It's Monday afternoon now, and I'm sitting my empty classroom. Today there was only an opening ceremony at my school, so no teaching today, but since I do have internet here at my desk, I can talk about the last few days' adventures.
THE FLIGHT
So, we left Texas on Thursday morning, and had a 14 and a half hours of flight. It was pretty long, but at least it did leave on time, which was good. We had way too much luggage, but my dad helped us and we were able to get everything to the aiport with little problem. When we settled in the plane, it was a packed flight so there was a guy sitting next to us. I think he was going to Vietnam. There was the little screen in front of our seats but Aaron's was broken so he couldn't use his, and used mine sometimes. There was a few dinky games on it like minigolf and yatze. I watched a few TV shows on my screen, such as a cruise show with Samantha Brown, a show about San Francisco, "faking it" show, and some other shows. I also watched a movie, Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was about the innocence of children. It is how a son of the commander of a concentration camp makes friends with a jewish prisoner boy. It was pretty sad at the end, without giving away too much, but I felt like it didn't really conclude much. The food was pretty dinky in size, so we were pretty hungry most of the flight.
We finally landed on Friday, around 3pm, Korean time. Going through immigration was relatively easy, just had to fill a bunch of forms and go through a few people, but in the end we got our bags (although one of mine took forever to get out) and met our ride, a taxi driver, outside. The ride took about 2 hours, but when we got there, we kept no getting lost, because apparently our apartment is pretty hard to find. But eventually we found it when it was almost dark, and lugged our luggage into the room.
FRIDAY NIGHT
The apartment is actually pretty decently sized, other than the small kitchen and bathroom. The living room was relatively spacious, as is the bedroom. The only problem is the lack of furniture or drawers or closets or anywhere to actually put stuff in. So we met some teachers from our school at the apartment, and they took us out to a restaurant for dinner. It was okay food - some jajangmyeon, some chicken dish, and some shrimp dish. We were pretty tired though, so right after we went to our apartment and slept. It was pretty cold when it got dark.
SATURDAY
On Saturday we woke up at like 4:30 because our bodies weren't used to the time shift yet. Today we went out with Aaron's coteacher for some groceries and visiting his school. His school is an all girls' middle school, and his English classroom was brand spankin new. We walked around a little bit and then we went grocery shopping in downtown Anseong. An Korean supermarket is interesting - it's very crowded and of course everything is in Korean so it was hard to find stuff. Also, rice is expensive (but yummy). So is fruit. We did buy some noodles, rice, and some random things like cereal and milk to eat for a little bit. We also went to an Korean restaurant for lunch, which we had bulgogi soup. It was very tender and delicious. We sat on the floor to eat, and there was lots of yummy side dishes as well. After that, she drove us back to our apartment and we rested the rest of the day. It was interesting because it shows subtitled English movies on the TV so we watched some movies, such as Juno, Harry Potter movies, Terminator, Xmen 3, etc. We also figured out the shower and explored the area a little bit.
SUNDAY
On Sunday we got up around 6-7ish. Not as early at 4:30, that's for sure! Today this morning we didn't do too much, just explored our tiny little town of Samjuk, which was pretty much one street. Then we went to the local grocery, which was pretty small and a lot of things didn't even have prices printed on it, so there was lots of mystery costs. We did find pasta, so we bought some of that, as well as some soymilk and some snacks and random things. The food here are pretty good, though expensive. Later in the day we went out with two teachers from my school back to downtown Anseong. One is a new teacher who is going to be my co teacher, and one was the coteacher from last year. We also met up with the native teacher at my school from last year, Courtney, and her friend as well. We went to a coffeehouse with some drinks and cake, and then we all went out to eat galbi along with some of Courtney's western friends. It was the first time we've met up with other expats, so it was pretty cool. I think there were in total, other than Aaron and I, about five other expats. The food was good as well, and good conversation. It's nice to speak fluently, not with broken English, for once.
MONDAY
So it's Monday today and here I am in my classroom. This morning we woke up and I walked to the bus stop around 8:20. The bus stop seems far but it's actually not bad, about a 5 min walk or so. I went with my coteacher to the school, which was in a green building. The school isn't too big, about two stories, but there are two buildings that are connected by a side. This morning we got into my classroom and I just explored the room a little bit. There are about 36 chairs in my room, not too huge. There are also a ton of books and materials, games and signs and things like that. It is pretty interesting. Our textbook seems pretty simple, we also have cds of video sample conversation that goes along with the textbook. Each grade has its own textbook. After that we went to th gym, where there was some sort of opening ceremony for the school, where I saw all the kids and had to stand with the teachers. There was a point where I had to go on stage with my coteacher and some other teachers and stand there and be introduced, and I saw a million little faces staring at me. It was a little nervewrecking, especially since I didn't understand most of the whole ceremony. After that, we went to the teachers room, where we were introduced to the teachers, and I had to stand up there and say something, so I said something like "I hope I can teach English well here" or something. After that, all the schools' employees went out for lunch - we went to a local restaurant and got kimchi jigae, which is kimchi stew. It was hot but actually pretty good. After lunch coteacher and I went to the principal's office where he talked to us. Or rather, he talked to her in Korean and she translated some of it. And so I had to sit there and smile when I don't understand a word he's talking about. Which was most of today, of which people would talk and I would be like sitting there smiling like a weirdo, lol. And thus, that was my day, thus far.
I will be sure to upload some pictures of our apartment, my classroom, and other general Korea scenes soon.
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