I'm going to warn you, this post is a little intense, and please don't freak out and think that I would ever do something this idiotic.


After work on Friday night a bunch of us decided to go out for Galbi, so I met up with Megan, Alex (guy) and Alex (girl) and we caught a taxi to the restaurant because it was raining. We got out of the taxi, and all three of them had been drinking a little, not a lot, but I'm sure they were buzzed. We spotted two of our other friend behind us, and i decided to wait. Alex and Alex decided to cross the road though. An 8 lane road. An 8 lane road without a cross walk. I was all about not doing that. So they started to dart across because all the traffic was stopped at a red light. I turned to see Ruth and Walker approaching, and I heard a huge *thump*. Alex (girl) in the heat of running across the stopped lanes, forgot to look in the express bus lane, and she got hit full on by a bus! Alex (guy) was about 5 steps behind her, and it just grazed him luckily.

The bus stopped and Alex (guy) helped get Alex (girl) up to the side walk. She was clearly in shock, and she was tlaking about how she was fine, and she didn't really realize what had happened. So the bus driver called the police, and Alex (girl) was taken into a restaurant on the corner into the bathroom. The police came and were talking to Alex (guy) but it was hard because they didn't speak English very well. The bus driver was there, and they were all yelling (or maybe just scared, I hear Korean is a very emphatic language). Alex (girl) eventually came back down stairs, and the paramedics came. She said she didn't want to go and that she was fine, but we didn't really give her that option, she had to go. So Megan went with her, and the rest of us waited for one of the Korean supervisors from work to come to help us translate. Two of them showed up, Chris and Charlene. Alex (guy) had to go to the police station with Charlene, and the rest of us went to the hospital where Alex (girl) was with Chris.

She had to get x-rays taken, and apparently she refused to get a CT Scan, because it was expensive. I thought that was pretty stupid though, since she got hit by a freaking bus and she might have a concussion. It turns out she broke her clavicle in two places, and shattered part of it as well. They put her in a brace to align the bones back up, and she will have to go back for more x-rays on Monday, and there's the possibility that she might have to have surgery if the pieces don't line up right.

And after she got her medication, she had to go to the police station to give a statement, which none of us wanted to happen because her initial pain medication was starting to wear off. But the police said she had to. So I gave her my jacket because she wasn't able to pull her original one on, and the rest of us left. It wound up being 3 hours since the accident happened, and since all of us were on the way to dinner, we were starving. We wound up going to the restaurant that we originally planned on going to. Upside of the night, the food was great. After dinner though, it started monsooning, and I didn't have a jacket since I gave mine to Alex (girl). It took forever to get a taxi.

Alex made it home safe with Charlene, and Megan told me today that she's doing fine.

So week two went a lot better than week one! I got to know the kid better and understand just how long their attention span is. I also came up with some new games, and we started practicing our song that we have to perform at the end of the month. Unfortunately though, I'm getting switched to a new class. Another guy is coming in this weekend in fact, and he is going to take over the Tigger Class, and I'm going to be switching to the Miffy Class, which only has about 5 kids, all girls and all are about 5 years old. I guess they are switching me simply because they want a girl teaching a class that's all girls. Their understanding of English is very limited though, so I'm wondering how this will all go.

But as for the Tigger Class, is was actually fun this week. They do have a lot of work to do in a typical day (Theme Book, phonics, reading, math, spelling) which all happens in the morning. And once I make it to lunch, it's only an hour in the afternoon either doing something fun or practicing our song. I've been working on making sure the kids all move at the same pace, and I take away stars and stickers of people who move ahead. Some still try it though, and I have to take their pencil or crayon away. But they are doing a lot better. Nick, Tommy, Eric S. and Eric H. are the slowest kids in class, and I often have to go to each of them and tell them exactly what to write. Hopefully the new guy will be better at getting them to follow along with the rest of the class.

