Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Currently, I'm at a party in my own house, and I'm taking the time to say Merry Christmas... feel special? :P Haha, we've currently drunk a lot of Moscato and are going in search for more.. or movies not sure. I'm up for dancing ^_^


But yes, alive and doing well in SK. <3

Birthday in Korea!!

So totally, my birthday celebration was a bit low-key.... since I worked most of the day. My edutainment class started off awful, since one of my kids completely destroyed the board that I had prepared before class >_< Supposedly, he thought it was from yesterday... although it had today's date on it. He's a bit of a trouble-maker, so I'm not really sure. But then, the kids decorated the board for me for my birthday! And some of them made me cards during the class. And then many a Polaroid picture was taken (I got a Polaroid camera and dvd player instead of an ipod since they only had the 64 gig and not the 32 gig. But yea, it definitely went a LOT better

The next two classes were meh. But then, when I went to go say goodbye to the kids, it started snowing!! HUGE fat snowflakes ^-^ I was ridiculously happy. I started dancing and singing Christmas songs. One of my co-workers, I think, has it on his iPhone, so I need to steal it from him haha. But I was just ridiculously happy ^-^

After work, we all went to eat Korean BBQ at Donenu, which was ridiculously delicious. It's been at least a month since I've eaten there (which is such a long time for Chilgok). A few of my coworkers went, as well as Diana and Nina (the new girl), and Joanne!! It was a lot of fun, even if Nina and I got lost in a taxi on our way back haha.

Major celebration is held off for Friday and Saturday. Friday is basically dinner and noraebang (karaoke). Nothing too crazy since I have to work Saturday. But Saturday night, we're going downtown to go dancing and seeing random people from other campuses. I'm debating having a potlock on Sunday... it's been almost two months since I had my last one, and I like having people over. Especially now that I have my Wii, dvd player, AND cable!! Wooo! Now I just need to decorate it so it feels a little bit more like home. ^-^

MM, that's it for now. I should probably head off to sleep since I have to wake up early tomorrow so I can prepare tomorrow/Friday classes, as well as prepare stuff for next week. Love ya!!

Lazy Weekend

This has been one of the most relaxing, laziest weekends I've had since I've gotten to Korea. Seriously, the most productive thing I've done is go to Costco. Right now I'm attempting to clean my apartment (more like tidying), watching Up, and doing laundry. I'm about to start dinner. Really exciting, no? haha

Hell week starts tomorrow. We have to review our books, and then start demoing for the rest of the week for next semester. Yup, that's right. Demos on my birthday. What a great birthday, right?

But yea, mainly just working a lot. Attempting to save money for a trip to Japan. I think I'll be going to Tokyo for the Lunar New Year, which I have a 5 day vacation for. Either that, or go to China.

No worries with the whole North Korea thing. Everyone is really calm about it here. So if they aren't too worried about it, neither am I. I figure when they start to freak, that's when I should start to worry.

Ummm, that's about all I can think of right now. I'll update more when I think of more news from my side of the world.

Loves ya!

"Teacher, North Korea... CRAZY!"

Yup, that was uttered by one of my students yesterday. I had no idea what was actually happening until around 6 pm (hours after it happened) when a co-worker told me, because my kids kept insisting that North Korea had dropped a bomb on South Korea (which I figured I WOULD have heard, despite no radio or TV).

But yes, still safe, and far far away from the area that was actually hit. Could my paranoid decision to NOT teach close to Seoul in case of a North Korean crazy attack actually be a good decision? Shocker! But if I had been truly paranoid, I wouldn't have gone to Korea at all haha.

So my last post was entirely a lie. Laziness and work are catching up to me. But I will update.... sometime. I refuse to work Saturday, so maybe then ^_^

Now off to finish prepping for my class today. I'm making all my children into Indians and Pilgrims and forcing them to sing Thanksgiving songs.

Still Alive

Haven't updated in a while because things have been crazy at work. And my life has been pretty boring. I swear, pinky promise, that I will update this week.

I just had a sudden realization of what I want to do with my life. But I'm keeping it close, just in case this realization is sleep deprivation driven instead of an actual epiphany. And no, it does not involve teaching English in Korea forever. It does, however, involve me going back to get another undergrad degree (which should hopefully take less time) and continual travel. A pretty nomadic lifestyle, which will suck if I ever get serious with anyone. It's just so hard to pick a career when you're interested in everything!!

In other news, went to a temple on Sunday, which was pretty awesome. And I experienced doctor fish as well (on Saturday), which was just mildly creepy

Resting Weekend

This week has been insanely tiring. Work was pretty bad this week, mostly because we're out of the honeymoon period with students and now they're trying to see how far they can push before we tell them to stop. Not to mention, there was an incident with a student and toy gun in my class. I'm just very very happy that this week is over, and now I have two days to myself to relax. This weekend... I'm just going to relax and be lazy. No going downtown at night and I think the craziest thing I'm going to do is maybe go to the movies and go shopping for Halloween costumes.

