What's shakin', bacon?

So I'm officially done shadowing other teachers at work.  As of Monday, I'll be teaching my own classes and I'll have my own classroom and EVERYTHING!  I'm taking a lot of comfort in the fact that a lot of the kids have been through other parts of the program before, so they know what is expected of them already.  From what I've seen of them, they're typical small humans - hyper, occasionally attentive, invested in who is in their groups, and generally exactly what you could expect of elementary school children.  This should be interesting to say the least!

As for the rest, I'm doing alright.  I feel the need to show Kevin that I am indeed flying my metal flag high here in the land of Kpop...

I also brought Metallica, Slipknot, Hatebreed, and Trivium T-shirts.  Hehehe - certain things just need to be ;)

I have realized that I should have brought some pictures of people back home to decorate my apt with.  I was more concerned with things to wear than I was with decorating... silly me.  There's a TON of hooks still on the walls of my apt from the last teacher who was there.  It kind of cracks me up.  I also learned that I'm going to have to pay for my electric and heat as well as my phone and wifi (when I get them).  I can officially tell you all that things are not really cheaper here... the cost really seems to be comparable.  The thing that throws me off is the exchange rate.  But I'd figure $300 could last me at least 3 weeks in a new city (that's the cash I brought with me), I've been here 2 weeks now and still have some cash, so woot!  I'll be paid once a month and I just need to set up a bank account.  I found out that I can do that with just my passport, but I won't be able to get (the equivalent of) a debit card until my Resident Alien Card comes in. 

OH, regarding the RAC, I had a revelation on Wednesday!  This whole experience - applying, getting the job, coming over here, working on getting all my paperwork in order - it's all been a practice in trust!  I trusted that my recruiter would find me a good school, that he was giving me the right info, that I'd get the Visa, etc.  The thing that solidified this thought was on Wednesday I was told to meet a Mr. Kim outside my apt at 10:40 and he'd take me to get the RAC.  So 10:40 I walk out of my apt, turn right, and a guy I've never seen before says "Amanda?"  I said yes, and he led me to a car which I got in.  A few mins later, he asked for my passport and 30,000 Won.  A small voice in my head said "this is how people get trafficked, you know."  The utter craziness of the situation just blew my mind for a second.  It all turned out fine (as I'm sure you've figured out) and he did indeed take care of everything for me - I just needed to be there to sign some paperwork and have my fingerprints scanned.  The RAC will be sent to my school, so I guess once that happens we'll take care of the bank account and maybe the phone. 

I had a wifi router in my apt, and I tried plugging it in but it asked for a network key.  Not being able to read Korean, I brought it to work with me yesterday and asked my boss about it.  She said she'd get back to me, so I'm waiting on that.  I have also confirmed it's a 20 min walk to work with 3 street crossings (because I pass under another street and go thru a park).  I cracked myself up yesterday because I was looking at one of the world maps the school has in the rooms and caught myself planning my trip in the summer (we get a week off in the summer and another off in the winter), and also planning my next 10 years of teaching English.  I haven't actually had a class yet, but this seems like the best way to work and see the world!  Stay tuned, Korea and I are still in the honeymoon phase, after all.  

As this is a free day, I'm thinking I'll take a walk through Central Park and take some pictures.  My fellow teachers have all scattered around Korea!  I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who stayed in Dongtan.  But that's fine with me - I'm trying to make sure I don't get in over my head before my first paycheck, you know?  One of the teachers asked me if I felt settled in.  I said I think I'll be 100% comfortable once I have a bank account, my first paycheck, a phone, and wifi.  She laughed and admitted that I had a point.  Hehe. 

Oh, so more pix (cuz I know that's what you really come here for).  Here's what I decided to wear on my first day at the school.  Black jeans, boots, purple tank top, black shrug, and amethyst necklace. 

It took until yesterday for another teacher to tell me that she loved how I always coordinate my necklace and earrings with whatever I happen to be wearing that day (yesterday was red).  I thought about it and yeah, I feel like accessorizing is the ONE area of being a woman that I'm actually good at!  I'm terrible at doing my hair and make-up, I'm not traditionally 'ladylike,' etc, but damn it, I can coordinate my accessories!!  Hehehe. 