Matthew and Rachel are improving too. We're basically working on vocabulary words, and short sentences. I've been making flashcards and matching games for them. And I also set up a piece of paper, and they have to either spell or draw a picture of the vocabulary words I list off, and I think it's helping a lot. Rachel is a really great drawer, but sometimes she takes too long because she is adding all the detail. But it's ok because we have plenty of time in class. They are still kinda cheating off each other, looking to see what the other wrote, or repeating what the other says instead of reading the words for themselves, so I may have to move them a little apart so that doesn't happen as much.

I've met some of the other students, Alex has a class with two girls named Julie and Analise, and they are super cute. I think they are 10 or so. I'm also starting to recognize some of the other students when they all have to get together at the end of the day to go on the buses.

I posted a video below of the Tigger Class practicing their performance song. Super cute!

So the joys and excitement of adventuring into a whole new world have quickly become thwarted by the realization that I am actually here for work. This post is all about my first week of teaching.

DAY ONE - What Am I Doing?
Going into my first day, I thought I was going to have an observation day or two. That would seem appropriate for a a person who has never taught before, right? No. Upon arrival at the school, and after a quick tour, I was thrust right into the classroom, with not a clue what to do. The way this school works is that every English teacher has a Korean Supervisor. This person is basically there to help you get your class in order, provide you with a schedule, help you a little with the kids. As time goes on and the teacher becomes more proficient at actually teaching, the supervisor takes a background roll, she's not in the class as much, and just helps run things from behind the scenes. So my supervisor's name is Naiad, and she is super nice and very helpful, thank god, because I had no idea what I was doing.

My first class of the day is the 6-7 year-olds (in Korea, the day you are born you are 1 year old, so basically these kids are 5-6 years old) and I have 11 of them: Dora, Dana, Jerry, Nick, Tommy, Eric S., Sharon, David, Eric H., Melody, and Rea. My class is called the Tigger Class (the other classes are named after other Disney characters: Pooh, Nemo, etc.). So the first day was basically getting to know everyone and remember their names, and we spent a lot of the day playing in the playroom or the Wonder Lounge (which is just a room of toys and games). The kids can speak English already, in sentences, and they know a lot of words, so I think they can understand a lot of what I'm saying. They just choose not to listen. This class runs from 10:00am until 2:30pm.

After the morning class, I have basically a one-on-one session with two older students, Rachel and Matthew, who I think are 8 or 9 years old. So this class is pretty easy, they have three books to work on, phonics and spelling basically, and it's pretty beginner stuff. They also don't speak English very well. They can repeat the things I say, but I have to talk slowly and use simply terms because they can't really make sentences. or maybe they can and they're just messing with me. I have those two from 3:00pm-4:30pm. It's a pretty easy class, and we just worked through some of the pages in their workbooks until time was up.

After Rachel and Matthew I have James from 6:00pm-7:30pm (which leaves me a nice break to get dinner or to work on some stuff for class). James is 10 years old, and he's pretty smart. He has three books that he works on, Grammar, Social Studies, and Vocabulary. So I basically spend an hour and a half going over his books with him, trying to engage him in conversation, and doing some writing assignments.

All in all, the day was hectic. I had no idea what was going on, or what I was supposed to be doing. Luckily some of the other teachers were giving me pointers, so I survived. They swear that it will get better. Let's hope so.

DAY TWO - No Seriously, What Am I Doing?
So the second day was pretty hectic as well, if not even more. Now I was given a schedule for my morning class, and we were already behind by a whole day. I guess I was supposed to teach them more the day before, but no one told me. I quickly learned that this is a place of "find out you've done something wrong only after you get in trouble" such as having the kids line up properly, to wait at the doors, to put their shoes outside of the playroom, you know, little procedural things that you wouldn't really think of. So I tried to get them caught up in their Theme Book, which is basically their book they work on, and each one has a theme (who would have guessed?!), this month's theme is Food, and this week I was working on Fruit. The kids have to get through about 5 pages in 50 minutes, which is pretty hard because you have to make sure everyone does it. So while you're trying to get the slower kids to do it, the faster kids are moving past where they should be, and are running around because they have nothing to do.

After the theme book we have to do their Spelling & Writing book, and their Math book, along with their reading book, all in 50 minutes. Plus there is an Etiquette lesson. And after lunch we have to do phonics. PLUS we have to practice for the end of the month performance where every class has to sing a song and do moves. I was told that as a new teacher that I will be given a little slack on all this stuff the first month, thank god.

