This WON's for you, KEPCO

I wonder what we'll pay for utilities around here. I guess in living off-base, you have a little extra money for utilities and if you save it, you keep it. So we didn't run the A/C too much this summer and hopefully we won't have to run the heat too much when the winter months come around. Korea Electric Power Company is going to build a lot more nuke plants and there will be more power and hopefully the rates will drop- in 2025. I just didn't know the utilities would be so much around here. You don't hardly think about it in the US- we loved our pellet stove in Nebraska, because gas and electric went way up and we were able to heat the whole house for $300 for the whole season- and Julie kept the house at 77 degrees. That probably won't happen here. We may have to get a kerosene heater for the house as well.

Insadong Market

This was quite a fun trip to the market. We needed to shop for a baby-grand piano since we're settled and everything. I just don't know where we're going to put the thing. This apartment just got a lot smaller. But we saw the first one for 4,000 Won. So that's a little less than 4 grand. You almost feel guilty talking the guy down, so I'll get a native Korean to do that for me. Then I don't feel bad at all!

Violet drew a crowd, and here's a picture of them taking pictures of her. She's so cute and the people can't help but stop and talk to her and take her picture all the time.

And here's how I learn Korean. You read the signs and the Hangul on top matches the Romanization so you learn the sounds and letters by reading the signs out loud. YEOK means station and GIL means street. Ichon is the part of Seoul we live in. And you say Ichon-dong, dong meaning section/village/area/etc. And there's a pic of Tabitha playing in the fountain on the side street there.

I have to speak in Church tomorrow on kindness. I'll spare the details, but after having to threaten 3 of 4 kids with death and dismemberment on an hourly basis today, writing a talk on kindness is going to be tough to do.

The Tripps from Church took us down there and we went out to a restaurant for $36 worth of kim'chi, rice, dumplings and broth. When you consider that's what we spent and fed 12 people, that's pretty good. And it's good food around here too.

We're going back Tuesday to get a native Korean piano. We saw the Japanese Yamaha pianos, and the regular uprights were about 18 grand. Not even a baby grand!

I finally got a Korean flag, too. 9,000 Won and it came with a pole and little holder and 100 of whatever they use in North Korea for money. I'll copy it here one of these days and you all can print it out and use it for North Korean goods you see at the local market. I love Korea.

The 2 Koreas/ SCHOOL'S IN!!!

It took a few weeks to register with me, but this country is always prepared for war. There's things in the bridges and tunnels to slow down an invasion, surface to air missiles on some of the tall buildings, military members walking the streets and a huge Army post in the middle of Seoul.
I guess if you don't look for them you don't see them, but amazing how prepared this place is for a war that will probably never come. They have 18-month mandatory service for all Korean males, and it's no picnic, either. They have corporal punishment in their military so you can get physically hit for the slightest infraction. No wonder they're so good about saluting around here! The KATUSA (Korean Attached To US Army) Soldiers are the ones that speak the best English and it's seen as a good assignment to earn your $60 a month working as an admin clerk instead of drilling and marching up on the DMZ. And you don't see as many military people on the buses and subways in the US as you do around here. So they really are prepped for war here in a way the US really doesn't have to be. I need to get off the war thing, but it's why I'm here, really. I'll have to see the places north of here and what they look like- there's a lot of defensive lines cut into the terrain, so I'll have to take pics of them and post them on here.

On a plus note, the kids started school. Julie gets a break now and only has Violet around to worry about. It's nice, because she'll get all caught up on 5 years of scrapbooking that she's way behind on. Not to mention, she can just relax now. The school here seems to be really good and it's on base, so it's safe and secure. They have school buses that come off-post and pick the kids up so it's really easy to get them to school. I have been riding my bicycle to work the last few days, and it's been really nice to do so. No real traffic, either. In fact, what meakes it so easy is that I can skip most of the busy traffic by going under the roads in the subway tunnel at Ichon Station. People look at me a little funny, but it's OK- I'm not the one paying 1000 Won to get to work. Another thing that makes Korea so nice is the cheap transportation. Japan sure ain't that cheap! It's at least 8 bucks to get around Tokyo. Anyway, I carry my bike up and down the stairs, ride onto the base and I'm good. It's really nice. And then I don't have to worry about finding a parking place around the office, either. That's just annoying how crummy the parking is around here. At least with a bike, it's really easy to park next to the door.

