Sorta Settling In

And, again... I am here blogging on a Sunday. It's the perfect day to do it. I'm feeling a bit nostalgic and missing home right now. It's late November, and normally, in Busan, the weather is clear and no colder than 50. But, today it's rainy, windy, cold and overcast. Hmmm, sounds like the winters in Seattle. So, I'm sporting my Seattle U sweatshirt, I would be wearing purple and gold very proudly, but I failed to bring any UW sweatshirt to Korea. Congrats on the shut out Dawgs! This last week was Thanksgiving, and I was planning on heading up north to Seoul to celebrate with friends, but that didn't happen- too much planning involved in a too short of time. So, I made do and on Thursday, some American co-workers came over to my new apartment and we ate mashed potatoes and drank Hite (the much loved domestic beer). Turkey is near impossible to find in Korea, so there was no attempt to cook some, let alone search for it in the supermarket.

I finally have moved into my apartment, and made it a bit more "homey." I'm enjoying the location. Although I am no longer o

n the beach, I am surrounded by everything I need. I live in Jangsan; a district of Haeundae in Busan. It's great- it's a 2 minute walk to w

ork, a 5 minute walk to the supermarket and there are coffee shops, boutiques, rest

aurants, and bars al

l within a 2 block radius of my high-rise. Yesterday, I went to the grocery store and bought some Christmas lights t

o lighten up my place... I think it looks a lot better.

Working a full time job on the other side of the world takes

a little getting used to. Everything is done at the last minute here, and the Korean culture is

big on 'saving face' or lying to please. So, employers will tell you one thing but something completely different will happen. It is so, so different than the states. But, it makes for a very interesting experience and I'm attempting

to become much more flexible... which I'm sure will help me in the long run.

Below, I've posted more pictures of my place. Enjoy and I always look forward to the comments left. Cheers!

New apartment, new life.

Again, I find myself enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon in a coffee shop. I'm not at Starbucks this time, because I finally moved into my apartment. I live in a high-rise apartment building one block from my school. It's great. My apartment is huge; it's a studio loft. It took me over 3 hours to unpack everything on Friday night, when I moved in. I did a much needed load of laundry, cleared out my backpack and suitcases and sat back and enjoyed the crazy view I have. I'm on the 13th floor (lucky, huh?) and one of the walls in my apartment is a window; yes, the entire wall is a window. Which is good and bad. It makes the place feel bigger than it actually is, let's in a lot of light during the day and I have a fantastic view of the entire Jangsan district (where I live and work). But, at night, the lights love to flow in from the busy streets below and the sun likes to shine through early in the morning. So, I am desperately trying to find affordable curtains. I went to the store yesterday to buy groceries and a new comforter, and while I was there, I looked at the cost of curtains. WOW... 200,000. That's about $200. A bit high for me right now. I still haven't been paid, we get our check on the 30th of every month, so I think I'm just going to have to wait it out.

This last week has been very exciting. I starting teaching full time. I have my own classes, students and papers to grade. I teach 7 different classes. And out of all of them, one is the "hell" class. These kids are a lower level of English and are all in 6th grade. If I was in school until 9 pm everyday at age 12, I would probably act out too. These kids have no incentive to learn, and attempt to make my life suck. So, I return the favor. It's kind of nice- I get to take all my built up frustration on these lucky 14 children that grace me with their presence every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7:35-8:50 pm. I only have 3 weeks left with them until we start our Winter intensive classes and all the teachers get a new schedule, so I really don't care if these kids end up hating me because of my strictness as a teacher. Other than that one class, I've enjoyed my other students. It's nice not having to write my own curriculum, but the lessons do become mundane and boring after awhile. But this gives me more freedom to explore and make friends.

Cheers till next time, and as soon as my apartment is fully moved into, I will post pictures!

Weekend Adventures

It's Sunday afternoon in Busan. No work, no plans for today, so I found myself at Starbucks to get my coffee fix in addition to getting out of the stuffy love hotel that I currently call home. This week has flown by, kinda. The fact that I'm working full time, with a regular schedule throws me off. Having worked in only food service jobs since I was 17 encouraged my ability to stay flexible and unwillingly work every weekend and holiday. So, having a free weekend confuses me...

