25 in Korea

Despite the ceaseless hustle and bustle of the city, things are moving pretty slow. I never thought I would say these words, but I am so ready for work to start. I have explored my city everyday now and have found some places I love. There is a hill a couple blocks away from my house that has different routes up, down, and around it. I decided to go for a run and see how many laps I could make. This "hill" was much steeper than it first appeared, I was exhausted just after reaching the top, but found a delightful little place on top of that hill. There is various outdoor exercise equipment up there. Has anyone seen Ellen's Hawaiian chair?!?! Well my favorite machine is much like that, only you stand on it. I was having way to much fun and giggling out of control all by myself. Because it was so much fun, I hardly realized what an abdominal workout I was actually getting and could barely sit up to get out of bed the next day. I will take pictures and possibly video next time I go just show you this spectacle. 

I am just about ready to make a sign that says "Freak American Girl-will smile and wave for 100 won" and post it in this window at Dunkin Donuts. I feel like a caged zoo animal. I sit at the window that faces out into the city center, so people are constantly walking by and stare at me the whole time like they have never seen a white girl in their city. This is not the same friendly, curious stare like I get in Africa either. It's more of a glare than a stare really. Sometimes for a quick thrill, I will wave at the passerby and make them extremely uncomfortable. As I watch people passing by in this busy downtown area, I feel even more out of place than for the mere fact of being the foreigner. Everyone is extremely attractive and dressed very fashionably. Here in Korea, appearance is everything. I don't have the desire or money to walk 30 minutes in heels and dress every time I come downtown. Therefore, I sit here in my  jeans, hoodie, and tennis shoes. Perhaps this is another reason why they stare. 

Yesterday we had a staff meeting at school. The school that I teach at is a private English academy, we have seven foreign teachers and ten Korean teachers. This makes the meetings twice as long because the principal does not speak English well, so everything has to be translated. His main concern for this meeting is that the students do not write very well, and we need to be checking their online homework more often. They are 6 years old!!! and his is concerned about their creative writing skills in their second language!!! are you kidding me?!?! (Culture briefing sidetrack-Koreans believe that the day a child is conceived life begins. When  baby is born, he/she is then 1 year old. Therefore, a 6 year old in Korea would be 5 years old in the US). How many 5 year olds do you know that can write a 5 paragraph creative essay, in a second language? I have to write a unit plan that includes brainstorming, outlining, revision, ect. for a kindergarten class. I am amazed by these students, their spelling and vocab list for last week was equivalent to that of a 6th grader in the United States. 

After our meeting the boss took us all to dinner. Since he makes the most money out of anyone else at the table, by Korean standards, he must pay for everyone there. That was only our first stop of the night. We proceeded to move on to bar #1, where the boss continued to buy for everyone there. Once he got bored at that bar, we moved on to a norebang. This is a karaoke room. We have our own room with many screens to sing along and dance to any sort of music you can think of-what a spectacle. Then after a few hours of singing we moved on to the next destination, and so on. Koreans don't mess around when soju is involved. 

Tonight and this weekend I am heading up to Seoul to go visit Jackie!!! I am super excited to see her and meet her friends. I am a bit nervous to make this adventure and tackle the Korean subway by myself. I would be scared of the subway by myself in the United States when everything is in English. I'm sure I will be fine and find my way to her eventually. 

Many of you have been asking for my address, here it is! This is the address to the school, but the best place to send things. There isn't much that I need, but anything would be appreciated. I would like game film/highlights on DVD from the basketball games. I would love to stay updated and watch both the girls and boys season, I will miss being there to cheer terribly! 

SLP Seosan Inst. 2 &3rd fl

Dong-sin BD, 276-4, Dongmun-dong, Seosan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea

T. +82-41-688-5008 F. +82-41-688-0501

South Korea

(must include all of that!)

Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you already!

Dunkin' Donuts...aka American Embassy

Just a little bit of home...dunkin donuts! It's on my way to the school, and has free internet! They also play an amazing mix of my favorite American 90's music. Boys II Men was full volume as I walked in the door :) So today I brought my computer so I could put up some demanded photos of my apartment.

here you go...

view from my roof (turn your head to the right)

thermostat (your guess is a good as mine)

closet

bathroom (turn head left)

kitchen (all of it, wall to wall, I'm standing in the entrance to the apt.)

laundry room (can't read the settings, scared to try it out)

entertainment area

sorry I couldn't figure out how to turn the images. Probably have to do that first but I didn't have time to figure that out right now. I'm on my way to the school, then hospital. I have to go get the results of my tests. The nurse probed into my arm with the needle like she was performing liposuction. She couldn't find a vein in my left are, so she switched to my right. I wanted to smack her. 

