Staying home

I don't have to go to work today. The head English teacher told me to stay home and not go to work because she is have 3 dressers sent over to my house. She is moving to a new apartment and does not need them, so she is giving them to me. I have to pay shipping costs (60,000 won) which is far less than buying new ones.

They should be arriving this morning between 10-11 am. If I was still in America and had to go to an appointment, I would be expected to go to work after it is done. After the dressers get here, I will still have a good 4+ hours left in the day. That is one of best and most ridiculous things about Korea. Just skipping out on a whole day's work, just because you are having furniture delivered.

Its not like I am really doing anything at work anyway. I don't think my classes start until March, but who knows, they don't tell me shit. My classes could start tomorrow for all I know.

Icoop

I had my co-teacher help me sign up for a website called Icoop. It is a online grocery store here in the ROK that sells organic local products and offers free home delivery.

The site is all in Korean, but they have pics of the products, and I either use a dictionary or babble fish to translate what the items are that I am buying. Although babble fish sometimes gives me some pretty weird translations. For example I wanted to know what this product was, and Babble fish told me "The mouse eye which stir-fries conga base". While that was amusing, it was not particularly helpful. One of them was "burning nose powder", another was "Seven music truths?", but usually I can at least get the gist of the product.

There are two prices for everything on the site, if you just get a normal enrollment, the price you see is what you pay, if you get a paid membership(13,000 won a month) you get 20% off. There is also a deposited of 30,000won which you get back whenever you quit the service. With a few exceptions, the prices as listed are about the same, or a little higher than the grocery stores in my town. With the 20% off all the prices are cheaper than what I have been paying.

We have been buying 5 Kilogram boxes of Asian pears, and on the website they are 13,500 won regular, I pay 11,600 with my discount, and we have been paying around 13,000+ at the store in town. My kids go through 5 kilograms of apples every 2-3 days and we have been paying 17,800 for a box (usually they have 3 kilo boxes for around 12,000), on the website they are 20,500 and I pay 16,200.

I am saving at least 1,000 won on pretty much everything I buy, and feeding 5 people it adds up. After buying 13 products it makes it worth it I figure.