Top 5

I'm alive, and I'm doing ok. And ok is good with me, for right now.

A friend once told me, when I was in a different city for training, that I should think of five things I like about that city. So I thought I would do that about the city we are in.

Here is my top 5:

5. Living life here includes exercising. When I was in the states, I would constantly be planning out my week to make sure I get all the workouts I need. Over here, whenever I go grocery shop, or go to our friend's house, we hop on our bike or we walk. Also, since we live on the fourth floor, it is kind of like doing stairmaster. Eventually we will start putting in more exercise routines (like going to the yoga place on our road), but for now, running errands makes us bike a lot.

4. We are the Koreans. When we go to a store and start speaking, the store owners automatically think we are Korean. The reason is because we look Asian, but do not speak the language well. Since there are also a lot of Koreans here, we get called the Koreans. This is cool for Alvin because he always pretends he is Korean when we go to Korean restaurants, and orders in his Korean accent.

3. I really like my apartment. It is bigger than my place in Dallas. It has three rooms, and wood-like floors. My favorite purchases for the place so far are my bedroom curtains and my toilet paper dispenser, which you will see in the bathroom post.

2. The food is so yummy. This past week, when we visit other ex-pats, we have eaten spaghetti, burgers with swiss cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, banana bread, salads, cookies, chocolate cake, etc. I am shocked that we have eaten so much western food. Yet, Alvin and I were starting to crave Asian foods. Good thing we are in East Asia. So we have gone out to eat a couple times, and really like the food. There are a lot of noodle dishes here and most of them are very very spicy. Mmmm, so satisfying. We made a funny mistake the other day. I pointed to an item that looked like the word for beef, but instead it turned out to be beef luncheon meat (spam!). When we got home, we looked up what I was trying to order, and it turned out it was beef stomach lining. I'm glad we got the luncheon meat instead.

1. Everyone here has been so nice to us, well at least me. Even when we don't buy their stuff, they still help us with directions and want to know more about us. Alvin says an old woman yelled at him, but I was an eye/ear witness and I think Alvin was somewhat at fault for the interaction.