Getting Settled

Sorry it's been so long since i've written, things have been crazy busy and on top of that my power cord for my laptop broke and Apple's aren't very common here so the school ordered a new one for me. It won't be delivered until Monday or Tuesday but luckily Mary is here and has let me borrow her laptop to use for the weekend. So much has happened since I last wrote. I moved into an apartment that was about a 10 minute walk from school, but not in the same building as any of the other teachers. I ended up moving again on Friday to another apartment, taking over for another teacher that is moving in with her fiance. I can see the school from my apartment and there are three other teachers in my building. It was also recently refurbished, with a new air conditioner, new fridge and floors. It is tiny, which will be an adjustment, but so nice! The entire apartment is probably smaller than a dorm room, with a kitchen that you can barely stand in! Since the teach who left is stayin in Korea, she took absolutely everything with her. Luckily I will be able to move some things from my old apartment here on monday, like shelves and a vanity.

My first week of teaching went surprisingly well. I lucked out and got one of the best groups of kids, which makes teaching a lot easier! It still amazes me how smart these kids are and they are so sweet! Days are very long, I work from 9:30 until 6:30 with only a break for lunch. By the time you've eaten dinner it is 8:00 and you are exhausted! I am still getting used to the busy schedule. On Thursday we took the kids on a field trip to a traffic park. They have field trips once a month, and this month we took them to a traffic park. The kids had fun. They learned about traffic safety and got to drive miniature go-carts/cars. A good break from the normal school day! I am finishing up my first summer school class which has been a lot of work, so hopefully my next class won't be as bad. If you didn't know, I am finishing my second masters with all online classes from my university in the US while I am here. We'll see if I can handle all the work!

This is the first real weekend I have had to hang out and relax, minus the move and setting up my apartment. Yesterday after work I went out with most of the teachers from my school. They are all around my age and we all get along really well! We went to dinner at a Korean Barbeque restaurant, where you sit on the floor and cook the meat in a sort of grill on the table in front of you. It was so good! After dinner about 8 of us went out. We went to a couple of bars in Bundang, which is the city I live in. It takes about 30 minutes to get to Seoul, the capital, so we stay close by one night a weekend and go to Seoul the other. The bars and clubs stay open later here and we didn't get home until 5:00 in the morning! I was definitely tired today and will have to limit how often I do that! It's fun meeting people. Koreans love to try and speak english, and there are also a lot of military people from the US, as well as other teachers from the US and Canada.

Koreans don't seem friendly from afar, but if you approach them they are more than willing to help with anything you need. Just an example, I got lost the first day I moved into my apartment stopped a highschool couple on the street for help. They didn't know very much english but the guy is taking english lessons so he called his english teacher who drove to meet us, and she helped me find my apartment. Definitely went out of their way to be helpful.

Unfortunately I left my camera at school on Friday but I have taken tons of photos and will post them as soon as I can. So far I have loved everything about being here, and hope the rest of the year goes just as well. Miss and love you all!