The Weekend so Far...

I feel like so much has gone on this weekend so far that I needed to create a post halfway through! Friday I brought my camera to school and took some pictures of those classes:

Stanford Class: 4-6 yrs old

Jenny, Lui (my favorite!), and Sally from Stanford class

Ivy Master Class: 7-8 yrs old. Lilly (my favorite from this class, very smart)

Ivy Master class again: Whitney, Angela, & Claire

CNN-1 Class: 8-10 yrs old. Extremely quiet class, but they are all great kids.
John, Beckett (the only one that would smile for me!, Jack, & Mchelle

CNN-2 Class: 13-15 yr olds. Normally there are 6 of them but it's vacation time right now.
Matt, Rachel, & Emily

Rachel & Katrina from Stanford

Harvard Class: 4-6 yr olds. Another Kinder Class I teach.
Justin, Alina, & William

More Harvard Class: Daniel, Emily, & Jason.
Daniel is smarter than some of my 13-15 yr old kids!

So those are my Friday classes (I teach 10 on Friday) so I didn't get to take a picture of everyone, and then on Tuesday/Thursdays I have different classes/kids. Haha in one of my Reading Club classes my student decided to change her name from Dorothy (because she was being picked on) to Hermoine (as in from the Harry Potter books/movies). Except she didn't want to pronounce it correctly, she wanted me to say Her-mo-knee, even though I tried to tell her the correct pronunciation. Oh well, her name!

After my last class Friday (7:30 pm!) I went to dinner with Cassy at your basic Korean restaurant you find everywhere here, so I though I would share a picture:

So I ordered Fried Rice, and apparently it came with corn and then a salad (which is that tiny thing behind the corn, topped with kiwi dressing, they love it here). Cassy got a pork cutlet, and as you can see it also came with corn, the mini salad, and a ball of rice. And we split an order of Mandu, which are pork dumplings basically, they are very good. Everything else on the table comes automatically when you sit down, it's all free (including the water). You are bombarded by food in side dishes in Korea!

After dinner we went to WaBar for a beer, whose inside decor would not fly in the USA because it would be kinda offensive to a particular group, see if you can guess:

Haha ya, there were a lot more just 'wow' things on the other side, but I didn't feel like getting up to get a picture. Their menu has a great selection of foreign beers/wine/liquor, and then their food menu is split up into different countries and then the food from there. But it didn't look too legit to me, I dunno, I may have to try it sometime though.

Anyways, it's already time to go to the baseball game so I will have to tell you about my trip to Seoul another time!

Overwhelmed by E-Mart

I got home a little earlier from work tonight (about 8:30 pm) so I thought I would write a quick entry about E-Mart. On Tuesday evening after work Cassie took me to experience E-Mart. E-Mart is insane. That's the only way to put it. It's like Walmart, but if a Super Walmart were 4 stories and 3 times as big on each floor. In the store I thought I was looking at a wall of the mirrored reflection of the store, but no, it really goes on forever.

So we took the bus to E-Mart, and the first thing we did was go to the 4th floor food court. They have a McDonalds there so we got our little fix of American fast food (even though I'm pretty sure the last time I ate McDonalds was in High School). They actually have all the same Menu items as we do in the US, which was weird to me because even in Austria they had wiener schnitzel on the menu. So I got some fries and some chicken nuggets, which were very comforting after a day of intense teaching. On the same level of the food court is a huge bookstore, so we trolled the aisles looking for an English section, but sadly there wasn't one.

Here's a little bit of mistranslation in action for you:

Then we went down to level 2 for the home decor/electronics/shoes/clothing/lighting/office supplies, etc. The problem with E-Mart is there is no organization system at all! There are clothes thrown randomly in every level, a few lamps here, then some on level 1, etc. So you really have to spend a lot of time there just trying to find the stuff you need because it could be anywhere!

After you get all the stuff you need on one level, you have to check out before you go to the next one. Luckily groceries are all on one level, so at least they made that section a little easier. There's also a nice wine shop area, tons of foreign beer, and a fairly good selection of american products. The E-mart closest to me is one of the smaller ones (which seems ridiculous) so other ones have even more choices.

Here's what I came away with: a Brita water filter, a swiffer mop and refills, house shoes, Laughing Cow cheese, milk, Corn Flakes with berries, Nature Valley granola bars, Riesling, a box of cookies for my Kinder class, and a personal size Hawaiian pizza! So I didn't overdo it or anything, this was mostly a go and see what all they have trip. Plus when you have to carry everything home with you in a bus or taxi, it definitely limits your spending. But I did treat myself to the guilty pleasures of the Laughing cow, granola bars ($7 a box!) and Hawaiian pizza (on sale because apparently Koreans don't like my favorite kind of pizza!). All in all a very good trip, but there are still so many things I need for my apartment so I'll be going back soon I'm sure.