But on the plus side, yesterday, two students told me that they loved me and gave me hugs ^_^ They're my LD students (so basically the lowest level ever). I teach them phonics (I have no clue how, so I made up my own way of doing things haha). Glad that it's working ^_^

But yea, completely run down, so definitely taking this weekend to recharge

Quick Update

So.... I pretty much suck at updating my blog. Sorry >_< I've been insanely busy with work lately... and then I go away for the weekends. Two weekends ago, I went to Seoul for two days ^_^ It was pretty cool. But I definitely spent way more money than I wanted. So I have to budget my money for the rest of the month... especially since I want to go to Busan for Halloween. Ummmm, Seoul was fun. One of the Korean teacher's boyfriend showed us around the National Assembly (where he works), and we had a backstage tour. It felt like we were breaking in, since no one was there, and so many lights were off! haha. We basically then spent the rest of the time eating and shopping.

Work, work, and more work.

Then we went dancing and noraebang this weekend. Pretty active, but next weekend will definitely be more laid back. Went to church today... not Catholic though. It was a Presbyterian service with my friend Andy. WAY WAY WAY different than Catholic mass, but I like it. Even if I can't understand it all. I think I might just get super-religious and go to the Catholic service and the Presbyterian service. I like the people in Andy's church. Is it cheating on religion?? Maybe :P We'll see how it goes.

Right now I'm doing a major cleaning of my apartment, so I should probably get back to that. Just finished cleaning the bathroom, and now it's time for the kitchen and then tidying my room and vacuuming the main area. I got yelled at for how messy it was, but I still hadn't unpacked from Seoul!! It was just too crazy last week.

I swear I'll update my Shutterfly pictures soon! Maybe tomorrow or Tuesday, I promise. It all depends on how much I need to prepare for my Wednesday class (which is basically all supplemental material since the book sucks. definitely lots of it is too difficult for LD students).

Love you! I'm still trying to figure out the postal service, but email me or comment with your addresses if you want a post card or a small gift. I might just mail a big box home with presents for everyone, so Carmen with probably pass them out haha. Sorry, Cari!

XOXO

My life so far...

My life as of late, is pretty boring, to be honest. It doesn't even really feel like I'm living across the world (with the exception of everyone speaking Korean). Basically, I've just been teaching, sleeping, and then occasionally hanging out with people. But I'll see if I can find some fun things for ya ^_^

Hmm, finally got an Alien Registration Card! And I went on Tuesday to get a phone.... but they can't activate it until Friday because of the holidays.

Right now, it's Chuseok, which is the Korean Thanksgiving. It's pretty sweet. I have three days off of work (Tuesday through Thursday), then I work manana and then I have the weekend off!! It's going to feel weird working a full week next week haha.

Saturday.... went downtown with the girls. We met up at this international beer bar, then we moved onto cocktails in a bag, and then ate some delicious pizza in a cup. And THEN we went dancing. It was a fun night.. surprisingly early, too. We ended up home around 2 am (much better than the other times we've gone out). Sunday, Diana, Natalia, and I went to go have dinner with some of the girl teachers at another campus. Rachel made some traditional Korean noodles that were absolutely delicious, and we just talked for hours. I definitely like having more cool girls around :)

Then... nothing happened until Tuesday. On Tuesday, I hosted a Chuseok potluck at my apartment. I bought a little dining table, borrowed Natalia's DVD player, and made chicken fettuccine alfredo... on top of all the dishes everyone made! It was a delicious, fun filled night. We ended up talking the whole night, completely ignoring my Wii and the DVD player! We also ended up on my building's roof, which is a nice little hang out spot.

Yesterday, Diana, Natalia, Keith, and I went over to a Korean teacher's (Hoon) house for a traditional Korean meal. One word, DELICIOUS!!! His mom is an AMAZING cook. She kept feeding us. I even ate shrimp! Shocking, I know. It actually wasn't that bad. Maybe I'll come out of Korea eating actual seafood, haha. We had sanpyoon, which is traditional rice dumplings filled with bean paste (the only non-homemade thing that was served). Hoon's mother just kept giving us more and more food. We were too full to move by the end of the night, so we just watched the Blind Side, which was such a good movie. Hoon eventually drove us home, and I had a sleepover at Diana's house.

Hmmm, currently, I'm working on lesson plans and watching Lost in Austen. The movie makes me want to smack Amanda Price upside the head, so I'm having conflicted feelings about the movie haha. I guess I'll decide when the movie is over. My internet is finally back! It went on a little vacation for Chuseok, so I am immensely happy that it's back.

Long post, but it's been a while. I'll post some pictures in a bit. I've been a bit lazy about taking them. And I swear, I'll update at least once a week. Even if my life is boring haha

XOXO

Brain is frazzled

Yup, pretty much describes me right now. A late night out with the Korean teachers and the assistants (yay for actual Koreans!) plus a sleepover with Diana, definitely meant less sleep and brain functioning. It was pretty fun though. I'm glad that the work crew is gradually expanding our ways through the cliques.