As of now, I don't have a class after the Tigger Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I'm sure that will change.

DAY THREE - Sweet Jesus, Birthday Party
Well lucky me! Once a month we have birthday parties on a Wednesday to celebrate all the birthdays for the month, so if your class has a birthday, their parents bring in a ton of food and snack for the kids to have after lunch. Guess who had a birthday? Guess who had three birthdays? I bet you guessed right!

Earlier in the day, I tried a new technique of seat assignments, since I notices that some kids just sit around a fuck with each other all day instead of paying attention to me. I tried to put a stop to that, but there were still some kids that were messing around, so I'll have to keep trying a new seating arrangement until I find one that works. I also implemented that famous Sticker Program. These kids go CRAZY for stickers. So as a way to keep them disciplined and on track, you offer to give or threaten to take away stickers. Each kid has a sticker chart, and it's up to the teacher to decide how stickers are to be given. My system goes like this: first I give out stars when the students do good stuff, like sitting quietly, first person to get out their books, raising your hand, volunteering in class, etc. whatever I choose. When they get 6 stars I give them a sticker for their chart. I'll also do things like, if the class can finish their workbook on time, everyone gets a sticker. So then after they get so many stickers, they get a prize, which is basically stuff I picked up at a stationary store: pencils, erasers, rings, necklaces, Yug-i-oh cards (another thing these kids go ape-shit for). So I'm still working on perfecting the system, and getting them to actually follow it.

Back to the birthday party. Birthdays are a pretty big thing here. Basically the supervisor and the Korean Moms (which is basically what we call the Korean woman whoa re around to help with things like lunch time, setting up class, keeping the kids entertained after lunch, taking them to the bus, etc.) will help set up the class, and the parents of the birthday kids bring in food. They higher a photographer to take pictures of the kids in front of their tabel of food and stuff. And of course, all the other kids bring them presents. Unfortunately for my class, the photographer didn't get done until 2pm, which meant the kids couldn't eat until 2pm, and they had to get ready to go at 2:20pm. So it was a little hectic. But Naiad was there to help.

Again I had Matthew and Rachel after that. I was given a schedule for them, which we already went past the lesson before, so we basically had to go over the things again. This was good though. I forgot that kids forget a lot easier then I do, so they needed to work on the stuff some more. We basically practiced words that sound alike, like:fan, can, man, fat, pan. I spend most of the time getting them to pronounce the words correctly, to remember how to read them, and how to spell them. their workbooks definitely don't cover that enough, so I'm going to have to make supplemental activities for them to do so they'll remember the stuff.

DAY FOUR - I Got Swine Flu
Ha ha, just kidding! I didn't get swine flu! I did get a cold though. I was told that would happen and it's usually caused by two things: one is being in a new country with a different climate and a different air quality, and two being that I'm surrounded by -literally- snotty kids all day. So I could feel myself coming down with a sore throat, which did not make me a happy camper. That and the fact that it was my fourth day of these kids not really listening to what i was saying. Some of them are really good, Melody especially. But some of them either don't pay attention in class, or are super slow and literally need to me tell them what to spell or write for every line. Then there are the kids that are constantly getting up, moving around, bugging the other kids, hitting, pushing, kissing, crap like that. One of the boys, Tommy, goes around kissing all the other boys, and nuzzling the girls. It's pretty fucking weird.

But they did do a little better then the day before. I had to take away some stars to the kids that were talking, and I had to start being strict about screaming in class, and being quiet in the hallways. Naiad had to come in a few times and tell them to straighten out. Miguel (another teacher) says they listen a lot more in Korea, and that we should learn how to say "shut the fuck up" in Korean and maybe they would listen to us.

DAY FIVE - TFGIF
So by now I had a full fledged head cold, with a massive headache and a sore throat, great for working with kids. So understandably I was a little short tempered with them, but I guess I wasn't the only one, since lot of the other teachers were having bad days too. Another new seating assignment proved not to work, and in fact was worse than Thursday. I tried to implement a new workbook plan were no one was allowed to work ahead, and they could only work on the line I was on, so that everyone finished together. Some listened, some didn't, for which I sadly had to take away some stars. I tried to seat the three slowest kids in front, so I could point out what they needed to do, and it kinda worked. but unfortunately, two of the three slowest kids are the two biggest problem causers, so it was hard to keep them in line while they were sitting next to each other.

So we got a little behind in the Theme Book, especially because we were scheduled for the Wonder Lounge. Usually during the week, each class is given time in the playroom and the Wonder Lounge, which means that you get 10 minutes less to work on your work. But luckily we got through the other stuff pretty quickly. Some of the pages in the work books the kids were already ahead on, from that one day were everyone just did whatever they wanted. But I think I got the whole class up to the same page now.

I had Matthew and Rachel again, this time I made flash cards and a matching game for them to play. But I'm pretty sure they were cheating and could see the words through the cards. And Rachel kept talking to me in Korean, like I know what she's talking about. I tried to tell her to talk only in English (which really is what every student is supposed to do) but she just doesn't know enough. But we got through the day, they even did some drawings when we finished the lesson.

I'm going to ask if James can have a few more pages to work with when we're together, because he just blows through everything. And he's smart, so I know he's retaining the information, not just memorizing what the words look like like what Rachel and Matthew do. So we got done with all his stuff in like 40 minutes. So I tried to just get him to talk, because Frank and Gabby said that he needs to work on his conversational English. And then towards the end we just went down to the play room and played soccer for the last 15 minutes. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do when he finished so early. James told me that the other teachers just let him play, but I don't know if I should really just give him more work. I hope not though, jesus the kid goes to elementary school in the morning, he has class with Frank from 4:30-6:00, class with me until 7:30, and Science Academy after our class on some nights. I guess most kids here literally go to school all day and night, they come home, eat, do their hours of homework, and repeat the whole thing again. Really the only break they get is the weekend. Seems a little harsh, but then again, maybe that's why there's the stereotype about Asians all being so smart and multi-talented.

So by the end of the night, I was more than happy to go home and be sick. Which I did. All weekend. I was going to go out and adventure, but the most I did was walk to the super market and get slightly lost going through the back streets.

I think next week will be easier though. At least I certainly hope so!

*Side note*
Things I Learned This Week:
1. I tried to buy butter this week, instead of getting I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, I think I would up getting something like I'm Not Sure If It's Butter. It was by the margarine, but was a lot cheaper. But when I got home and looked up the word butter, that word was no where to be found on my giant brick of yellowy/white mass. I think I might have bought lard, but the Korean word for lard wasn't on the package either. So note, don't buy butter unless it says butter.
2. It is perfectly acceptable for moms to let little boys pee on the street.
3. Tteokbokki is good, spicy as all hell, but good.
4. There is a cute little market that goes on outside my apartment on Thursdays, full of food vendors, grocery vendors, home commodities, snacks, and a plant guy. I bought a plant, I named him Travis. I'm thinking about getting him a friend next week so he's not so lonely.

What an adventurous day! I love this city! It's like New York, but cleaner, friendlier, safer, and more colorful!

This morning I went on a little adventure to find a Daiso. It's kind of like a Japanese dollar store, where they have a ton of stuff for the home like dishes and pots, and also cleaning supplies, stationary, nick-nacks. And it's much better than an American dollar store because you can actually use the stuff in this store! It's not just a bunch of random plastic things you really have to use for. I wasn't sure where it was exactly, but I remember Tim showing me one on the bus ride home yesterday, so I went on a little adventure. I never found the one Tim showed me, but I did wind up finding one. I wound up getting off the bus way too early, so I was just wandering around for probably 20 minutes before I found it. This place has a tons of stuff, and it's all really cheap. I spent about ₩25,500 (which is about $22 USD) and I got all this stuff!

Then I came back home and decided to pick up a few more things from a local store called the Everything Store (which is cheaper that the supermarket Home Plus, but more expensive than Daiso, but they had a lot of things that Daiso didn't) and I also did a little grocery shopping. The groceries were a little expensive, but that's because I had to buy the essentials, you know, the things that are expensive at first but last a long time, oils and sauces and what not.

After I got done shopping I cam home and put everything away and rearranged my room because I didn't like how it was set up. And after all that, it was still only 1:30pm! So I mulled about for a while at home, then around 3:00pm I decided that I wanted to go somewhere. There is an area called Itaewon, which is really popular amongst foreigners because they have a lot of clothing stores there, and food places that are more westernized. Unfortunately for me, the website with the Seoul Transit Planner doesn't work on my Mac :( So I had to use GoogleMaps and hope for the best. For some reason I decided not to go to Itaewon, I think because the subway let off a little far away and I was afraid I would get lost. So instead I decided to go to Myeongdong, which is another really popular shopping area. On the bus I went, and then to my first subway ride! All of the signs were in English which is helpful, but if you don't look carefully at the map, and you don't know what the other stops in the direction you are going are, you might wind up going the wrong direction. Luckily for me there was a little old man working for the subway system, and he showed me which was to go. Then on the subway, there are electronic signs that tell you what the next stop is. It was only about a 20 minute subway ride which was nice, since GoogleMaps told me it would be an hour.

I don't know if I can totally describe the scene in Myeongdong. There are multple streets set up on a grid, and on the sides of the streets are shops within buildings, with neon lights. There are a lot of Western shops, American Apparel for example. There is also a Forever 21, my favorite store ever! I didn't go in though because it was crowded. There are people everywhere. It's like New York, on a busy day. In the middle of these streets are the street vendors, kind of like in Soho, and their selling things form watches to purses to socks to kids toys. There are also many good vendors. I didn't know what any of the stuff was, but I decided to try some sort of meat on a stick thing that I saw a lot of people eating. It was pretty good, hopefully it wasn't dog or anything.

*Side note: yes, they do eat dog here. There is a Dog Soup place near Tim's apartment, and he has already threated to take me in there unsuspectingly and not tell me what I'm eating. I should learn the word for dog before I go out with him again.

As the sun set everything got colorful, but still crowded. I did a little shopping for myself. I think you can haggle with the vendors, but 1. I am horrible at that, 2. I am horrible at it in English, so Korean would just be terrible. I did browse though, and I know how to ask "how much is it" in Korean, and luckily they could answer me in English. I got a watch, earrings, a super super super cute new wallet, and I stopped in at the Mac store (which for some odd reason is call Frisbee here). I walked around for quite a while, looking at the different vendors, I even got Starbucks.

Then back home on the subway. The subway is strange because by the time you get into/out of the station, you're bearings are completely thrown off, and you have no idea which direction you should be heading. Luckily though, in the stations they have a neighborhood map, and it will tell you what direction you will be going in depending on which exit you go out off. So I got off at the Mia station, so that I could stop by Daiso again on the way and pick up a few more things I realized I needed. I got some cute slippers for in my apartment (you don't wear your shoes in your home, but you can wear these slippers inside). Then I walked up to Suyu Station and caught the bus back home. It was really quite simply, and I did it all by myself.

*Side note 2: have you ever wondered if there are Jehovah's Witnesses in South Korea? Well there are! I got hit up by two on the way home. They were extremely friendly though, and not pushy like the ones in America. They simply gave me a booklet to read, and their phone number in case I had any questions. It was kind of funny really.

Boy was today tiring! It's a holiday today called Chuseok, kind of like Thanksgiving, minus the turkey, and multiple the family travel traffic by 50. So because of this, a lot of stores were closed this morning. I guess I'll save my grocery shopping for tomorrow.

