Pictures...finally!!

I finally got around to uploading pictures. Not much so far, but mostly taking everything in. I'll be playing tourist when I get a moment to breathe. lol Which might be December. :D I will upload pictures, possibly a video tour, of my place sometime soon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89132178@N04/sets/

Unpacked...well mostly.

A nice lazy morning spent skyping with my honey started my day off very well. I managed a few more lazy hours before I walked across the street to Lotte Mart, it's sort of like a mini-grocery store. The food I picked up will hold me over for the next a few days.

Unpacking and organizing my little space has definitely made me feel more settled. I still need to hang up some clothes, but that will wait until after I get more hangers. For now, they rest on a little pull-out table thingy. Also, I need to ask a girl from work how to operate the washer/dryer that I have. I'm was very pleased to find out that it was a washer/dryer combo. I haven't hung clothes up to dry since I was very little. (Yes Mom, I still remember helping you hang clothes in the backyard.)

Tomorrow I will organize my desk/book shelf area. It's going to take some adjusting to having the main door less than 20 feet from where I sleep. Not that I'm worried about anyone breaking in. Between the sturdiness of the door and the awesome lock I feel safe. Also, I might consider getting some material to make curtains. Seeing as how my window faces the top of the building next door. Don't get me wrong I don't mind seeing/hearing the nice family next door, but I'm not 100% comfy with them being able to see into my home.

I think I need to learn the phrase, "Sorry, I don't know Korean yet." The last few times I've purchased/paid for something they rattle off in Korean and I stand there smiling like a "special" person. They are always unfailingly kind and try to communicate with hand signals or gestures. I will work on learning the alphabet, I'm told that REALLY helps.

I cannot wait for payday, so many things I need to get such as a converter, cellphone/someway to communicate, and I'd like to pick up a nightstand and lap (or two). For now I'm limited to email, FB, and skype. Oh, and running downstairs to ask a girl from work questions. lol And eventually I want to start actually going around and visiting/exploring Seoul and then other parts of Korea. It might have to wait until winter break.

Settling In

After a whirlwind race back from work to the hotel to the apartment last Wednesday I can now officially say I'm in my apartment. No photo's for now since it's a disaster. Suitcases littering the floor, seriously. Maybe I'll make a short video and post it after I've unpacked. So maybe next week sometime.

I can at least tell you it's not the apartment style I hoped for, but it's a good sized one bedroom/bath. There are a couple closets that I hope are able to hold all my stuff including my suitcases. And eventually the fridge will hold more than some yogurt, grapes, and juice. lol

So far I'm loving it here. Food is literally around every corner, every other store, being sold next to the street, from the back of trucks...it is freaking everywhere! Just found out that there is a Baskin Robins (with the most freakin' cutest cakes ever!) barely 2 blocks from my building.

Rode the subway for the first time ever! No, I don't mean just here...I mean ever. It was a weird experience. I had indian for dinner with some ladies from work. How is it that indian food here tastes a million times better than the one back home, which is owned and run by indians??

Oh, and the mystery smell coming from this lady's pot was not boiled walnuts/pecans as I thought. Nope, roasted silk larva. I can get behind fermented cabbage/veggies...I just can't get behind eating silk larva. I mean who looks at it and goes, hmmm that looks like something to eat! It boggles my mind. lol

Tomorrow(saturday) I was planning on going hiking, but with this head cold/nasal thing I'm trying to get rid of I don't think I will. Sleeping in and unpacking later sounds like a much better plan. I might go on Sunday. It is nice to walk to work and see mountains in the distance and fall colors in the trees that line the streets.