Chusok is coming up

We get Labor Day off, so we'll go to the amusement park while the Koreans are all at work! Then we'll get locked in the house for Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving) because to even think about leaving Seoul or trying to get around Seoul would be impossible. Everyone's cheering around here again- some Korean must have won something.
In any case, today we moved from the Chapel by Jahamun Tunnel to Yeoundungpo Chapel. It's brand new and it's really, really nice. We took a historic picture today as we moved to the new chapel south of the Hangang River. It took a few hours and driving across Seoul is never a quick task. The thing about going to church with the Koreans is this- they want to have joint activities with the natives, and then after 1 or 2 times, there's no way to talk to them and they don't wait in line for food, so that turns off the Americans. They don't drive like that, why should they wait in line for anything? It's a cultural thing- if the US was completely flattened 2 generations ago, we'd still be in survival mode, too. And we don't have a lot of guns and artillery pointed at us, either. So it makes things prioritize differently. Still, I love these people and their quirky ways.
We have our household goods now, so we have all we need. I've put the bikes together and the only problem is Julie's tires- they're those weird valve stems and I can't seem to find the fitting to fill them up. I'll just get new tubes so we don't have to deal with this anymore. Those are too expensive anyway. The best part of all this is our mattresses are here. And I'm sleeping a lot better because of it. So is Julie. And now we have more clothes so we can wash clothes every 8-10 days instead of every 6. And there's TOYS in the house finally. Just in time for school to start. I guess we'll see how it all goes. We didn't go anywhere today since we're still getting organized and putting things away. It didn't rain, so we should have at least gone to Namsan Park and looked around, but it's better to get things done. When school starts, we'll be a lot busier.

2008 Beijing Olympics- Native Coverage

I have to say being here is kind of funny when the Olympics (ORIM-PEEKS!) are going on. Like we lost in Baseball to S Korea and the Koreans at work brought it up. Maybe next time we'll clear out our best players from all the Major Leagues (that aren't juicing it) and come out and see who wins. It's just a little hard when the season is on back home and they are paying out millions in contracts so these jerks can run to London in 2012 and beat the world in Baseball. We did it in Basketball and clobbered everyone. We didn't do it in 1980 and some rookie hockey players made history. I guess we'll have to stop that and go all pro and shatter the whole spirit of the thing. We live off-base so there's really no American TV on our 30 cable channels. We'll catch a short glimpse of who someone is in English and the Hangul Fairy will wave her wand and magically the whole thing goes Korean. So you have to be quick. It's really hard in team sports competitions, because someone will score a point and you have to look at the color of the jersey, watch the scoreboard with writing you don't recognize and try to figure out who is who. Or my favorite thing, where the American is about to do something and they either cut to a commercial or switch sports so you can watch some Korean not get a medal! I doubt it's intentional, and they're keeping up with their medal count, so I can't blame them, and we're all a little nationalistic over here, so it's fair play.
Julie got to watch her gymnastics and quite a bit was on the Armed Forces TV channel, so she got to watch Americans fall off the balance beam and the Chinese cheat in English. And you don't have to guess what the commentators are saying. But they do speed up in Korean when their guy is ahead. I don't see how their fellow Koreans can follow it! I did see the female weightlifter from S Korea get the gold medal. They must have cooked her up in a lab somewhere. Korean women couldn't look like that if they ate like Americans and watched TV all day.
And probably the best part of this whole thing is this- when a Korean does something, you can tell there's a few hundred people watching, because you hear yells from all 4 buildings and they echo. They all have their windows open and they cheer loudly so you can hear it. I wonder if it's like that in a place like New York during the Superbowl- except they probably wouldn't have their windows open- maybe in Miami.
Heaven help us if we ever beat these people in World Cup Soccer. I can see the rioters outside our door now. Lucky for us, we'll never be any good at Soccer or there would be a lot more dead Americans overseas.
I guess if we really wanted to, we could have the government subsidize all the Olympic sports and pay our athletes to get really good and then even more people would hate us, because we'd beat everyone at everything. But we take the rookies that have paid the price and do it for the love of the game. And the endorsements that follow at least a few silver medals. Would you buy anything from the guy that took the Bronze?