Tomorrow is Friday (yesss!!) so happy it's the weekend. Tomorrow night I'm going with a few people to a Norebang, which is the Korean version of Karaoke where you rent out your own room. So looking forward to that even though I couldn't carry a tune to save my life. Then Saturday Cassie and I are going to Seoul early so we have the whole day to explore, shop, visit the Foreign Food Market and an English bookstore!!! Seoul is massive so there is so much to do and see there, and it's so close! Sunday all the teachers are going to the baseball game since last weekend it was rained out, very excited about that too. And then Monday is a Holiday here so I get the day off!! I plan to do absolutely nothing, well explore some of the parks here if it's nice weather, but I think I deserve a catch up on reading and tv day too.

That's it for now, I will update yall after this weekend!

End of my First Week

I officially had my first full day of teaching on Friday, and I survived! It went fairly smoothly, I just need to come up with some creative ways to keep the students entertained. And I have all different age groups too. I have kindergarden age until about 1:30 pm and then I have a bunch of different age groups like 8 yr olds, then a class of kids 11-12 yrs old, and then high school age kids until 7:30 pm. On Mondays my first class isn't until 1:20 pm, and then the rest of the week I start at 11:30 am. So it's a pretty good schedule, and I have a few 40 min periods throughout the day in which I don't teach a class so I can prepare my lesson plans then. And my schedule will be changing end of August like I said before because summer classes will be ending.

So Friday night was Matthew's last night (the teacher I'm replacing) so all of the teachers at Songdo ECC went and had Korean BBQ! It was sooo good! There's a grill type thing in the middle of your table and you put these really thinly sliced pieces of beef on it, then once they're done (it cooks really fast) you drop it in this amazing spicy BBQ (which I asked if I could buy at the supermarket but it's the restaurant's own recipe, so sadly no) and then you wrap it up in a lettuce leaf and eat it! There are also tons of small bowls of various toppings you can put in the lettuce leaf with it too. Or you could just eat the beef alone. They also give you rice, salad, soups, and kimchi of course! I didn't bring my camera, but found a pic online that looks fairly similar to what our setup was like, but ours was actually nicer:

You can see that there is a lot going on! And I did my best to eat with chopsticks, but they were metal so it was a struggle (the owner came by and brought me a fork haha) but I plan on becoming an expert with metal chopsticks while I'm here!

So then after Korean BBQ, we went to a bar that had a huge selection of foreign and domestic beer and hung out for awhile. The prices were pretty much the same as foreign beer back home, I was surprised.

Today (Saturday) I was going to go into Seoul with Cassie (one of the other teachers) but I had to do my health check instead : (  sadly. I went to the Hospital with Bora, my boss, which was packed, but we actually got right in. So first was the drug test ( you know, the bathroom, the cup, you get it) and then they took a blood sample. Now in the States we get orange or apple juice after we give blood right? Well here you get Black Sesame Seed Juice! Yum yum yum! Haha actually not, it tastes a bit like a milk mixed with what I guess black sesame seeds taste like. I had one sip and then tossed it. Yes, it was in a juice box!:

Yep looks delicious right? So next I took a blood pressure test, checked my vision and hearing, and then took a full body x-ray. Basically more than I've had checked in the past 7 years by any doctors in the US. Oh and then some questions I had to answer. But it all went very quickly, South Koreans have a very efficient healthcare system.

After we went to the Hospital, Bora and I went to Starbucks for some coffee and lunch. Yes, Songdo has a Starbucks! So if I'm ever needing something familiar than I can just go there, since they are exactly the same all around the world. Songdo has some really random American places like Curves (the women's gym), 7 Eleven, and Papa John's Pizza. There are no American Fast Food restaurants in Songdo as of now (which makes no difference to me since I don't eat it back n Texas anyways) but all of the other teachers are so excited because they just built a Taco Bell in Seoul! Haha they thought I would be really excited about that, and I guess if I ever get really desperate for Mexican food I can go there, but I told them we don't really consider that Mexican food in Texas. But it would be fun to go there and see if they have any different things on the menu that are geared towards Koreans.

