Japan!

It seems I am headed to Japan on Monday! I will be staying Monday night, leaving Tuesday night. I was supposed to get a ferry ride and accommodations provided by my school because I am going for a visa run. I have to get a new visa because the visa I have is for another school. Your visa is only valid if you are working at the school who sponsored your visa. Instead of a ferry ride, my school bought me a plane ticket. I asked the director about accommodations, he kind of laughed and said accommodations were not included. In my contract it clearly states, ferry ride and accommodation. He said since I got a plane ride, no hotel! WHAT?? They never gave me a choice, ferry or plane! I would have gladly taken the ferry to get a hotel paid for. I told him that and he backed down and said to bring him the receipt and he'd reimburse me. Thank goodness, funds are low till I get my first paycheck, I certainly don't need to be spending an additional $50 on a stupid hotel room! I also have no idea what to do when I get to Japan, I have written directions from the airport to the subway to the consulate. That's it. How am I to find a hotel in Japan, you may wonder? I wonder too. My director told me not to be nervous and banish all negative thoughts, everything will be fine, he assured me! Umm, ok, that's probably the most unhelpful thing he could have said! Oh well, I just hope I can find a hotel room and I don't end up sleeping on a park bench! I will post pictures upon my return...if I return....Just kidding!

Saturday Max and I rode our bikes to City 7, a giant mall in Changwon, to visit our friend Andy. It was supposed to take us about 20 minutes to get to City 7, but it ended up taking about 1.5 hours. I was exhausted, sweaty and hot. We were lost for so long, it was very frustrating, but we finally made it! The mall is huge and it's actually apartments, offices, restaurants and a mall, its kind of like a mini-city itself. The tigers below are just giant white tiger sculptures outside the mall. The flower ball is another giant sculpture that was so pretty!

After City 7, we went back to Yongji Lake to watch the fountain/light show. It was SO awesome! I'm so glad I got to go. Music plays and the fountain dances and there's a light show. One of the songs they played was by the Mama's and the Papa's, it was pretty random! This pic below is a movie on the fountain water of an ice skater.

After the light show, we went to Noribong. Noribong is basically a private room for karaoke. You rent the room by the hour and sing and drink! I don't sing and I didn't drink too much, but I was recruited to dance and sing to YMCA.

After the Noribong we went to O'Brien's, a foreigner bar. It's almost all foreigners at the bar. It was really bizarre to see all white faces and only a few Koreans. Everyone I was with had a great time, I left about 2 I think and attempted to ride my bike home, yeah, I won't be doing that again! Luckily there weren't too many people on the streets, because I definately would have taken out at least one person. My other friends stayed a lot longer, Max actually never made it home and slept on a park bench! I really hope to always get home, I'm way too old to be sleeping outside!

Sunday has been a pretty lazy day, I'm still exhausted after my ridiculously long day yesterday.

Happy Father's Day!

New (to me) Bike!

I got a bike today! It's old and dirty but it's perfect! It has a basket on the front and a flat part on the back I can bungee things too. And maybe I'll take Sophie for a ride in the basket. It will be so good to have a bike so I can really do some more exploring. I can only walk so far in 85 degree heat. Plus I can bike to work in about 3 minutes.

The rest of this week and next my middle school students are studying for a big English test and finals at their regular school. So this Thursday, next Tuesday and Thursday I only have to teach for 1.5 hours! I dont know what I will do with all that free time. Perhaps I will read the new free Twilight book online!

teaching highs and lows

I'm home from Monday work. Monday's are my busiest day, I have four classes, three full of NAUGHTY BOYS! They constantly talk, get out of their seats and yell. Constantly! It's so draining. They don't listen to me, they don't listen when others are talking and I spend half the class asking them to sit down and be quiet. I've tried separating them but the classrooms aren't that big. They're driving me craaaazy! Luckily my other four days of teaching are basically stress-free. I was very worried about my middle school class that I'm teaching without a Korean co-teacher, but every class gets better. At least the kids listen and are quiet, even if they are shy, but they are starting to open up. Each class they decide to like me a little more, haha! I do give them candy, that might have something to do with it...
Tomorrow night we are going to the manmade lake to see the fountain show with music and lights! I'm super excited about it, I'll post pics as soon as I can!

more mountains and the world cup

The pictures above are from a park in Changwon called Yongji Lake. It's a huge man made lake with a big fountain in the middle. At night the fountains dance to music and there's a light show! I plan to go this week some night. There's a small mountain at this park that is good for hiking, it has trails, not just steps straight up to the top! Also at the park was a group of people spread out playing some sort of small instrument, it was very odd. The first picture is a couple playing the instruments, its not a great picture because I didnt want to be too obvious and embarrass them!We also went to this huge round about in the center of the city where a stage was set up and there were some performers, singers and drummers. They are showing the World Cup tonight outside on a giant TV, its the first Korea game. There were tents everywhere selling Korea World Cup shirts and everyone was in an excited mood. Many of the stores and all the bars were closed today. It's very unlike the US where people go to bars to watch games. Here it seems people stay home or were getting together in the roundabout to watch it on huge tvs. It's a good way to bring the whole city together.

On Friday, my neighbor and I walked to the library where there supposedly are english books. I couldn't find any,but I am going to ask my director at school what floor they are on. So we kept walking and ended up climbing a mountain right in the middle of the city! The pictures above are from the top. We tried out all the excercise equipment too.

