Happy Halloween!

Like Sardines, I Tell You!

Another birthday celebration this weekend, this time for Lauren. I think I have now asserted myself as the birthday baker, which is a role I always enjoy. Of course having no oven means I have to rely on the grocery store for a premade cake slab that I can ice or decorate as I choose. Last week Megan and I were talking about the goodness that is Tim Hortons and Megan declared her love for boston cream doughnuts. Being a Brit, Lauren hadn't heard of Tim Hortons nor boston creams. Thus I set out to make her a boston cream cake, with custard from scratch. I was pretty impressed with it, who knew custard was so easy to make?

Anyhow there were 11 of us out to dinner last night for some fantastic Korean food and then I invited everyone back to my place for cake. That's right, 11 people to my shoebox apartment. It was great! First of all, 11 foreigners walking down the street causes quite a commotion, but 11 of us crammed into a 10 x 10 apartment is quite an adventure.

And for the past five months I am pretty sure my landlord (who lives in the apartment next door) has been quite happy with his foreign tenant, who never plays loud music, never has people over, and never causes any commotion, and then last night I blow it all by inviting the entire foreign population of our neighbourhood over. Meh, it had to happen sooner or later...

How Bizarre

I had another one of those "Korea is so strange" moments the other night. Richard, the new teacher, who is seemingly normal and not the whack job I had braced myself for, (btw I stole the term whack job from my friend, Megan, and I love it), wanted to go out for a drink after work and unwind and be reassured that teaching really isn't as scary as it looks in the first week.
Anyhow we went to a place called Garten Bier, which is fantastic little bar with electronic cup holders that keep your beer ice cold. We were sitting around talking when Trey walked by, so he came into join us and shortly after that we messaged Megan and Lauren, so it turned into a nice little gathering.

A group of Korean men, in their mid twenties, came and sat at the table next to us with a bag full of take out food, a silver mixing bowl and plastic gloves. How bizarre. The one guy throws on a glove, opens a container of rice, a container of seaweed and throws them into the mixing bowl. He then proceeded to make meatball shaped balls and put them on a side dish. This went on for about fifteen minutes and we all were watching out of the corner of our eyes to see what would happen next. He finished rolling all the rice balls and then opened another container full of chicken wings (which I now know are known as fire chicken). Then all his friends put a glove and began to eat.

About fifteen minutes later they turned to us, gave us a glove and a plate with rice balls and five pieces of chicken and told us to try it. Now I know we aren't supposed to take candy from strangers, but chicken and rice seems perfectly acceptable. Trey tried it first and said it was super hot. I decided to act all macho and show the Koreans that I could handle spice just as well as the next guy and I had a piece too. It was insanely hot; burn your lips and leave them tingly for 15 minutes hot, but delicious at the same time. We then tried the rice balls which are meant to cool the heat and they were also quite good. Nobody else was brave enough to try it so Trey finished it off. We thanked the Koreans and then they went back to their own conversation, but shortly after pulled out another bag. It was a Lotteria bag, which is kind of like a Burger King restaurant, and they pulled out hamburgers and began to eat those. Now I'm not sure what I found stranger about all of this, the random eating of food in a restaurant that is not from that restaurant (kinda like eating an Outback steak in the middle of the Keg), or that they would eat such a delicious meal and polish it off with crap hamburgers.

Oh, I love Korea, there is always so much randomness happening.

One Step Above Telemarketing

Our school has jumped on the band wagon with many other schools and has started "English Phone Calling." This is where we call our students and let them practice their English speaking and phone skills. We do this with all our students, regardless of age and level. It sounds dreadful, I know, but it can actually be pretty amusing. Sometimes the hardest part is getting past the parents because each conversation starts off, "Yobaseyo? (hello) Ummm...Diana teacher. YBM..Uhhh...Phone English....Umm, is (student name here) home?" We have sent letters home explaining all of this to them but most of the time I still have to yell for one of the Korean teachers to talk to the parents and explain it all again.

A few of my conversations have gone like this:

#1
Me: Hello Eric, it is Diana teacher.
Eric: Hello teacher. What are you doing?
Me: I am still at school. What are you doing?
Eric: Oh.
Me: When is your birthday Eric? (fully knowing it was on Monday)
Eric: It is Monday.
Me: Are you having a party?
Eric: Yes
Me: Can I come? (obviously joking)
Eric: Uh, hold on. (Korean conversation ensues to his mother) My mom says you can come!
Me: Uhhh...ummm...