Yesterday I joined my fellow co-worker and resident of the love hotel, Christina, to a day of window shopping in the PNU district. PNU is the Pusan National University. The area is packed with shops, great food finds and tons of young Korean college students. The vibe reminds me a bit of the ave, but in much close of quarters. After sleeping in, Christina and myself ventured out and hopped on the subway. Using the map of the subway, we sketched out our journey and headed towards PNU. After 3 transfers and about 30 minutes on the underground, we arrived. The streets were filled with chatty young professionals and families making deals with vendors and gathering around the many food carts that were on every corner. After our long quest, Christina and myself decided we were hungry, so we found a tiny little Korean restaurant. We sat down, and ate our Bibimibop. Super tasty! After filling our stomachs, we headed to the streets. Shoes are the thing in Korea. Just walking down the street you will encounter several young women sporting the highest, cutest heels. Koreans are small, especially the women, so they insist on wearing 4 inch heels everyday; also, I swear, all Koreans believe they are in a fashion show all the time. I have never seen so many people dressed so well in such a small area before in my life. With that said, I have large feet in Korea. In America, I am average (I wear an 8 1/2... not too big) but in Korea, I have hobbit feet. So, as Christina looked for shoes (she wears a size 5 in the U.S.) I jealously looked on. For $35 dollars, she bought 3 pairs of lovely shoes. Such a great buy! Although I cannot fit into Korean shoes, I can fit into accessories. I was so happy when I purchased a warm AND fashionable hat in PNU. It's great and it fits perfectly!

After our ventures in PNU, Christina and I rested for a bit before grabbing dinner at Haeundae Beach and then heading to meet up with co-workers for Soju and Makju (alcohol and beer). We drank and ate Bulgolgi (Korean beef, which, by the way, is delicious) in a Soju tent. These things are everywhere in Korea. It's basically a plastic tent that fits 5-6 tables and serves alcohol with freshly grilled kabobs of meat, vegetables and spicy things. Alcohol is super cheap and the tent keeps the cold wind out. (A bottle of Soju goes for about $1.20 and a bottle of beer for about $1.00. No wonder why drinking is so prevalent in Korea, it's so cheap to do!) After our Soju tent conversations, we headed to the other University district to check out the bar scene. An 8,000 Won taxi ride later, we arrived and headed to a bar called Kino-Eye. I walked in, and immediately felt like I was in America. A very, very Western bar, there were only about 10 Koreans present, 5 of them were bar-tending. The rest- expats, most likely teachers. It was wild, I felt awkward being in Korea and being surrounded by all white people. It was fun, the music was loud, the drinks were very cheap and I didn't have to worry about my failing attempts at speaking Korean.

We left the bar around 2 am, all of us being exhausted and heading back to Haeundae. I fell asleep very quickly, the tylenol p.m. may be to blame. And today, I am semi-rested. I hate my bed at the hotel. It's round and hard, and I feel awkward sleeping on it! I'm sick and completely congested, so I'm trying to take it as easy as possible today. Keeping warm and drinking plenty of liquids. The temperature sure has dropped. Last week the average high was in the mid-high 70's. And right now its about 48 degrees. UGH.

Cheers till next time!

Well, I've been here for a week now, and I have yet to settle in. I'm still living out of a suite case in my hotel. It's not any hotel... but a "love hotel." I thought these only existed in movies, but no, I have found myself staying in one for a week, and calling it home. Although this sucks, I know that I will be moving soon enough. I am waiting for the teacher that I am replacing to leave so I can take her apartment. This won't happen till November 20th-ish. That means I have another 9 days to enjoy the high life of the love hotel.

Monday, I went for a long, long walk, explored the city and found a great place for reflection. Haeundae, where I am living, is the most famous beach in Korea, and the views are amazing. I wondered up a small trail, that overlooked both sides of the city. It was absolutely breath taking.

Yesterday was my first day at work. It was a long day... and full of testing. I did one-on-one verbal testing with the students for about 3 hours. The other 4 hours were spent in front of the computer screen, pretending to do something. Today I will be observing a couple "veteran" teachers while they teach. I'm excited to et my own classes and start working on my own. I know that when that happens, I'm going to wish I was back in the love hotel lazing around, enjoying my time away from work. Here's till next time!

Cheers!

I'm finally here!!

These past 48 hours have been stressful, exciting, adventurous and killer on my internal clock. I have no sense of what time it is, other than what the clock says. So, I flew out of SEA-TAC at noon on Tuesday. Said goodbye to my parents and embarked on an 11 hour flight to Tokyo. From there, I had an hour layover and then another 3 hour flight. On the flight, I met a nice Korean man that had lived in the states for 12 years and went to UW. He was so, so helpful and put my mind at ease about a lot of things I was stressing out about. So I landed really late in Busan, found my driver, who was holding up my name, and unloaded my luggage in his car. It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to where I'm currently staying. My apartment is still in use by the current English teacher, so I'm staying in a hotel for now... which is a bit annoying, but I'll survive. I was greeted by two Korean teachers from my school (they spoke perfectly good English!!). These two guys let me know what my status was. I'm in quarantine until Monday; then I get to go into work and meet my co-teachers, boss, etc. I'm excited and anxious to start my new life here.

I've been here for two days, and I'm already loving it. The views are absolutely amazing. I will upload some later, but the beach is a 2 minute walk from my hotel. It's about 75 degrees here, and I'm sweating almost as soon as I step foot outside. Yesterday, I had Korean lunch at a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant on a side street. It was SO good- spicy chicken soup and rice. I have pictures of that too... that I will be posting!

More updates to come, but for now, I'm spent. Cheers!