Happy Hangul day

since 2012 the 9th of October is Hangul day, it celebrates the invention of the Korean alphabet by King Sejong, which means public holiday!! not bad for a first week of work, only doing a 4 day week right little result!

so today I had a nice lay-in headed up to my usual coffee shop to check the internet (not got internet in my apartment yet) but it was closed, so I thought it would be a good opertunity to try and find the Starbucks, it wasn't that long of a walk, but with my laptop in my handbag, I was a little warm by the time I got to the Starbucks.

I got a coffee and some water, only to find out that there was no free Wi-Fi, but a cloud type Wi-Fi, which you had to be a member of or pay for, sod that!

so after a failed trip for the internet, I headed off home, via the bakers for a loaf of bread.

I had decided that I wanted to go into Itaewon for the day, I'd heard there was an English book shop and needed some more reading material, as with out the internet in my apartment, I was getting bored, and feed up of having to go to a coffee shop any time I wanted to talk to my family (or lovely boyfriend) or do something other than read, and drinking coffee at 8.30 at night isn't going to help me while I'm still struggling with jet lag!

the book shop wasn't that hard to find, so my mission for the day was completed in the first 20 mins of my trip, so what else is a girl to do in Itaewon?

I remembered from some other blogs I'd read that there was a market in Itaewon, which caters more to western sizes rather than the single size you find in every other clothes shop in Korea.

the one thing I've noticed with a lot of Korean clothes shops everything is black brown grey white navy blue kaki green or pastel, where are all the bright colours? so tomorrow I've decided I'm going to work in my fusia pink top!

the underground market was a bit dull, I ended up looking at all the accessories and buying a few head bands, I even saw some cute things for my niece that I think I might go back for and give her for Christmas

the 1st 4 days

ok I arrived Saturday morning in Incheon International Airport and it only took me 45 mins to get through security, which is a lot better than the hour and 45 that it took the 1st time I visited back in August!

after a day sleeping I moved into my apartment near Sungkyunkwan university, it was bigger than I remembered which was nice, but it smelt like something had died in the bathroom think I'm going to need a pour a bottle or 2 of bleach down the drain and hope the smell goes away, I did try running some water just incase it was stagnant water, but that did FA.....

Today I went to sort out my Visa and Alien Registration Card (ARC), it wasn't a painful process, the paper work had all been completed by the company, and they just read through the documentation with the admin girl who has befriended me put the paperwork into the computer, took my finger prints then issued me with a certificate of ARC and visa approval conformation, they told me with the ARC certificate I can open a bank account and get a mobile phone and wifi and other stuff

so off we then went to the phone shop to get me a Korean sim card, (it was after 4 and the banks had closed for the day) but the nice men told me (via the admin girl) that with only a ARC certificate I could only get a PAYG sim card that would only do calls and texts, so they started to arrange that, but my iPhone isn't registered in Korea so they cant set me up an account..... this took nearly an hour to find this out!

we then went back to the apartment to try and find out what i'm meant to go with my rubbish, there are no big communal bins, so what are we meant to do with all the boxes and packaging? the admin girl is going to call the landlord tomorrow and ask what i'm meant to do, while we were there she also tried to plum in the washing maching, but still couldn't figure it out, so she called one of the guys from the QC lab for some help as he lives quite close by, he also brought one of the girls from the finance team who was quite nice to me when I visited back in august, he said that would work as is, but i'm a bit dubious.....

I also asked about the heating control, I cant read Hagel yet so just wanted them to confirm which button was hot water and which was heating, they then started to play with the heating controls and the boiler but the boiler wasn't lighting so the finance girl called the gas company and after about 20 mins announced they hadn't been contacted to turn it back on......

so to wash i'm going to have to boil water and have a sink wash, nice!

we are going to try the bank tomorrow, hopefully it will be less painfull than today

well its 9 pm now so I better head back to my apartment, (gotta love coffee shops with free wifi for your phone and laptop, not taking the piss honest)

N x