Hmmm, quick funny updates:
~ One of my girl told me that I look like a bug monster, because I have HUGE eyes, a small head, and I'm scary. This was also the class that said that I was uglier than Michelangelo AND Pablo Casals. But I still love them

~ I started making phone consultation calls, which basically means that we're just chitchatting with the kids on the phone for a few minutes. It's sometimes fun, sometimes painful as you try to think of things to fill up the 3 minutes you need.

~ I got shoes!! They are so pretty! Pictures of them later (when I actually take pictures haha).

That's it for now. A real update later... maybe tomorrow night.

Love you all <3

And we'll have fun fun fun until Daddy takes the T-Bird away...

Yea, I just have that song stuck in my head for some reason. Hmm, work this week was definitely a LOT better. It helps that the kids are doing prep work for the classes, so the majority of my classes don't all stare at my with a "wha?" face. I think my kids are starting to enjoy dancing at the front of the class though. Definitely need to think of a new punishment for them.

We got another girl! That makes FOUR girls at our campus!! We are becoming more balanced! haha. She's very cool and fun. I'm glad that there isn't girl drama at our campus yet and that we all get along :)

Yesterday, I went to a Korean nightclub for the first time! Also, it was my first time hanging out with a Korean teacher (Hoon came with us). It's not like Chicago nightclubs. The nightclub that we went to was a LOT smaller, and packed full of people, who were mostly just bouncing and bobbing to the music. Not at all dancing like back home. It was probably because of the lack of room to move. It was a lot of fun though. I forgot how good dancing is as an exercise, and it definitely relieved some work stress. We also walked around downtown at night (definitely different than daylight downtown). I was soooo tempted to go shopping, but luckily, I restrained myself.

Hmmm, not much else to say. I was supposed to go to a temple today, but I decided a full day of recovery and also a day of cleaning/laundry was needed way more than that. Also, it's way hot. I think Kelly, Diana, and I are just going to go in a few weeks when it's a bit cooler. And on a Saturday, so we can have Sunday to recover from the pain of walking so much haha.

I'll put up some more pictures on my shutterfly account, so go see! Especially if you haven't seen my pictures from the Body Painting festival :)

Much love

International Body Painting Festival!

So, in an effort to keep my posts semi-regular, here's a new post!

Sunday, a bunch of us decided to head down into the city for the International Body Painting Festival! It was so much fun! Too bad my camera pooped out on me halfway into the festival... but that's because I was taking so many pictures!!

The artists were crazy good. The only bad thing, was that you couldn't take pictures of some of the models... they had guards to make sure that you only looked, not photo-ed it up. It was insanely hot (temperature wise). We got there around 1... and we stayed basically until 10.

Hmmm, there were international food booths. Mostly Korean, but there was a Japanese takoyaki and a Turkish kebab place!! They were from Istanbul, and the food was soooo good. More gyro than kebab, in my opinion. Oh! And there were people from Ecuador there too! Diana and I stood staring at them for about 5 minutes wondering what they were. We definitely knew they were Indian, but they looked more Latino Indian than Native Amerian. Eventually we just ended up talking to them, and asking them. Turns out that they were wondering where we were from too! Haha, crazy.

Hmmm, what else?? Oh, I was definite creeper bait Sunday. A few old Korean guys have me the thumbs up, staring at my chest the entire time. Mostly old guys though... I guess they figure I want a sugar daddy?? I guess they smell the lack of money wafting from my direction!!

Payday is manana and it could NOT get here sooner! I'm fully preparing my lunches right now, which is definitely a cost saver, but not very socially forward of me. On the plus side, I got a bit more done today at work.

Classes today were a LOT better than last week. Probably because the kids were more prepared for the lesson, so I didn't have to explain as much. I also tried out a few more new techniques.

So, bank account achieved! And Robin asked for my passport, which means.... Alien Registration Card!! The gateway to all I could ever need!! XD Hmmm, first purchase when I get paid?? Mulan, most definitely.

XOXOXO. Leaving you with a few images of the body painting festival (before I post them anywhere else, lucky you!)

I'm Never Satisfied!

Haha, so I complain when I work all the time, but when I finally have free time.... I get so lost about what to do! I'm not used to free time! It feels unnatural!

Anyways, Kenny didn't bring it up, so I'm assuming it's done and over with (I hope). But yea, went to work today for like 4 extra hours that weren't needed. Meh. I just hope it changes in the next month. I did not sign on for a Monday through Saturday contract, so I'm going to give them a month to give me back my weekends!

I also signed up to do Relay for Life here at the American base in Daegu, Camp Walker. Which will be pretty exciting, because I'll get to see the inside of the base! It's September 24th, and if anyone wants to sponsor me.... that would be awesome :)

So no body painting festival today :( I ended up getting out of work like 2 hours later than expected, so we just said, meh. So we're definitely going manana though. I'm a little sad that we didn't get a chance to see Daegu's nightlife... but I'm a little scared to see what that is :P More pictures will definitely be taken, though. I've been a little lax on the whole picture-taking thing. Things are becoming a little more common-place and I work a lot, so no free time plus normality makes for less of an urge to take pictures. But I'm going to try to get that urge back!

