Insert appropriate greeting for a Korean phone "hello"

Its really interesting the things that bring you back to reality and make you truly homesick. For starters, lets ignore the fact that I've completely succumb to the notion that I won't be taking a shower with a real sized towel for the next year, that I probably won't enjoy a nice stroll down the street with less than 20 stares, and that it took us 15 minutes today to order a sandwich. That was all stuff that I've been fine with so far -- I'm even gotten accustomed to the excessive amount of sugary and spicy food (!). The thing that really did it for me was Ted Kennedy's death today.  I let out a far too loud (see: American) gasp in the middle of the computer lab today after reading CNN, only to be met with about 10 stink eyes. It was just another reminder of how much I miss home and being able to talk with people (who are actually interested) about American politics. Basically, I think I'm starting to get homesick. Weird. 

I'd go into a long schpiel about how fascinating Korean culture is compared to the western world, but I think that's a given and everyone has taken a high school/college religion course to know enough about Confuscianism so I won't waste anyone's time. The few interactions I've had with Koreans have been amazing though fairly nerve wracking since I'm pretty sure that I"m constantly offending everyone (maybe I should stop nodding all the time...). Initially, I was a bit bummed about being in Gangwon-do but the more time I spend here, the more I'm coming to realized that we're going to have an absolutely amazing experience since we will really get to see/experience Korean people and culture. I'm not knocking Busan/Seoul but, I'm pretty excited to figure out buying cold cuts from a Korean butcher as opposed to the local Costco. 

In more exciting news - Yesterday, I bought a Hello Kitty straightening iron after 45 minutes of searching around Lotte Mart (think: Wal-mart but 4 times bigger). Today, we got our Korean cell phones. I'm finally legit. And tomorrow, I meet my new boss and get my placement - so hopefully that's fun! 

Anyway, I'm going to go back to attempting to figure out this Korean phone, and calling Sam incessantly from the bed beside her.