Cheese and cucumbers

Saturday I went grocery shopping. It was the only thing I did all day and proved to be quite an excursion. It's about a 15 minute walk from my apartment to the E-Mart (four-story department/grocery store) and I didn't have a canvas shopping bag yet that day and couldn't find one in the store. Somehow I ended up buying the heaviest items I could find, which made the walk back to my apartment nice and easy. Pretty sure my arms are still sore from that. However, Sunday before church, I went to E-Mart again with my new friend Daniel who has lived here for two years already (so he knows his way around quite a bit) and we got ingredients to bake sugar cookies.

Now, about a week before I came to Korea, Seth happened to notice that there were no ovens in the pictures of the apartments that the teachers lived in. For a moment. I seriously considered not coming. Baking is what I do. When I'm stressed, sad, upset, or feeling anything negative, I bake. I turn the music loud and I bake. And everything is better when I'm done. Naturally, I was pretty concerned about how I'd cope without an oven. After a bit of research, I learned I would either already have or would be able to buy a toaster oven, which in my mind wasn't good for making anything but toast. Luckily I was proved wrong. Last night

AND tonight, I baked cookies. Actually Daniel pretty much made them by himself. And they were amazing. The texture turned out better than regular oven cookies! With this sanctuary back in tact, it feels like home.

As much as I was excited to embrace a new culture, I am definitely finding comfort in eating and drinking things I'm used to. Since I've been here, I haven't had one cup of coffee that I enjoyed drinking. That's saying a lot for me and you all know it. So Sunday I bought a coffee pot and some Columbian coffee. I have no idea what Columbian coffee is, really, but it sounded familiar to me and I could brew it so that's the one I chose. Needless to say, this morning was most enjoyable, filled with the smell of brewing coffee and the knowledge that I wasn't about to pay 3 dollars for a watered-down, odd-tasting "Americano."

Other comforts for me, this week, have been a block of cheese and cucumbers. I am changing my diet for the most part, but there are some things my body doesn't know it should have stopped craving two weeks ago. Therefore, I need to be able to buy cheese and cucumbers on demand. All I'd heard about the produce here so far is how expensive it is, so I was a little hesitant to brave the herds of people milling about the produce section of E-Mart. But I found that cucumbers and the equivalent of satsumas are basically the same price as in the States, so I've stocked up on those. Cheese, on the other hand, is a different story. But I'm not sure I can live without it.

Here are a few pictures of my apartment, because I like it: