Week in Review

Last week was my 3rd week in Korea. Hard to believe it has only been 3 weeks!

Highlights of this past week include: Nicole's visit on Monday, Health Check on Tuesday, Now bar on Friday and Insadong/Sadong on Saturday. Today, Sunday, is a day to recuperate for the new week ahead, update my journal and lay low.

On Monday my step-sister Nicole came up to visit. Nicole lives and teaches in Geoje Island (Geojedo) with her husband Sam. She had to go up to Seoul to file some paperwork and decided to spend the evening with me in Suwon before heading up to Seoul. Although she got in late in the evening, we still were able to make the most of our time together.

First we ate dinner at a typical Korean restaurant where we got to eat sitting down on the floor.

We asked for the restaurant's specialty and thus were served some kind of thinly-sliced beef with mushrooms and onion that we grilled on our personal stove. After your meat was grilled you are supposed to wrap up some rice, the beef, and any veggie of your choosing (of the many side dishes we also got included in our meal) in a piece of lettuce and then eat it. It was the most "meaty" tasting meat I had yet but pretty good, I guess. And of course, we had a bottle of soju to drink alongside our dinner.

The rest of the week was uneventful: school, home, drown myself in movies, repeat.

On Friday I decided to be brave and went to the Now Bar by myself again. I sat down at the bar and had a coke which cost me the same amount (3,000w) as the beer I had later that evening. I met lots of new people but didn't get anyone's phone numbers since I don't have a phone. Everyone commended me on having the courage to go to a bar alone. Actually, I agree. It was hard and at one point I almost cried because I was so embarrassed to be sitting at a bar all alone when everyone else was with friends. Eventually I talked to one person who introduced me to another, who introduced me to another, and soon enough I had met more people than I could count.

On Saturday I met up with Jennifer (from Las Vegas) to go to the Korvia recruiting party. We decided to spend the day in Insadong which is known for its traditional crafts. On the weekends they close off the streets to through-traffic. It is also known for their tea houses which we actually did not do which I suppose gives us an excuse to go back there again one day.

We aimlessly wandered the streets. I must say that there were a lot more tourist items there and a lot less traditional crafts than I was expecting. Although you could buy rice paper there, it all seemed to be manufactured and not handmade. There were a few artists working and painting on the streets, but for the most part it was just stores selling the stuff.

On the plus side, I did finally find some postcards so maybe you'll be lucky enough to receive one sometime soon.

We also found an art museum which was 6 stories high. From the top we were able to get some nice views of the area. The following pictures are from a patio on the 5th floor of the art museum.

We also wandered into a kimchi festival. The particular kimchi they were featuring was made with fish and had a Japanese influence. Kimchi, for those that don't know, is the usually spicy traditional side dish of Korea. It can refer to any kind of spiced and pickled veggie but usually people are talking about the Chinese/Napa cabbage.

Although I didn't buy anything from there, I really enjoyed looking at all the spices and dried mushrooms in this little shop:

Finally it was time for the Korvia party. We took the subway from Insadong to Sadong and after some pro navigation skills we made it. The bar, which I guess used to be called London Pub, is now called iPub and has an Irish theme. Well, at least the logo had a shamrock on it. It didn't seem Irish on the inside. In fact, they played Korean MTV on the tv's and blasted predominately US pop music like Lady Gaga, Chris Brown, and Black Eyed Peas.

Here I am pictured with Jennifer. Her mother is Korean and her dad is white. She never learned to speak Korean at all until she took one course in college. She reads very well but doesn't really speak the language yet.

At the Korvia party I was able to meet people from all over the world. Both the girl on the left and the guy on the right are from South Africa. I also met another guy from South Africa who told me that his original ancestry is French/German and that his relatives were one of the 12 families that came to live in South Africa before the British started invading. The girl in the middle is from somewhere in the south (I forget exactly where, maybe Georgia?) She was born in Korea but moved when she was only 1 month old. She speaks Korean well but the school doesn't want her to speak Korean to the students, nor to even know that she can speak in the first place. Thus, she "plays dumb" in her classroom, pretending like she doesn't know what the students are saying when in reality she does.

