You're joking, right?

Wow I feel like it has been years since I have had time to actually sit down at my computer for longer than 20 minutes at a time! Things have been moving very quickly here and there are many changes that have occurred quite recently. First of all, I opened my very own Korean bank account and got my first paycheck from the school! I was happy to find out that I am actually getting paid more than I thought I was originally going to make. Don't you just love when that happens? I DO! The actual process of opening the account was painful, however.

I went with one of the teachers to the bank so that she could translate for me. The woman who did my paperwork was very absent-minded and kept finding more and more papers for me to fill out. Actually, my co-worker was the one who was doing most of the paperwork since I can't write in Korean. All I had to do was sign on the dotted line about 10 times! The whole process was slow and took about an hour and a half but would have taken less time with a more knowledgeable and less flighty clerk. Oh well that is done and over with. Now the only problem is that I can't do any banking online because the bank's website is not compatible with my Mac! It will only operate with Internet Explorer. Now I have to open a different account. I think I am gonna go with Citibank because it is global.

I still don't have a cell phone yet, but I am one step closer to getting one. In Korea, foreigners can go about getting a cell phone one of two ways. They can pay an upfront fee of around $200-300, pay for the phone, and then pay for the service, OR they can get an ID card while they are here, that is issued by the immigration office. This card cannot be obtained without a visa sponsor, some paperwork (of course!), and a full out doctors visit/physical. When they give you the ID card, you can take it to a cell phone rep, not have to pay an upfront fee, and receive the phone for free when you sign up for a plan. Sounds much better to me!

I recently went and got my physical out of the way. When I asked what it would entail, I was told that I would have my eyes checked, my chest x-rayed, my urine tested, my blood-pressure checked, and.............................my blood drawn! For those of you who don't know, I don't do well with needles! AT ALL! It is not that I am afraid of them, it is just that my brain can't process what is happening so it shuts down, resulting in a blackout. I can actually watch the needle go in and I am fine, but once the needle comes out, my brain can't handle it. Blood doesn't bother me, cuts, scrapes, even deep wounds don't effect me really at all, but for some reason that tiny little needle has so much power over me and I don't like losing control like that! I am a control freak most of the time!

When I heard of what would happen during the physical, I went and told Ashley, my visa sponsor and boss, that I would probably need someone to go with me because I would probably pass out. Her English is not that great, so the whole time I was telling her this, she was laughing and thinking that I was joking around. When I finally got through to her that this was no joke, she told me that she would accompany my for my appointment. All of the teachers got a little laugh out of this story as I told them that Ashley thought I was joking with her.

When we went to the hospital, the nurses were expecting us. Ashley had called them a couple of times to warn them in advance that I would need someplace to lie down while my blood was being drawn. We walked in, made a right turn and headed for the waiting room. There were several people in there as I did my eye tests, got weighed and measured, and had my blood-pressure checked. All of this occurred in the actual waiting room with everyone watching. Next I went into a small office with a doctor who asked me if I had had any surgeries. When I said no he did nothing more than motion me to the door to leave. I thought he was going to look in my eyes, ears, mouth, etc. but he didn't.

Next, I went to the emergency room where there were a couple of nurses waiting to draw my blood. The beds were all empty which was a little comforting. I realized that I had been holding my pee all morning and asked if I could do that real quick. They handed me a small Dixie cup and pointed out where the bathroom was. When I went into the bathroom, I opened the door to the first stall and saw something that I can barely describe. It was a toilet, I think, but it was on the floor. Basically, it was a hole in the ground with a flush button and toilet seat. I said a small prayer and opened the second stall only to find the exact same thing! Damn! I maneuvered myself over the toilet while standing and holding the cup (this is not an easy task so please don't laugh...well it was pretty funny so I guess you can laugh!). When I finished my deposit I began to look around for the toilet paper; no where to be found! Awesome! I left the stall washed my hands then saw a huge dispenser on the wall for toilet paper. Apparently you have to get the paper before you go into the stall. I just had my eyes checked, how could I not see that!!?? I am not sure how I would have done that anyway. I would have had to hold the cup, my purse and the toilet paper...it probably would have been disastrous. I slowly walked out of the bathroom holding my urine and walked down the long hall past lots of people all while still holding the cup of pee. I kind of thought there should be a more sanitary and secure way of completing this process. I could have gotten that pee from anywhere and they would never have known.

I laid down on an emergency room bed where the nurse took my blood; 3 vials full. Instead of putting each individual vial up to the injection, she just sucked it out real fast with a syringe. I think this was for my benefit. It was over in no time and I didn't actually pass out. I did feel light headed after a few minutes when I tried to stand up but other than that nothing too severe! We finished with an x-ray of my chest and a dental exam. Ashley took care of the bill even though I told her it wasn't necessary. She said that she wanted to thank me for being such a great improvement to her school. I felt very honored and a little relieved that I wouldn't be out that $80.

We also had what we call 'parent day' or 'open class' for two days in a row. This is just as it sounds. The parents can come and watch what their child does in class. We teach and they watch us teach. This may seem like nothing, but it actually a big deal and had all of the Korean teachers, especially Ashley, our boss, totally stressed out. I wasn't worried about performing in front of the parents, but all of them being stressed was stressing me out as well. If there are any people I get along with better than the kids themselves, it's parents. We had many late night teachers' meetings leading up to the big days. Ashley wanted to know what the plans were for all the classes that would be observed and we needed to correspond with each other so that our classes were somewhat related. There were several dress-rehearsals for those two days and I say dress-rehearsals because it was basically just a big show. We wanted it to look good so that the parents will keep sending their child there so that we get paid as well.

Lastly, we got a new American teacher at our school. We have been preparing for the transition now for a while and it finally happened a couple of weeks ago. He only comes on M, W, F but we ended up including him in the morning schedule on those days. It helps me out a lot because I get more breaks now.

Here are a couple of pictures that that I have taken recently.

In the background are some of the mountains near my house. I live just under this bridge.

This is in Seoul. Just a cool little sidewalk area with lots of trees around it.

An awesome little cafe in Seoul that is over priced but you can sit there all day reading and purchase nothing! There are trees growing in the cafe.

This is the Shinsegae shopping mall. It is huge! You actually come up out of the subway right into it! It has everything!

Seoul at night!

"Welcome to Korea!"

A lot has been happening lately so I haven't been keeping up with my posts and for that I apologize, however now I want to catch you up!

This experience has been quite rocky for me. When I first arrived, I wasn't sure that I could handle it all, and now I don't know what I would do without those kids...SERIOUSLY! Now if any of you know me at all, you know that I don't really love kids, but I am naturally good with them (don't ask me how that happened).

The kids have really started opening up to me and letting me into their lives lately. The little ones give me big hugs and kisses every morning and like to hold hands whenever possible. The older ones have adjusted nicely and now know my routine. Each class is ready with their homework out when I walk in their room. They know this is the first thing that we do. I have the same schedule every M,W, F and the same for T, Th with different kids both days and each class has different kids. For the better speaking classes, we do 'Weekend Stories' on Monday and Tuesday (thank you Mr. Taylor!!).

When I got here, I thought I was only going to be teaching English. It turns out that I am not only teaching English, but for the younger kids, I am also teaching Science, Song and Dance, Math, and Arts and Crafts. For the older kids, I teach Math and Science in English plus my other English classes. Here are a few pictures of life cycles that I made my upper level students draw on the board. For the record, they love being like the teacher and getting to draw or write on the board.

I thought these were great! The dog cracks me up! Apparently an exclamation point over the dog makes it pregnant. LOL! I have never heard of that, but hey, I love it!!

At my apartment things are mostly the same. One thing that I have forgotten to mention is that out my window is an open storage area for a small grocery-like store. Every morning, like clockwork, a truck backs in and either loads or unloads things with a VERY noisy forklift. At the moment I don't have air conditioning (getting it on Tuesday) so I leave the window open all the time. I am not sure what the heck they take in and out of there but it drives me CRAZY!! Here are a couple of pictures of the view out my window. Don't get excited; it's nothing special!

During the month that I have been here I have learned so much and done so many new things. There is a saying here for the foreigners, "Welcome to Korea!" We say this when anything out of the ordinary occurs, which happens to be ALL of the time!! Now I want to share with you a list of very odd things that I have noticed since I have been here, about Korea and it's people. For those of you who are Blue Collar Comedy Tour fans, you might get a kick out of saying, Welcome to Korea," after each of these, kind of like the 'Here's your sign' and the 'You might be a redneck' jokes.

