Just Dropping In To Let You Know What Condition I Am In

Yeah that's right, I just quoted the a Kenny Roger's song in my title, and I don't care who knows it. I am doing much better today. I got my bank account, Alien I.D. card, and my full months pay. So I am not hungry any more and feeling a little more comfortable. Plus I downloaded a ton of Peter Tosh and, even though he hated white people, he is still calming me down. And last but not least, I will be getting my cell phone on Thursday.

I want to take a second to give you an Idea about apartment living here, which, by the way, is the means of living for 99 percent of the east-Asian population. First off, most of the apartment buildings are the size of very large buildings in most downtown metro areas. Second, there are hundreds of them, literally hundreds.

Trash: You buy a 50 liter, green bag at any convenience store for about 2.50 USD and you fill it with as much crap as you can. When it is full you get another one and set the full one anywhere outside your building. You pay a person to collect all the trash that accumulates around the building. This is included in your gas and water bill. Any large empty plastic bottles you have you pile wherever you can outside your building, and these are collected as well.

The walls are pretty thin in my building, and in the middle of the night, as Koreans do stay up late, when I am asleep I here doors opening and shutting, as well as televisions and other appliances. When you are dead asleep, and it sounds like someone is coming into your apartment, you tend to freak for a second until you realize what is going on. And, I am not above admitting that even though I am a big guy who can take care of himself, I am terrified of sleeping anywhere by myself.

Apartments have small tile areas (about 3sq.ft.) right as you walk in where you can trade dirty shoes for house slippers. It is a big faux pas not to do this in a traditional Koreans home. Then you are most likely in the small kitchen. The size of the kitchen depends on how many bedrooms are in the apt. It's about practical and efficient use of space. Then you have sliding glass doors that lead into the living room slash someone's bedroom. There you have a low coffee/eating table. This room's floor is a linoleum floor with a hardwood pattern (honestly, this is pretty universal). Then there is the bathroom, which is completely and totally the same as an American bathroom except for one thing: There is no bathtub to go with the shower head.

Finally, you have a laundry room that is long and narrow with a low ceiling. This is where clothes are cleaned and dried. It is a creepy little room with no heating, but it serves its purpose.

Practical is the name of the game in Korea.

SUCKS ASS: According to CNN.com Kim Jung Il is talking some trash and ready to fire off a missle, which they claim is a harmless satellite. I am just waiting for a phone call from the American Embassy. I have repeated daydreams of me grabbing on to the landing gear of a helicopter in Seoul somewhere like the last guy out of Saigon.

KICKS ASS: GETTING PAID. You use this wierd little check book as a debit card. Imagine folding open your check book and sticking it in a huge slot on an ATM. It is kind of wierd, but money still comes out so who cares.