Also, it should be mentioned that I got to meet the famed Simon and Martina of Eat Your Kimchi and will now be a part of their next video. Naturally, I cheesed it up and will be a sore embarrassment to your computer screen in the next few weeks. Oh, you just wait!

Just an FYI

I changed my settings on my blog so you should be able to post comments without being a registered Blogger user. I'm thinking that was the source of the problems.

Comment away!

Health? Check.

I got the results back from my health check today.

I was really worried (as some of you know about) but last night I had all these dreams that I was going to be ok. I found it odd because usually when a person is worrying about something they are worrying about failure of some kind, but all my dreams were about how I was going to be ok. I woke up this morning and thought to myself "how odd that my dreams said I was going to be ok." Usually my dreams are just worry after worry. And you know what? I was.

My results from my health check show the following:

Height: 166cm

Weight: 66kg (I could stand to lose some weight, but at least I'm "normal")

Blood Pressure: 110/68 (very healthy)

Eye sight: Left 1.5, Right 1.2 (but with contacts on)

Hearing: Left 25, Right 25 (normal)

Hemoglobin: 13.6 g/dl

Glucose: 87 mg/dl

Cholesterol: 144 mg/dl

Sgot: 16 iu/l

Sgpt: 7 iu/l

r-gpt 18 iu/l

Phew, I get to stay in Korea for a year now. Holy crap. I'm going to be here for a year... Sometimes it still has not hit me that I am living here.

Picture Perfect

Here are some pictures from last week (Thursday 9/17 - Sunday 9/20)

Warning: This bubbly chicken dish is WAY spicier than it looks. Eat with caution.

Finally got to drink some beer that was not Hite or Cass with "The Hikers"

The girl from Seattle, the guy from Omaha, and the girl from Portland

The group of Hagwon teachers while out in Seoul.

The entrance to Kyung Hee University, just 2 blocks from my apartment

The stadium at Kyung Hee University

Keep it goin' louder

For the past 2 weeks I have been stealing Internet from some neighbor and then suddenly it didn't work for days on end. Finally, it is back, but at a much slower speed and strength than it was before. This is a bummer. It can be awfully hard to be in a country where you don't speak the language, can not read the language, and don't have any good friends. Not having a connection to the outside world on top of that is like a punch to the gut.

But there is good news yet:

1. I am slowly learning how to read Korean. This weekend I was told that I could read better after a week of practicing than many people who have been here for a whole year. Someone asked me "How many hours a day do you practice Korean?" and I responded, "Uh, 5-10 minutes?" And he was duly impressed.
2. I am making friends. I can't say that I have "good" friends yet, but that sort of thing takes time. But I went out to Seoul this weekend with some people I'll call The Hagwan (private school) Kids and I have plans to go out for dinner with Ann on Wednesday.

So read the language? Check.

Make friends? Check

Speak the language? Well, not so much. But in due time, I'm sure.

As for school:

Well my first week came and went and now I'm on to Week 2. Things are going fine. I still can't decide if I actually like teaching or not. I love being a nanny and I love tutoring. Theme here: few kids = good // many kids = not good.

There are about 40 kids per class.

I teach 22 classes per week.

This means over 800 students. A LOT of students.

I'll upload more pictures soon but my internet has been so spotty I figured it was better to send this off into cyberspace now and do the pic thing later.

School Daze

Well I would say that my first two days of school were a success. Who knows what the students actually think of me, but I think I did alright.

Eunju, my co-teacher, picked me up both days promptly at 8:20am. As teachers we have to be at school by 8:40am. Since all the students have to get their temperature checked (due to the swine flu) students start arriving much earlier.

First the students have homeroom. I have no idea what they do there because we don't have a homeroom class. Then the madness begins.

There are 6 periods in a day. Lunch is at 12:10. I arrive at 8:40am and leave at 4:40pm. I have no idea when school starts and ends. This is something I still need to figure out. Each class is 40 minutes long, I think. See, I still don't know. Tomorrow I will write down when all the bells ring.

On Monday I teach 5 periods: four are 5th graders (12 years old because Korean ages are different) and one class of 4th grade. The teacher was sick or something so on Monday I didn't have a 4th grade class come. Tuesday is the same. Wednesday I have my 4th grade class first and then the 5th graders with an empty class (planning time) for 3rd period. On Thursdays and Fridays I have the 6th graders.

This week Eunju just wanted me to tell the students about myself and have them ask me questions. She asked me to make a PowerPoint presentation about myself so I did. There are pictures of all the places that I lived (Long Island, Marin, Boulder, and Portland). There are pictures of my family. There are pictures of my favorite things to do (snowboarding, softball, and camping) and my favorite foods. When I get to the favorite foods the kids just scream with excitement (pizza!!! sushi!!!! mango! yogurt!)

I'm not sure how I feel about the 4th grade teacher so far. That's all I have to say about her for now. I mean really, I didn't even catch her name. She's... ok.

BUT all of the other teachers are great. Eunju, my co-teacher is wonderful. The 5th grade teachers lounge is this salon of women who gather and gossip and sneak bites of sweets and fruit and gulp down instant coffee and hot tea. I love it. Even though I can not understand a word they are saying.

This evening I went to Home Plus and bought some "work shoes" since I have been wearing my "street shoes" for these past two days-- major no-no. The kids all wear these Keds-like shoes.

Oh! And the kids do not wear uniforms. I was bummed because I wanted to see them all in their cute little matching outfits, but oh well. On P.E./gym days they wear these sweatpants sets that come in some combo of either turquoise, bright pink, lavender purple, and white. I like that the boys wear pink and it's no big deal.

Maybe next week I will take some pictures of the kids and teachers. I gotta work on gaining a bit more trust first.

Weekend in Seoul

Friday night I decided to hit up the Yeongtong nightlife, and by that I mean the foreigner/expat bar called "Now Bar." Earlier that evening I went searching online for Suwon blogs and found a few and emailed them. One girl wrote me back and said that she was actually going to the Now Bar too and I should look for her around 11pm. I was hopeful and excited.

Do good nights happen when there are beautiful sunsets? I'm not sure, but it never hurts .

After poor directions to the bar and successfully getting lost and gaining blisters I found the bar after probably 45-minutes instead of the 15 it should have taken. I got there at around 10:45pm and sat myself down at the bar. Where else does a single person going to a bar go, right?

I ended up sitting down next to this guy here (Bret) who is from the Madison, WI area. He's 35 and has lived in Korea for years, though I couldn't exactly figure out his story.

I ended up getting snubbed hardcore by the two girls I had emailed (one literally gave me the "oh you" with an attitude when I said that I had written her earlier that evening. At one point I saw another girl point and say "that girl" in my direction to her friend, though I'm not sure if she was the girl I had emailed or not). But I was thankful to have met these two nice people who didn't need to give me an hard time for just trying to make a friend in a place where I know no one at all.

But onwards and upwards!

On Saturday I took the bus into Seoul to spend the weekend with Mali, who is Chris's step-sister. I had met Mali just once back around New Year's 2008-9 when she came to visit Chris in Portland. She and I clicked and hit it off then and I was excited to see her again.

I got into Seoul just after noon and she showed me her officetel which reminded me an awful lot like a college dorm room for one person. Once we dropped off my bags we went shopping in Coex mall and I got a really cute maroon dress that I am excited to wear soon with some leggings and my brown boots.

After the mall we went and saw a Buddhist temple just outside of the mall. The temple had many small buildings and was absolutely stunning if nothing more than because of its central city location. Here are some shots from the temple:

Then I posed with the biggest Buddhist statue in Korea.

