every 99 times...

i survived my first trip to the grocery store by myself without my teacher there to help me translate things! no problems either. though i was shocked by a few things while i walked up and down the aisles.

~ fruit is so expensive. with the exception of the bananas. i saw strawberries... 7,000won per what i am going to assume was a pound. that is basically $7/lb! for strawberries. what was worse were the kiwi's i passed... 12,000won for six... may i repeat SIX kiwi's. yeesh. so basically i am going to be living off of banana's as my fruit for the next year. and strawberry jam. there is a possibility i might cave and buy the strawberries. but i am going to have to be craving them super bad to pay that price.

~ meat is expensive. it doesn't matter what it is... it's expensive. even the ham they have as lunch meat. which isn't really like ham in the states, but it works i guess. i think 8 slices of that was 3,700won. and we are talking super small circular slices.

~ i found grape juice. :) this makes me happy. i saw the minute maid label and got excited. i ended up getting the korean brand because it was cheaper, but it's 100% juice. so i am not expecting it to be much different from minute maid.

~ i have a feeling i am going to be eating a lot of ramen. so much salt intake going to take place.

~ you don't drink the water from the tap here. audra told me that they were told it was alright if they drank there, but i was strictly told not to drink it. so this means buying my water. in very large jugs.

~ if you want a bag you have to pay for it, whether it be paper or plastic. you have to pay for it. thankfully my teacher gave me one of her reusable bags to keep. though you do have to pay for your garbage bags, which are 20L plastic bags.

since i live about two blocks from the grocery store i will be carrying everything i buy home to my house. i am going to be doing a lot of walking over the next year.

i was told today that i should be expecting a total of 3 packages in the next week. this makes me happy as i am running out of the mini shampoo/conditioner that i bought at the airport because my shampoo/conditioner did not fit in my luggage. there are also treats in there apparently, though no one is telling me anything. it's supposed to be a surprise. i am not a fan of surprises... basically i want to know now!

new post about my first two days of teaching to come tomorrow. i was informed today that i will be teaching 1st/2nd grade after school class to make up the last hour of my 22 hours of teaching. currently i am sitting at 21. i'm sort of nervous/excited!