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!