Wednesday

So today was kinda scary and involved needles ☹!!!!
I don’t know if I mentioned yesterday but the day before when we were about to leave the school the assistant (Molly, all the Koreans have English names too) ran and quickly told us that we had to have our health test tomorrow. Well this being tomorrow we had our health test, the one I needed to not take any drugs (like pain killers) for so I wont get sent home. It went well, you know pee in a cup, look this way, strip your shirt to get a chest ex-ray and allow some acupuncture-high nurse take your blood. The chest ex-ray was actually a lot nicer then the one I had to get in France, here they gave you a shirt to wear over your nakedness, in France you bore it all proudly. Anyways, it all went very fast and you only had a sore arm the rest of the day.

The health check didn’t leave us with a lot of time in the morning so we had a quick lunch and headed to school. Again I spent the day trying to figure out the system and the classes. I just decided to take the books home since we have the next day off and plan everything out. I didn’t have a desk yet since the girl I’m replacing was still here. At one point I was invited to one of the going away parties, that was super sweet and I got to meet the kids. At the end of the day I stepped in for one of the teachers who needed to go prepare a room for the closing activities. I gave a test and took role and allowed the students time to prepare for their presentations. Quite exciting, it was only prep though nothing big. Then I led the class to the next room where they presented their presentation to the whole school. (Which is about 30-40 kids).

After school I went straight home and went to bed after reading for a while. Nothing exciting but I do get to move into my apartment tomorrow!


Markets often have tanks with live fish outside their shops or booths, I find it hilarious and sorta morbid. Also this is Joel, the other teacher starting at the same time I did.

Tuesday

I think that I am spoiling you guys with a post a day, I think that I will have to cut that down. Sorry everyone, I am going to be posting every Thursday. I will however finish this week out and do a post today.
This morning was about the same routine, I think the most exciting thing that happened was a man went by with a way overloaded handcart, the kind you only see in the cartoons where the contents are bulging out the top and it is all held together by rope.
We were picked up by the other teachers right before school so that they could show us the way and we had a meeting explaining the teaching system. When the Korean teachers explained something they made it sound really complicated. Then the English teachers came in and I think I finally understand it. Don’t worry; I am not about to explain it to you guys because parts of it I don’t think I really understand. I spent the rest of the day shadowing classes, getting my books and learning more lesson style. After work I went with Grace to get the low down about the apartment I will be moving into. This is going to be fun to clean and organize. Thankfully I have Thursday off to do all that.
Also there is a speaker in my room that will ever so often have a Korean guy speak telling me to stay inside because there is a nuclear drill going on outside. (or something like that) I just started cracking up about that.

Picture for the day, this is inside the grocery store. I think it is like a salad bar but with Asian stuff like fish and kimchee.

Monday

February 26,

Second day and it is the start of school. We again went to the Paris place this morning so that we could use the internet, also got to try a new pastry. Very tasty, it was crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside.
Again we learned the lesson that most places don’t open when we tried to go to the Lottemart to pick up a few things. So we visited the dunkin' donuts and I watched some guy put up power lines as my friend drank his coffee. I never noticed how many wires were up until it had a guy right next to them.
Good news everyone, I found the church’s address in changwon and as soon as I find the building I let you know how far away it is.
We went to the school at one for a meeting with the teacher and half of what she was telling us I couldn’t connect to anything. I’ve got to get past this jet lag in order to start retaining things. We clarified everything with the other teachers and got on square with everything. I shadowed Grace all day, which was good but slightly slow at times. It did give me an idea of what I am going to be doing. The classes seem straight forward and will be fairly easy to get the hang of.
My director seems nice but I can already foresee problems with communication. Mainly because when I try to clarify something she just explains it again in the same disjointed way or gives me more useless information. I then have to go to the other English teachers but I can't keep doing that since they are leaving on Thursday.
We went out for dinner after school, I don’t know about this food. The spicyness is kinda not working with me. The others say I’ll get used to it. I hope so and soon.
We went to ice cream too to cool off my mouth. Man I'm such a wuss.

Oh one last thing, I discovered that with anyone coming to see me, it might be complicated. We wont know my time off till about three weeks ahead. I can take my vacation time though next to a weekend and that could be like a five day weekend. So I will have to revisit this topic later.

Well that’s all for now

First Day

Fun and interesting/ Informative and exhausting could describe this first day in Korea.
My night sleep was touch and go for a while, I was super tired from the flight but it didn’t help that my bed was rock hard and there is no control to the temperature. I didn’t even figure out that you can open a window till well after I got up. I did wake up a few times but it was still dark so I wasn’t getting out of bed.
I did finally get up around 7:30 and I truly started to explore the room. Apparently the whole bathroom acts as a shower, I have no internet and there is a mirror above my bed which is slightly riske. I actually discovered that last night and laughed for about ten minutes.
There are no sheets on my bed either and I just have gold comforter for a cover. I am thankful that I brought an extra blanket (the one Ally gave me for Christmas) and I just used the comforter to cover the bed.



Anyways, After I did your normal morning things. I decided to go find a place with free wi-fi, this was the only way I was going to get into contact with the girl who I am replacing. Joel joined me, after I knocked on his door ( I refuse to walk around a strange town without some form of support).