Hanguk-Mal

As I sit here next to the window in my recliner eating Swedish Fish and sweating, I think about my time here in Korea. I need to score a bag of their custard-filled pastries here, but I don't know what they're called, nor where else to get them besides Samgakji Station, it's 1 or 2 North of Ichon, and it's not worth 2000 Won to get them. They need to have them around here and I'm sure they do, I just don't know where to look right now. We went to Dunkin' Donuts tonight looking for the cheap t-shirts that rail against the Japanese and the islands they're fighting over. Things like that around here will ruin million dollar business deals. Westerners think that's silly, but here it's a big deal. You dishonor someone and you close the door forever if you don't apologize. I wouldn't have been a good missionary around here, luckily the Latinos in Miami were more understanding- and they were in the US, so they sort of had to accept certain things there. I'm not taking any chances here- I even got a Korean flag and put it on my door for tomorrow. It's Korean Liberation Day on 15 August. Like our 4th of July. So I don't mess with that.
I'm also trying to get my head around the Hangul writing. But it's a little tougher than I thought. The sounds aren't too bad, but the letters are sort of tough to keep straight with the sounds. Anyway, I actually deciphered a stop sign (chong chi) and I try to read the Hangul when it's printed near English, it's better than cheating, because it's legal and it helps you learn it.
So here's to the mighty South Koreans and hopes that the bombs/artillery/missiles/etc all stay silent and the people get together like Germany- without firing another shot. It'll crash this economy worse than the German one, but re-unification is worth it. You can spend a LOT less on defense and reinvest it in factories and stuff up North to keep the wolf from the door.
TAEGEUKI- The Korean Flag - all the symbols around the Yinyang represent the four elements.
Pizza, cheeseburgers, chicken and ice cream if you're ME!!!

North Korean Attack!!!

I could have sworn in the last two nights the North Koreans were coming down here- after they flattened Seoul. And I was in the Seoul-flattening part of the deal. There were these thunderstorms that rival a Nebraska gully-washer at 4AM, every night. Complete with the fireworks that help add to the effect. The first night, Julie jumped in bed but I was up a few seconds before it all hit and figured something was up. No sense being scared when the North Koreans are shelling you. Then last night's sound and light show scared me and I couldn't get back to sleep for an hour. We sleep with the windows open and fans on us here - so the jerk that starts up his Daelim (Harley wannabe) at 6:30 in the morning gets to wake up all of Ichon-dong when he does that.
So the big question for the 33,000 American Servicemembers is this- how does this all end? Seoul isn't exactly a bombed-out hole in the ground-it's a full up cosmopolitan city. Based on the stuff I've read about the North, they're all paying lip service to the "Great Leader". These idiots always have to create a cult of personality and a god-like appearance to the people who probably don't want to worship him, but would rather pay homage to the little freak than get shot or tortured. That's the true crime here- the lack of freedom to vote against him because in the US, he'd be on the O'Reilley Factor faster than John Edwards' sprint from the No-Tell Motel at 3AM.
There's a few things you should know about Kim Jong Il. He's a freak. And he's really a freak- he's into Western movies and mass-media. Like he's into the whole Cowboy thing. I'll bet he cried like a baby in "Brokeback Mountain". (SHUDDER) Who knows what else that guy is into. So you're not exactly dealing with a rational person here.

Toilets! How do they make that work?

Fortunately, Western Civilization is taking over the world in the most important aspect. American Bathrooms are becoming the norm in this part of Asia. But there's a chasm we're trying bridge here, if you think about it. They say "How can you sit on that filthy thing?!?" And we say "How can you squat over that filthy thing?!?" Both have their advantages, but the dang squatters are really hard to balance a newspaper and use at the same time! Our apartment has two bathrooms and both (fortunately) have regular toilets- as evidenced by the fact I'm still married and Julie is still here in Korea.
As a Historian, I realize that to the victor goes the spoils, including getting the say in the History Books about the other guy. If your country's history has an entry that begins with, "We met a new race of people today- we thought we'd just trade goods and be allied with them against our own enemies. When we were eating their strange food and trying to figure out their crazy language, it was going well enough. Until I excused myself to use the restroom. We'll have the rest of the cities burned and sacked by Thursday." If that's what it says, then you've made the world a better place. Indoor plumbing isn't something to be trifled with. It's bad enough the Brits walk around all high and mighty and they just got water closets within the last 40 years.
I'll end this crappy entry on this note- in one of my trips to the Middle East, I'm in the restroom at the upscale mall (not the one for the dumb infidels) and I'm standing next to the guy that's scrubbing his fingernails- you get what I'm saying? Suffice it to say I waited until someone opened the bathroom door to go out so I didn't have to touch it and when we hit the gates of the maximum security prison we called a military base, I was never so happy to be back in my own filth (complete with real sitdown toilets!)
Then again, those squatters look really easy to clean.

