Money, money, money...
So I signed up for fifthmus and the next night I had a nightmare in which I received my assignment and the requests were pretty much "1. Isumi/Kouyo smut, 2. anything by bookshop, 3. I really don't have any more requests!" which naturally made me go o_O how is this possible? :D Truthfully, I'm really looking forward to getting my assignment! I hope that this isn't the only busy-free week I'll have in the near future ;)
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But anyway. aiwritingfic asked me ages ago to tell about my experiences with money in Korea.
When I first arrived here I thought it's so ridiculous that 1,000 won is like 1 USD - I mean, why would you have all those extra zeroes?! But now I've kind of gotten used to it, and I can say that the good thing is that at least you don't need to know the name of the other type of money - like cents or pennies or you know? So their currency is won and that's it. Kinda makes sense. Even though there still is one extra zero, as the smallest coin they have is 10 won... But the numbers are clearly marked on coins¬es, so it's easy to use even if I wouldn't recognize them otherwise - because there're two kinds of 1,000 won notes (different colour! insane!), at least three kinds of 10 won coins, and so on. I don't know why O_O
When I first came here, it was right after being in England, where everyone frowned at you if you used too big a note to pay for your things. So at first I was "I'M SO SORRY" when I used 10,000 won note to pay for something that was 1,200 won, but here they don't care, which is a relief. It's more like they're annoyed if you use too small change... But I still prefer this to English attitude.
Going to a grocery store or such is not nice money-wise, though, because they don't list prices. So I never know how much something I'm buying is. Sometimes it'll say the price on the package (though it took me a while to figure out, because "won" is written in Korean and so I didn't know if it was 500 g or 500 w or what) but that doesn't mean that's how much you have to pay - for example on campus store almost everything is 50 won cheaper than it says on the package. And I don't know the numbers in Korean yet, so I don't know how much they're asking me to pay. But now I do know how much it is about, so if I buy milk and yoghurt I know I have to give her 2,000 won and I'll get a few hundred back.
If you are shopping at a marketplace, they don't have price tags and so you have to ask for a price and then try to bargain - but it's not really that easy, not like in Thailand. So at first I didn't buy much stuff, because I didn't know how much something was supposed to cost. Now, though, I feel like I could go shopping, maybe I'll do that the weekend after this.
Eating out with Korean people for the first time is nice, because here one usually pays, and then the next time another - and they always insist on paying. I've never been to another dinner with someone (though I intend to! yeah right.) ;) Eating out is also really cheap, I usually spend like 2 euros on that per meal.
There's a bank at campus. At first we had to go there to draw money (we get our stipend once a week), and we were told we wouldn't get debit cards, but then we found out that yes, we can get them. So now I can use ATMs which is NICE, because the bank staff didn't speak English, like, almost at all, so it was difficult. I'm so happy we get a stipend, which is 150,000 won/week = 115€/160$, so we don't have to worry about not having money for something we want to do.
:)
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I've been reading some post-DH Harry/Draco lately, and oh, so nice :) YEAH BABE, STILL OTP LIKE WOAH.
*
But anyway. aiwritingfic asked me ages ago to tell about my experiences with money in Korea.
When I first arrived here I thought it's so ridiculous that 1,000 won is like 1 USD - I mean, why would you have all those extra zeroes?! But now I've kind of gotten used to it, and I can say that the good thing is that at least you don't need to know the name of the other type of money - like cents or pennies or you know? So their currency is won and that's it. Kinda makes sense. Even though there still is one extra zero, as the smallest coin they have is 10 won... But the numbers are clearly marked on coins¬es, so it's easy to use even if I wouldn't recognize them otherwise - because there're two kinds of 1,000 won notes (different colour! insane!), at least three kinds of 10 won coins, and so on. I don't know why O_O
When I first came here, it was right after being in England, where everyone frowned at you if you used too big a note to pay for your things. So at first I was "I'M SO SORRY" when I used 10,000 won note to pay for something that was 1,200 won, but here they don't care, which is a relief. It's more like they're annoyed if you use too small change... But I still prefer this to English attitude.
Going to a grocery store or such is not nice money-wise, though, because they don't list prices. So I never know how much something I'm buying is. Sometimes it'll say the price on the package (though it took me a while to figure out, because "won" is written in Korean and so I didn't know if it was 500 g or 500 w or what) but that doesn't mean that's how much you have to pay - for example on campus store almost everything is 50 won cheaper than it says on the package. And I don't know the numbers in Korean yet, so I don't know how much they're asking me to pay. But now I do know how much it is about, so if I buy milk and yoghurt I know I have to give her 2,000 won and I'll get a few hundred back.
If you are shopping at a marketplace, they don't have price tags and so you have to ask for a price and then try to bargain - but it's not really that easy, not like in Thailand. So at first I didn't buy much stuff, because I didn't know how much something was supposed to cost. Now, though, I feel like I could go shopping, maybe I'll do that the weekend after this.
Eating out with Korean people for the first time is nice, because here one usually pays, and then the next time another - and they always insist on paying. I've never been to another dinner with someone (though I intend to! yeah right.) ;) Eating out is also really cheap, I usually spend like 2 euros on that per meal.
There's a bank at campus. At first we had to go there to draw money (we get our stipend once a week), and we were told we wouldn't get debit cards, but then we found out that yes, we can get them. So now I can use ATMs which is NICE, because the bank staff didn't speak English, like, almost at all, so it was difficult. I'm so happy we get a stipend, which is 150,000 won/week = 115€/160$, so we don't have to worry about not having money for something we want to do.
:)
*
I've been reading some post-DH Harry/Draco lately, and oh, so nice :) YEAH BABE, STILL OTP LIKE WOAH.