After shopping and time and the temples it was time to take a break. We went back to Mali's officetel and killed some time by watching the movie Adventureland.

Then it was time for Salsa dancing! Yes, you heard me right. We went salsa dancing in South Korea. The bar was called Caliente and it was in the foreigner district, Iteawon. The people at that club were, for the most part, really really good. And I was really really bad. (Apparently salsa is not like the merengue I was taught to dance in Costa Rica.) But for w6,000 including a small drink we had a good time and I danced with people from all over the word: a guy from Peru, a Korean, two New Yorkers, and so on.

Finally, we made a pit stop at The Hill which is the gay district. Everyone there was just hanging out in the street (read: alleyway) drinking, chatting, and having a good time. We didn't stay long but I'd go back there too just because everyone seemed so chill there.

On Sunday we slept in and then I made my way back to Suwon. The bus ride home took me about 45 minutes which is really not all that bad.

Good weekend and I am looking forward to Seoul-trippin' again.

Stay tuned for the next entry: 1st day of school!

First Korean meal

After days of eating toast, yogurt, apples, grilled (processed) cheese sandwiches, and pork dumplings (mandu), I finally went to an authentic Korean restaurant for lunch. Now, this place wasn't totally authentic because I didn't have to take off my shoes at sit on the ground, but it still counts. The menu on the wall was in all Korean and there were no pictures.

Thank goodness I ended up sitting next to Jean who is Korean but lived in Texas for 10 years because his dad is American. Jean goes to the Kyunghee University a few blocks from both the restaurant and my officetel. In the year 2004 he was in the Korean army because guys go to the army when they are about 20 years old. This is why it takes so long for Korean guys to complete their university education, he told me. Jean has been in school for 8 years including the army time and he is studying to be an architect. The friend that he was eating lunch with (whose name I never did find out) is studying engineering and he lives right across the street from me. Unfortunately, said friend does not speak any English at all. Jean gave me his number and told me to call if I had any questions.

I might, as he was really helpful and explained lots of things on the menu to me. "This is a bean soup, this is a spicy rice dish," and so on. After he pointed out all these things and we discussed how I didn't like very spicy things, he ordered for me basically what his friend was eating but with the sauce on the side.

And it was good! Just a 1/2 teaspoon of the sauce though was more than enough spice for me. Note to self: learn how to say "sauce on the side, please"

Well, I took a few bites before I remembered to take a picture, but what you see here is an egg in the middle with seaweed on top. There is a whole rice layer on the bottom and different pickled vegetables on the sides: carrots, bean sprouts, and some things I can not identify but were very good.

When you go to a restaurant and order something you get lots of side dishes. The first one (top left) was a fried potato cake of sorts. The second one was an vegetable-egg omelet type thing that upon eating I decided tasted kind of soapy. The third (top right) is spicy kimchi. On the bottom left is some green (deceivingly spicy) kimchi stuff. The bottom middle was this mashed potato and corn thing that was sweet and my favorite of all the things that I ate. On the bottom right (sort of cut-off) is salted seaweed strips.

Big Bang rocks the night

Korean teenagers rejoice. I too admit to loving Big Bang.

Venturing out

I didn't do much on Tuesday. The highlight was going to Tom-Toms and getting a $4 grande latte (which they say grande latteo). I went back to Home Plus and tried to buy more food. My unadventurous eating led me to buy the same kind of pork buns I had been enjoying only this time they were pork dumplings and ate 5 of them as my dinner. Um, that was a bit of a mistake as clearly my body is still warming up to the idea of eating meat in the first place.

On Wednesday I was determined to figure out the bus system and get the heck out of my Officetel and my neighborhood. I was determined to NOT spend any part of my day at Home Plus which is soul-sucking and terrible.

After hours of researching online I finally found a bus route map in English. It was part of the Kyung Hee University website and I was finally able to understand where the heck all the busses are going. Ironically, when I finally got to the bus stop I saw that the words "Suwon Station" were clearly marked in English and that's where I was headed. Doh! I still did need that English directory though, so no real loss there.

