Rice Cooker

This weekend was fantastic. I spent it almost exclusively by myself, which I have come to really enjoy. I like to wander around and get lost in my head and in the city a little. Saturday was lazy. Mild cleaning, laundry and some food from across the street. But Sunday was a market day! I got up and went out, tried to take a few more pictures, and wholly failed on that front. I feel uncomfortable taking pictures of peoples goods without being able to ask if its ok, even though I am sure it is... I don't know. Anyway, I bought some fruit and decided I needed to head to EMart to get a few things I had on my list. I bought some face moisturizer, since it is quite dry here, and a mat for outside the shower.

The shower is not seperated from the rest of the bathroom, so when I take a shower, the toilet and the sink are getting clean as well... it was a little strange at first, but it is nice that nothing gets dirty because its cleaning with me. What is frustrating is that when I want to get ready in the bathroom after I have showered, the floor is completly wet. I have been using little towels, but I decided it was time to buy a real mat for this particular use. It will have to sit outside the bathroom until the shower is over, as nothing really can stay dry in there.

After Emart, I went to HiMart ( creative, I know) to look for a rice cooker. The lady at the store knew a tiny bit of english and with handsigns and small phrases we firgured out which rice cooker would be best for me. Its small and easy to clean, and easy to use. Of course the instructions are in Korean, but hopefully I can have one of the Korean teachers translate the important stuff for me. I paid for the rice cooker, and was asked whether I wanted to have straps put on it to carry. This may seem strange, but I was slightly prepared as it seems to be the norm at the grocery store to take your items home in the boxes that the store has leftover from unpacking, tape them up and then create straps to hold onto as they take the items home. If it wasn't such a popular station, I would take a picture. Someday I will work up the courage. So she took me over to the station to put plastic straps on the box. Its an interesting little machine, but she managed to strap it in. I walked home with my new rice cooker. So sometime soon I will need to buy some rice, which comes in GIANT bags, so that will be an adventure in itself.

I went back out after getting my goods home and ate at the place across the street with delicious Korean food. Trying to expand my tastes without accidentaly ordering live octupus or something, I chose and item with tuna (chim chi) and Rice (Bap). Turns out I had eaten the same meal my first day in Korea. I was pleased and enjoyed the meal, which came with soup and 3 sides. I am always so full after eating Korean food, and yet not the overly full feeling you get from breads or pasta. Its nice. I am not missing bread, mostly because a bakery across the street has these amazing coconut bread things that I get once a week. I think, because they don't have any whole grain bread, and rice is always a subsitute for pasta, that it hasn't really hit me yet that I won't be eating lasagna or a good BLT for a long time... Thats ok, I am still in the happy with everything phase :)