Geongbukgung Palace

This is a restored palace in downtown Seoul. But you'd never know you were in Seoul by the looks of the place. It looks so rural and quiet.
Our visit was hot and humid, but we needed decent weather to go do anything and this is the first Saturday in a few that it didn't rain. Monsoon season is somewhat over then.
The place is really cool. There's other palaces, and we'll have to put that on here as well when we go.

Korean Fan Death!!!!

I couldn't stop laughing, and I hope I didn't offend the ROK Military Counterparts, but they actually believe here if you don't crack your windows a little bit when you're running the A/C or a fan, that you could die. It can smother you, they believe. So you see the cars with their windows down a little bit as well. So if you don't open your window a little bit tonight and run your A/C or a fan and you die- don't say I didn't warn you. I think they get confused between running a fan or burning charcoal in the house. All the Korean-made fans that are big have timers on them so you don't get killed running it. They do have a vacuum system over the tables here that you BBQ at- it sucks up the smoke and runs it outside, thus keeping Seoul nice and muggy. Since Monsoon season is mostly over (except it rained tonight!) it shouldn't be so humid, but it'll still be hot around here.

I went with my boss to Itaewon to exchange some money and we drove down an alley in the Antique district. Then we got stuck down there, a la Austin Powers. Ever seen a 20-point turn? It wasn't anyone's fault and the funny thing was you saw on the walls where the mirror-housings all scraped against them. We had lunch and the girl he's dating showed up and laid into the waiter about something. It was funny, because you could tell she was chewing his butt and she didn't want to sound mad or something. The food was awesome and we had some good conversation. Apparently you don't order meat for lunch, it's too much to eat or something. Then why was it on the menu? I don't get it.

Julie went out to a place that they get the dead skin off your feet- with fish. Julie screamed really loud when the fish started eating on her feet. And then the guy came around and told her to pull her feet out because she was hogging all the fish. Her feet feel softer, but she doesn't want to do that again. It was only 7,000 Won ($7) to do that. I wonder if people in the US would do that.

My $600 car is now up to 80,000 Won ($80) in repair costs. The door handle broke and it was getting annoying to have to unlock it from the other side or leave the window open. I had to take it back after he fixed it because the parts inside are all rusted apart and he had to pull them out and clean them up and weld them back together. I told the guy thanks and I'd see him next week. I hope he didn't think I was making fun of his work, because he worked really hard on the door and I also got a hor that works, but it's really quiet. Maybe I'll order one from JC Whitney and put it in. One that's really loud, because you need a nice loud horn to drive around Seoul.

Last night we went to Naemdemun Market up by Seoul Station. Turns out, it would have been better to take the subway, because it went right from Ichon to that station. Now we know. We ate dinner up there and paid tourist prices for noodles and pork that was mostly gristle. People saw us eating out there at the Market entrance, and a lot of people stopped to look at Violet and the other kids, and they did the usual- the hair touching and the holding like they own the kid, but it doesn't bother her or us for that matter. She gets all the attention and the modeling agents have Julie's number for shoots when school starts.

I had to take a moment to boo the North Koreans at the opening ceremonies. I get to watch them live since we're in the same time zone. I thought they were supposed to march with the South Koreans. Then again, they were propped up by the Chinese back in the day. It's just funny how some of the countries march in with the person holding their flag and about 2 other people. When my credit card has more buying power than their Gross Domestic Product, you get that.

W Visits Yongsan Army Garrison

We needed to do laundry and get the kids' TB tests looked at. Of course Spencer popped positive, so he has to get an X-Ray on his lungs because he's been exposed before to an old strain.
Violet was asleep, so we put her in a basket.
We couldn't go anywhere when it got closer to the time when the President was going to move. So we watched some of the speech and waited for him to drive by. That was quite the motorcade- there were a lot of vehicles- about 20 or so. It was neat to see the caddy and everyone cheered when they all went by. After that , the roads were open so we could get back to the apartment. Julie has her SOFA (Status of Force Agreement) license so she can drive the piece of junk that just broke on me. The driver's side door handle doesn't work on the outside. Along with the horn that doesn't work, it needs to go to the car doctor. In the US that would be the last straw and this car would be driven off a cliff. We can't do that here, Dang.