As for food, I've been bad at remembering my camera again.  However, here's what I bought from the 7-Eleven down the way from my apt.  This was one meal for me.

As you can see, we have ramen soup (I still haven't eaten that... can't seem to bring myself to.  Maybe today...), beef jerky, cheddar cheese pretzels, brownies, and a gimbap (just in pyramid form instead of a roll).  I also had Pringles from before.  The brownies are so cute and little... so naturally I had 2 that day.  ;)

And here's what I had from Paris Baguette - a rather popular bakery/sammich and salad place. 

I thought the sammich would be ham or turkey but it was actually bologna.  The pastery is, yes, from Starbucks.  I'm trying not to go to the same place for wifi every day.  So yeah, Starbucks is on the rotation along with TiRol coffee.  The apple was from my first grocery shopping trip... I'm down to my last one, so I'm going to have to go to Emart (from what I can tell, maybe the equivalent of Wal-Mart?) tomorrow.  Thank God for credit cards with no foreign transaction fees!

Yesterday, my head teacher gave me this lovely booklet to peruse.  The last line under Week 4 just cracked me up.  Treat yo self, indeed!

So that's pretty much it.  I need to figure out how to decorate my apt and I'll be able to set up my classroom on Monday.  Yes, I'm planning on going in early in order to get my room situated, confirm my schedule, get it all straight in my head, and get hyped up for the (official) first day.  There is no real dress code, but I figure keeping the tats covered is a good thing.  That may not be such a big deal outside of the classroom, though, which makes me happy.  Also, I'm still looking for a friggin' ALL DAY lipstick... false advertising is making me CRAZY!  (Random, I know... it's like I'm trying to stay on the phone or something cuz I miss my peoples!!!!)

Intro to Teaching ;)

So lemme catch you up (I know, it's been 2 days, what could have happened?!).  Sunday I prayed and vegged out.  I haven't had a lot of luck finding a Catholic church here in Dongtan... in fact one website said there wasn't one, so I'm going to have to cast a wider net.  The annoying thing is that when I try to look it up on Google, it's all in Korean.  That is less helpful than you might believe.  I did thank God for a certain sister who loaded me up with plenty of movies on my hard drive.  :)

So yesterday was my first day at school, and for those of you who are SUUUPER curious, here's the scoop.  I'm going to be teaching what is basically Kindergarten and Elementary school kids.  I shadowed some of the elementary classes.  The levels are Kinder, Seedbed, Seed, Sprout, and Sapling.  I have no Sapling (highest level) classes.  I go to work at 12:30pm and we work until 8:30pm.  The first class on MWF is at 2:25 and then run until 7:05, so that's the time that I'm actively teaching.  For T,TH classes, they start at 3:15 and run until 7:05.  The rest of the time is for lesson planning, making copies, and grading.  The curriculum is pretty straightforward and seems pretty easy to teach.  The kids are way high energy, and trying to match that is going to be interesting for me.  I keep on thinking that I might have to channel Mr. Quayle - nothing we ever did phased him.  It's also the end of the term - the students will be leveling up and starting new classes on March 4, so I think there's some end-of-term excitement going on, too.  

My fellow teachers are really sweet and fun (and I was wrong, the man in the pic from the previous post is also from South Africa.  Oops).  IT also turns out that Chungdahm April (which is the program that I'm in) in Dongtan is actually the best branch in S Korea.  So you know, no pressure to not bring it down!!  It takes about 20 mins to walk to work from where I live... in terms of blocks, I'm not 100% sure because we cut thru a park (and I'm not used to measuring in blocks), but I'd guess between 5 and 10.  After work yesterday I went to a store called 'Daiso' which is kind of the equivalent of 5 Below in the states.  I was able to get a few more things for the apt (a bath mat, yoga mat, more hangers, a scalp massager thingy that I've seen advertised before, etc).  Humans are creatures of habit, so I figure the sooner I get into a routine, the more comfortable I'll feel.  I also got a watch, which is useful but it's going to take some getting used to.  So not a watch person, but my alarm clock that I brought with me runs too slow and I'd like to know that I'm getting up at a decent time each day.