1. Korea hates my Mac! It takes so long for videos to load. I can't even watch a short, 6 minute, music video without it having to stop every couple of minutes to reload. BLAH!

2. Samsung, the electronics company, makes washing machines here. They play music for you when you turn them on and when your laundry is finished. Makes me think of an episode of "Friends," it is season one; Ross and Rachel are doing laundry and Ross makes up a laundry song (for Rachel's benefit) when it's finished. I guess you have to know your "Friends" to appreciate it.

3. Koreans generally don't drink anything with their meals. They drink before or after. I think that I would die if I followed this custom!

4. In a studio, the shower, laundry room, and bathroom are one in the same. The laundry room IS the shower, the shower IS the bathroom. There are no dividers. If you ever have a house guest, make sure you use the bathroom before they shower. Otherwise you might have to hold it for a while!

5. Before you shower or wash dishes, you have to physically turn on the hot water. When you are finished using the hot water, you have to turn it off. There is a little box control on the wall outside of the bathroom. See my previous posts for pictures of this.

6. Every house has what I call 'shower shoes' that are left in the bathroom, at all times, for anyone who enters the bathroom to use. If they are not used, your feet will most definitely get wet if anyone has taken a shower within the last 5 hours or so of you stepping in there.

7. Toilet paper has multiple uses here. They use it as napkins when eating, paper towels to clean up messes, and actual toilet uses. You can only buy toilet paper in a 24 pack or larger unless you go to a specialty store. The toilet paper is scented and has colorful designs on it for your viewing pleasure.

8. Cell phone charms are a necessity, even for men!

9. The heating system, in most homes, heats from the floor up! I can't wait until winter time seeing as how my feet will always be warm!

10. People here drive motorcycles, vespers, and any other motorized or non-motorized bike on the sidewalk if the traffic on the street gets too heavy. Sometimes, they do it even if the traffic is light. They almost always run red lights and they park on the sidewalks as well. Police here are not very concerned about writing tickets or enforcing traffic laws.

11. There is not really a designated trash day. People put their trash bags on the sidewalk when they are full and a trash truck comes and picks them up. If the truck doesn't run that day, then they sit there until the truck does come. Food, however does have a certain day and doesn't go out with the rest of the trash.

12. Punch cards are a way of life around here. I thought the USA was bad about having them...you know, buy 10, get the 11th free. I already have 5 different punch cards for different locations and services. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the doctor gave out punch cards...buy 3 visits, get your 4th free!! HAHA!

13. Koreans eat very loudly. They slurp their soup, drinks, and noodles, they talk with their mouths full and over flowing, and they don't close their mouths when they chew. It is somewhat disrespectful if you DON'T make noise when you eat because it means you are not really enjoying the food! So, pay your compliments to the chef by chomping away as noisily as you want!

14. Lastly (for now anyway), they use scissors in the kitchen. They rarely use knives and generally use scissors. They cut everything from meat and fish, to noodles and lettuce with scissors. The first time I saw this I thought it was a joke!!!

I hope that you enjoyed this little list that I have come up with. I am sure that there will be many more things that I can add very soon!! Until next time...

"We're not in Kansas anymore!"

Today I will officially describe most of my second week in Korea and I have several pictures to go with.

My second week of school was a little bit easier. I fell into a routine and learned the schedule a little better. I figured out when to leave my house so that I could make it to work on time. I got down the timing of the crosswalks so that I knew just when they would change to green. I started wearing tennis shoes to school and carrying a backpack so that I could change to nicer shoes when I got to school. My feet were taking a beating with all of the extra walking that I was doing in dressy shoes, even though they were flats! My walk to school is a little over a mile and obviously so is the walk home. Roundtrip, I walk about 2.5 miles to and from work. Though the walk is somewhat long, there are several advantages! Take a look!

This is one of the several amazing views along my path. This is a small creek with a walking trail along both banks. Notice the gorgeous mountain in the background. The weather here is absolutely amazing. During the day it is not that hot (I usually wear pants and am very comfortable), but the weather during the evening is the real treat. Because of all of the mountains, Korean nights are actually pretty cool. It gets down to about 40-50 degrees in the evening and overnight. I absolutely love it!