I've Gone Native

Well, that didn't take long. In just one trip, I ran a red (yellow) light, cut off 2 taxis, went the wrong way down a one-way street and sat in an intersection while I waited with everyone else (and got in the way of the people that had the green light). So it's official- I drive like the locals. Guess there's nothing left to do but wait until someone hits me.

Being well-connected

I heard somewhere once in the beginning of the US Internet boom "If you're not connected, you're irrelevant". While I can't argue with that, I can't totally agree with it, either. The goal of I'm sure many people is to get to a level where you can dictate when the phone/crackberry/email will be there at your beck and call and not vise-versa. This is the most connected country in the world, and I don't know the full stat, but there's more internet connected people around here than the US per capita (since there's 300 million of us and 43 million of them).
But what are the dangers of being TOO connected? The only other country that was probably better connected (and just as prone to mass demonstrations) was France in the 1980s. Their phone system has had a rudimentary e-mail system on it since the 1970s. So it's been really easy for the truck drivers to go on strike, because they can all connect that way. As their population shifts with the influences of the Arabs, it'll be interesting to watch what happens.
So with President Bush in town, they're mad at him about the beef thing. Beef imports from the US were halted due to concerns of mad cow disease and just recently resumed. So people are upset here- I don't recall anyone in Nebraska holding demonstrations against Korea for not buying our beef- then again, I wasn't paying that much attention. They could have sent some people over here to promote the stuff for all I know. But in a world economy, you have to be wary of any bad Public Relations snafus because during 'protest season' in Korea, you don't want to be the reason they're out there. I'll have to research how they all organize, but what if Al Gore had invented the Internet prior to the 1968 Tet Offensive? Would there have been more students involved?
Ask a Taxi driver here (as he's busy cutting ME off in traffic) if he's doing well financially and he'll probably say no and blame the economy. Everything is the economy. If I could understand the news around here I wonder what they'd say about it. We get a lot of feedback from the US media outlets about the perceived current economic situation, so I'd imagine it's pretty similar in Korea.
They have TV's in their cel phones and you see the people here watching them on the subways. They have good reception down there. They love their technology toys here. I don't know what they have here, but I'm sure it's all pretty nice. Maybe I could figure out how to build a really fast laptop or something. But until I can read Korean, it's probably not going to happen.
Bottom line, they have a beef with our beef and we literally don't have a beef with them over it. They advertise that all the beef is from Australia and not the US- and they're trying to set a better policy with it here. This president is one that's more conservative and gets along better with the US. Not that it matters, we're not going to pull 30,000+ troops out and let the N Koreans come down here and take everything.
My $600 car has a broken door handle. I'm interested in how it's going to look after it gets fixed, but there's not exactly a shortage of Daewoo Prince parts. It's just a pain in the butt to open the passenger door to open the driver's side. But it shouldn't cost much to get it fixed, either. Maybe I'll get the horn fixed so I can join the native drivers here at honking all the time.

So what did I think Korea would be like?