The local bus costs w900 to ride which is equivalent to about $0.90. It took me about 20 minutes to ride to Suwon Station which is where I was the other evening when I did Karaoke. The following is essentially the same shot that I took at night, but in the daytime. (They cleaned up the streets, as you can see.)

At Suwon Station I finally got to eat some real hot food that I could order and not feel terribly single and out of place. Well, ok, I still felt out of place. That will probably happen for a long time, if not the whole time that I am here.

The place I went to was called Han's Deli and I chose it because I saw other single people eating at the restaurant so I knew it would be ok for me to be there. This was by no means a typical Korean restaurant, nor was it quality food, and I knew that going into it but dude, I hadn't had a good meal in days and I've probably lost 5lbs already.

This is seafood udon. Probably more Japanese than Korean but they eat Udon noodles here too. Mostly I ate the noodles and the veggies as the shrimp and squid were sub-par. Then again, I only paid w4,500 for it.

Here is a picture I took out the window of the restaurant, which, if you want to picture the inside decor, think Noodles & Company or Paradise Bakery or something of that sort.

What you see in the foreground of the picture is the entranceway to the subway line. I have not attempted to take the subway yet. That will be my next adventure.

With some food in my body I was ready to go walk around. I made sure I was wearing high heels because ALL Korean girls where high heels all the time. I don't know how they walk around in their stilettos on the cobble stone and uneven ground surfaces, but they do. Now, when I wear high heels I am taller than not just all the ladies, but the men too. Being white and taller than everyone, there is no blending in. Might as well be a tourist, right? I took a few pictures of the Suwon Station area:

This picture helps understand the massive advertising that goes on all of the buildings. It's really quite intense. But then you walk around and you realize that most of that stuff isn't all that important.

Basically it is like this: let's say you work in an office building in a city in North America. The building you work in is, say, 6 stories high. In that building there might be a few lawyers' offices, a dentist, an import/export office, and so on. And you'd never know the wiser unless you happen to walk up and look at the directory inside the building. Not in Korea. In Korea they have those directories too, but they also let you know what each office is inside, so thats what all the signs are telling you. Many of the buildings hold the private "hogwan" schools that you hear people talking about.

The last picture at Suwon Station is this one:

It's not the most exciting photo, I know but that is because the real gem is on the inside. Inside that building on the right is a mall. It is a big big mall but it is also part of the subway station. Inside were massive department stores, many restaurants with great views of the city, and a bookstore.

I went into the bookstore but it was a bit of a disappointment because of one reason: plastic wrapping. I don't know why but all of the English books were wrapped in plastic so that you could not leaf through it. Were the Korean books and magazines in plastic? No. I was about to leave the bookstore when I spotted a favorite kids book, No David! in Korean and I thought I'd look through that. Oh what? An obviously English book in Korean? Yep, that was plastic-wrapped too. Oh well.

My feet were killing me anyway. Remind me not to try to go native and wear high heels all day long. I took the bus back home.

***

Later that evening I went out with this guy named Taylor I found on the CouchSurfing website and a bunch of his friends. They all work in a Hogwan in the next neighborhood over from me (about a w4,000 in cab-fare), called Maetan. Hogwan (private school) schedules are atypical from a normal workday. They work from 2pm - 10pm and so they go out to bars all the time since they have nothing to wake up for the next day. But at the same time, I could tell that they were jealous of me and my public school job where I have more vacation time, higher pay, and a bigger apartment. I was jealous because there were so many foreigners per school compared to just me in my school.

So I met lots of people that night. At 26 I was the oldest of them all. I think the average age of that group was 23 or so.