Hmmm, what news? What news? I made my kids hoot like a monkey Thursday/Friday, and I named two kids Obama, and another one Pinocchio. Well actually, we had a Mario and Luigi, and then Mario decided to change his name (on his own will) to Pinocchio. I also have a kid named Ninja. The lower levels are amazing fun (so far), but my Jump Basic reading classes barely participate. It makes me so crazy!! Only two of my 5 reading classes actually had life and VOLUNTEERED answers. Meh, hopefully I can liven them up.

No work manana! Thank god! And I finally get a bank account on Monday... and I get paid on Tuesday! No clue when I'll be getting my Alien Registration Card though... All I know, is that the paperwork hasn't even been submitted (since they need our passports for that).

That's about it for now. Much love!!

BLAH!

I hate passive aggressive bosses. Well, he isn't really MY boss, just one of the bosses (but also the boss of my boss, gets confusing). Anyway, yesterday I waited around for Diana after work in their office (since my boss kicked me out of mine, telling me to go home), and right before we left, her boss told her that it was unprofessional for me to be there and that it was disruptive. Not sure how me being completely silent for 20 minutes was disruptive, but I can see your point about professionalism. I just wish he had said something to me the TWENTY minutes I was there! Seriously, if he had said something, I would've made other plans. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure he called my boss and told him, so now I'm going to get yelled at for doing something I wasn't aware was disruptive. Get some cajones and tell me if I'm bothering you. Also, how am I supposed to make plans if I don't have freaking internet or a phone?? (I mean my own internet btw, not just stealing it from the neighbor). I've been here over a month and I have still yet to get my Alien Registration Card, which is basically the gateway to my medical insurance, internet, and a phone.... basic necessities if you're living abroad.

Le sigh. Let's see how it goes today at work. Yesterday was a disaster. The kids definitely don't respond as we pretended in the demos. I actually get to go in later today! Wooo! A full hour before my contract time >_< I'm actually going to head over there in about 30 minutes so I can get there like 40-30 minutes ahead of time since I need to redo some of my lesson plans. I just hope we get lunch. Who knows with Kenny....


Sorry for the ranting. It just frustrates me that they couldn't tell me to freaking leave, and then freaking called my boss to complain

Life is crazy hectic

I swear I'll write more later! It's just been a loooong day of demos and now we're not allowed to be at our computers for very long >_< So it's a bit counter productive. Oh well. Tomorrow's my first full day of teaching actual classes. Monday and Tuesday were just fun days to get to know the kids (although I doubt I'll remember their names... bad teacher!). Good thing I made half of my kids make name signs. Let's just hope they remember them. Working 11 hour days instead of 14 hours... so it's a bit better. Can't wait until we're actually working the 8 hours we're supposed to be. But that should be in the next 2-3 weeks. I'm just happy that I have the option of getting actual coffee in the morning instead of Starbucks Fraps.

More later, I swear. But I figure that I should update a bit so y'all don't think I'm dead or something :D I swear I'll update more regularly when I have a more free schedule. I'm just so exhausted after work sometimes that I pass out completely.

Oh! Don't forget my Shutterfly account. I think I have it listed under the About Me section. You can access my photos there. I'll try putting a few photos in this blog (and I'll start... NOW!)

Sorry about the format... don't know code, so I can't fix it :(

So crazy

Not really up for updating right now. Just got done with basically a 12.5 hour work day. Thank god this ends Monday. I'm expecting a pretty huge bonus for putting up with this craziness. Hopefully, the new efficient way of demo-ing will let me get home before eleven this week. Probably not, but it's always good to wish, right?

I am so spoiling myself with my first paycheck. I'm going to hit up the bodypainting festival and pay a wii off of one of the teachers. It's not a bad price, especially since it comes with games and wii fit plus the board. I'll probably just sell it cheap when I leave, if it's still good by then.

A little more frazzled, a little less strain

If that doesn't make sense, it's ok. Most things in Korea don't really make sense. So my co-teaching is officially canceled, which is both a yay! and an ugh!. Yay! for the fact that my teaching career is postponed a little bit more, and an ugh! because I won't have real life teaching practice until my first day when I'm standing at the front of my first class, which is phonics for the lowest level. Apparently, I'm so awesome, they think that I'll be good with the kids who don't speak any English (or barely any). Little do they know, I'm planning on bribing them with Silly Bandz (if I can get them) and mucho candy. Muahahaha. I am so evil :P

But yea, I'm a little more frazzled because the head boss decided that we should do 2 demos a day (the same demo, just twice a day with improvements), starting tomorrow. So basically, I'll be working from noon until 9 (although I think we'll get out around 10ish if we're lucky) Friday, Saturday, and then Monday through Saturday. Oh, and no lunch break (although Thomas said we could just simply pack our own lunch and eat during demos). Thank god, we have Sunday completely off. Although, I'm probably going to prep for all of my demos on Sunday. So yea, basically working all Sunday, but on my own time. I'm going to let my OCD ride the reigns (I'm pretty sure that's not even a phrase), and over-prepare my lesson plans to include the first 3-5 days. Yup, that's right. I'm insane. Korea has officially kicked the procrastinator out of me (at least, for now haha).