So there's only a bit more that I need to do to get settled.  The school is going to help me to get my Resident Alien Card (hehehe, I'm an Alien) and once I have that, I can get a phone.  Apparently for unlimited calls, texts, and data it's going to run me about $50 a month.  Also when I have my RAC, I can get a Korean bank account and that means I can get PAID!  And the school is also going to help me to get Wifi for my apartment, which will mean that I can MAKE SOME CALLS!!!!  It's been horrible not being able to at least hear people's voices.  Thank God for the internet and (I hate to say it) Facebook.  Otherwise I wouldn't be able to communicate at all!!

So that's pretty much it.  I got up this AM and did some yoga and realized that it's been a LONG time since I did any yoga.  I also brought my resistance bands, so I'm going to have to figure out how those are supposed to be used.  A gym membership here seems affordable and you pay by the month, but I'm not much of one for actually going to the gym.  I think having my own wake up/wind down fitness thing in my apt will be more sustainable.  Also, heat in the apartment works differently than in the states.  Here the floor is heated and that heats the apt... which is REALLY nice when your feet tend to be the only things that are cold!!  Taking a shower is funny because pretty much everything in the bathroom gets wet (except for the towels, they seem to be out of the spray zone).  The shower head is pleasant - good spray.  Cuz you know, these things are important!  I haven't cooked anything yet - food here is pretty cheap and SO GOOD!!!  I think once I have internet, go to the food store everyone keeps on mentioning (Emart, I think it is), and make something of a plan, I'll cook.  In the meantime, I can tell you that they do have tortilla chips here, and I found queso and salsa, though I didn't buy them because I was scared I'd be disappointed.  I think I'll make NACHOS!  Oh and Jude was right - the counters are WAY SHORT!  I also had the thought that I might have to learn to like ramen... it's everywhere here!!  Also, it's easy to make.  I've pretty much just been using my kettle at home for coffee and tea.  My fellow teachers told me that the best pizza place around here is... Dominos.  It kinda killed my soul a bit, but now pizza sounds AMAZING!

Oh, also the school is treating us to lunch on Thursday and Friday is a national holiday so there's no school on Friday.  It's Korean Independence Movement day.  Apparently this doesn't happen often, so it's a bit of a treat for everyone. 

And that's pretty much it.  I'm still working on my mental map of Dongtan so that I can get around better.  It's all still so new!!!

Hello Dongtan!

So it's really real now.  LOL - For some reason, it didn't really sink in that I was here and actually going to teach until I saw the school.  At the end of training, we had a test and a teaching eval.  They told us within 5 mins or so that we all passed and then my group went out for lunch at our favorite place one last time.

As promised, I remembered my camera!  So this is the bibibap that I had.  It's a bowl of rice with bean sprouts, seaweed, carrots, etc that I put hot sauce on.  You stir it all up and eat it all down!  There's also my favorite gimbab - it's the pork one :)

 These are rice cakes in a spicy sauce with a hard boiled egg.  SO GOOD!!

 And one of the ladies of our group decided to get "soldiers stew."  During the Korean war, the soldiers would give Spam to the people and they would put it in a stew with whatever else they had.  It's still pretty popular, and our friend was excited they had it.

 The side dishes they brought with our food.  There was a part where you could also get kimchi, miso soup, and pickled radishes.

So once lunch was over there was basically a bunch of chaos as they tried to get us all in the right vans.  I came to Dongtan with one other teacher (who is going to be teaching the older kids).  The van dropped us off at our school and we met our managers, who also took us out to lunch!  I left all my stuff at the school, so I have no picture but I had a great pork cutlet that was stuffed with cheese and sweet potato.  I will go back, so stay tuned for that pic.

After lunch, we went to our apartments.  They had another van and 2 very nice young men to help us with our bags.  The driver guy took us both to our apartments and showed us how to get in, work the thermostat, etc.  The apt is furnished, and I also have 2 plates, 2 bowls, a fork, knife and spoon, chopsticks, a kettle, a pot and a pan.  It struck me today that there is no oven!

 The outside of my apt building - it's not in one of those huge high-rises.  Which I kinda like.  I'm on the first floor, in fact you can see my window!

 You walk into the tiiiiny kitchen. 

 Seriously, these pics are with my back up against my door. 

 The bedroom and living space.  Thru the doors you can see my drying racks for when I wash clothes.  The bed is hard, but the bedding is nice. The wardrobe is kinda cool - I bought hangers today so that I felt a little more normal... I didn't buy enough, but I'll do that another day. 