There was: Adam from Canada; Adam from the U.S.; Tara from Ireland; Liz from southern England; Anthony from Manchester, England, and his Korean girlfriend Leona; Meredith from New Zealand; Laura from Ireland; Jean from Ireland; Taylor from Omaha, Nebraska, and his Korean girlfriend, Jin; Blake from Oklahoma; another girl from Oklahoma whose name I did not catch, and me. That's 13 people for those keeping count. Yay me for remembering (almost) all their names and places of origin!

At 2:30am I called it a night and paid my w6,000 of beer. They all invited me back at anytime to hang out with them. With the exception of Blake who had only been there for a month, most of the kids there had been in Korea for almost a year. In 2 weeks a few of them were leaving and they are having a goodbye party at an Indian restaurant at Suwon Statoion. If I don't go visit Nicole & Sam in Goeje, I will go to that.

Interesting enough, it is worth mentioning that they all really liked Korea and several of them wanted to renew their contracts or continue to teach abroad in other countries. A good sign.

Well, that's all for now. Leave a comment and let me know you are reading this! I know it was a long post..

First Full Day

On Sunday I got up at 8am and thought about how I'd spend my day. I ate my pastry and sandwich (I was really hungry!) and then unpacked my belongings and set things up the best I could. I tried to re-arrange the furniture but eventually kept things the way they were originally placed.

Time to explore!

The first picture is my new home. I am in the far corner apartment (not shown in the picture) on the 5th floor.

The second picture is the view down my street.

I went to the GS-25 convenience store and changed over some money using my ATM card. I should have changed my money at the airport, and while I did think about it, I didn't do so because I didn't want to have to make the driver and other girl wait for me. I took out just $50 or so because I thought that on Monday my co-teacher was going to take me to a bank and to do all my paperwork as we discussed last evening.

Next I decided to go find my school. The teacher who taught at the school before me, Katherine, was kind enough to leave me a map and directions about how to get to school and various points of interest around me. That was a major help! So with her map in hand, off I went. I walked through the park as the map suggested. It is a small but nice park.

Then I found a school. I thought it was my school at first but then I realized that it wasn't because I hadn't gone over the bridge and it wasn't in the right place. It's a nice school though! The schoolyard is made of a light dirt that the kids play baseball and any outdoor activities. Here is the picture of the school that is NOT mine. (see below, left)

Once I realized this was not my school I kept on walking until I found the bridge. The view over the bridge is kinda nice, I guess. It is pretty typical-looking with large apartment buildings that all look the same and a big street. (see below, right)

Finally I got to what I think is my school. It is probably about a 15-20 minute walk from my apartment if you don't get lost and go to the wrong school first. In order to get to the school you have to walk through a park and a playground and then there is the school. It looks like a brick American-style apartment complex but it had the same sort of play-yard that the first school had and little cartoon people in the windows so I'm pretty sure it's my school. (see below, left)

After I checked out my school it was nearing lunchtime so I meandered down to the Home Plus which is a giant bix-box store like a Super Target or WalMart or something to that extent. On the way I passed by and took a picture of a typical Korean building which is colorful and full of words that I can not read. (see below, right)

At Home Plus I picked up some things to get me by: yogurt, ice tea, lemonade, and some buns which I have no idea what they are but looked tasty and like things I have eaten in the past. The bun on the left turned out to be a spinach/pork with onions combo that was pretty tasty (thank goodness I stopped being a vegetarian!). The one on the right was red on the inside and

spicy. I did not like it at all and threw it out. (see below, left) Yogurt pictured at right.

When I got home I found that I had nothing to do so I read my book for a little bit and then took a nap. Later I found some people on the CouchSurfing website that were willing to go out with me that evening. Because I hadn't figured out the subway/bus system yet I took a cab to Suwon Station, which was about a 10-minute drive. It was easy to spot this guy and his girlfriend because he was a white guy. His girlfriend (who he has been dating for 5 years) is Korean and her name is Hana. The guy, Cyril, is French and is not an English teacher, but is just living here with his girlfriend.