Classes start the 23rd, so I should hopefully get back to a more normal schedule (2-10), plus I'll get weekends off. That first weekend of school is the weekend of the international bodypainting festival in Daegu! It should be a LOT of fun. Let's just hope the boss doesn't pull a company outing that weekend (although, it WOULD be paid for). I'm conflicted, free (expensive) food and drinks or awesome bodypainting in Daegu?? I can't choose!!! >_<

So yea, I'll basically be a ghost (maybe) for the next week. I'll probably be online, but not for any long periods of time (unless we manage to get some miraculous free time). Semi-slacking off the first two weeks is really kicking us in the ass now. It sucks to be the new teachers from this week and next. They'll basically have no break from work until work actually starts (and it lets up a bit)

<3 <3 !! I also have my mailing address, so let me know if you want it!

Le sigh

Work's been crazy intense the past two weeks as we're inching closer to the opening of the school. It hasn't gotten much more organized, so that just makes things way more difficult. For instance, not all of the books for the upcoming semester have gotten in, so we can't really plan a syllabus for certain classes. And the lesson flows for my co-teaching on Friday still aren't in, so I have no idea what levels I'm teaching and what material I'm teaching. This is very much making my OCD tendencies come out, as I panic a little more each day. It's supposedly a good thing for a teacher to be a little OCD, so that they over-prepare for classes, but it's hella draining when everything is such a mess.

I'm also supposed to be giving demos every day until we open, fun stuff. I guess it's good practice, and it gives me something to do, which is always a plus. Today, I just basically sat around for about 2 hours messing around, because I finished all my work. And I couldn't go home until the boss said so. Normally it's ok, but today I didn't bring my computer to work because Daegu was hit with the edge of a typhoon, so it was majorly storming today.

But yea, same old, same old. Work, maybe go out with co-workers, and then back to the apartment to start it all over again. The lack of money and time (since I work Saturdays for now) is definitely a deterrence for traveling and exploring. BUT I think I'm going to hit up downtown Daegu this Saturday if I get out of work early enough. There's a rally to build a memorial for comfort women (we're just basically walking around). Not exactly sure how it'll go, but hopefully I can drag someone to work with me (pref. Diana). I'm not sure if any of you know this, but my major interest in Korean history is the study of comfort women. I spent the last two years at Loyola researching them. If and when I go to grad school, I'm planning on focusing on the comfort system and sexual slavery in Japan (I know, depressing, but it's really interesting!). So this is something that I really feel strongly about. I'm really glad that I can somehow participate in it! And in Korea! Things like this makes me glad about my decision to live here for a year.

Decided against going out with the co-workers today b/c a) I need to save money, b) I need to do laundry before it stacks up on me, and c) my room is completely messy, so I desperately need to clean it. Also, I'm kind of tired. I've been so mooching off the free internet at home, since I have no idea if it'll suddenly disappear like last time.

So yea, right now, I'm doing laundry, and I just figured out how to work my gas range (it turns out the gas line wasn't open >_<). I'm going to make myself a late dinner, watch some Degrassi or Dexter, and then probably head off to bed (maybe some Skype for a bit if anyone signs on).

Love! I'll try to live a bit more exciting life, so there'll be more posts ^_^

Such a busy week!

It’s been a while since my last entry… sorry about that. It’s been a little crazy at work. Actually, I don’t even remember what my last entry was

Updates: Basically, I’ve been working… a lot. It’s not too bad. I generally wake up around 10ish, go to work at noon, and then work until 8 or 9 pm. Then it’s usually either off to eat something quick with my coworkers, or head back to my apartment, where I generally watch a movie or two (or drama or anime) before I nod off. Nothing too exciting. Sad news is that my internet disappeared on Sunday! Well, not MY internet, but the internet that I was mooching. Le sigh. So I can’t go online unless I go to the café or work. So lately, I’ve been heading out around 10, so I can have an hour or two of internet before heading into work. Like I said, way boring. The most exciting thing, well actually, there’s two! The first is that I discovered that HomePlus takes Visa (which so far has taken a beating in the last two visits). The second one is that there’s a new foreign teacher, a GIRL teacher! Wooo! I’m not the only girl anymore. She’s actually pretty cool, my age, and she’s from Cali. Actually, a new teacher came Thursday, so there’s another guy here. At least it’s two girls for three guys. And another teacher arrives manana.