#2
Me: Hello Nicole. This is Diana teacher.
Nicole: Hello teacher.
Me: What are you doing?
Nicole: I don't know.
Me: Have you had dinner?
Nicole: I don't know.
random questions follow, followed by phonics sound questions
Me: Okay Nicole, can I talk to your sister Casey now?
Nicole: Yes.
I wait
Me: Okay are you getting Casey for me?
Nicole: No
Me: Can I talk to Casey?
Nicole: Yes
a few more minutes pass
Me: Is this Casey
Nicole: No.
Me: Let me talk to Casey
Nicole: I don't know.

and so on...

Now imagine 60 of those conversations! My favourite ones are the ones where they hang up on me cause it still counts as their phone call.

It's Gonna Be One of Those Weeks, Is It?

Monday mornings suck no matter what part of the world you live in. My Monday's always start earlier than the rest of my week because I tutor an adult at 9:00. My manager has gotten kind of sick of having to wake up early to come open the school for me so he gave me keys and a security card to let myself in. (I love being trusted with keys, not!) So this morning I get to the school, swipe the security card and the second light did not go off to show that the alarm had been disarmed. I kept swiping the card. Nothing. Went to give David a call and realized I had left my phone at home. Kept swiping. Nothing. The hopefull, optimistic side of my brain kicked in and was like "Just open the door anyhow, what could possibly go wrong?" I unlocked the door. Alarm goes off. Lights start to flash. 10 seconds later the phone starts to ring. I answer it, "Yobasayeo?"(hello) A man says a slew of Korean that I do not understand, I say, "Hanguk mal mateyo" (I don't speak Korean). So by now the security company is thinking, a foreigner is breaking into the school, alert North Korea for back up. By some stroke of luck (surely not mine cause I clearly don't have any) my tutor showed up and was able to talk to the man and explain and that got the alarm to shut off. Half an hour later the security people show up and I show them my card. They made me call David. Then they talked to him and left shortly after. I finished my session, locked the door behind me and headed to the gym. Now I have to head back to work shortly where I can imagine that I will be handing my keys back over to David. It's for the best really.

*the follow up* I got back to work and David was kind of cowering at the site of me, turns out he had given me the security card for his apartment, not the school, so I was absolved of any fault!

Rain Rain Go Away

I woke up this morning to a sound I haven't heard in at least two months. Rain splattering against the ground, it is kind of nice actually. Rain is one of those excuses where you can justify not leaving the house, watching tv and lounging in your pajamas for far too long. (okay I can justify it, I have no car or umbrella and Koreans believe that the rain is like acid to your skin so I'm going to share that belief today and enjoy my laziness).

I suppose eventually I will have to make myself presentable and head to the grocery store as my fridge and cupboard contents consist of an empty cereal box, rice, instant seaweed soup and some aloe juice. I can't even use that as an excuse to order in delivery as I can't speak Korean to place an order.

This week coming should be somewhat exciting, my school is getting a new foreign teacher! I'm like a kid at Christmas waiting to see if I like it or whether I want to take it back to the store for an exchange (who me??). You think I'm kidding but you would be surprised at the number of whack jobs that are over here. Apparently it takes a certain type of person to pack up and move to Korea (not sure what that says about me) but I've heard stories of teachers coming over to convert their students to various religions, teachers who work for a month and pull midnight runs, and my favourite, the teacher that showed my friend, Kevin, around his new school all while talking through his ventriloquist doll that was perched on his hand. Nevertheless, it will be exciting to have a new face around school and maybe I can pawn off some of the classes I don't like on him. His name is Richard and he's from England. Our school also got a new Korean teacher last week, her name is Jennifer and she seems really great, her English is quite good as she lived in the U.S. for a few years. I haven't hung out with work people in quite a while but we have a few work functions this coming week to welcome the new teachers and it will be a nice change from the routine. And it will be fun to show another newbie around town and introduce him to all the people I know, providing he isn't a whack job.

Well enough of this, back to being lazy.

Ta-ta!

Captain's Log, Day 153

Scarily enough, I have been in Korea for FIVE whole months as of yesterday!

