Jon: Let me tell you about my dong.....

I should probably begin by explaining......."dongs" are districts within the cities of South Korea, much like the boroughs in New York, but smaller and more numerous. So my "dong" then is Yeongtong-dong, Suwon and Lisa's "dong" (haha still funny even after four months) is Poongdeokcheon-dong, Suji. So whenever we talk about our respective "dongs" keep in mind they're our neighborhoods, not anything errrr.....anatomically speaking.

Suwon is a large city home to roughly one million people and is commonly

called the "greater Seoul area." Yeongtong is a bustling district with several large hagweons, a hugh movie theater, McDonald's, Dunk'n Donuts, KFC (which apparently runs out

 of chicken at times), Baskin Robbins, and the nerve center of Yeongtong: Homeplus.  Homeplus is essentially the Korean version of Wal-mart that has practically anything a Korean or foreigner would need. I can buy peanut butter, frosted flakes, chips and salsa, ketchup, and almost any other amenity that I could find back home. The one major exception, however, is deodorant. Apparently Koreans do not sweat or stink and have no need for deodorant which leaves me playing the role of the smelly white man.

Yeongtong is also home to some excellent eats as well as a few decent bars (which will be another blog unto itself). One particular restaurant that I frequent often, along with Lisa, friends, and coworkers, is fantastic as it is visited at least once, probably twice a week. The name, however, still eludes me.  (Here's the restaurant)

Other restaurants that we generally find ourselves visiting came as a surprise to us: fried chicken eateries. Koreans do incredible fried chicken and love to have beer accompany it; who doesn't it? What makes Korean fried chicken so great is that it often comes spicy. Food in Korea, which came as a surprise to me, as been some of the best I've had.

That's pretty much a quick synopsis of my "dong". Lisa will follow up soon with a post about her "dong" and we'll begin to fill in and piece together certain experiences and lessons we've had so far in Korea!