More shopping and lesson plans! I've got to turn in my lesson plans by the first day of class, i.e., this coming Monday. I've also got to keep shopping for household and office items that will make my life a bit more comfortable. I bought an electric fan for my studio yesterday; I'm going to try to find a cheaper one for my office today. I'm also going to look into buying a printer/scanner here instead of having my own printer shipped with me to the States. My brother David looked into UPS's rates for my printer, and they were well over $600, US. Since I paid a bit less than $300 for the printer itself, that sounded ridiculous to me. I'd rather risk buying an expensive printer here on the peninsula (Korean electronics prices are, depending on the item, about double what they are in the States, alas) than suffer wallet abuse from UPS (with the added trouble of a delay at ROK Customs, plus extra entry fees... I've been through such hassle before).
I also need to pick up my jeans from Computer Clothing Repair, as well as buy an iron, an ironing board, and other items for my digs. With all that accomplished, I can sit down at my Big Mac (which I set up last night) and pound out my two syllabi for the coming semester. Shouldn't be hard. And if I finish everything tonight, I've got the whole weekend free to explore the town, and maybe even dip into Daegu itself.
Lots of walking and sweating in store for today. I wonder whether I've lost any weight. Maybe I should invest in a bathroom scale...
_
It's hard to believe, but South Korea's Costcos actually have some pretty cheap printers. I'd definitely try there first and don't even bother with the Samsung and LG stores. They are unbelievably arrogant to charge such crazy prices in their home country. You might also want to check out the South Korean version of Costco, EMart Traders. In order to take a bite out of Costco here, they don't charge a membership fee...yet...and they do carry some pretty good deals.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI went to the local market in Hayang today and learned that a printer/scanner would set me back about W250,000, which is cheaper than the printer/scanner I paid for, from Costco, in the States. The lady didn't have the device in stock; she said she'd have to order it. But aside from that slight inconvenience, I'm thinking that it might be worth it just to stick with the local market. Of course, I'll check online for the Costco and E-Mart Traders deals.
Regarding Home Plus: there's one in nearby Gyeongsan City. I need to figure out the bus route there.
For a basic HP Inkjet at Daejeon's Costco, the price is about 49,000 won. There is an all-in-one Inkjet for about 99,000 won, while the lasers were about 200,000 won. You might also be able to get a better warranty there.
ReplyDeleteI hope your E-Mart Traders is better than the one here in Daejeon. Their website offered 1TB hard drives for 90,000 won, but when I got to the local store here, they were out and refused to order me some for the same price. I was stuck having to shell out 80,000 won for a cruddy 500GB drive. Of course, the next week they had the cheaper 1 TB ones in stock.
Here is something you might be able to incorporate into your teaching. Even mighty Samsung can make horrible, and definitely cringe-worthy, decisions when it comes to not using English speaking writers in the making of their English, promotional videos. While it seems that the German, Werner Herzog has no translation problems with his English videos as his latest will truly break your heart.