Hmmm, what else?? I observed the other campus on Friday. It was pretty interesting to see how the classes are taught. Oh, and I gave a demo on Thursday (without ever actually seeing a class), so it was pretty nerve-wrecking. Especially since the boss and the Korean teachers sat in too. I didn’t do TOO bad…. The criticisms I got were that it was a little too much like a lecture, and that I spoke a little too fast. I’m giving another demo tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll do a little bit better this time.
Today is my only day off from work. Yesterday was a placement test, which took way longer than expected (so hardly any internet use). Afterwards, we all went out for a pizza and then for some beer and soju (which is gross, but extremely delicious in cocktail form). ^_^ The whole “that’s what she said” FINALLY made an appearance yesterday while drinking! I was wondering if only people from the states did it! We rounded off the night with a game of “Never Have I Ever,” which is always a good way of meeting people haha.

No exciting plans for today because I’m quickly running out of money, so I have to conserve!! I had hoped not to use my credit card at all while I’m here, but that turned out to be impossible. I still have some money left… I just didn’t want to exchange them into won, hoping that I would be less tempted to spend it. So I’m off to the bank tomorrow to exchange the rest of my money.

That’s about all I can think of right now. I’ll try to blog more frequently. It sucks not having internet!! Hopefully, though, I can get a phone soon! Or I’ll soon become a frequent visitor of cafes and HomePlus

Staycation

Costco Experience
Basically, my Korean Costco experience wasn’t too different from my regular American Costco experience, with the minor exception of Hangul EVERYWHERE! And of course, they differentiated between US sizes and Western sizes. I will definitely not be going to Costco for cheap clothes (the highest US size they go to is a size 7!), unless I lose a drastic amount of weight. It was nice, though. They gave out free samples of food (so I’ll definitely always go when I’m hungry), and they had live fish! I don’t think the US stores have live fish (but I could be wrong). Oh, there is one difference that I noticed right away… they sell Fendi and Prada purses!! They supposedly charge a luxury tax, but still, that’s pretty crazy. One more sign of how Asia is designer obsessed.

Vacation:
Basically my vacation time was spent exploring Chilgok and staying inside cleaning my apartment. A LOT of time was spent indoors. It was insanely hot, and supposedly it hasn’t even hit the hottest temperature yet. I finally found a bank, and exchanged money. Then I found these faux French bakeries, which were delicious. Yesterday I went down to downtown Daegu. I started off at Camp Walker, where there were massive amounts of Americans (I was in shock!) and then I wandered around trying to find a cell phone store (failed, all of them were closed). I did manage to find this DVD shop with English DVDs, pirated of course, for cheap. They have this frequent user card, which I got. I tried finding this Canadian restaurant, which I couldn’t, so I ended up taking a taxi to the middle of Rodeo St to go find this English bookstore. I couldn’t find it on my own, so I grabbed the first Western looking people I could find and asked them. Turns out they were heading that way, so I tagged along. I made friends, yay! Haha. One of the guys made me a pair of earrings for free (there was a craft fair at the bookstore), and the other gave me advice on living in Korea. The bookstore had amazing chili, made to order (so glad it wasn’t spicy!). Then I basically just wandered around, taking pictures.

Yup, not a very interesting vacation. I was too scared of public transportation to try risking getting to Seoul, especially when taxi drivers seem to have a hard enough time finding my neighborhood in the same city!

Sorry this is short! My neighbors wised up to the fact that I was mooching off their internet, so I no longer have internet at home, at least not for the next month. It's practically impossible for foreigners to get anything here without an Alien Registration Card, which I can't get for at least 3 weeks. Le sigh. But I'll write my posts, and then post them when I go to the cafe in the morning for my coffee.

Off to work!

Oh, how I miss having a kitchen!

So today is my 4th full day in Daegu and Korea!! It's still pretty surreal... It doesn't feel like a whole different country, except for the whole language change.

So here's what happened since I last posted:

Monday: I finally got my apartment!! It didn't have any furniture in it yet, so I had to sleep on the floor Asian style (with a mattress pad, comforter, and pillow), but it wasn't bad. Scratch that, it had a TV (which I still have yet to plug in). After work, the two other foreign teachers and I headed up to eat some awesome Korean BBQ, which was sooo cheap. And since I don't have anything in my kitchen besides a washing machine, cabinets, and a sink, I'll definitely have to eat out for the next week. (I'm supposed to get a gas range and a fridge, but the school's on vacation, so I'll hopefully get them Monday). It'll be nice to have when I want to go all hermit-y and eat by myself. Eating in restaurants alone is a bit strange and the closest fast food/take out place is about a 10 minute walk. Not bad, but definitely not as close as I'd like. Especially since I don't have any food at all.

