Dented

I feel like this is one of those point drawings we did in
art class in elementary school. Subways are scary.

After spending roughly 40 days in the wilderness of the concrete jungle called Seoul, I was rather relieved to finally board the Korean Airlines and come home. I was so happy to finally step out of that cramped airplane with vomit-worthy food and see cars parked with more than inch between them. Apparently I'm a little more claustrophobic than I had initially guessed.

I was just very happy with life in general.

Sadly, life didn't reciprocate my love and like two seconds after I stepped into my Scion to drive to Taco Bell (seriously only two minutes away! I should've walked...), I backed into the family BMW. I scratched both fucking cars. Gah.. Why oh why did I crave fake Mexican food so much?!

Oh well. I'm still pretty happy. I don't know why though. Home is good. Haven't really done anything besides go Facebook crazy yet. I'm sho tired... If I was in Korea right now, I would be sleeping. 4 AM-ish over there. Hrm... Should I post more about Korea? YES.

Things You Should Bring to Korea if You Ever Decide to Go (GO!)

1. Toilet Paper: My biggest mistake. Korea's still in the process of westernizing their restrooms, which means you'll probably get to use a squat toilet if you go outside of Seoul. The thing is, they don't usually have toilet paper available in the stalls. After my first accident (let's say it was a good thing my mom was there!) I always had to check around the surrounding restroom if there was a roll hanging around somewhere.

2. Large Towels: I don't know if this applies to other people, since I stayed only with relatives. Anyhow, people in Korea use a towel that has a size equivalent to an American face towel. A handkerchief? IDK. Maybe I was spoiled with American luxuries, but I thought a towel you can wrap around yourself was pretty fundamental. You can miss these kinda things.

3. A laptop/cellphone: I am so thankful to whatever higher being it is that gave me the offhand notion to bring my TabletPC to Korea. You NEED either one to survive in Korea. Both offer communication which is so necessary in such a confusing area... and yeah, what do you do when you get bored? Facebook! Blog! So much more convenient than lugging around books. Oh and you should rent a cell at the airport, that's the only place I've actually seen rent-a-phone's offered. Haha, also Korean phones come with subway maps and korean-english translators, which I found out to my delight.

4. A Camera: I think I took 1000 pictures this trip? And that's not that much, considering my laziness and the fact that I didn't have a working camera for half the time (thank you rich aunt + uncle!). There's so much to do and see in Korea that just doesn't exist in America and you almost feel obligated to capture every moment. Or at least I did. hehe.

5: A Volt Adaptor: Since the last two were technological things, than YES #5 is an absolute must. Korea operates mostly on a different sort of outlet, and I just forgot the name of it. It's circular, not square, like America. So most appliances don't fit in them, which is why a converter/adaptor is necessary. Inquire the place you're staying at if they offer the American outlet or a converter. Es muy importante que haz esto. <-- my spanish is so gone :[

6. LOTSA Dinero: If you don't plan ahead well and just go to Korea spontaneously, the most likely thing you're going to do is shop. Shop til you drop. Which in itself is not a bad thing, because Korean items are quite good quality and cheap - if you know where to buy them AND you know how to haggle. I'm just going to add here that you should also bring a thick heart... because if you're, ahem, American-sized, it's gonna be fairly difficult to find well-fitting clothes here (plus sometimes the employees can be bitches). And sometimes you feel that the whispering girls around you are talking about you. Why do they do that so much? Que molesta.

7. An English-speaking Buddy: And finally, the most important. I honestly feel that if I had not miraculously found friends who spoke English, I would have gone crazy. I mean, what's the point of experiencing your first encounter of a squat toilet with no toilet paper if you have no one you can fluently tell it to? *This really happened, but not to me. :D

Oh my gads that was long.

My first trip to Korea in eight years was vair nice. I hope to go again soon. But not too soon. Korea's really different from Cerritos... ^^