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.
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