I also learned that in order to have hot water in the apartment, you have to actually turn it on! The thermostat and hot water are combined on one box to make things easier I suppose. On the left is the temperature control for water and heat and the right is a phone, right? WRONG! It is actually a speaker and doorbell system (learned that one the hard way). I am still not really sure how it works. When I got my new house phone, which wasn't this phone, I wondered what this phone was for. I picked it up a few times and said hello but there was no dial tone. I'm not sure who I said hello to, but I bet someone outside heard! LOL!

It just so happens that May 15th is Teacher's Day in Korea, which fell on a Saturday this year so the kids brought presents a few days before and after the 15th. I got many great things including Starbucks coffee, candy, cute little flowery pens, other food and even some amazing and expensive body wash that I am in love with!! The kids really were very sweet even though I was a new teacher and they barely knew me.

That same week, I was told that I would be helping in an arts and crafts class for the same little ones that I have in the morning. I assumed that meant that all I had to do was make myself present, speak English as much as possible, and help out when needed. I later learned that I am to actually teach the class but I don't have to make the lesson plan for it. So basically, I learn about what we are going to do in the class about 10 minutes before the class begins. Luckily for me, this class is only once a week and it is an arts and crafts class for 4-7 year olds, therefore it is not that complicated. That particular week we made animal masks and I took pics of the kids.

These are all the kids that I have in the mornings. There are only 12 so I have gotten to know them all pretty well. I spend the most time with these kids.

Back: Christine, Sally, Benny, Jennifer, Cleo, Tyler, Amy

Front: Danielle, Alice, B. Amy, James, Scott

Danielle, Alice, B. Amy James: the youngest and so cute!!

Christine, Sally, Benny

Sally, Benny, Jennifer B. Amy & James: 2 younger ones

The kids get to pick the English names that they want when they start school here. They are only referred to as those names that they picked. The younger class includes, B. Amy, Sally, James and Tyler. The second Amy we call Bootee Amy. I am not sure what that means or even how to spell it. That is how it sounds when they pronounce it though. Her name was Grace originally but made a fit when she heard that name and wanted it, so they changed it.

With kids, coffee is necessary, especially with the young ones. At school we use these packets of coffee. In the kitchen there is a water dispenser that dispenses hot and cold water. We just fill a cup with water, pour in the packet of coffee and stir. It even tastes great! Now, I don't know if we have these in the states, but they are seriously a lifesaver. There have been several days where I needed just a small little boost and these little guys do the trick. They are even made by a company that I am sure most of you have heard of.

Now at my apartment, there were a few things that I wasn't exactly satisfied with. I did a little complaining that week, about the huge windows in my apartment. Now, I know that they are awesome, but I don't have to be at school until 9:30 in the morning which means I get up at 8:30 after the sun has already been up for a few hours. This makes sleeping in past sunrise slightly complicated with huge windows and no curtains. I suggested that I needed curtains and was even willing to buy them. I just wanted to know where I could get some. The school director told me that she would take care of it. Well, if you haven't read my previous blog, then you need to at least look at the pictures of my apartment. The curtains that she got for me are completely sheer and do absolutely nothing for keeping the sun out!! Oh well, now I just cover my eyes with an extra shirt or something.

That week was also Buddha's birthday, so we got Friday off. I used that day as an opportunity to sanitize and sterilize my apartment, since the previous teacher hadn't really been all that much of a cleaner. I went and explored the market area near my house and learned that there are wonderful eatery and shops less than 5 blocks away. I also learned that there is a Starbucks practically out my back door AND the coffee drinks are written in English, so they understand when you say them in English!!! That was the best part of the whole 'discovering a Starbucks near my house experience!'

I have discovered that Skype is a very amazing tool that everyone should definitely use if they plan to travel abroad or live abroad. It is 100% free and lets you talk with and actually see, live, the person who you are talking to. There are not really words to describe how awesome Skype is. I strongly recommend it for those of you who do not have it!

On a little side note, I have not been paid by Skype, Maxwell House, or Starbucks to endorse their products even though it may seem that I have and probably should be!