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.