From Barbie to Elephant in one day

Well, one of my students told my Korean supervisor that I look like her Barbie. I guess to her, all white people with blonde hair look the same! Hah, well I'll take the compliment. Later today, another student told me that Americans have long noses...like an elephant!! I guess these comments balance each other out :)

The other day the kids started laughing and pointing at my face. They whispered to each other in Korean. Hmmm... I thought I had something on my face. I asked them what they were pointing at. They thought it was hilarious that I have "white" eyebrows! Oh, the things we take for granted... They also commented that I have "gold" hair.

My home for a year

To the left is my apartment from the outside. On the right is a view out my window.

Notice the stove is on top of the washer/dryer...weird.

The bathroom is actually not a bad size. Somebody liked flowers...

The apartment is in a perfect location and it is a good size for just one person!

E- Mart

I got to move into my apartment today! This morning I packed up everything into my two suitcases and moved out of the hotel. All I had to do was cross the street to go to my apartment, but that was a job, let me tell you! One of my suitcases is huge and heavy and I didn't exactly have the best control of it going across the street. People were definitely starring as this white girl goes across the road with her out of control suitcases! It's so nice to be all moved in. So far it had felt like I was only on vacation, but now it's starting to feel like a home.

Two of the other teachers took me to Itaewon today, which is the foreigner district of Seoul. It was nice to see some American faces and hear English going down the sidewalk. We had to take the subway to get there, so now I have a good handle on the Subway. I came back by myself.

Then...I went to the grocery store. It is called E-mart and is pretty much the same as a Wal-mart. I don't think I'll be going back on a Saturday again! It was incredibly busy. It was hard to know what to buy, so I just looked at the pictures and guessed. I think I got everything I wanted though!

E-mart is probably about 3/4 mile- 1mile walk from my apartment. So here I came trekking out of E-mart, arms full of paper grocery bags. That walk seemed a lot longer going back than it did going! Instead of lifting weights, I can just go to the grocery store :) I didn't want to drop the bags, so I walked back so fast that I got a side cramp. Haha, I think I need to find a better system.

Tomorrow I will try a church. I'm interested to see how Korean churches are different from
American ones.

I will try to do a video tour of my apartment soon!

Korean BBQ

Yesterday was a much better day! I was not so overwhelmed with all of the things I have to do with school. I am starting to get in a routine. I really do like all of the kids and the teachers are all being really nice. They keep reminding me that they were all once in my shoes too and they are more than willing to help! Good thing :)
Last night after school I went with a few of the teachers to a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was SOOOO good, and cheap too! Then they took me to the Walmart-type store to show me how to grocery shop here.
I got to see my apartment for the first time yesterday. It is bigger than I was imagining and it's actually pretty nice. I can't wait to move in and get out of my suitcase. Just a couple more days!
Today one of the supervisors will take me to the hospital to get a check-up, which sounds pretty intensive from what I hear. The hospital is right on my block. So close!
So, in my hotel room there is a really fancy bathroom. There is a heated toilet seat (yes, it's true!), a badet (not sure how to spell that), a jaccuzi and a shower head that is so big it feels like it's raining. Haha, I'm like a little kid exploring all of this. Too bad I'm getting spoiled now and will be down to the basics in my apartment this weekend. Oh well, it's fun to live large now!

The Skirt Problem

It seems as if most girls were skirts here. So, today I thought I will try to fit in by wearing a skirt! I didn't bring any nylons from home because I figured bare legs would be ok. I looked up online this morning "skirts without nylons" to see if there was anything written online about bare legs being bad. I didn't find anything, so I thought it must be ok. I went to a little "Family Mart" down the street to buy breakfast this morning. On the way, everyone was starring at my "bare" legs. Apparently it is not ok to go without nylons. I walked and walked to find an open store to buy some, but nothing is open in the morning before work. Finally I went back to the Family Mart hoping to find some. I did! But.....when I got back to the hotel....they make their nylons for short people! Hah. My legs are not short. Anyway, I stretched them pretty far to put on, so hopefully they don't rip today!

First Day of School

Woah! It turns out I have 4 classes! That is a lot of names to learn. I don't even have all of the teachers' names down yet. For the morning and part of the afternoon I have a kindergarten class, next a 2nd grade class, and last a 4th grade class. Certain days of the week that last class changes with another class, but I haven't figured that out yet. The older kids in the afternoon come from a full day of Korean school. They have tons of homework from all three of their schools. I have no idea how they find time to do it all. These poor kids are SO tired by the time they get to my school. I feel really bad for them. I guess that's just how it works here. After lunch I hit a wall and am about to crash. I'm hoping to sleep the jet lag off tonight by going to bed early!

Day One Down

Well, it's been a long day to say the least. I left Dexter this morning Oct 31 at 2:30 Am and just arrived about an hour ago in Seoul at 9:00 PM on Nov 1. I enjoy flying, but I got SO antsy on the plane. It's such a long time to sit still. I met a lot of interesting people along the way. As most of you know, I like to strike up conversations with strangers :) At the Chicago airport an 8 year old Indian boy plopped down next to me because he wanted to practice his English. At the LA airport, I talked with a couple who was headed to a city in China that I'd been to.
On the way to Seoul I was fed Korean food. Good news, I like kimchi, picked cabbage. The bad news is that the dried minos were not good at all!
When I finally got to the hotel, no one was here to meet me, so I just went in by myself. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights, cause everything here is super high tech...and in Korean! I was quite proud of myself for figuring it out! There is a computer in the hotel room so that is what I am using to type. I couldn't figure out how to turn off the Korean characters and just type regular, but I think I figured that out too.
Two of the supervisors and one of the teachers took me to a bakery just a while ago. It was nice to meet them before tomorrow. Well, I'm headed to bed...
Man, I have a lot to learn! Tomorrow's my first day on the job and I have no idea what to expect!