 My fridge.

 The bathroom/shower.  That's right, the shower head is connected to the faucet.  Jess, I think we've finally found a bathroom that is comparable to the one we had in Steubie!  The funny thing is, I think I still like this one better!

My little washing machine.  According to the other teachers, these can be really hard on clothes, so I need to get a net bag to do my washing in.  I took a chance today and did my laundry after I went shopping... it was so nice to be able to do that!

So last night my fellow teachers took me out for Koren bbq.  They sure know how to welcome a newbie!!

 Tilly was the grill master.  For those of you who don't know the wonder that is Korean bbq, let me explain.  You go in and choose your meat, your sides, your sauces, everything.  Then you cook the meat yourself.  Tilly did a great job with that, by the way, and you eat!  The sauce was AMAZING... so good, so good!!!

 One of the teachers... guess where she's from, everybody!  We had a great laugh about how you can always tell people from Texas.  She's excited to see my 'Tejas' necklace. 

 Our beverages for the evening.  A decent lighter beer and grapefruit flavored Soju (soojoo, I don't know how to spell it).  Soju is kinda like Korean sake.

My fellow teachers.  I can't remember all of their names (the beverages had been flowing) but I can say the 2 on the right are from South Africa, the guy is from the UK (I think), then Texas (Desiree), New York (Ashley) and London (Tilly). 

So all in all, I'm pretty stoked about being here!  I had the thought today that I was wanting to live in a city for a while, see what it's like to walk everywhere (and have everything within walking distance) and I'm getting to have that experience here!  I went to the convenience store yesterday to get some bare necessities (see below)

And had a pretty good time unpacking

 I forgot to mention that I have one glass.  As you can see, keeping it super classy ;)

So today I walked to Home Plus (our driver pointed it out to us when he was taking us to our apts).  I was super proud of myself and way excited about being able to get stuff.  Food-wise I was pretty random (apples, pistachios, Guinness, Pringles, coffee, tea) but apt stuff was spot on (hangers, laundry soap and softener, corkscrew, coffee mug, sponges, loofa).  One of my favorite things is becoming putting stuff on my credit card, then checking the bank to see how much it was in US money!!  I also did my laundry and watched The Princess Bride... so anybody want a peanut?

I realized that I've been missing having ice in my water.  Thankfully, I have 2 ice cube trays, so I was able to have that.  I've also been missing BEING ABLE TO TEXT MY PEOPLES!!!!  I think my branch manager person is going to help me to get a bank account and once I get paid (and my resident alien card) I'll get a phone.  Also, how do some people carry a backpack with them EVERY DAY?!?  I did it for a week and was WAY happy to be able to leave it at home today.  Well, I left it when I went shopping... brought it to the coffee shop cuz I needed to my computer.  I'll be super happy once I get the internet in my apt.  

Anyway, I think that's all I wanted to share today... :)

Enjoy some random pix 

 THERE ARE CHURROS HERE!!

 The side dishes when we went for Chinese food

 DUMPLINGS!

 No clue what it is, but it was good.

 Some kind of seafood soup... not a fan.

 Black bean noodles

 I haven't had one of these since middle school, but I needed more ink colors!!  It made me happy.

 Shrink wrapped corn, anyone?  Also, the pollution is just as bad as anywhere else on this side of the world.  I did get myself a mask to wear on the really bad days.  Apparently there's websites to tell you how bad it is at any point in time.

Brutal beginnings

Holy crapballs, jet lag is NO JOKE, people!  I think I'm getting better because yesterday was REALLY tough.  Let me just break this down for you.

We had to meet in the lobby by 6:20 to catch the shuttle that would take us to the medical center.  At the medical center, we checked in and changed.  (Quick note - we need Korean hospital gowns in the US.  Cute kimono-type tops with velcro and ties so that they stay closed and comfy pj-type pants.)  After we checked in, we went to another floor which I'll call... orchestrated chaos.  You see, we were shuffled around from station to station for a variety of tests.  I was expecting blood and urine drug tests.  I was not expecting height, weight, blood pressure, hearing, eyes, chest X-rays, EKG and consultation!!!  And it wasn't just for us, it seems to be a thing that every Korean has to do (though I'm not sure what time frame it's on).  I was annoyed already because we couldn't have anything but water that AM which meant... NO COFFEE!!!  I was so happy that I missed the 9am shuttle to the training center because that meant I had time to wander to find COFFEE!  (Side note - not hard to find Starbucks here.  There was one across the street from the hotel and one across the street from the medical center.  As a matter of principal, I found a Holly's Coffee and enjoyed it immensely.)  I did catch the 10am shuttle just fine, slightly caffeinated, and MUCH happier.