Another weekend, another trip to Seoul. I have decided that I love Seoul. I am perfectly happy living in Daejeon but it is so cool to be able to hop on a train and head up to Seoul. The purpose of today's trip was to pick up my ticket for my trip home at xmas...hahahahah...oops...I mean for my trip to THAILAND (don't worry you only have to put up with comments like that for at least another two months). My friends Marta and Mark were also planning on heading to Seoul for the day and Lauren decided to join us as well.

We split up upon arriving in Seoul with Mark and Marta having their own odds and ends to take care of and Lauren and I in need of a little retail therapy. We jumped on the subway and headed to COEX Mall, the biggest mall in Korea. It was fantastic. I bought a few shirts, a Lonely Planet Guide for Thailand, and various products at my favourite store, Skin Food. Skin Food is the best body product store ever (and coming from me, that is high, high praise), they have all sorts of funky products (mushroom deep cleanse, tomato face packs, cappucino face scrub, celery face wipes, etc) and it is so reasonably priced. Which for me, really only means that it easier to justify why I can't walk by a store without getting something. The best part of the store though, and what enourages me to keep buying is the free samples you get with each purchase. Today I bought tea tree face scrub and a new foundation (to replace the one I shattered all over my floor a few weeks back) and I got at least ten different free sample packets (peach serum, black honey foam, beer shampoo, anti wrinkle cream, face whitening toner...maybe I shouldn't use that, all sorts of great stuff). Okay I will stop because I know that this stopped being interesting after the line, Skin Food is the best body product store ever...

So anyways, we shopped and shopped and shopped until it was after six and we were to meet up with Mark and Marta for dinner in Itaewon at a popular spot called Geckos, which is highly populated with foreigners and army guys. The food was great, I had a steak sandwich and salad with a Belini martini, delicious. By this time it was 8 or so and we decided to make our way back to the train station and to Daejeon as we were pretty wiped from the day.

The only problem with today was the fact that I got all caught up in our shopping and eating and what not that I didn't actually make it to the travel agent to pick up my ticket...oops...guess I will just have to make another trip out there soon!

Two Months From Now...

Me in Thailand

You in Canada

Mwuhahahhahahahhahahaha

where I'm staying: http://www.r24.org/phuket-info.com/phuket/islandia/details/

You're How Old?

A few weeks ago I made a comment about the fact that in Korea I am 25 years old, but all over the rest of the world I am only 24, and then I never followed up with the reasoning behind it.

Let me tell you, Korean's have birthdays ass backwards. First off, if it is your birthday it is your responsibility to treat everyone. All over the world people are hiding the fact that it is their birthday because they don't want to accept another year, here they are hiding it because they don't want to pick up the cheque.

The craziest thing of all though is their notion of ages. Again, all over the world we are trying to stay young and scrape a few years off the actual number, here they just toss a few extra on for the hell of it.

So here's how it is. When you are born you 1, you don't start off being 0, or counting the weeks, then months. One minute you haven't been born, the next minute you are already one year old. But wait, it gets sillier... you have your second birthday, not the following year, but on the start of the New Year. So let's say you are born on December 31st. You are one. The next day you turn two. Craziness!

A Wee Ma Weh A Wee Ma Weh

My friend Megan's birthday was a few weeks ago and for her birthday she was given a lovely stomach bacteria that postponed the celebrations by a week and a half. So Saturday night we had birthday festivities.

My ears jumped at the word birthday because this meant I got to show off my culinary skills and whip up a birthday cake, only problem was that it is pretty hard, if not impossible, to bake a cake with only two elements and no stove, and a country that doesn't seem to sell icing sugar. So I improvised and bought mini angel food cakes, whipped up a white chocolate mousse and did 14 three-layered white chocolate raspberry mousse cakes. I didn't get to decorate them all fancy because when packing for Korea I must have left my cake decorating tools at home, despite all of this I was happy with the final result, and I must say they were pretty tasty.

We started off the night by going out for sam-gup-sal (definetly not the way you spell it), which is bbq pork, that you cook yourself on the grill at your table, sprouts, kimchi, garlic, hot sauce and then you roll it in lettuce leaves. They also brought us bondaggi (bugs) but we declined them and sent them back to the dirt...er..I mean kitchen.