This is an interesting thing. I have to say my expectations were actually kind a low. I had no idea this culture would be so inviting and the people so friendly. I've been to Japan so many times, I'm used to standing in a subway station trying to interpret Kanji symbols and figure out where the heck I am- all the while 100,000 people zoom past me. It's not like that here- the Hangul is actually pretty logical and there's a lot more in English here than there. Besides, if a local sees you pull out a map, they ask if they can help. I never expected that.
The sidewalk cafes here are nice and cheap. The food is really good. I never expected to like it this much since it all seemed sort of bland the first time I had it (2004).
The city is really clean- which I expected, except for the air, but I've heard it used to be a lot worse. I can't imagine 25 years ago when they used leaded gasoline! And the place has really grown as well.
I knew they'd have a lot of respect for elders here and they'd like our kids. Violet can't stop getting everyone's attention. The people actually stare at us and it's funny. I don't mind. They see the redhead on my shoulders and just look at her. Fire red hair isn't something the Koreans have. They also are getting Westernized and are getting into plastic surgery and stuff. That's too bad. I think they're all really fine the way they are, but they're going to end up like us (unable to smile after botox or something).
I knew cars would be cheap and rent would be expensive but I didn't know utilities would be out of this world expensive. Driving would be crazy- you really have to be defensive here. I had 3 close calls one day coming home from work and decided I'd stay on base to the extent I could. I'm not ready to really hit Seoul, because I'm afraid they'll all hit me! We did see a bus driver get out of his bus at a light and yell at a lady that cut him off in traffic. I didn't think they had road rage to the extent we do in the US. I know he'd just honk and flip her off in the US because to get out of your car in a country like the US means you think you're bulletproof. In Korea, gun control works because NO ONE has guns. Just the cops- and they look like .22's to me. Not that there's all that many cops anyway. They all drive around with their roof lights on and you see about 10% of the cops you'd see in the States. They also don't enforce a lot of the traffic laws, either. They drive crazy here- they all do. They all want to get there first. But other than the bus driver that yelled at the lady (that actually rolled down her window!) I doubt everyone takes the getting cut off in traffic too personally.
I could go on and on about the food. It's good- I don't know about the fish- I hate fish and I don't eat it. I didn't think they'd eat it that much here, but it's Asia so they eat fish. Yuck.
But I knew there would be rice everywhere, it's Asia. They're pretty thin here, but they're getting chunky as they Americanize. Too bad. I wouldn't wish that on them.
All in all, the resilient culture is not wholly portrayed on MASH, but there's a few things they got right. Kim'chi pots, and an industrious people. I didn't think they all worked as hard as they do, but this place was flattened in the 1950s, and it's quite built up now. Not sure about North Korea, they invited me there, but I decided against it. I'm happy here, not because I know I'm leaving in 2 or 3 or 4 years. but because it's something different and interesting. I can get used to this place and they're probably used to me already.
If you read this, I hope you enjoyed it. As a historian, this sort of thing brings it all alive for me. They're good peeps. I can see how a lot of Westerners come and expliot their desire to make you happy. But they are serious about success here. They go to school a LOT.
Someday I hope there's one Korea and the South doesn't have to get leveled to get there.
KATCHI KAPSHIDA (We go together)

I'm Lovin' It!

Julie and I went to the Temple today. It's quite a few stops and transfers on the subway to get up there, but worth the trip. Getting a babysitter was the easy part, where it's usually the hardest part of the thing. Anyway, as we were heading back to the subway station, it was 1PM and we were starving, so we went to McDonalds, but I couldn't get a drink with my meal. There's a language barrier there. So we got a cheeseburger for Julie and I got a double beef bulgogi buger. Wow, that was really good! I'm sure the beef was Aussie, because they're still demonstrating against American beef over the mad cow disease thing. The Korean surgeon general ate some US beef on TV here to show it's safe, but they have a 'protest season' here, so they need something to protest here. First they're the protester, then the next year, they're the conscripted cops. So all the meat here is marked like that. A drink would have been nice, but it's OK. This is one case where the prices aren't really high, ironically. McDonalds is really cheap here. Pizza Hut pizzas have shrimp and fish on them- and corn. It's sure different.
While we were outside eating (there were no empty seats in there) a guy came up and asked if we were Mormons, because he was on the way to the Temple. He'd done his stint in the Korean Army at Camp Humphries- he was probably a KATUSA (Korean Attached to the US Army) since his English was so good. He said he could tell who we were by looking at us. That was a compliment, but it's not everyday in that part of Seoul you'll see Americans. He was really cool.
I've noticed one thing here. We burn through a lot of money really fast. Leaving the house seems to cost me about 20,000 Won for whatever reason. Good thing they pay extra money to live here, because I couldn't afford it otherwise.
We found a mini-van for Julie (she said she wouldn't drive one when we got married, but I got the last laugh). We could have shipped the Durango over here, but it's better if we sell it in the US and buy something here. We'll be able to get 2 cars here, since they have to grant special permission to do so usually. Not having 2 cars is really inconvenient here. Julie just doesn't like to drive, but it's really hard to haul laundry and groceries around without a car.
And yesterday I had to get the rent and security deposit. So I wired 8 grand to the local bank and got it in 100 dollar bills. So I took 85 Benjamins down to Itaewon and got it changed into 8.6 Million Won. Here's a pic of the money. I'm a millionaire. Then again it's 1,000 Won to the Dollar. But it's decent sized amount of money. Think of having to use cash and the biggest bill there is a 10. There would be a lot of Hamiltons floating around. Since the currency market changes so fast, they don't want to do electronic funds transfer.
Money goes fast here- but we're still getting settled in. So it's normal to buy more things right now. We're still getting settled into the routine of filling the day up with things to do. Once school starts, things will be easier and cheaper on us.
We did get cable hooked up and on the few American channels, we have Disney channel with Korean subtitles. It keeps the kids busy when it's too hot outside to want to be out there, but they're playing on the new playground more and the locals like to see the kids.