I also went to the supermarket again today and spent about an hour and a half there just looking at all the different things they had. This might be weird but I really love walking about grocery stores, I can spend a lot of time there. Not necessarily buying things, but just looking at all the different food they have. It may be a strange enjoyment, but my mom likes to do it too so I know I'm not the only one. Anyways, here are a few of my purchases:

They have those 6 packs of mini cereal, so I bought one of those, then some Digestive cookies, instant coffee since I don't have a coffee maker just yet, microwavable veggies and rice porridge, and then some cranberry granola bars. I have a few fridge items too (like eggs, yogurt, sliced ham, apples, oranges) along with a loaf of bread but don't have a picture of them.
Here are a few of my lovely non-matching dishes from my last trip, also bought some silverware, a skillet and spatula:

So let's see what else, oh here's a picture of my Bank book, thought it was interesting:

 The inside is really cool looking but I don't know what part is my bank account info so I probably shouldn't post that on the internet.

And then here are a few Korean bills:

Sorry, not the greatest view of them but you get the jist.

That's all for now, a few of us are going to go to a professional Baseball game tonight as long as it doesn't rain, so I need to get ready for that!

My Apartment

It's about 6 am here and I am wide awake (my body hasn't gotten used to the time change yet) so I figured I would write an entry about my apartment! It is literally across the street from my school, so it takes about 5 minutes to walk there, which is so wonderful. Attached to my apartment complex on the street is a drugstore/kiosk type place (think gas station without the gas), a Supermarket, 2 French named bakeries which look like they have amazing food, the Kraze Burger restaurant, and Holly's Coffee shop. Directly across the street next to the school is a Baskin Robins, my Bank, a Dry Cleaners, and a few traditional Korean restaurants. So my little block has pretty much all my basic necessities that I need.

Now for some pictures of my apartment! It's on the 2nd floor and overlooks the university park. The rest of the teachers are on the 23rd or 16th floors so they have a nice view of the ocean and the rest of the town, but my apartment is actually bigger and has newer appliances than theirs so you can't really go wrong with any of them.

Here's my bedroom area, theres a floor to ceiling window on the right but I didn't have the shade up and then there's a big closet to the left.

Here's the bedroom closet:

 

This is my living area/study, lots of space:

Here's another picture of the living area, there's a TV with a DVD player, and more big windows (which I should of pulled the shades up):

This is my nice big kitchen, tons and tons of cabinet space and a huge refrigerator and freezer on the far right:

My apartment is super high tech so this is the main control panel. I can set the temperature, turn on and off the lights, it's also a phone, can turn off my gas and water, has video feed of who's outside my door and video feed of the public areas of the apartment complex. It has an alarm clock and I can set timers for all of my lights. A lot of it is in English but some of it, like the important directions, are in Korean. You can see that underneath it is another thermostat that I can use on the left and then on the right are some more light switches for the main room.

Here is my microwave and oven (yes it does both!) that I haven't had the chance to use yet. All of the buttons are in Korean so I haven't figured it out yet. I just know the top left button is for oven mode and the middle one is for microwave and then the right one is for a vent. I closed my gas valve for the stove I think through my control panel so when the time comes to use that I'll open it again and hopefully not blow myself up. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be closed or open, but I figured with gas the safest bet would be for it to be closed. Bah I don't know.

Here's a closer pic of my oven and microwave buttons. If anyone speaks Korean and feels like letting me know what they say that would be great!

 Here's a clock radio that's in my kitchen, I actually found one english station on it!

Another control panel in my kitchen that I have no idea what it's for:

This is my front door, notice how my shoes are off on the tile and then I have slippers to wear in the rest of the apartment, that's how it's done in Korea!

This is my bathroom, behind the two mirrors are a bunch of shelves and notice the drain on the floor, it's for the shower. You can also see the separate bathroom slippers that are used for the bathroom.

And here's the shower head! Yes in Korea you shower just right in the middle of your bathroom and it drains into the floor! It was weird the first time but it's actually not bad, just a little weird at first.

Here's my laundry room, I've stuck my bags in here for now until I start doing laundry.

Here are two more huge closest that are in my entry way, there is more space than I know what to do with in this apartment!

Here's the view of the park from my window, sorry I took these at dusk so it's a little dark outside:

This is to the left of my window view, you can see a huge Methodist church on the other side of the park:

And then this is a look to the right, sadly it doesn't do the park justice because it's a really beautiful area on a hill:

So that's it for now, I will try to take more pictures of the complex and the surrounding area maybe this weekend but right now it's all kind of crazy busy with the new job and everything. And hopefully sometime soon I will be able to decorate my apartment a little bit so it doesn't seem so sparse!

I'm in Korea!

So after many months of gathering documents, doing interviews, and just getting everything prepared, I'm finally in South Korea! I left July 31st and got in here August 1st at 6 pm. They paid for one night in a hotel for me since they were still cleaning the apartment but since then I have been in my new apartment (this is my 2nd night).