After that we went back to Trey's for some drinking fun and cake. Following this we headed out to the Noraebang (like karaoke only each group of people gets their own room). Now I have stated many times that I will never sing (tho I did do it once when I had about 10 too many shots of soju) and I started off the night by restating this fact. It's not that I like being a killjoy, but I am actually the worst singer in the world. About half an hour into it I realized I probably wasn't that much worse than some of the others so I decided to give it a go with not 1 but 3 (THREE!) songs. I wasn't totally brave I had a partner each time, but my playlist went like this: The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Trailer For Sale or Rent, and Sweet Caroline. And ya know what? It was kinda fun, I am still the world's worst singer, but at least I am loosening up a little. And before you all start in on your comments I would like to say that, no I was not intoxicated - I think I had one, maybe two drinks all night. So to quote Matt, "Shut it!"

We sang our hearts out for about 2 hours, we only paid for one hour but because there was about ten of us there and most people were buying drinks the person in charge kept adding minutes on. Finally around 3 or so I made it home and got some sleep to prepare for the fun that was Ginseng Expo. Anyhow you can see more photos here if you are so inclined: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=e9ujen3.bb19rwcj&Uy=-jevdjx&Ux=0

2006 World Ginseng Expo

Just try telling me that you did something more exciting than that this weekend?? Actually I had a fantastic weekend and so much to write but I will only write about Ginseng fest for now and bore you with the other tales at a later date.

Apparently there has been a Ginseng festival going on for the past three weeks in a town called Geumsan, about an hour away. Today Megan, Lauren and I hopped on a bus and decided to check out the wonder that is the Ginseng Expo.

It was actually pretty cool, it was set up outdoors and there were exhibits on Ginseng Food, The Cultivation of Ginseng, the Health exhibit and the history of Ginseng. I learned more than I really need to know about Ginseng but it was a well put on exhibit and one of those touristy things that I am glad I got to partake in.

As usual, being the whities that we are, we stuck out like sore thumbs and thus were asked to pose for a few pictures by the 'press' people of the expo. I may need to attend next year just to see what they are using our photos for. We also were asked to pose with a bunch of Korean army guys, so we obliged them as well and got a photo of that for ourselves too.

As for freebies I got ginseng candy and ginseng vitamin c. We decided to act like full out Koreans and we ate meat on a stick (hopefully it was chicken), and then had ginseng tempura, which surprisingly was pretty tasty, kinda tasted like a carrot.

Anyhow this post does not do justice to the wonder that is Ginseng Expo so check out the pictures that I have posted: http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=e9ujen3.3jcodd4j&Uy=2rd2sd&Ux=0

Well it has been a busy, exciting weekend so I will write more tomorrow but for now I am off!

Because I Can

I've been hearing all sorts of tales of cold weather and snow flurries and winter jackets from your side of the world.

I just wanted to rub in the fact that I was outside today with sandals and a t-shirt and I was still too hot.

That is all.

In other news...

Have I mentioned I think I have West Nile Virus?? I mean, I probably don't, but I did climb a mountain last week and ended up walking a 13.5 km trail (not including the hike up the mountain) right around dusk and when I came home I was covered from head to toe, and everywhere in between, with bug bites. I looked like I had the chicken pox. Seriously I walked into my kindergarten room at the beginning of the week and they were covered with bites and we were comparing marks. So itchy... and Koreans seem to believe it is because 'mogis' (mosquitos) like people with O+ blood types, and I don't know what my blood type is but I'd be willing to bet I'm an O+

This week has been the longest week in the world, it always amazes me how fast you can get out of work mode from just one week. And knowing that I don't have another holiday for 11 weeks (of 51 working days) is just making time seem even slower.

Not much is going on around here, the weather finally feels like it might be turning to fall for good, although the days are still warm enough, so normally I leave the house with sandals and a light shirt on and walk home from work shivering and shaking. It would probably just be easier to take a jacket to work I know but I am such a suck when it comes to admitting that summer is actually over.