Hana and Cyril live in Suwon at Hana's parents house. They were living in Seoul for a year and a half but then went traveling in Indonesia but had to give up their apartment there during their travel. So they don't know Suwon very well at all.

Hana suggested we go to the area where the Suwon fortress is because she thought there would be things to do there. Not knowing any wiser I said ok and we took a taxi there. When we got there it was completely empty. Not wanting to make our taxi-ride there a waste we wandered into the first restaurant/bar we saw and sat down. Hana ordered us some rice-alcohol which was pretty good and a potato-omelette thing. The restaurant was "very Korean" according to Hana and all the other people there were 60-year old Korean couples. The music playing in the background was typical sad Korean music.

When we finished our drinks we went back to the Suwon Station area. My camera sucks at taking night pictures, but here is at least a photo-image of the downtown Suwon nightlife.

One thing that I have noticed is that Korean streets are very dirty. There are always papers and garbage strewn everywhere. You can see it in the picture in the foreground. I will work on getting a better night picture soon.

Next we went into a Korean bar that looked like a chain-place so we figured it would be good. The interior was decorated with wood and each table was in a little booth. We sat down and ordered some more drinks. I'm not sure what it was, but I know that it was not Soju. Cyril and Hana both do not like soju. We also ordered food. "Oh, I'm not hungry anymore," I said to them and they smiled and said that you have to order food in each bar you go to. We got some soup with Ramen noodles in it. I ended up eating some because I figured, eh, why not. It was a little spicy for my liking. I think I'm going to have to get used to spicy food! Here is a picture of our food. You can also see the alcohol in the background. After we finished our second dinner and drinks we moved on to the next bar. It was time for Karaoke!

You can not buy alcohol in the karaoke bars so we stopped at the 7-11 and got 2 beers which we smuggled in my purse. Not being a big drinker, I was done for the night and did not get one for myself.

We went up to a Karaoke bar that looked fancy but again, what do I know? I think we paid w5,000 each (about $5 each) and went into our little private room. I hate doing Karaoke in the US because it's awkward and everyone is staring at you, judging your karaoke choice, but not in Korea. You only sing with the people you invite into your room and it's all fun and it doesn't matter if you suck or not. Plus, the microphones have a little bit of a echo to them so that it's not totally your real voice anyway. We sang karaoke for 2.5 hours! I can not name all the songs that I sang because there were so many but I sang some Jack Johnson, Kate Perry, Kings of Leon, Queen, Van Morrison and so on. There was a good English selection and something for everyone.

The karaoke pictures, naturally, were the best of the night. You should know that all the pictures are posed but the good time that you can tell I am having, that is real. By the time I made it back to my apartment it was 4am!! A long but great first day.

First Night

On Friday I arrived at the airport at 8:15am. I had no problems checking in my bags (which, after an additional purge of clothes, were both around 43lbs so I didn't have to pay extra for overweight baggage). I boarded my little commuter plane from San Diego to Los Angeles. The flight was short and I arrived in LAX with plenty of time before my flight out to South Korea. In the airport I listened to my iPod (I am addicted and in love with my new iPod Touch which was well worth the price), slept a little bit to pass time and did lots of people-watching.

Finally it was time to board the plane to Korea. It was a

massive plane with two levels and two of those engine-things per wing. Here is a picture of the massive plane. I couldn't even fit the entire wing in the photo!

The flight from LAX to South Korea (Incheon airport) was 13 hours long. It went surprisingly quickly. I slept when I was bored but tried not to sleep too much so that I could sleep when I arrived. The movies on the plane were not that great; I watched The Proposal and The Soloist. I recommend you see the Soloist. So does Oprah.

When I arrived in Korea immigration was a cinch. They took everyone's temperature upon arrival to make sure no one was sick with influenza. I didn't have anything to declare, my bags were one of the first to come off the plane and everything went very efficiently. I walked out of the baggage claim area and right away found a man holding a sign with my name. On that sign was also another girl's name so I had to wait for her to arrive too, which is she did just a few minutes after me.

