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.