The monetary unit of South Korea is called the South Korean Won (pronounced like "wan"), and it's abbreviated like this: ₩. The bills come in denominations of ₩1,000 , ₩5,0000 , and ₩10,000 while the coins come in ₩1, ₩10, ₩50, ₩100, and ₩500. The current exchange rate is about ₩1,000 = 85 cents USD. The way I usually figure it out, is I'll take the price in Won, divide it by 1,000 and then minus a little away. So if something is ₩40,000 I would guess that it would be around $33-$35.

Things here are either cheap or expensive I've found. When it comes to grocery shopping, if you go to the larger Green Marts (but not the big supermarkets) you'll find cheaper prices. Fruits and vegetables are cheap, I can get a bag of pre-peeled garlic cloves, with about 15-20 cloves in it, for about ₩1,500. The packaged food get a little more expensive, cereal is slightly more here than back at home, but if you stick with the store brand it's a lot better. The general spices and oils that are usually expensive back home are pretty cheap here. The exception being rice. For some reason a bag of rice is a lot more expensive then I had expected. But it might just be that I have forgotten how much an entire bag of rice can make.

There are fruit vendors that you can buy cheap fruit from, I love getting tangerines. Depending on where I go, I can get between 5-8 of them for about ₩2,000. Eggs are also a good deal to get on the street. I bought this entire thing of eggs (36) for ₩5,600 (which is about $4.75). I didn't really want that many eggs, but I don't know how to count in Korean yet, or how to say dozen, so I just bought the lot. When I'm buying something on the street or in a market, even if I can't understand how much they are telling me, I can be fairly sure that it wont be too expensive.

There are a lot of little bakeries around here, the most popular are Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours. They usually have a variety of sweet and savory pastries to choose from, and lots and lots of cakes. Both of these places are right outside my work, so if I want to stop in and get breakfast, I can usually get a bagel and a pastry and a small orange juice for about ₩3,500 which is pretty cheap, but it's the kind of stuff that will add up. There is also a cheap place to get lunch by work, I haven't been there yet, but Grace who is the new receptionist, told me that if I ever want her to show me new foods then she would be happy too. I'm definitely going to hit that up. So far I love Korean food!

Taxis can be pretty cheap as well. Last night we took a 20-30 minute taxi home, and it was only ₩20,000 ( a lot cheaper than New York!!). Of course the public transportation is way cheaper, only about ₩600 per bus or subway ride, but they stop running at midnight (slightly inconvenient for the party goers).

While the cheap stuff is cheap, the expensive stuff is expensive. Dishes, pots & pans, silverware, this stuff can all run pretty high. Luckily though you can go to a Daiso to get most of the stuff you need for your home and it's pretty cheap. Bed sheets, now those are expensive. Since Korean don't sleep on beds, there isn't much need for bed sheets, which means they are super expensive. One fitted sheet runs between ₩40,000 and ₩60,000. The sheets that came with my bed are orange and ugly, but I'm not about to spend $30-$50 on bed sheets!