Tuesday: Went to work again, and gave the speaking portion of the placement tests. I definitely need to improve on relaxing students and gauging their level, but I have an entire month for that. Thank god the speaking portion is only worth 5% of their placement. We ate at lunch with our Korean coworkers (so it was on the house), but it wasn't really "with" them. It was basically divided between the foreign teachers and the Korean teachers. Hopefully that will change soon. Oh! I got a bonus for working two days!! SWEET!! I also found out that it was the school's summer vacation, so I don't work until Monday. After work, we ended up at this bar called Hook (we being the other two foreign teachers and I). We basically got this HUGE pitcher of beer, soju cocktails (that were amazingly delicious), and chicken and fries (yum!). I definitely got a little tipsy (but it was so cheap! Only $20 for lots of food and lots of drinks). Then it was straight home. Accidentally overpaid the cab driver (gave him 20,000 won instead of 2,000 won [ 20 instead of 2], which sucks, but now I know to be more careful about what money I give out). And then I wasn't tired, so messed around on the internet and talked to people via Skype (I got the unlimited calling plan for the States! So send me your phone numbers, I can call you now!). My internet isn't set up yet, so I'm basically mooching off my neighbor... or someplace nearby.

Wednesday: Today was the day I walked to campus for the first time. Not bad, but I definitely need to get used to stares. I'm in a suburb of Daegu (30 minutes from downtown), so there aren't that many foreigners here. I attempted to get a cell phone.... major fail. After spending about an hour in the store, with the salesperson finally get a company translator on the phone, I STILL walked out without a phone. It turns out that my immigration card or something hadn't been processed yet, so I couldn't buy a phone. Who know buying a pay-as-you-go phone would be so hard?? I then walked to HomePlus (which has a Dunkin Donuts and also the place where I usually eat breakfast). HomePlus is basically like our Walmart. It has everything!! Even a small pet store (with three puppies for sale, so cute!). I basically browsed the store and ended up with an adapter (no converter sadly enough), a hamper, a trashcan, some antibacterial cleaning wipes (I think), a drying rack, and some washing detergent/fabric softener combo. A bit costly, but what can you do? Headed back to my apartment, watched a little TV online, and then I finally got hungry. Walked around trying to find a take-out friendly place, and ended up at Lotteria (I think that's the name). It's basically Korean style Burger King. Had a bulgolgi burger, which sounded tastier than what it actually was, and then passed out early... woke up early too, around 4:30 am.

Plans for the day: I need to convert the rest of my money into won, or at least the majority of it and then head up to Costco to see what I can buy for my apartment. Hopefully I can get more dry food that doesn't require refrigeration or cooking. Then it's cleaning my apartment and sorting my clothes. Oh, and translating my washing machine so that I don't wait until the last minute. I might practice my Korean a little bit too. I definitely need to start memorizing vocab.

I'll let you know how my first trip to CostCo goes!! Hopefully I can get a phone by Monday

First Day (so far)

So, first night in Daegu = conquered. I'm supposed to get my apartment today, so let's hope that actually happens. The motel last night was a love hotel, which was pretty funny. It was pretty classy though; you wouldn't have even known based on the decor.... minus the Love Love machine right off the elevator ^_^

My first day at work is going pretty well so far. I met up with another teacher, Thomas, who is from Scotland (jealous Carmen?). We actually met him right outside the hotel last night. Nothing sketchy... he lives next door to it. He was pretty helpful with bringing my luggage into the motel, and then back to Avalon this morning. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but I traveled with another new Avalon teacher last night from the Seoul/Incheon airport to Daegu. It was nice having another Westerner for a speaking companion, especially since my memory of Korean is a bit null at the moment.

Arrived at Avalon, was introduced to the boss, who seems nice, and then we headed off to HomePlus for breakfast/lunch/brunch at Dunkin Donuts. Then it was back to Avalon for a brief introduction and then some training on how placement tests work (the Westerners just handle the speaking portion, which seemed hectic since there's only one other teacher besides myself and the other new guy, so he's handling it all) >_< Not the best idea to wear my new high heels... the heels are fine, but the brand-new part is the killer. Finally gave in and bought socks at the store around the corner. Lunch was on the boss, yes!

Ummm, what else?? The school doesn't actually open for another month, so no classes = less pressure on me right now. We're just focusing on placement tests, which are easy enough. Next week starts my official training, since we have Wednesday - Friday off for summer vacation. Not sure if I get Saturday off, since Avalon supposedly has placement tests on Saturdays.

Getting a pay-as-I-go cellphone on Wednesday hopefully. There's a few stores supposedly selling them off the US military base, so I'll just grab a taxi and go. I might as well go to Costo too, I think. Thankfully the Costco is only around a $10 taxi ride from my area.

That's it for now!! As of now, the only internet I'll have is either from my work computer, or from a PC bang. So the updates might be a little infrequent until I can get internet set up at my new apartment. ^_^

In Daegu!!

So I finally arrived in Daegu around an hour ago. It's about 2:36 am local time, so maybe noonish for you Central Timer-ers. It was a pretty intense two days: shopping, packing, freaking out because I didn't have a large enough second suitcase, no sleep, saying good-byes, then basically 20 hours spent in airports with a 4 hour bus ride to Daegu. But all in all, pretty awesome. Still hasn't really hit me yet, and I'm hoping that it's muffled when it does. This has to be short, because I'm staying in a motel, and I have no clue how much I'm paying for internet (if I am). Also add the fact that I'm waking up at 8, have breakfast at 10, and meet the director of the school at noon. And then I have no clue, but hopefully it involves errands (adapter/converter, cell phone, actually calling my parents, etc). Oh, and getting an apartment would be sweet. The motel is nice, but getting started on my own apartment would be awesome.