I think I have decided to go to Thailand for Christmas!!! It is the place I have wanted to see for quite awhile and when I was in Australia I kept saying that I wasn't going home until I went there, and then I ended up feeling bad about spending the money and taking time off of work while I was there so I ended up leaving without ever going. (leaving without ever going...that's gotta be like an oxy moron sentence, no?) Anyhow, now that I am back on this side of the world I am going to take hold of the opportunity. I think I am going to Phuket (pronounced Fuuket, although the other way is much more fun to say ;) for 5 days, including a 2 day tour around the area and lots of tanning time. I have a 4 star resort and it is going to be awesome, so if you are in the area drop by and see me...ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

I've also learned that Taiwan is actually close enough to Korea and cheap enough that I could actually go there for an overnight trip or maybe on a 3 day weekend, so maybe I will get a few travel adventures in throughout the year. I have to do something as they don't seem to have tanning salons anywhere in Korea and right now I'm paler than I've been in years.

Okay I am wiped and I've just downloaded a ton of Law and Order episodes so I am going to grab my ramen noodles, sip my coffee and veg...

Watch Out For Flying Missiles

So I have this great idea for a sequel, where North Korea starts launching missiles...oh wait a minute... somebody already took that idea.

If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, you obviously don't live in South Korea, or on this planet... pick up a newspaper once in a while will ya??

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/09/korea.nuclear.test/index.html

Things around here are pretty calm Koreans don't seem to be making a big deal about it, but then again South Koreans seem to have this attitude of "North Korea hates us but we just really want them to like us so we will stand by them no matter how bad they treat us and whatever else they want us to do."

I don't have that much input on the whole thing as of yet, I am not as informed as I should be to make any profound statements or assumptions (as if that's ever stopped me before) but my best bet right now is that it is going to be hyped up really big all over the news but probably won't affect my safety in any shape or form. (In other words: RELAX MOM!!!!!) Right now it is just like a world event that I have front row tickets for..maybe should put off my trip to the DMZ (de-militarized zone) for awhile tho...

Randomness Rambling

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are some times when travelling just isn't as much fun. Those are the times when you know you are missing out on good stuff at home. I absolutely love Thanksgiving: usually that last trip up to the cottage until Christmas, the smell of fall, great food, great drinks, and of course, the family. So for everyone who is back home enjoying Thanksgiving this weekend please eat some or all of the following:

* turkey
* cranberry sauce
* stuffing
* mashed potatoes, with gravy
* roast vegetables
* apple pie

To wash it down I suggest either a chocolate martini or a special coffee, laden with baileys and kahluha. No whip cream...no need to be excessive ;)

In other news, my vacation is over. Where did nine days go??? I thought I would have had at least one or two days of "oh god how am I going to fill the next 15 hours before I go back to sleep," but I barely sat still for more than a few hours at a time. Unless you count yesterday where I delved into complete computer nerdiness and changed around my blog (hope you like!), updated my photos on flickr, and other random nerdiness that I didn't even know I was capable of.

At the start of the vacation I had various goals for myself to accomplish in the down time: spending extra time on my French tenses, finishing the grammardy game I am making for my kids (it is much cooler than it sounds), and organizing my closet that is crammed with clothes that desperately need to be ironed. What I forgot about while I was setting these goals is that: a) just like in highschool and university, it only makes sense to do homework right before the due date, b) I can get paid to do things like grammardy at work, and c) I don't know how to iron.

Bah! Now tomorrow morning I gotta get up early, head to work and resume the 'normalcy' that is my life. Boo....

White Christmas?

White beach maybe...

So a few months ago I told everyone I was coming for Christmas. I would also like to point out that when I first started this blog I stated that when things got boring I would occasionally make stuff up. So if you believe everything I say, really you only have yourself to blame.

Here's the thing. I do want to come home for Christmas because I have so many plans already for it and it is the first time in my life I have ever had plans for New Years this far in advance (if you don't count working). BUT flights have gotten ridiculously expensive, to the point I would be paying over a full month's salary, and that doesn't even include what I would spend on getting to and from the airport, departure taxes and the cost of carrying out all the plans I have made for my return. I would have to stay and work a second year just to justify it all.

And on top of that the available flights now are like 25 hours one way which means I would be spending two full days in the air and I know I'm amusing, but even I get annoyed with myself after that much time...