But first getting here. Packing was a nightmare! I basically got all my clothes out and put it in piles, which was a horrible idea. Because then I just sat there looking at it and moaning about it. If Lindsay and mom hadn't helped me it never would of gotten done! Here's a picture of the chaos I created:

Ya, next time I know better.

My flight left at 6 am on the 31st, so I got to the airport at 4 am, brutal. Just FYI, the airport check in desks don't open until 4:30 am, so don't bother getting there any earlier. So the goodbyes were said, the see you in a year, and I was on the plane to LA.
In LA I switched airline carriers to Asiana Airlines, so I had to re-check in. When they opened their check in desks (promptly at 10 am I might add) they all lined up in their fancy uniforms, the manger said a few words in Korean to the customers, and then they all bowed in unison. It was very impressive.
Asiana Airlines is hands down the nicest airline I've gotten to fly on. It was a two story plane, with first class on the second story and the rest of us commoners on the first. But the economy seating was SO nice. We each had our own TVs, blankets, and slippers. We got to choose from 32 different movies (all almost brand new), 6 classic movies (think alfred hitchcock, from here to eternity, etc) and then some TV shows or the radio. Then they came around with water and orange juice every 30 minutes like clockwork. We were served 3 meals and a snack, and all given the hot towels before each one. So it was kind of ridiculous. I just flew first class to Hawaii about 2 weeks ago, and it wasn't nearly as nice as economy on Asiana Airlines.

So 12 1/2 hour flight, then I landed in Incheon, South Korea. I was supposed to get on a bus and meet my school director at a stop in the city, but after 3 buses waved me a no because of my luggage I just shelled out for an airport taxi because I was worn out and wanted to just get there. The taxi took to Songdo, and I met up with Bora and her Canadian husband Ben for some Kraze Burgers and beer. Bora basically does everything at the school. She is not technically the boss of the school but she does all the legwork of a principal, director, teacher, and new people introductions. She is really really great and makes time out of her insane schedule to help out.

Then yesterday (Tue. August 2nd) I moved into the apartment and went to the ECC (the school) for the first time.  I was actually supposed to have a week training seminar in Seoul and then shadow another teacher for another week here at the school, but guess what? I taught my first class yesterday! Ya, I was a little freaked out about it but I survived the 40 minutes of the first class. The rest of the day I shadowed Matthew, the teacher whose classes I'm taking over because his contract's up, but they're short 2 teachers right now so I needed to take over one class in the afternoon. So for now in the morning I have kinder classes and then in the afternoon I have kids probably 7-10 years old. There are some summer courses just until the end of August so after that my schedule will probably change again and there will be two more teachers then also.
So today Bora and I went to the bank to set up my account so I can be paid. (yay!) And then I shadowed Jemma (Australian who teaches 3-4 yr. olds who have zero attention spans and I'm really glad I won't be taking over those classes!) and then Brandon (who taught an arts and crafts class, very fun). And then I taught 3 more classes! Ahhh! That was what was going through my mind. Bora sat in on 2 of them just in case things went wrong, but it seemed to go ok. These kids had already been to their normal school so you could tell they just didn't want to be here and didn't want to do the work. So I have a feeling these kids are going to be a little difficult and I need to come up with some creative things to do, but obviously had no notice and just got through the books today.
There are so many different classes and different books that go with each that I really have no idea what's going on with the curriculum. No ones really had time to explain it yet but I guess hopefully tomorrow that will happen since Matthew is leaving on Friday and that's when I'll take over all the classes. Talk about sink or swim. All the other teachers are really nice and try to be helpful, but their schedules are just as crazy right now. But they all say the first month is the hardest since you're just learning the system, figuring out lesson plans, and getting to know what works and what doesn't.
So then tonight I went with Cassie (one of the other teachers who just got here 2 months ago) to the GS Supermarket to buy all the necessities like plates, cups, bowls, some eggs, yogurt, frosted flakes, etc. They actually have some random american stuff like a few Campbells soups, pasta sauce, peanut butter (shocker!), ketchup, and some other random stuff. They also have twix, snickers, hersey kisses and bars, skittles, and mini tootsie pops! Really random. I am deffinately going to have to pick up some tootsie pops because they are my favorite at some point. No twizzilers or reeses peanut butter cups though sadly. Although they did randomly have candy canes, not the traditional mint ones but the frut flavored ones. Hopefully they will get the mint ones towards Christmas, that would be a nice suprise.
Ok so I have apartment pics to show but it will have to wait another night because I am exhausted and need to review possible activites for any classes I may have to teach tomorrow! (Just trying to plan a little bit ahead!)

Begin at the Beginning

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

by Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets.  Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry.  Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
 Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored.  there are games to be won.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, 

you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!