So I met up with my friend Tim, who I've known since freshman year at university. We went and found a restaurant in Ssangmun, which is about 20 minutes walking distance from my apartment, and it's where a lot of buses and the subway pass through. We had some really good food, I think it was bolgi again. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

After that we decided to catch the bus that Tim had taken to get into Ssangmun, because there was some sort of Buddhist temple at the end of the line. So Tim got me a T-Money card, which is basically a reloadable travel card that you swipe when you get on and off the bus/subway. Mine looks pretty cool! So we hopped on the bus and took it to the end of the line in Dobong, which happened to be at Dobongsan, which is the famous mountain in my area. It's in a place called Bukhansan National Park. It was quite gorgeous. Unfortunately for me, I did not anticipate a hike today, so I wore flip flops. Big mistake. We walked up a few hills, but after a while it started getting really steep and rocky, so we decided to go back down. We shall return at another date, prepared. The other hikers though, wow, they were completely decked out. Apparently Seoulites are known for their hiking gear, they really go balls deep, hiking boots, jackets, head bands, even those little walking cane type things. It was quite funny. They all looked as if they were going up Mount Everest, but passing them were taxis that would take you to the top of the mountain.

Upon returning to the city, we decided to check out Tim's district, Sinchon. It's about an hour and a half bus ride there, and there was a ton of traffic for the holiday, so it really sucked. Luckily we got on at the start of the line so we got seats. I don't know if I could have been able to stand that whole time. So we got to Tim's place finally, his apartment is really nice, and its right in the middle of a big party area, so there were people everywhere. But Tim said that what we saw was actually really low key, since a lot of people were away for the holiday. There definitely wasn't a shortage of bars and restaurants in his area.

Tim was kind enough to make me dinner, rice pudding. You just cook rice to a certain consistency, and add whatever kind of spices, vegetables, and meats that you want. It was pretty tasty, I'm going to have to learn how to make that for myself. I left soon after that, I mean, I was tired when I woke up, so after a day of mountaineering and wandering the streets of Ssangmun, I was pretty much beat. So Tim took me to the bus station, and luckily I got a seat for the way back. I actually fell asleep for a while, but I woke up in time to get off thankfully. How horrible would that have been if I slept through my stop?

Tomorrow's adventure: grocery shopping!

Yesterday one of my fellow teachers stopped by to chat. Most of the teachers live in the same apartment as me, just on different floors. Anyway, her name is Megan and she kind of gave me a run through of how everything works. I found out that all the money I spent on buying nice clothes because I thought I would have to wear them to work was not necessary, apparently I can wear jeans and a sweatshirt to work if I want! So Megan took me down to the local department store. The reason I didn't come across it earlier is because I was walking in the wrong direction! She showed me a few other places I'll try to hit up tomorrow, to get more stuff for the apartment. I hooked myself up with an awesome pillow. I still need sheets though, which aren't very popular here since most Koreans don't have proper beds.

After that she invited me to go out to dinner with some of the other teachers. There's Ruth and Walker from Scotland, Alex from Canada, Megan is from New York, and Tim who is from Michigan. He doesn't work at the school anymore though, now he's working in China. So we went to a place to eat galbi, which is basically barbecued meat. They put down a bowl of coals in from of you, and you place the grill thing on top of it and put the meat on it. I learned that you can NEVER burn the meat, or the Koreans will get all mad at you and cook your food for you.

I tried Soju and Kimchi last night. The kimchi was spicy as all hell, so I guess I'm just going to have to burn off my taste buds while I'm here. Soju, that's a whole 'nother story. Soju is the drink of choice for Koreans, because it's cheap and it hits you hard. You can either take straight shots with your meal, or some people mix it with their beer. I would say that it's closest relative is vodka, but when you drink it you don't really taste it until it's in your stomach. And unlike other drinks that miraculously get better as the night progresses, it actually gets worse.

So after dinner we went to a bar. There are two types of bars here, a proper bar and a HOF, I'm still not sure what the difference is, but at one of them you have to order food, you can't just get drinks. I have no idea what we went to last night, but it was a place called Beer Plus. They served us our pitcher of beer in a giant beer bong of sorts, the kind of thing you would see at a fancy kegger. It was a huge tube of beer, with a column of ice down the middle, and a spicket at the bottom to pour the beer from. It was pretty cool. So we got more beer and more soju, we found up staying until closing. Then, I was introduced to noraebang...