So we take the shuttle to the training center.  That was fine, the trainer is super sweet and enthusiastic, one of the other trainers had made maps for us of cheap and yummy places to have lunch (more on that later) and the technology we're going to be using is pretty cool (smart boards > whiteboards).  The hardest time I had was trying to stay awake.  I only had 1 cup of coffee and eventually I got pretty darn delirious.  We are expected to find our own ways around Seoul, so I was forced to figure out the bus (which wasn't hard but it's cold, darn it).  Then we were going to get something to eat, ended up wandering around for 30 mins before I wussed out because I could just FEEL the inner bitch rising.  So I went back to the hotel, did my online work, took a shower and went to bed!  But I gotta tell you, having an extremely full day that starts with an early morning violation by medical personnel and ends with being unable to find a bloody restaurant definitely (I think) qualifies as a brutal beginning!!!

Now, today was not so bad.  I slept pretty well and was able to have 2 cups of coffee before leaving the hotel.  (Unfortunately when I left the hotel I realized that it was SNOWING!  Which just seemed rude, but ah well.)  I helped my roomie get a T-money card (for the bus) and we went to the training center together.  Lunch was incredible and my fellow trainees are really great.  We have another American, an Englishwoman, an Australian with an English accent, a Canadian, and a bilingual S Korean.  They are some of the sweetest women I have had the pleasure to associate with (and I'm not even the oldest)!  So all in all, I think the rest of training will be kind of intense as we learn how to manage children's behaviors, how to structure the lessons, figure out the rules for our classrooms, and generally try to prepare for the test and mock teaching on Friday.  Also, Friday is when we'll get our medical results, and the next steps which should end in our getting to our apartments.  Unless we somehow fail the medical exam or the teaching... then I guess we're just kinda up a creek.  I doubt that will be the case, however... things have been so smooth that it's hard to imagine anything going wrong now.  :)

Also, in the case of the jet lag... today I've been oscillating between energy and exhaustion.  It's like I'll be absolutely fine one min and then the next min I'm totally knackered.  Just almost fall-down with exhaustion and give up on everything kind of a thing.  I'm not 100% sure what is up with this, but I'm hoping after a decent sleep tonight, I should be totally on schedule with this side of the globe.  I am still getting up pretty early (for me, 6:30) so that I can have coffee in silence before having to go, which I think is good for me.  Thank God for a roomie who understands the need for quiet!!

If I haven't already mentioned, seriously, if you want to do this - GO WITH ENGLISH WORK!  As far as I can tell, NO other person was picked up at the airport and driven to the hotel.  Michael Kim was great helping me thru the process and made being here that first day SO much easier.

Now, for what most of you have been curious about.  Here's the first food I had here in S Korea.  It is a spicy pork cutlet with miso soup, rice, a kind of salad/slaw, kimchi and what I have been told are pickled radishes.

  This is lunch on the first day - beef rib soup.  I know there were glass noodles, onion, broth, beef (still attached to the bone) and other stuff in there, it was all good!

These are spicy rice cakes.  I don't know how they are made, but they are really, really good!

 And this is Gimbab or Kimbab - I'm not sure which way is the proper way to spell it, but it is AMAZING.  It's Korean sushi, but instead of using raw fish they use cooked pork, beef, tuna, chicken, you name it.  The kind I had today had egg, tofu, pork, pickled radish, carrots, some kind of spinach... and I think that's it.  Oh my gosh it was sooo yummy!!!!

So that's pretty much the Korean food I've had so far.  I'm waiting to hear from people about going to dinner, but I may just skip it since lunch was so good and I'm still pretty full.  I'm going to TRY to remember to bring my camera and take real pix, I promise!  Also no, I haven't tried the fried chicken yet ;)

Hello Seoul!

