In between then and now

The last time I wrote was back at the end of August. My apologies. I have been settling in to my new home, new city, new country. After two months, I believe I have gotten the hang of certain things. I have gained confidence in communicating and I would like to believe that my vocabulary is expanding.

Here is a recap of some highlights of the month of September:

1) Chuseok. This is one of the most important holiday celebrated in South Korea. They refer it as the Korean thanksgiving. Everyone goes back to where the eldest of the family resides (in most cases, where their halmoni or arabuji are) in order to spend time together. People make and eat songpyeon and kids receive money from their grandparents. 

This year is great. Chuseok allows us to have the day before it and the day after it off. This resulted into a five day week vacation including the weekend. 

We took this time to visit our friend in Anyang and together we also visited the Hwaseong fortress in Suwon. 

Then....I fell sick on Chuseok. Everyone fell sick because of the changing temperature. Despite this, I drugged myself and continued with our plan to go to Everland on the Friday. It was nice. An amusement park geared more towards children but the T express was a nice scary ride.

On the weekend, we were supposed to go to Bukhansan, a mountain north of Seoul, but I was too sick and wanted to recover before going back to work. So we stayed in Ilsan and shopped and saw a movie.

2) Shopping. Always.

3) Finally have a phone plan. We have been living for two months without phones and data plan. Although, you are never short of finding an wifi hotspot in South Korea. Yet, it is a huge relief to know that you have internet at any time. Furthermore, phone and data plans are ridiculously inexpensive here. Canada and the United States should follow suit. My current plan with KT/Olleh is 38$ for 750mb of data, unlimited calls between same network, unlimited text, free wifi Olleh hotspots (subway and buses), and much more. I love you korea.

4) Used Korea Post. I sent to my sister a package for her birthday. After going to the post office to get a box, I proceeded to fill it up with various things that I had picked up since coming here. The post was efficient and I used the EMS services which is supposed to be the best quality/price option. It cost me 29$ but it came with a tracking number that is trackable in other countries' websites and it only took about a week to get there. This was perfect since I didn't realize time was passing by so quick and I needed the package to arrive by my sister's birthday.

This brings us to the month of October where we have another 4 day vacation including the weekend. So this landed perfectly on when the Busan International Film Festival begins. We are headed as I write this to Busan via KTX. I have always enjoyed riding the TGV in France and it feels great to watch the Korean scenery pass by. Next post will be about how this trip goes!