I was informed earlier that most neon signs I see on the streets are either going to read 약국 (yak-kuk=pharmacy) or 노래방 (no-rae-bang=karoke). So these no-rae-bangs are karaoke places, where you go into individual rooms with your friends and sing karaoke. Pretty straight forward. The one we went to last night however, must be the craziest one around, because even the others were amazed by it. It was themed in, I shit you not, Alien vs Predator style. It was seriously crazy, I wish I hadn't left my camera on my table. It was a blast though.

As fun of a night as it was, the morning certainly was not. I was warned in advance that Soju would give you a mighty hangover, but of course I've never met a clear liquid that gave me trouble, so I didn't really believe it. Believe it. I mean, it certainly wasn't the worst hangover I've ever had, probably didn't even make the top ten, but it was still quite unpleasant. But, a few Aleve (which I am not EXTREMELY thankful that I decided to bring along), some water and some of those cute little oranges and I'm pretty much back to normal.

Today I'm going to see my friend Tim who I've known since basically the first day of college. I'm super excited! It's a holiday though, so I guess a lot of places are going to be closed. And I just got here myself, so it's not like I'm going to be able to show him around or anything. But I'm sure we'll have fun!

Well, I successfully made it to Seoul! I don't know if you've ever traveled that far by plane, but let me tell you, it really sucks. It was 12 hours of sitting. And watching the same movies over and over again. And there was more sitting. A few uncomfortable, interspersed naps here and there. I think that Lewis Black can better describe it than I ever could. So if you would like a little taste of what overseas flights are like, you can check him out here

I landed at about 6pm local time, and the airport is so big, it took me 20 minutes just to get to customs! Which by the way is nearly as big of a process as it was in Australia. Of course, Korea doesn't have nearly the unstable and vulnerable ecosystem that Australia does. Just a quick stamp on my Passport, a walk through the quarantine temperature scanners, and a breeze through customs declarations. I never know what to put on my customs card, I mean, sure the thign i have once cost money, so I guess they do have a value, but how can I estimate what three bags full of clothing and nicknacks are? I just declared nothing and they guy glanced at my card and let me through. Simple as that.

I was met at the airport by two nice young people who drove me into Seoul. Everyone has nice shiny cars with GPS systems. And most of the street signs are in English as well as Korean which was nice. It took about an hour and a half to get to my apartment. There was a ton of traffic once we got into the city. Soeul has 12 million people, and a lot of them also have cars!

Since I got a new school that means a new apartment. My new address is Dobong-gu, Ssangmun 4 (sa) Dong, Han Yang Apartments. The apartments here are gigantic. I don't remember how tall mine is, but I'm on the 13th floor, and there are a few floors above me. Now, while my apartment definately is not a slum, it's definately not the creme de la creme of apartments. It's probably about the size of my kitchen and family room back home. There are three rooms, kinda. It's more like two rooms, with no border from the kitchen into the "family room" I would call it, and there is a slide door into the bedroom. There's also this enclosed balcony type thing where my washer is, and there are windows and a place to hang my clothes to dry.

I've got a stove in the kitchen, and a sink, along with a few pans and some dishes. Then in the next room is a couch and a comfy chair, along with the (little out of place) refrigerator. And next up is the bedroom, with a twin bed and a pillow, a book case, a closet type thing, and a table with a TV. I can tell you this for sure, I have the most god-awful, uncomfortable bed in existence. I have only come across one other bed that might compare to this one, but it only takes second place by a fraction. I went out to day to try to find new sheets, and maybe one of those egg crate things, but alas, I cannot read the signs on the shops, and so far I have not come across anything like a Target or Khols, or any department store in general. I'm definately hitting up the couch tonight.

And now for the bathroom. I have a shower in my bathroom, thankfully. But rather than in the bathroom, it's more like the shower is the bathroom. There is no shower door or wall or ledge or tub. the bathroom is a tiles floor with a removable shower head, a toilet, and a sink... all in one. I don't understand how you're supposed to keep stuff in the bathroom, because if you drop the shower head, everything will get wet. And knowing how much of a klutz I can be sometimes, that's bound to happen. I guess I'll just have to figure it out.

While I was writing this, one of the teachers that I'm working with came over. She took me to a super market in town and showed me around a little bit. I'll write about all that next time.