. So, if anyone at home has any leftover turkey (and I know you do) feel free to toss it in a Fedex box and send it to Korea (the non-communist one).

On another subject, my school was nice enough to buy me a new cell phone (hand phone in Korean) which was fantastic since my old one had long since seen it's day. The new phone came equipped with a camera, a baseball game and everything else you could want. Being that I'm a bit of a tech geek I quickly fell in love with it. That is until I LEFT THE FUCKING THING IN THE BACK OF A TAXI!!!! Sorry. Still quite bitter about that. So to those I recently sent my new phone number to disregard it.

I've heard stories from other foreigners living in Korean about leaving phones in taxis and it seems to run the gambit from 'it was quickly returned to my school' to 'never saw it again' and 'driver showed up and demanded an outrageous price to return it'. So, I'm not holding my breath to get it back. My school has agreed to get me another phone, though, of course, I'll have to pay for this one.

chirp chirp

It's been quite quiet around here, I know. I'd hoped to update with some photos, but stupid me left the cable that attaches from my camera to the computer in St. Louis. And of course my camera is a Sony and everything Sony builds seems to be proprietary so I can't just run out and buy a new cable.

In case you can't figure it out, the above photo was taken on Halloween. Or really the Saturday before Halloween when my friends and I donned inflatable clown suits and hopped all around Seoul like the silly, drunken misfits we are. It was one great night, possibly topping Halloween 2004, which was also amazingly fun.

Aside from Halloween my life as of late has been much like my blog: quiet. A result more of economics than desire. I'm terribly bad with money. I always have been and quite possibly always will be. Well, since my previous job ended in September and I spent five weeks home visiting AND I, of course, have to work a month at my new job before I get paid, I've been really broke. However, tomorrow is payday! Hallelujah!!! My excitement, though, will be short lived since while broke I've had to borrow money from people and now must pay it all back. Oh well, at least I don't have to eat any more f*cking ramyeon.

My school bought me a new cell phone (Korean: Hand phone or han-duh pon) equipped with all the exciting little features like a camera. I was very grateful for the phone as my old one was nice when I got it but, alas, had seen it's day.

Now I'm sitting in the computer room at school. I finished my last class at 5:30 today, but must sit here till 9pm. I must do something to change this rule. Well, off to a meeting.