Oh, and then there's this...
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
I've only been here a week...
and I'm already in love! With some Korean babies.
Oh, and then there's this...
SO. CUTE.
Oh, and then there's this...
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Goodbye America, Hello Korea!
Hello friends & fam! As requested, I'm going to continue writing in my blog while on this trip! I guess I can't really call it a trip if I'm living here for a whole year! Anyway, I made it to Korea safe and sound! A (not so) brief blurb about my flight and first week...
The Flight
Mom & Terry kindly drove me to the airport very early in the morning on Saturday the 17th. They also kindly helped me lug my bags through the airport to check-in and dealt with my grumpiness after having to pay an obscene amount of money for one of the bags being a few pounds over weight. I'm moving for a YEAR here people...you try fitting your life into two bags under 50lbs. I then proceeded to undergo the most annoying, disorganized security screening of all times. It took over an hour. DON'T fly out of Dulles my friends. After a short little flight from DC to JFK (thanks, whoever booked that flight) I sat in the airport for several hours. To make a long story short, my flight got delayed 19 hours. Asiana airlines did a very poor job of informing us of the situation. I spent the night in a hotel in New Jersey and then finally got on my flight at 8:00am Sunday morning. I had every intention of self-medicating immediately and sleeping through the whole thing, but I was pretty anxious/excited so I stayed awake for a few hours, ate one of the meals, then slept the rest of the way. Twas a 14 hour flight, and I survived! I got off the flight, collected my (torn, destroyed, and plastic wrapped) baggage, and met my ride who took me....directly to school to meet my coworkers! I'm sure I looked/smelled like a dream.
First Week
I spent my first 3 days following the teacher I'm replacing to get to know the classes, schedule, curriculum, etc. What I learned: The kids are adorable, my coworkers are awesome, and I hardly have any planning. Not a bad gig! I stayed at my director's apartment for the first 4 nights because the teacher I replaced had to move out of his apartment before I could move in. Which brings me to....
Friday
I moved into my apartment! YAY! I also had my first solo teaching day. Overall, everything went well! Mondays and Fridays will be tough with a full schedule of 7 classes. But, the rest of the week, especially Tuesday/Thursday are super easy with 4 classes and lots of breaks. The kids are super cute and so well behaved compared to my jovenes at Maximo (and even some of my adults). I even went out for my first Korean beers with some teachers after work. Success!
Random Things
I was told my apartment was the closest to work. This excited me as it's FREEZING here right now. When I was told a "3 minute walk", this was a gross over-exaggeration. I literally walk out the door of my building and am outside for all of 45 seconds before I enter the building that my school is in. Lazy? Perhaps. But when it's 15 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside, I'm going to love this. Also, the grocery store, bakery, Daiso market (kind of like a dollar store, but better), 7-11, and everything else are within 3-5 minutes of me.
Let's talk about Daiso. My coworkers had mentioned it a few times, so once I moved into my apartment and knew I needed quite a few things I asked where it was. I made the long trek there...all of 5 steps outside of my school building, and spent about 40 minutes in complete awe. They have everything you could ever need, ever, except for food, and it's all like $5 or less. In 2 days, I've made 4 trips there to get everything from a dust pan to storage boxes to power converters to prunes (yes, I eat and like prunes).
Even more amazing than Daiso....there is a store called E-Mart in the next "city" over, about a 10 minute walk. It's similar to Wal-Mart, but a bit more classy, and fabulous, and ridiculous. First, there are lockers for your dog at the front door. Second, there are moving ramps instead of escalators to go to the different levels (all FOUR of them) so you can take your shopping cart with you. Third, you can buy anything and everything at this place. It's wonderful and absurd. Unlike my struggle to eat good food in Peru, I've already stocked my apartment with my personal necessities: fruit, veggies, GREEK yogurt, brown rice, nuts, eggs, spices, peanut butter. Oh, and I bought a blanket so I don't freeze to death at night and a kettle so I can drink water.
Stay tuned for a tour of my little apartment and some pictures/videos of my kiddos later this week (if I can still steal internet from my apartment, that is)
The Flight
Mom & Terry kindly drove me to the airport very early in the morning on Saturday the 17th. They also kindly helped me lug my bags through the airport to check-in and dealt with my grumpiness after having to pay an obscene amount of money for one of the bags being a few pounds over weight. I'm moving for a YEAR here people...you try fitting your life into two bags under 50lbs. I then proceeded to undergo the most annoying, disorganized security screening of all times. It took over an hour. DON'T fly out of Dulles my friends. After a short little flight from DC to JFK (thanks, whoever booked that flight) I sat in the airport for several hours. To make a long story short, my flight got delayed 19 hours. Asiana airlines did a very poor job of informing us of the situation. I spent the night in a hotel in New Jersey and then finally got on my flight at 8:00am Sunday morning. I had every intention of self-medicating immediately and sleeping through the whole thing, but I was pretty anxious/excited so I stayed awake for a few hours, ate one of the meals, then slept the rest of the way. Twas a 14 hour flight, and I survived! I got off the flight, collected my (torn, destroyed, and plastic wrapped) baggage, and met my ride who took me....directly to school to meet my coworkers! I'm sure I looked/smelled like a dream.
First Week
I spent my first 3 days following the teacher I'm replacing to get to know the classes, schedule, curriculum, etc. What I learned: The kids are adorable, my coworkers are awesome, and I hardly have any planning. Not a bad gig! I stayed at my director's apartment for the first 4 nights because the teacher I replaced had to move out of his apartment before I could move in. Which brings me to....
Friday
I moved into my apartment! YAY! I also had my first solo teaching day. Overall, everything went well! Mondays and Fridays will be tough with a full schedule of 7 classes. But, the rest of the week, especially Tuesday/Thursday are super easy with 4 classes and lots of breaks. The kids are super cute and so well behaved compared to my jovenes at Maximo (and even some of my adults). I even went out for my first Korean beers with some teachers after work. Success!
Random Things
I was told my apartment was the closest to work. This excited me as it's FREEZING here right now. When I was told a "3 minute walk", this was a gross over-exaggeration. I literally walk out the door of my building and am outside for all of 45 seconds before I enter the building that my school is in. Lazy? Perhaps. But when it's 15 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside, I'm going to love this. Also, the grocery store, bakery, Daiso market (kind of like a dollar store, but better), 7-11, and everything else are within 3-5 minutes of me.
Let's talk about Daiso. My coworkers had mentioned it a few times, so once I moved into my apartment and knew I needed quite a few things I asked where it was. I made the long trek there...all of 5 steps outside of my school building, and spent about 40 minutes in complete awe. They have everything you could ever need, ever, except for food, and it's all like $5 or less. In 2 days, I've made 4 trips there to get everything from a dust pan to storage boxes to power converters to prunes (yes, I eat and like prunes).
Even more amazing than Daiso....there is a store called E-Mart in the next "city" over, about a 10 minute walk. It's similar to Wal-Mart, but a bit more classy, and fabulous, and ridiculous. First, there are lockers for your dog at the front door. Second, there are moving ramps instead of escalators to go to the different levels (all FOUR of them) so you can take your shopping cart with you. Third, you can buy anything and everything at this place. It's wonderful and absurd. Unlike my struggle to eat good food in Peru, I've already stocked my apartment with my personal necessities: fruit, veggies, GREEK yogurt, brown rice, nuts, eggs, spices, peanut butter. Oh, and I bought a blanket so I don't freeze to death at night and a kettle so I can drink water.
Stay tuned for a tour of my little apartment and some pictures/videos of my kiddos later this week (if I can still steal internet from my apartment, that is)
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