I do have to say though that despite all the newness and cool factors of my small experience  so far, there are too many people. I like people watching, but city living is not my ideal setting. I do love the experience so far and 6 years at the small, private (mostly run by the complaints of parents) school I taught at has really prepared me for this place. I don't feel like I've walked into a strange new world. It's pretty much been, "Oh, so I go with the flow like always? Cool." and "Yep, a big performance to prepare for? Sure, I can do that in 2 months." lol, you would have to have taught where I taught to trully appreciate the ability to change lesson plans last minute because of some random schedule change. It's more like I'm working with new people at pretty much the same school. lol

Now to crash. :)

Two in One

Since the hotel's internet doesn't like to let me post, I'm using the computer at school. So you get 2 posts in one you lucky, lucky people. Some of you already got these in the form of emails so you can skip. :)

Arrival....

 Arrived safe and sound yesterday (well today for you guys). I met a nice older Korean man, Byun Chang, before my flight from Chicago to Incheon. He is a history teacher/pastor/missionary and apparently decided to adopt me temporarily. I got to sit in the business lounge! I know, spiffy! I showed him Grandma's book and he is super excited about Ch. 11 (Guiding Principles of a Successful Relationship). He says he is writing a paper about how important it is that the people left behind when missionaries leave should be self-reliant. He asked that I copy a few pages, he is even going to try to get the church librarian to order Grandma's book for their library! I do want to get him an autographed copy once I get a mailing address. He also invited me to go to his Presbyterian church (about 50,000 people attend) which also has an English service. The church is not too far, by train anyways, from the school which hopefully means it won't be far from my apartment.

  Mr. Chang even stayed with me after we got off the plane. He insisted on staying with me until my driver arrived, even though I have a feeling he needed to go. He even insisted on calling the school for me, twice, to find where/when the driver would arrive. My poor driver spoke maybe 5 words in English and claimed his name was Mr. Bob. (My former students would get a kick out of that.) The ride from the airport was about an hour, traffic was busy going into Seoul. People drive crazy here! I thought it was bad in Ft. Myers, but those yanks and Floridians got NOTHING on Korean drivers.

 I was dropped off at a hotel, where I will be staying till Wednesday (from my understanding). I was met by three ladies, two of which I will be working with. Mary-Beth, is from Georgia, seems very nice and understanding of the whole new-ness of everything. The other lady, Bella, is one of the Korean teachers and will be my supervisor. Mary-Beth asked if I was freaking out, which honestly a small part is because of how different everything is, I responded a bit, but I'm looking forward to it all. To which she commented I seem like a free spirit. *laugh*

  My hotel room is smallish, most of it taken up by the bathroom which is enclosed by decorative frosted glass. They didn't stay long since they had plans to go out. Which was okay with me since sleep was desperately wanted. I crashed around 7:30pm, only woke up a couple times and fell back asleep. I set my alarm for 5am so I could call people, but my phone and phone card are not being cooperative. I will try to find a place where I can get internet free and/or get a phone card. Once I am all settled I'll be looking into getting a phone for here.

 The floor is heated/cooled...awesome! The bed is just my size, so anybody over 5'10 might find it a bit short. I'll post pictures online/email some as soon as I am able. Right now the blog is not working since 1)the hotel still uses internet explorer and 2) the computer is in Korean and I can't find where to turn it to English. Oh! There are shows/movies in English on TV so I've already watched a bit. Right now I'm watching a show in Korean that I've watched before with subtitles. So I'm pretending I know what they're saying. :p

 Anyways, I'm going to get moving and in a bit venture out for some breakfast.

First day...



Since I cannot seem to access my blog I'll be "posting" from here. My first day went very well, a bit long, but it was a good day. I have 4 students in my kindergarten class, which is the smallest and brightest class. So I am the envy of all at the school, lol. Not really, but sort of... The girl I've been shadowing is as organized as I am when it comes to running her classroom. What makes it even nicer is my lesson plans are basically set up by the school. All I have to do is fill in how I'm doing the lessons, which each week are emailed to the parents.

  In the afternoon I have a 3rd grade class, mostly boys. They are a rambunctious group, but I speak boy so I think I've made a connection. My morning supervisor, Bella (her English name), is super nice and told me that she asked the kids if they liked me and so far they all said yes. So, yay me! I will be working with a special reading group, which again is very small but the boys are a handful. It will be interesting to see how things develop with them.

