Things That Make Me Laugh

The Wonder Girls are becoming popular abroad. Their hit song "Nobody" is catchy, but I'm not really into them.

Here's their performance:

After you watch The Wonder Girls, you might laugh as much as I did at

these videos:

How do these guys do this dance without laughing?

My Mom's Painting

Happy Birthday Mom.

One of my mom's hobbies is water color painting. It requires a lot of patience and skill.

Here's her latest painting:

Exercise Your Brain

A lot of studies have shown that exercising the brain is just as important as working out. Some people believe the brain can atrophy.

Students are lucky because they can learn something new every class. =)

Lately, I've been trying to keep myself sharp by doing these mental exercises from Naver.

You can find them here: http://game.boom.naver.com/brain.nhn

Here are some of my results below:

Try some of these and tell me your score. =)

Are you a film buff?

In English slang, a "buff" means someone who is enthusiastic or knowledgable about a subject.

For example, "She's a history buff."

Here are some of my favorite films. Can you name these movies?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Cheaper Cell Service

There has been a news article almost every day about cell phone service in Korea. Usually, the topic is the high cost Koreans are paying compared to other countries.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s report, titled Communication Outlook, which is published every two years, Koreans are being charged some of the highest cell phone rates in the 30-member organization.

According to the report, Korean mobile phone users who talked for an average of 246 minutes per month had the 16th highest bills among OECD member nations. Koreans who talked for 114 minutes per month had the 12th highest bills, while those who talked for 44 minutes had bills that were the sixth highest.

“We agree that cell phone rates in Korea are excessively high, as stated in the OECD report,” said Lee Tae-hee of the Korea Communications Commission. “We will try to make some policy changes to provide consumers with benefits that could offset the high rates.”

When I first arrived in Korea, I did notice that cell phone service was more expensive than in the U.S. My monthly bill in the U.S. was around $30-$60 a month depending on the plan I was using. However, in Korea, my bill varies between $40-$100 a month depending on how many calls I make. Most cell phone plans in the U.S. offer nationwide calling, which is not expensive when you consider the size of the country.

Here are some current plans being offered:

T-Mobile - The phone below is free ($0) with a two year contract. The cost per month is $39.99 for 1,000 minutes a month. If you pay an extra $5, you can send 300 text messages a month. In many cases, it's actually cheaper just to call someone than send a text mesage.

Verizon - The LG "Dare" phone is free ($0) with a two year contract. The cost per month is $60.

The features of this plan are 450 minutes of talking a month and unlimited text, picture, and video messaging. Therefore, you could send 1,000,000 sms a day. = 0

Finally, if you love talking and sending messages, T-Mobile offers an unlimted plan.

The plan offers unlimited calling and unlimited text messaging for $100 a month. This Samsung phone is free ($0) with a two year contract. The regular price of the phone is $499. If you want to talk on the phone for 24 hours a day, this is the perfect plan for you. =)

In my opinon, the best deals are the family plans in the U.S. Here's an example:

Sprint offers 2 Samsung phones for $50 (one time fee). The family plan is $100 a month. The features are:

2 Samsung phones

2 phone lines (separate phone numbers)

1,500 minutes per month (the family shares the minutes)

Monday-Friday after 7:00PM all calls are free. Calls are free all day on Saturday and Sunday.

Unlimited text messaging.

How much is your cell phone bill a month?

New Experiences

I enjoy new experiences. Today, was interesting. I tried to take the subway and after 20 minutes of waiting there was an announcement. I couldn't understand all of it, but I did hear something about a 40 minute delay.

So, I decided to leave and one of the clerks gave me one of these:

Anyone ever have this experience?

How to Look at Your Pay Stub

Before you proceed, hufs.ac.kr does not work with Internet Explorer 8. lol However, it will work with older versions of Explorer, Google Chrome, or Firefox.
First, go to http://www.hufs.ac.kr/ and click on the link that is circled below. It's to the right of "e-Class."
Next, you'll come upon this screen. Enter your ID and password.

After you have logged on, click on the link below "Welfare Information" on the right. I circled the link.

Finally, change the setting to 연수원 and then click on "급여조회." This will take you to your pay stub. You can change the month and year to view past stubs. If you have any questions, let me know. =)