Mmk, more info later. I need to choose an outfit for manana and then repack my overly packed suitcase. I'm not even going to touch the vacuum sealed bags of clothes.

I'm Finally Leaving!!

So I got the news YESTERDAY that I'm leaving MANANA!! Ahhh, so crazy!!! >_< So basically, it's two days of frantic packing and attempting to stuff hanging out with friends and family. And massive amounts of packing, massive massive amounts.

Just picked up my visa like an hour ago, and now I'm off to Costco to stock up on some random supplies. More later, I swear. I'll probably write and post a blog while I'm waiting for my flight to Korea in LA. Plus pictures.

Love you all!!!

Quick Post

Nothing new to report. Just starting to pack up my clothes. I have my interview at the consulate tomorrow morning. Then we'll see when I can get to Korea!!

The Waiting Game

Ugh, the waiting for my visa is killing me. Seriously, I did not realize that it would take this much time, and now I'm getting concerned whether I'll be able to get it before I need to be in Korea. The school said that they wanted me to by out there by the 26th (>_<) So hopefully I can get the visa assurance number within the next week, interview the following week, and then leave the country by the 25th (at the latest). Hopefully it doesn't take long to get an interview at the consulate. Also, I hope I don't have to pay a fine or something if I can't get there by the 26th (>_<). All I can basically do is starting rounding up the things I plan on bringing with me, and getting a semi-new wardrobe.

On the plus side, I have more time to spend with friends and certain peoples. I'll keep y'all updated.

The long-awaited post!

I know all of you have waited with bated breaths haha. So, who am I?

I am.... 24, history degree holding, Asia-loving, drama-watching girl. I have absolutely no taste in movie (which means I'll watch basically anything) and I have a wide and varied taste in music. I like obscure facts and I like telling random, pointless stories. I'm chillax and pretty easy-going, with a horrible memory. I love learning languages, but I lose my fluency pretty quickly when I don't practice. So far, I speak Spanish (fluent and all the time), Japanese (iffy), Mandarin (reading comprehension is way better), French (je parle un pue), and more recently Korean. I'm heading off to Korea as soon as my visa is approved to start a life in a strange country, hoping that my friends come out to visit me often. I haven't really lived far from my parents, so I'm really excited, yet scared. But mostly excited (^_^)

Aaaand that's about all I have for now. I doubt I have that many readers (if any) who don't know me, so this is for all those who randomly stumble upon this blog due to googling "asia; robot" haha

Off to Korea with ye!

Sent all my visa documents yesterday via FedEx express to Korea! Had a hard time figuring out exactly where to send it to, but after 10 minutes, we hopefully sent it off to the right place. Hopefully, since it has my original diploma and I paid way too much money >_< Here's to hoping that it doesn't get lost.

The reality of my situation hasn't hit me yet.... probably because I haven't even started packing yet >_< Let's hope my visa gets processed quickly so I can start on my planned start day!!

There's a lot of hoping in this post, but that's what I get for waiting til the last minute. I really need to learn from my procrastination >_<

More details (aka who am I post) when I get back from the Taste/hanging out with friends. And the gym, most definitely the gym.

안녕하세요!!

So I just signed my contract to teach ESL in Daegu for Avalon (I hope I can say this without violating my contract... if the name disappears, you'll know why haha). I don't officially leave for another month, but I figure I might as well start my blog early since, as most of my readers know, I am a HUGE procrastinator. So hears to hoping that I don't just stop writing due to lack of interest or boredom or just plain forgetfulness. It didn't strike me until I was signing the contract that I was actually leaving. As in, moving away from my family and friends, and from my mother culture. God knows, I've prepared myself as much as possible for the culture shock, and I'm hoping that my Asian-geekness lessens that shock to almost nil (which I know is a vain hope).

I know this is going completely against the whole blog format, but since I figure that most of my readers are probably going to be friends, I don't really have to do the whole who-I-am post until later (next post, I swear!). God knows I have a month to write it haha. Not sure what the whole month long hiatus will bring to blog posts, but I foresee parties, visa hassles (since it's always a pain), LOTS and LOTS of packing, aaaaand whining and bitching about going away as it gets closer. BUT on the plus side, there's a Costco in Daegu. I have no clue how far away from my apartment it'll be, but I figure it's way closer than Seoul or Busan. AND I could just pack a suitcase and use that to transport if I'm not up for a taxi (money-wise).

So here's my checklist for the month (let's see if anything gets done):
1. Go shopping! I need more conservative clothes haha
2. Put together a list of essentials (besides clothes) that I need to pack. Any help will be awesome!
3. Get my visa!
4. Throw a kick-ass going away party, South Korea sash and all!
5. Ummm, throw a year's worth of socializing in a month.
6. Figure out more things to do ^_^