The girl's name is Jennifer. She is 1/2 Korean but doesn't speak any of the language. She is from Las Vegas and is also in Suwon, but about a 20-minute drive away from where I live. She seemed nice and I took down her email so hopefully I can meet up with her soon.

By the time I got to my apartment, which they call an officetel, it was close to 10pm. My co-teacher was not there when I arrived like she was suppose to be so the driver helped me into my apartment and then left. I stood there in the middle of the studio-loft with the fluorescent lights flickering, my bags surrounding me like dead soldiers, and after a moment I was able to catch my breath and look around my new home. It's small, perhaps 12x15 but there is a loft where my bed is so it makes the space more manageable. (I will upload pictures of the studio when I feel it is more moved-in and nicer to look at. Right now it is stale and sanitary-feeling. The walls are white and bare. The windows don't open so the air is stale and uninviting. )

About 15-minutes after I arrived my co-teacher, Mrs. Lee, rang my doorbell. She introduced herself, and then insisted that I go take a walk with her around the block. We walked in a few short circles around my block and pointed things out to me: this is the Korean restaurant, this is a Chinese restaurant, here is a Japanese restaurant, this is a pizza place that Katherine liked. Here is a coffee shop, here is a convenience store, etc. We went into a bakery that said it was french but has Korean pastries and she bought me a pastry and a sandwich to carry me over for the next day. She also bought me a quart of milk from the 7-11 (yes, they have 7-11's here). Then she walked me back to my door and left.

I went to sleep and slept until 8am the next day.

vis-a-visa

Today I woke up at 5:30am so that I could leave the house by 6 (though actually, I don't think we actually left until 6:15am). After 2.5 hours of driving my mom and I arrived at the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles to finish my visa paperwork.

Right at 9am we were allowed into the building. At 9:30 I had my interview-- if you could even call it that. Basically I went into this little room and sat down across from the interviewer. Mostly he did the talking. "Ah, you are going to Suwon? Big city. Very close to Seoul. Have you been to Korea before?"

"Yes," I replied, "Once for three days."

"Ah, as a tourist. Ok. Very nice. And have you taught English before?"

Typical me, I made my answer much longer and more complicated than necessary. "Well, sort of. I mean, I taught middle school and I taught English but it wasn't ESL it was English writing and literature and..." I'm not even sure if I finished my thought. I noticed he jotted something down on my application. A number 3 and a slash and something else.

"Ok, you are all set."

I sat there in silence for a second. "Well, um, what do I do now?" I asked timidly.

"That's it," he said.

"I... I... um... do you need any other paperwork or stuff from me?"

"Nope," he replied. "You can just go back to Window #2 and see when your visa will be ready."

I couldn't believe it. The other day I stressed over making photocopies of my resume, making sure I had a sealed academic transcript and all those other things they said I'd need on the website and the Korean consulate website. And they didn't ask for any of them! The lady at Window #2 said I could come back at 3pm for my visa.

So my mom and I spent our day in glorious L.A. As per suggestion we went out to breakfast at Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles which was uh, you know, a little sketchy but ok. Then we drove down Wilshire St in search of a place to get mani/pedi's (I mean, if you're going to waste a day in LA...) but on the way we saw the La Brea Tar Pits and decided to check that out. Very interesting. We got our manicure/pedicures, then to Starbucks for Green Tea Lattes (my favorite) and back to the Korean consulate again.

When we got there at just after 2pm my visa was already done and waiting for me. After less than 15 minutes we were back on the road. By 5:15pm we were back in San Diego again, exactly 11 hours after we started.

And now... and now I catch my flight at 9:40am tomorrow, Friday September 4th PST, arriving in South Korea on Saturday September 5th at 6:30pm. And, silly as it may seem, thanks to a successful day getting my visa, and a hopeful Tarot card reading (my first ever, really), I am prepared to go to Korea with optimism, bright eyes, and a sense of calmness.