  As of Wednesday I'm on my own, so slight EEP moment. I will also be moving out of the hotel and into the apartment of the teacher I'm replacing. Luckily it also houses the other English teachers so I'll have people to walk to and from work with. There are a lot of similarities between the school here and my previous one. Both a good and bad thing, lol.

  Tomorrow morning I go for my physical and hopefully will make it back to the school before lunch. Unfortunately the field trip to a palace is rescheduled for next week so I'll be doing some creative moving around of lessons. Well, off to crash for the night.

Countdown is now hours!!

Heading out in about an hour, picking up coffee (I hope), and then arriving at the airport 3am-ish. I'll be flying out 6:25ish, arriving in Chicago 8:30ish, looooooong layover, then on the way around noon. I get to travel into the future!! :p Okay not really...I'm arriving 4pm on Saturday while most of the people I know will still be asleep!

 Trying to maintain my calm. :D

T-minus 5 days...

So roughly 5 days till I go. There have been so many delays that I'm almost afraid to believe it's actually happening. I do have the promise of the director and, if it's to be believed, a fortune cookie that says my next trip will be to an exotic place. I guess that means it's official?

Really need to be productive the next two days. Not really a whole lot to pack, but I do need to go back over what I'm taking on the plane with me. I keep thinking I can pack less, then I start thinking that I might need that item for something. A bit on the frustrating side I'll admit.

Hung out last night with my big bro. It was fun going on a midnight run to Wally-world, chowing down on s'mores, and watching a slightly cheesy movie. Looking forward to hanging out with family before I fly off.

For now, kitties are giving me the "feed me now human" look. After I finish "Equilibrium" of course.  ;p

...and it's a promise!

Whilst visiting the great north (aka Canada) I received an email from the director of the school. To sum it up... there is yet another delay. However it's merely a few days vs. a few weeks...so light at the end of the tunnel etc, etc, etc.

I've been told this is the last delay and my plane ticket has been purchased ensuring no further hiccups . I also have the director's promise and my itinerary has been confirmed (via the nice, but hard to understand, traveling agent man from NY). In other words I am pretty-almost postively-kinda believing-holding onto it by a teeny-tiny,microscopic thread sure that I will be leaving the 12th of this month.

Although now that I think about it, I may have just jinxed myself. Sweet.

So slight change in the visiting family before I take off, but not by much.

Ooo! I almost forgot! On the last leg of my flight home I ended up sitting next to this rather "posh" looking British gent by the name of John Hale. It seems all it takes to turn him into a chatterbox is a small gin & tonic. A few sips later and he turns to me and starts talking. And when I say talking I mean he almost put me to shame! That is saying a lot if you know me. (Hush those of you that do...yeah especially you...and you...oh and you too!)

Anyways, turns out he is a retired publisher who has ventured into the world of publishing online writers. He even wrote his own mystery book based around a fraud case he helped bust wide open (his words, not mine). I thoroughly enjoyed talking...well ok listening to him. He was very intelligent and his vocabulary made the geeky-girl in me go "squee", all mentally of course. :p

His website started out as being a place for writer to publish/post their work and for people to read for free. Eventually it turned into a sort of mini-Amazonesque (shush real word now) site. You can view the first chapter of each book and if you like, purchase. What makes it better than Amazon, in my/his opinion, is that it actually tells the author what is viewed the most (the cover, backside, the free chapter). This allows the writer to have an idea of what might need to change. Honestly, there have been a few books I haven't even bothered to check out based on the cover. And yes, I do know the whole don't judge a book...blah blah blah.

I could go on about how cool it was conversing with him, but part of me is reminding me the purpose of this blog/journal thingy. ;p

If you are interested, check out his website Virtual Bookshop . His book btw is "Probus Enigma".