I have been planted...time to bloom!

I can't thank you enough for the e-mails and messages! I am doing so well. I am all settled in to my cozy new apartment. I do not have an internet connection yet. I will reply to individual email and post pictures as soon as I get a connection set up.

My apartment is super small, but perfect for me! Luckily I have a separate "laundry room" with brand new washing machine. Really it's more like a small tiled closet with a drain. They do not use dryers in Korea! The other foreign teachers do not have this luxury. Most have to dry their clothes by stringing them all over the already small space. I am in desperate need of a tea kettle and mug. I am currently making coffee by boiling water in a frying pan and drinking out of a bowl. Meals that I have prepared at home are squid flavored ramen noodles. I don't know how to cook anything else, nor do I have the equipment to do so. My bathroom, or should I say shower with toilet and sink is a lovely shade of grandmother sea foam green. I shower over the toilet-I just consider it convenient. The food I have been eating here makes a taco bell fart seem like a warm summer breeze. Speaking of food, I ate a whole baby squid at lunch yesterday. The little guy was in my mystery seafood soup. Oh and my floor!!! It's heated! I would compare it to a padded lamenent floor-squishy and warm! My bed is tiny and hard. I have bruises on my hips from sleeping on it. I used my thermarest for padding, but unfortunately it is leaking air and flat within an hour. More with pictures...

I have been pretty bored, and so ready for school to start. Unfortunately, the school is shut down this week due to swine flu. This means more time for me to roam around my city and discover new things. I am at the school now getting ready to go to the hospital for my health check. I walk to school and that takes about 20 minutes. Everyday I have to pass a dunken donuts...temptation. I don't really have any other updates. I just sit around my apartment. Luckily I have cable TV that gets really outdated US shows. It snowed yesterday...

People In Every Direction-No Words Exchanged

I'm in South Korea!!! The flight was horrible, but getting to my current location has been so easy!

On my flight to Tokyo, I sat by a man about my dad's age named Mike. Mike gave me the most strange compliment I have ever received. About 7 hours into our flight, he turned to me like he had something serious to say but said, "you have one the best BLADDERS in the world". haha...I replied with "thank you?". If you know me well, you know I would muster up something more ridiculous to reciprocate latter on. Well it happened, I had a Samantha moment. As we were descending in to Tokyo, I looked out the window and yelped "Ew! there's snow!" Mike, said no way, I highly doubt there is snow...as I looked harder I said "Yeah, you're right, what looked like snow is definitely waves crashing into the shore!" idiot

When I arrived in Korea, a man picked me up to take me to the hotel. This is where the universal language of gestures begins to come in to play. I really needed a shower when I got to the hotel and didn't want to go through all my bags to find my shower stuff, and the hotel had 3 family size pump bottles in the bathroom...so why not just use those. To all of my students who complain about never using what they learn in the classroom in real life situations, here you go, scientific method application! I obviously cant read Korean. The 3 bottles became mystery bottles. The palm of my hand became my mini lab. I observed the consistency and smell of the contents of each of those bottles to determine which to use on my hair, in which order, and which to use on my body. I think my test was a success! Silky smooth hair today! I still hadn't eaten since the airplane and when the man came to pick up this morning I really needed coffee. Coffee is my drug, not afraid to admit it. I could not figure out how to get this very important need across to my driver. How do I explain that if I don't get my go-juice asap, I would spontaneously transform into a crazy lady. I finally got a cup before catching the 3 hour bus to Seosan. I was happy again with my coffee, but still hungry. Considering eating my hand.

I'm not in Kansas anymore. I've never even been to Kansas, but you get the analogy. This is going to be way more difficult than living in and backpacking through Africa. No worries, no hurries has become GO! GO! GO! I think I will learn to love it here despite that!

Tonight, I am staying in another, much nicer hotel actually in Seosan. So, I have made it to my city just not my apartment. I will move in tomorrow. I am getting ready to go to lunch with the principal from my school, then tonight a group of us are going out to dinner and getting drinks. Meeting people might not be as difficult as expected...lets just hope they are normal and decent!

Thank you for all the encouraging messages! Love you all, you will get me through this potential uneasy start to this journey!