Well, here I am. It all happened pretty fast; leaving Minnesota, spending time in Texas, getting everything ready for Korea, & now I'm finally here! Teaching English abroad is something I've always thought about doing, but didn't think there was ever a 'good' time to do it. I'm really hoping to save money while I'm here for grad school at Fuller in California when I get back in 1 year.
So far so good.
I really like it! I've been here about 2 weeks now, but it feels like a lot longer. I had a 16 hour flight here!! I didn't sleep at ALL on the plane so I had NO jet lag, thank goodness. When my driver pulled up to my apartment there was a small welcome party!! So sweet! My co-teacher, Dianne,
from Pitsburg, is awesome! She's taken me around & really helped me to get adjusted to life in S. Korea. I'd be lost without her! Dianne is on the left in this picture, & Jina, my director is on the right. I'm replacing her friend from home, Christina, who has been here for 1 year. Best of all, I get to have Christina's apartment when she leaves in 1 month!! I'm super excited! My place is nice, but REALLY tiny! The kitchen & bedroom are all the same room! It's a small studio apartment. I guess you could compare it to a shoebox apartment in NYC. But it's new & clean. It took me forever to find the shower. Since there's not many places to look, I thought, oh no, it's a community shower!! But I found out that most showers here are only the shower head placed somewhere in the bathroom. Most people's are behind there door in the bathroom, but mine is above my toilet & sink. So when I shower, EVERYTHING gets wet! I can already tell I can't wait for a bath or a REAL shower!!
Let's see, what have I done so far. Spent a lot of time at work. I can't wait to show you pictures of the kids! ADORABLE!!!! They are anywhere from 2-11ish years old. Age is confusing here in Korea b/c when you are born you turn 1 year old, & you turn another 1 for the New Year. So, when they say they are 4, they may be 2 or 3!! I still don't get it. Today I had a medical exam & they wrote down that I was 29 years old because of the year & month I was born!! I'm 27 thank you very much!!
There's a TON of cheap & not so cheap shopping here. Everyone is SOOOOOO trendy!! I feel like a bum! Everyone is always dressed up & looks very nice! Dianne & I went hiking outside of Seoul this past weekend. People even get ALL decked out to go hiking, in all of the best hiking gear!
After we hiked we went to this area where you take off your shoes & walk on rocks. It hurt really bad, I could barely do it. But there were people walking all around like it felt good! During the hike there was this place to rest & there was this lady with the biggest hula-hoop I've ever seen. She was like in the zone hula-hooping! It was the weirdest thing.
The food is REALLY good! I've had a lot of street Korean food, had Indian, Turkish, Thai & just regular Korean. It's spicy! There's lots of little & big markets along the streets that has some of the CRAZIEST things! Stuff that I don't even want to know what it is. But also some REALLY good things! My favorite thing that I've had so far is buns!! I'll take a picture & let you see. They are steamed rice buns with a sweet red bean filling. I got Dianne hooked on them too! But oh my, some things are SUPER expensive. As some of you know, I have to eat oatmeal every morning! Guess how much this oatmeal was??!! $14 USD!! I bought it this time, but probably won't again, ridiculous!
So, back to my school, it's called iSponge. We have 2 Korean teachers, Serene & Cecilia & then 3 foreign teachers. Tomorrow we get a new Korean teacher! It's long hours, 9-6, but we have breaks & the classes are only 40 minutes long. Our director is really laid back & stays out of our way. Basically, we can run our classes however we want. We have a curriculum to follow, but we're on our own.
Oh my gosh, this past weekend, Dianne, Carla, Jessica & I went to a Dr. Fish Cafe.
It's this really cool looking coffe shop/cafe. But that's not all....they have these things were you put your feet in water & fish EAT the dead skin off your feet! We TOTALLY freaked at first! It's SUCH a weird feeling! They would attack your feet!
Look how many there are in the picture! The fish LOVED Jessica's feet! Carla was crying!! But after a while we finally got used to it! Now I want to do it again!
There are so many different areas to go to! I live 5 minutes walking from my school. We have a good location b/c we're close to the green line subway & it goes all around Seoul. Seoul is really a city that never sleeps. People are always out REALLY late & up really early! All hours of the night! When so these people sleep?? I'm already starting a movie collection. You can buy 4 DVD's for $10!! We're making plans to go skiing/snowboarding, DMZ North Korea Tour, Temple Stay, Korean Language Lessons, Taekwondo lessons & other adventures! For Christmas break I'm hopefully going to China! It's cheap to fly there! I have some friends going to Thailand & Cambodia but I want to go & travel all around Southeast Asia after my year is up in Korea & spend like a month traveling around! Can't wait! It's starting to get pretty cold here! There is a cold wind that comes from Siberia! Oh my, our plane flew over Siberia....it was the weirdest thing...so much snow & ice, like nothing I've ever seen.
There is so much to learn about the Korean culture! It's different than anything I've experienced before! I'm sure the year will fly by! The time difference is crazy! Korea is 15 hours ahead of Texas! Anyway, I miss you all! I don't have intenet at my place yet, but I will in 1 month. So I'll be able to call you with my skype account! You are MORE than welcome to come & stay with me anytime! Let me know how you're doing! LOVE YOU!
We usually go to different areas of Seoul, walk around exploring, eat out, go hiking (they are fanatics about hiking here, I'll post a video later, hilarious. It's their 'unofficial' sport here. You can buy $2 DVDs here so I've been watching a ton of movies...heaven to me:) 