Things are still going well, work was better this week than last. I really like the kids and they seem to like me back.

More later!

Observations, thoughts and feelings so far

Random things I've observed, thought or felt so far-
1) Driving in Korea is DANGEROUS. Walking in Korean traffic is even more DANGEROUS. There are many intersections with no stop signs or traffic lights, its just a free for all. Parking is the same, people park their cars either way on both sides of the street. I can't figure out any rhyme or reason to it so I just try to stay out of the way.
2) People mostly ignore me on the streets. Sometimes children or teenagers say hello, but other than that, ignored.
3) Koreans serve pickles with many kinds of food, even pizza. They come on the side and are delicious, but still, pickles and pizza?
4) It is illegal not to have a job in Korea. So there are tons of family run restaurants, I think people just open restaurants if they can't find a job.
5) I feel very safe here. Crime is very low, I think the major problem is petty crimes which is why I have bars on my windows.
6) The children in my classes have been fascinated by my freckles! One class was even afraid so I chased them around and told them I'd rub my freckles on them if they were bad. Apparently it was the funniest thing they ever heard!
7) I really love teaching so far. It's not stressful and I just feel generally happier at school than any other job I've had. All the Korean teachers have been incredibly helpful and kind.
8) Sophie is the best dog ever. I know, I know, but she is. She's adjusted just fine.
9) I feel like I've been here a long time already, I haven't really felt homesick at all, but I can't imagine I won't feel it sooner or later.
10) Most things here are SO CHEAP! A bottle of water costs 350 won, which is about 30 cents USD. I can get a whole delicious pizza for about $5. It's very reasonable for me to spend only about $400 a month for all living expenses.
11) It is not unusual to see people out picnicing or exercising late at night. Last night at about 11:30 I saw many people running, doing sit ups (all the parks have exercise equipment) and eating together outside
12) You can buy beer in a two liter plastic bottle. Best idea ever!
So, so far so good. Last Saturday we went to a beach in the city of Busan. It took us a little less than an hour by bus and subway. There were tons of foreigners there! Lots of white faces everywhere you look. It was a typical US beach town with tourist traps and all the restaurants and stores had English speaking workers and the signs were in English. There was even a Friday's and Bennigans! It was like being home. I think I like Changwon better because I am much more immersed in the culture. Not many people but the children speak English and I like it that way!
I do miss everyone, I am just so glad that I have settled in so comfortably!

first day

So I am home from my first day of teaching! I think it went well. I had a class of four 12 year olds and a class of five 14-16 year olds. The older kids are definately more challenging. I'm teaching a class that is typically only taught by Korean teachers. The school is putting a lot of faith in me, I hope I can deliver results!
In apartment news, I have to turn on a heater to have warm water. If I fail to turn it off, it warms the floors of my apartment. Weeellll, today I left the heater on and went to work. I was gone for 11 hours and when I came home it was about 100 degrees in my apartment. I took off my shoes and the floor was firey hot! Poor Sophie was panting and at first I didnt understand what happened, but now I know. I will never make that mistake again!
And I can't figure out how to turn on my stove. So I can't cook the food I bought today.
Eggs in Korea are not kept in a cooler, it sort of freaks me out, but I guess when chickens lay eggs they are not cold. Who knows? I'll find out if I get food poisoning!
More on teaching later...

apartment living

The bathroom. As you can see there is not enough room for me to stand in between the wall and the sink, so I have to hold the sprayer and shower. It's really not terrible, except when I dont pay attention and spray all the walls and toliet and toliet paper with water!

I was so lucky to get a queen bed! I couldnt really find a comforter that was reasonably priced, so this blanket works for now, but it's a twin I think.

No closets but the girl before me left these bars, without them I'm not sure what I would do! That door is into the bathroom, behind it is my refrigerator and TV (which has no channels right now)

Kitchen. This is it. no stove, no microwave, no counter space. But it's big enough. The white thing is the washer, no dryers in Korea! Directly across from this counter is the door to get in.

Oh, and McDonald's delivers here. It's kind of awesome.

More pics to come!

Climbing Mountains

So when I thought I was climbing a mountain this morning, I thought it would be a winding trail up a mountain, right? NOPE. It was literally a path straight up a mountain! Straight up. seriously. Sometimes there were wooden steps to help with the steepness, but they don't really help. And it was hot today, so I whined a lot. I honestly didnt think I'd make it all the way, but I did! And so did Sophie, of course, because she's a champ and I'm a baby. At the top of the mountain was a bunch of exercise equipment, including pull up bars, parallel bars and hula hoops. yes, hula hoops. We were passed while walking up the trail by many Koreans wearing work slacks and carrying lunch bags. So they climb a mountain at lunch, barely breaking a sweat, eat, then climb back down and continue working! That's their secret, the reason they are slim and healthy! One older man at the top of the mountain was gesturing that he wanted to pet Sophie, so he started petting her than patted her sides and made a spoon into the mouth motion. I thought he wanted to eat her, but I guess he was telling me she was fat. Nice.

For dinner we went to a restaurant where you actually cook your meat over a fire in the center of the table. It was pretty awesome and very tasty. We also went to McDonalds and got 30 cent ice cream cones, everything is super cheap here. The steaks were only $7.

So far so good, I'm happy here and I feel comfortable. People are not staring at me like I thought they would, it seems I'm blending right in.