Yep, I'm in Seoul, and I have some thoughts to share, but first let me catch you up on the roadtrip.

The end of the trip was AMAZING.  I got to spend over a week with my Aunt Linda, we bonded, realized that we have a LOT of the same taste in movies (yay), discovered a new drink (Cinnamosa: Fireball whiskey, champagne, cranberry juice and a slice of orange), and had a GREAT time at Isleta.  Isleta is a casino outside of Albuquerque.  We stayed there after selling my car (yay).  We had massages, a snack in the form of a MOUNTAIN of chips, beef, beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa, and guac (it was soooo yummy), gambled a bit and then went to dinner at the more posh place upstairs.  I got a great filet mignon (medium rare), with 2 bourbon drinks and wine.  It was so nice to get to know Aunt Linda better, make her cats love me, get a little spoiled, then dropped off at the airport.  The ALB to DFW trip wasn't bad, though I did get felt up by TSA. 

 Meet Mr MacDougall and Mr Holmes

This is Paco

Anna met me at DFW and we went straight to Anamias for dinner.  We told the waiter that we were gonna be there a while and again went a bit crazy with the gastronomic delights.  We had chips with salsa and guac, I got their Poblano a la parilla with brisket and grilled veggies, we ended up having 5 margaritas each, and somehow we were both able to go to the store to get... something she needed.  We stayed at a Motel 6 with her dog, which we couldn't help comparing to some of the hostels we had stayed at in Europe. 

Anna's dog, Cake.

Then she dropped me off at DFW after showing me how to connect my 2 black bags.  The check-in kiosk was nice and easy, then I went to drop off my bags.  I found out that the first 2 checked bags are free, if you take another it's $200.00.  I got those checked in, got thru security (this time without being felt up by TSA), found my gate, and got on the plane.  They changed my seat at the last min, but I still had a window seat, so that made me happy.  What I didn't know was that our route would take us from DFW over OK, CO, WY, MT, parts of Canada, AK, across the Bearing Sea, over Russia and China before swinging us over the Yellow Sea and into Seoul.  I mean, I expected that we wouldn't fly over N Korea, but I also kind of expected to just go over the Pacific, you know?  Anyway, the flight was uneventful and even though I wasn't able to watch movies for some reason, I was able to watch TV shows (I need to finish Killing Eve now). OH, they also fed us 3 friggin' times!!!  First was a more fancy meal with a brownie for dessert, then the other 2 times were a sandwich or noodles.  I guess they figured on keeping us fed and asleep and all would be well.

The Seoul airport was not bad.  I got off the plane and followed the signs for Baggage Claim (being extremely happy to find a bathroom as well).  Got thru immigration (they do ask what hotel you will be at), then got my bags (rather quickly, really), then went thru customs (real uneventful), on the other side of customs I exchanged the cash I had brought with me and then I went thru the last set of doors to find my recruiter dude. 

Korean money - the exchange rate made me feel like a baller ;)

A note - if you decide to do this, I highly recommend going thru English Work.  Michael Kim was amazing through every step of the process and getting through the airport to the place where there was a person waiting for me with a sign and everything was a MASSIVE relief.  Mr Shin was great in helping me with my bags, loading them in the van, and getting me to my hotel.  He also played tour guide a bit, gave me the names of places around here (not that I remember any of them)... he made a great first impression on me.  Did you know that  60% of cars in Korea are Korean made (KIA and Hyundai)?  Then 30% are German and the remaining 10% are from US manufacturers?   He was friendly, engaging, and somehow didn't get into a fender bender, which amazed me cuz Seoul during rush hour did not seem like fun to drive in!!

Check-in at the hotel was also easy and I am happily in my room.  I do have a roomie for the week of training, but it seems like we should get along just fine.

So here I am.  Months of planning, a great road trip, a couple anxious moments and it's all down to this!  I had to laugh when I left my hotel to take a walk around because there is a Starbucks right across the street.  It really doesn't take long to find something familiar in metropolitan areas of globalized countries ;)

 Hotel room - I took the small bed

 

The bathroom - fairly standard, though I have no idea what all those buttons on the toilet are for and I'm not quite adventuresome enough to push any of them.

 I really, really hope we don't need to use this... pretty sure it's in case of fire.

 View to the right from the hotel...

 View to the left

Something here is really familiar.