And come on, if I am going to spend that much money on a vacation, it seems a little bit silly to spend it on a vacation to Canada when I am so close to many other amazing countries. So right now it just doesn't seem like it would be the most sensible thing to do, tho I will be sad about missing another Christmas with the family. And turkey. And cranberry sauce. And grandma's apple pie ;)

But this does open up opportunity for another exciting adventure:

Bali: Bali bombers, drug trafficking, and the police mafia

Thailand: bird flu, tsunamis, and a political coup

Vietnam: typhoid, hepatitis A and B, and pickpockets

China: communism, SARS, and the urge to adopt Chinese babies (okay I'm pretty sure I'm immune to that one)

Singapore: prostitution, gangs, and blood beetles

So many decisions...how is a girl to choose??

Anyhow right now nothing is definite but I figured I should share this new development with people before plans got too far underway. Will keep you posted!

My Seoulo Excursion

I finally did it. I took a trip out to Seoul by myself. I just went for the day and wandered around like a real tourist. It was great.

The first thing I would like to point out is that I am the girl that gets confused on the Toronto TTC and usually has to get off and change directions at least once each time I travel.


Surely you can see how I could easily be confused. *dripping with sarcasm*

Yesterday I was left to brave the Seoul subway system all on my own. And I'm not gonna pretend I didn't have to backtrack one or two (or 4) times, but I am still pretty impressed with myself cause I managed to get to all the places I wanted to go.



My first stop was Itaewon which is near an army base cause apparently it has good shopping. I was less than impressed and didn't stay very long. I was looking for a book store called, What the Book, which is supposed to have a ton of English books to choose from. I ended up finding a second hand book store and tho the selection wasn't great I found a lonely planet guide to Seoul, which is fantastic. Now I was in full tourist mode.

I hopped back on the subway to go to Insadong, which was where Megan and Lauren and I had been before. I didn't really need anything there but I wanted to wander through the streets and check out the shopping again. Also tomorrow is Megan's birthday and because she used to work at Starbucks I wanted to get her one of those mugs with the Korean writing. Only problem was they don't actually sell them. So I bought a chai latte, drank it, and took the mug with me. (Koreans can steal my bath products therefore I can steal their heritage mugs. Deal with it). Besides if they don't want people to take them then they should sell them.

I went into a tea shop and bought some ginseng tea to see what all the fuss is about. Then I bought some ginseng losanges because Koreans seem to think that ginseng is the end all be all, so I figure I might as well get into full Korean mode.

I ended up finding a different bookstore with an English selection so I went in and wandered around. There were no books that really caught my interest but they also had a French section (if you can call 4 titles a section), I decided I need to be working on my French more so I bought Harry Potter. I've never read the series before and I figure if I can't understand half the things that are going on I might hav more tolerance for it.

Other than that not much happened. There is a French Cultural Museum in Seoul which I meant to check out but figure I will save it for another day. Got to the train station and all the normal tickets were sold back to Daejeon because of the holidays so I paid extra and rode first class, which is just a little more spacious, and I don't know if I've mentioned it before but the KTX train travels 300 km/hour which sounds so fast but really doesn't feel like it when you're on it.

So all in all it was a good day, no crazy stories but it was the most touristy day I've had yet and made me feel more like a traveller again which is nice.

Look What I Bought!

Blond Moments

From the day I first arrived in Korea I knew that at some point I would lock myself out of my apartment because my door can lock from the inside, so out of habit I always hit the lock on the way out. Normally I shut the door halfway and have a minor panic attack about where my keys are before realizing they are in my pocket or purse.

Yesterday I was being all domestic and making peanut butter rice krispie squares to take into work and I thought how much better they would be if there was melted chocolate on them. Being that I only had half an hour before work I threw on my shoes and ran out the door. I got about half way down the street before it dawned on me that I had no keys. Then I tried to fool myself into believing that I probably hadn't locked the door on the way out. But I got back tried my door handle and it was, infact, locked. Shit.

Fortunately my landlord lives right beside me so I was able to knock on her door and point to my door and say "key?" and she understood and pulled out a key ring with about 50 keys on it. Fortunately they were all labeled otherwise it would have been a very trying ordeal.

She let me in and I got back to my Betty Crocker ways, when all of a sudden there was a knock on my door again. It was the landlady with a platter of grapes and apples, (maybe she thinks that will cure stupidity?), anyhow it was great because apples here are so expensive and it was just one of those nice Korean gestures that happen every so often and brighten my day. And now I know how to get free produce from time to time. Sweet.