Majultob?

Friday night, ladies and gentlemen. So far it’s been a pretty quiet one. I went to Daiso, this Japanese chain store that is like a good quality dollar store, to pick up some picture frames for the gorgeous pics Ambreen sent me. The world needs to see how cute I look in salwar kameez. Then I went on a mission to try yet another café. This time it’s Hollys Coffee, which I’m not particularly impressed with. They don’t have good window seats, so its not super ideal for people watching. It’s actually right across the street from the place I wrote the last entry.
I’ve actually been frequenting this place called Selu Coffee that’s about 3 minutes from work (8 if the intersection acts like a jerk) during break at work, mostly because of their delightful bathroom. 2,400 won is a small price to pay for a warm seat and warm water (and hot chocolate, which is good too). I’ve improved at squatting but sometimes a girl really needs a seat. I also think I’m never going to get used to the whole toilet paper in the garbage can thing. I understand the reasons but I feel horrible for whoever’s job it is to clean that up.
I don’t plan on talking much about work on this blog for a number of reasons, the most important being that it would probably be boring for you to raed (whereas I know you are riveted by tales of toilets and traffic :P). But to speak hypothetically for a moment, let me say this:
Let’s say you work in a box factory and you make, say, 2 million boxes a week. And one day, you’re boss comes in and says he wants to pay you overtime to stay late and make 4 million boxes a week instead. Now you really value your free time and you live quite comfortably, so the overtime pay isn’t that exciting. Later, you find out that your boss wants all that overtime work to be done because he wants 8 million boxes made before he leaves to go lie on a beach for a month. Wouldn’t that make you a little peeved? (As an aside, this scenario has put the “Yo, my name is Joe, and I work in a button factory” song in my head).
In other news, it’s sort of crazy that I’ve only been here for a little over a month so far. It feels like longer. I’ve settled in pretty quickly, I suppose. But I do have to remind myself that it hasn’t been very long because sometimes I feel like I’m not getting started fast enough on some stuff, like taking Korean lessons, but then I’ll remembered that I can hardly expect myself to be on top of everything already. I’ve also just locked myself into taking the GRE English subject test in early April so I’ll have to do some studying for that (boo! hiss!). I have to go check out the university it’s at (Keimyoung, it’s called) before hand so I can know where I’m going and how long it takes to get there. It’ll be cool to get to see a Korean Uni in action. But yeah, the point is, rushing is for suckas. I am pleased with the opportunity to take my sweet time doing things right now.
Oh, you may find this entertaining: there’s this kpop song out right now called “Mazeltov.” Weird, right? Even stranger is the fact that there is no discernable reason for the name. In the song, they mention Mexican girls, Korean girls, Japanese girls – no talk of Jewish girls at all. What’s more, no one knows what the heck mazel tov means over here – people have been asking their students. I can’t imagine that the dudes singing the song know either. So whoever wrote it either randomly chose the word because they thought it sounded fun (pronounced “Majultob” Korean style) or know what it means and think it’s hilarious to confuse everybody. Oh kpop, your use of any language other than Korean is always so crazy.
So I paused writing for a bit to look through a men’s fashion magazine (cuz you know I never look at the ones for women) and came across some appealing info: Basement Jaxx are going to be in Seoul next weekend. I have decided to go. Very exciting. I totally love Basement Jaxx. Anyway, I think if I buy clothes in Korea it’ll probably end up being men’s clothes; Korean women’s fashion is just way too girly for me (plus men’s clothes probably come in slightly bigger sizes). I can’t wait until it’s warmer and I can stop wearing this dang coat. It’s been good to me, but I really would rather be wearing less clothing all the time. What? I’ll tell you a bit of Korean women’s fashion that needs to die: hairy vests. I just saw this woman in this heinous pink sweat suit thing with a hairy white vest over top. Offensive.
This entry’s music recommendation is a little tune by a group called SHINee, which is pronounced shiny even though it totally looks like shinny. I rather like these kids (literally kids – like many kpop singers, they are ludicrously young). The first song I’ll link is their debut track, “Noona is so pretty” (noona is what boys call either their older sister or familiar girls older than themselves), from a couple of years ago, and the second one is their most recent song “Ring Ding Dong” that boasts some highly nonsensical English lyrics. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HAazRvDP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roughtzsCDI
Love,
AAA
P.S. I suppose I should also link the crazy Mazeltov song. Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTkJ9UK3JsQ

P.P.S. I stopped by a little cupcake spot post hot choco-ing and, apart from consuming two small but tasty cupcakes, I’m not watching a couple eat cupcakes, and the dude is eating his cupcake with a spoon. A spoon! Who does? Anyway, I’ve also discovered the secret to desserts in SK: its better to not go with chocolate items because they are never quite chocolaty enough. But other flavours, like the raspberry cupcake I just ate, can be quite delicious and don’t have any associated let downness.