(This is one of the largest Fish Markets in Korea)
We walked around the town for about 20 minutes before we found a place with wi-fi. Apparently Changwon doesn’t wake up until eleven. There was a cute street market that was out, people lined the streets with fish and fruit in bowls and bags. A lot of things I’ve never seen before. There were fish that looked like angelfish and live octopus and all sorts of fruit, some really cheap. I think I will have to try a few when I am in my apartment. Well, we finally found an open shop called the Paris Baguette, thank you france for coming through. I was able to skype the Grace, and we decided to meet at noon for lunch.
It was now 9:30, so we had a bit of time, so our next stop was finding a converter for our laptops. We found the closest supermarket and after going up three flights and finding nothing I decided to ask. So I went up to an electronics guy and I used one of the Korean words I know and my extensive knowledge of sign language and mimed what we needed. The guy tried his best to explain where we needed to go, the basement. Problem was he sent us in the wrong direction which took us outside and around the building. Well we came back in and using our own improve directions we found the escalator and soon found what we were looking for. That and some soda and juice.

On the way back to the motel (juice and soda is heavy), we ran into David who actually approached us because there aren’t that many Americans here. David is another teacher. We then met up with Grace and went to lunch all the four of us. The restaurant was cool because we had to sit on pillows next to tiny tables. The meal was very Korean and tasty. It was also great cause we got to bombard Grace and David with questions. After lunch, Grace and David took us around town and showed us where everything was and we went to an actual fish market. We walked a ton and I would of kept going because I naturally don’t have an off switch when I am exploring but we all decided it was a good idea to take a break and meet up again at 7; that turned out to be a wise decision, I slept. ☺

After that brief hiatus, we met up with the other teachers and went to dinner. We had beef that we had to grill ourselves, the grill was in the middle of the table and along with that we had veggies in some sweet sauce. Very tasty, we then went out and they bought a rice wine and we went up to one of the apartment roofs where we could see most of Changwon. It was getting kinda cold, so we went downstairs in one of their apartments. The group didn’t know what to do next so I offered to teach them speed scrabble and promptly beat everybody in the game ☺
After that we all called it a day.


(This is the view from my room)

more pictures to come!!!

The Arrival

Okay, so I left you all at the Seattle Airport so I'll pick up the story from then. I caught my excruciatingly long flight to Korea. And after 5 movies where I had to continue reminding myself that if I don't sleep I will be able to get over jet lag faster, I arrived in Soeul.

Here I had to get through customs which was a lot faster then I thought it would be, I stupidly chose a line that took forever (I blame the group of teenage russians that were ahead of me). All they did at customs was take my picture and stamp my passport. Well I found my luggage fine enough, exchanged my money (wasn't sure if they ripped me off, at this point I was running out of time). I ran outside and caught a bus to take me to Gimpo airport. That cost about 7000won, which is roughly 7 bucks (I thought it was pretty good price becuase the alternative is a taxi for 45,000won). I nearly ripped my nail off trying to maneuver my 150 pounds of luggage. No worries I did not kill anyone yet but I did accidentally drop a bag on someone, its okay he was alive and moved away from me strangely fast. Anyways, I caught the next flight just fine, I did get there about 15minutes before boarding which was a bit nerve racking but I have to say I prefer the security in Korea then the US, they are just so much faster and I didn't have to take off my shoes.

The flight went superfast, truthfully I sat down and passed out. I didn't even remember taking off, but I do remember landing and being extremely disoriented. After I collected my luggage I met Mr Kim and two other teachers. One guys is going to work in Busan and the other guy is going to be my co-teacher. My co-teachers name is Joel, he seems nice and since he is the only other english speaker here, he in my new best friend :)

We dropped the other guy in Busan. It was sort of a shaddy side of town so I was happy that we kept going. I was dozing in the van the whole way so I didn't see a lot of the country side but I was awake enough to notice pass what looked like an ambulance (odd). And I don't think I am going to drive here at all because people are crazy and they put on their brights if you are not going fast enough.

So I got to the hotel, I have my own room, the bed is as hard as rock and the fan is broken but the bathroom is cool looking and I'll upload pictures later.

At the moment I'm in a cafe because we couldn't find an ethernet cord in the hotel and I will update everything tonight on my first day. So talk to you all later.

Changwon

So I thought to add this website for those who have been asking me where I'm going. This is the official website:

http://eng.changwon.go.kr/jsp/main/main.jsp

take a look and tell me what you think :)

Flying update

So I'm here in the Seattle airport slowly realizing what I have got myself into... at least a little. I am super excited though.

My plane will not leave for South Korea until 1pm, so I got a little time. When I arrive in Seoul I will have to change airports and that means picking up my luggage, finding a bus and then checking everything back in when I get to the other airport. I will be using a bus which should cost around four dollars and it comes by every ten minutes. At the other airport I will catch a plan down to Pusan, there I will be met by a Mr Kim. He apparently doesn't speak a lick of English and he will be the one to drive me to my hotel.

that is it for an update at the moment, I'll be taking picture and uploading them soon so yeah! till next post :)

The scene is set

I decided to start a blog of my adventures through life. At college I've been described by my friends as being a hermit because of my stubborn dedication to my work. This is me, so I graciously accept the title and yet I want to get out and have some fun. In the past I've had the opportunity to live in Switzerland and France and also Disney world. I love traveling and I am about to embark on yet another adventure: South Korea. So here is the travel log! This way my friends and family can keep up with this hermit as she travels the world and have some fun while doing it.