The Price is Right

This is a bad picture I took out the window of a train, but I have seen these fields of strange crops, and I have no idea what they are.  I've never seen plants like that.  These plants have a stalk about a half-meter tall, maybe more, with a round single leaf at the end.  If anyone knows what this plant is, please tell me.  It must be something edible, or the Koreans wouldn't grow it.

In other news, my PC came home from the repair shop today.  I was at the phone office trying to find a way to get my phone repaired (the screen is broken) when the delivery guy called.  So I told him when I'd be home, and he told me it'll be 4000 won.  The phone office didn't know why the Motorola shop couldn't repair the phone, so they called, and it turns out that they don't know when they'll get any replacement LCD screens in for that model.  You'd think they'd just order one, but this is Korea, and if it's sensible, it probably won't be the 'correct' way to do things. I can receive calls on the phone, but if I miss a call, there's no way for me to know about it. Anyway, the Motorola shop told me they'd call me when a screen came in.  Hope I don't miss the call.  Those folks don't seem like the redialing type.

My classes are getting better every day.  We're playing The Price is Right all week as well as watching some YouTube snippets of the TV game show.  It's fun, and even the rebel kids who just come in and plop down in a seat are getting into the game.

 

The Keypad to the Kingdom

After Korean class today, I took a quick spin by the eyeglass shop. My metal frame glasses bothered me, so I wanted some plastic frames. Anyway, my prescription hasn't changed in five years, remarkably enough. I have noticed, though, that I must remove my glasses to read a book nowadays. This picture is the eye shop guy making my glasses. When I asked him how long it'd take, he said ten minutes! Never heard of 10-minute lenses, but there they were, and they work beautifully. When my camera battery is done recharging, I'll put a picture of me in my new glasses in my livevideo picture folder.
Also had to take my Motorola cell phone to the shop again. He told me to come back at 5 o'clock, and sure enough, it was done, but the keypad looks like I've used it for years! Really ugly and messed up, but the numbers all work, at least. Started raining while I was on my bike to the shop. Koreans seem to drive even worse than usual when the weather's bad.

Scooty Puff Junior Phone

This is my stupid cell phone. I got this text message Friday that said "I'm back! How about some brewskis and hamburgers?" On my phone, you have to slide the front piece up to read the message, but I didn't have a good hand on it, so it opened part way then snapped back shut. I had just glimpsed the message, and when I opened it again, I couldn't find the message! This phone is bizarre. Anyway, I thought Joel was back from the States early. Eventually, I did find the lost text message and it wasn't from Joel. It was a wrong number. Oh, the buttons 7, 8, and 9 on my phone don't work at all. How inconvenient is that? I have an evolving dislike of Motorola now. Two major problems with my cell phone in less than a month. And I'm not a big cell phone user. I hardly ever call anybody, and nobody's called me in at least two weeks (OK, that was kind of pathetic, but I just wanted to point out that it isn't from overuse that this phone is falling apart!)
Today was a lazy Sunday. The temps are cool, but the day was overcast and blah... played a PC game most of the time! I did take some notes for my story I'm writing, and I did send an email to my advisor at NAU about what courses I should take this fall.

Goats and Cream

I've been going out to HomePlus now almost every day lately to check on the cream issue. A while back, I noticed that HomePlus, a large supermarket chain associated with the British Tesco corporation, didn't have any cream anymore. Ever since I came here in March, they've sold cream... until now. I'm talking about regular, normal cream you might put in your tea or coffee. So I asked the dairy manager lady about it, and she said they didn't have cream (which I already knew) and she didn't know when they'd get any. Manager of the dairy department? Yes. Over the course of the last two weeks, I've been out to the store a lot and talked to a lot of HomePlus folks about there being no cream. Then I noticed they started selling goat's milk. WTF? I have lived in Korea over 11 years. They do not have a history of drinking goat's milk. In fact, this is the first time I have seen it in Korea. But the cream? Probably won't be stocked ever again, because they stocked too much for the small (but regular) demand for it. They could've just reduced the amount they stocked instead of canceling the product altogether. Bastardos. I'm sure that goat's milk is going to just fly off the shelves, eh? Right.
It rained last night and then again this afternoon. Tonight I went and dug up some grass for the cats and put it in a small planter here in the living room. I think Pepper is sick.
Thinking about going to Seoul this weekend. My phone keypad is broken. The buttons for 7,8,9 don't function, so I can't call anybody up that a way, and I can't send text messages either. This is the second major problem with my Motorola since I bought it a couple months ago. Won't be getting a Motorola again, that's a fact. Wish I hadn't given up my old cell phone. It was big and clumsy, but it worked a lot better than this one.