Vacation Days 7-9: Hunger Games and delivery beer

Weekend notes

·         Relaxed in Wasu and celebrated Gracie’s birthday with some of the crew in Wasu.

·         I finished the Hunger Games trilogy. The last book, Mockingjay, is the best book of the series for its gripping action, its ironies, and its themes of revolution. I’d come to these books rather late, but oh well. Better late than never, especially with a story like this. Mockingjay is where the story moves out of YA territory and enters into the adult world of revolutions, government, and urban warfare. The ending’s an unexpected, but wholly necessary twist as well. Katniss certainly had a coming of age story.

·         On the docket to read:

o   Hemingway’s short stories

o   Reread Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” and “Babylon Revisited.” I may reread The Great Gatsby or check out Tender is the Night too.

Ordering delivery

Hit a milestone for life in Korea: I ordered delivery to apartment for the first time. This wasn’t the first time ordering delivery—that happened in Sincheorwon last month—but I’d never had anything delivered to the apartment because I’d never had much reason to. Since the shops and restaurants only lie 10 minutes away, it always seemed lazy to order delivery when I could walk down the road. Besides, I dislike staying inside all day. Even if it’s 0 degrees and freezing, I’ll still venture out at least once a day to get some fresh air.

Here’s a photo of what arrived:

Above is my bibimbap, Rochelle’s omelet over rice (and the accompanying sauce), the side dishes, and the container of actual silverware. Side dishes were soup, kimchi, fish cakes, and yellow radishes.

When you order food for delivery here, you not only don’t pay a tip, but the delivery man brings the food on actual plates. You put the plates outside your door when you’ve finished eating so he can pick them up later.

One advantage that Cheorwon has over the city is that we're placed in one apartment building instead of spread out over multiple buildings like, say, Seoul. Our buildings are usually called "Won-eu-min gwan-sa" which translates to "Native speaker's house." Both the Wasu and Dongsong apartments are part of elementary school grounds, so the addresses are easy to find. Sincheorwon's easy too, but it's not located it's next to a school. 

Note: pizza and chicken come exactly like they do in the States.

Not in America dept: It’s possible to get beer delivered with fried chicken here. We’ve actually done this in Sincheorwon. A liter of beer runs 5000won, so it’s double what the stores charge, but we did it anyway for the novelty of getting delivery beer. It tasted good.