I wanted to inform people about a service by the United States Post Office that most people don’t know about.  It’s a very cheap way for people in the United States to send books or magazines internationally.  There is no longer an 11 pound minimum to send a package, but you’ll still get charged for 11 pounds of postage, even if you’re sending 2 pounds of books.

In December 2006, I sent about 45 pounds of books to myself in Korea for about $1/pound.  If I had sent it through normal means, it would have cost me $198.16!   (The weight limit for the cheaper ‘First Class Mail’ is 4 pounds)  I carefully placed the books in a sturdy box, wrapped groups of books in bubble wrap, and made sure contents wouldn’t shift.  When I got to the post office, this box was placed into an “M-bag,” which was just a big sturdy plastic bag.  I filled out the forms, and off it went.  I received the books in exactly 6 weeks.

261.1 General

Direct sacks of printed matter to a single foreign addressee, which are also known as M–bags, are subject to the following conditions of mailing:

1. Maximum weight: 66 pounds (including the tare weight of the sack).
2. Availability: All destinations that are referenced in the Individual Country Listings.
3. Identification: PS Tag 158, M–Bag Addressee Tag, must be completed and attached to the neck of the sack.
4. Postage: The applicable airmail or International Surface Air Lift (ISAL) postage must be affixed to PS Tag 158.
5. Extra services: Certificate of mailing is available. Registry and insurance are not available.

261.21 Printed Matter

Printed matter is admissible in M–bags. Printed matter is defined as paper on which words, letters, characters, figures, images, or any combination thereof, not having the character of a bill or statement of account, or of actual or personal correspondence, have been reproduced by any process other than handwriting or typewriting. Articles that meet the printed matter definition include newspapers, magazines, journals, books, sheet music, catalogues, directories, commercial advertising, and promotional matter.

The postal service has recently raised their prices for M-Bags (by a lot) to South Korea, and internationally, but it’s still the cheapest way to mail lots of books or magazines overseas:

[USPS International Mail Manual]

I don’t like to wear clothes that SHOUT what brand I’m wearing.  My camera strap was a little loud for me.  Sure, I’m happy I have a Canon, but I don’t need to advertise for them.

Before:

I bought this tape from the fabric store for under $3 and I used about 1/3 of it for this project.  The yard of ribbon was $3/yard.  I used about 3/4 of it.  The tape works just like double-sided tape.  Very easy.

After:

The flash made the colors washed out, but the final product was pretty cool.  If I find a different ribbon in the future, it can be easily replaced using the same process.  Total crafty time = 5 minutes.

I had a couple of pre-cooked rice bowls and went online looking for cooking directions in English.  I knew they could be microwaved, but didn’t know if the plastic bowls could stand being boiled.  I found the answer at KOA Mart, which got me thinking.  This online store selling Korean products would be a great resource for foreigners living in Korea.  The products sold are the same sold in supermarkets around Korea, but the descriptions of products and directions on how to use the products are in English.

For example, you’ve bought this package of black bean sauce, but don’t know how to use it because all the directions are in Korean.

At KOA Mart, you’ll be provided with these details for enjoying this Jajang sauce:

COOKING DIRECTION:
*Ingredients for 4~5 servings: Ottogi black bean sauce - 100g, meat(beef or pork) - 150g, 2 onions, 1 potato, 1 carrot, squash - 1/3, minced garlic - 1/2 Ts, corn oil - 4 Ts, water - 700cc
1) Cut meat, onion, potato, squash and carrot in medium size.
2) Fry cutted vegetables with corn oil and pour the 600cc of water. Boil it until it cooked.
3) Turn off the stove, mix the black bean paste powder with 100cc of water in a small bowl.
4) Turn on the stove and pour the sauce(3). Boil it to be thick for 2~3 minutes.
5) Pour the curry sauce on rice or noodle. Serve!

Here are links to other Korean online shops:  KGrocer, Zion Market, and Hmart.

Ras called to set up internet for our apartment today. It’s through Megapass Ntopia (English version) and was really easy to do. Dial 100. (Yes, it’s a three digit phone number to a call center in Seoul.) Press 8 for English, then 1 for “New Accounts.” You’ll talk to an English operator that will instruct you to fax or email a copy of your Alien Registration Card or passport to Megapass. Afterwards, call back and the operator will walk you through opening an account, including setting up a username and password.

A one year contract is 37,620 won per month ($40 USD). The installation fee of 30,000 won was waived. There was a discount of 5%, which must be paid back if the contract is broken before the year ends. For this price, we’ll get download and upload speeds of up to 100Mbps! Even if our actual speeds are half of that number, that’s still fast.
Ras called today at 11:00 am and they’ll be here to hook it up between 9-11 am tomorrow. Our apartment building is already hooked up for high speed internet, so it just needs to be turned on. A month before moving into our apartment, we had already decided we’d get the fastest internet that money can buy. So, you can imagine how excited I am to get an internet line that’s faster than a T3 connection!

A few people have asked me about these photo frames I use:

There are Photoshop tutorials that will teach you how to make these, like this one here.  I tried making it once, but it was difficult to follow and the frame didn’t turn out right.  Instead, I get my frame templates from a digital scrapbooking site - My Digital Muse.  These kinds of frames are pretty big right now in the digital scrapbooking world and can be found at many sites.  You need a basic understanding of Photoshop to use them.  Pictures are placed underneath the frames and then you can resize and rotate the photo with CTRL+T (COMMAND+T).  Any part of the photo that goes outside the frame can be erased with the eraser tool.  I use these for my blog pictures and digital scrapbooking layouts and they’re very convenient.