I've Been Here 2 Months!

I have been living in South Korea for two months today. I am becoming comfortable with my life out here and have even been calling it home. I was thinking the other day how different my life was before. Prior to my move, my life was consumed with work and school, and I was a stress mess. Now whenever I encounter any stressful situations I feel more stress then I should because I am no longer accustomed to dealing with high levels of stress on a daily basis. I must say, my life for the last two months have gone by fairly quick and has been very relaxed, and my life prior to Korea almost seems like it happened in a different life time.

So I have only had a few situations, which has only been recently that have left me feeling frustrated. Last week I finally received my ARC card. Apparently I could have received my card on July 7th but I put my phone number on the mailing slip. I don't know why I did that fully knowing that I don't speak Korean, so they had called and sent me a few texts requesting I contact them so that they could deliver my package. In my defense I do receive a lot of spam texts and there was no way I would have been able to read the text, and for the phone calls well everyone who knows me knows that I am not the best at picking up the phone, also there is no voicemail, and how the heck would they been able to talk to me.

Anyways, like I said, I got my ARC card, which meant I could finally get internet. After I got my new bank account, my new co-teacher called the internet company and provided all my information and everything seemed like a go until they found out I didn't have a subscription cell phone (it's pre-paid) and said that they could not identify me without my cell phone. Then what the heck is my ARC card for! My co-teacher called several other companies but they all said the same. After school, my co-teacher and I went to the internet/cell phone store and they check my ID/ARC card and they informed me I could get internet for $200 in addition to the $30 monthly payment! I asked how much there phones where, and they said that it was $100 dollars for a phone, $30 for installation, and $12 a month for service. When I asked if they had anything cheaper for a phone the salesperson just gave me a blank stare. I really don't want a new phone since I really don't use my phone now, and I pay $10 a month and that is for 40 outgoing minuets or 40 outgoing texts, which last me a month. After some hesitation, my co-teacher offered to put the internet under his name, so thats how now I got Internet. By the way, I couldn't get WiFi because that would require a 3 year contract!

The most frustrating thing was that I had to depend on someone to do all this for me, and because of the language barrier I am not sure if I understood everything because it just seems so ridicules. My plan is to look for a new phone and transfer the internet under my name because I just feel comfortable with it being under my co-teachers name. But again I will need his help to get all this accomplished.

School has been great, and I am defiantly getting better at teaching by developing new skills. I am now teaching summer camp and I have 2 more weeks left. Here is a short video I made today of my school.

Walk to School

Here is a short video of my walk to school. It took me 16 minutes to walk to school but I had to shorten it for you. However, this has made it a little hard to view. Sorry if it makes you dizzy. Hope you enjoy it!

Welcome Dinner

On Thursday, the ESL department took me out to dinner at the tofu house. We had a traditional meal with different types of soups and side dishes.

Afterwards we planed to go to drink beer or karaoke, but somehow that turned into seeing Kung Fu Panda II. The movie was cute, but not as good as the first one. The movies out here don’t have previews. I also don’t think they sell candy, but they doe have popcorn, drinks, and I think hot dogs. The movie tickets cost 8,000 won and they also have a matinee special for the first showing, but I think they start showing movies at 8:00 am. The theater has assigned seating, which is different then back home. The movie was in English with Korean subtitles.

Overall it was a good day.

Day 2

I woke up at 5:30 instead of 5:00. I tried to clean a little. Supposedly the school hired someone to clean the apartment, but it doesn’t seem like anyone cleaned it.  Its not disgusting but it does need to be cleaned. I read that the standard of cleanliness is not as high here as it is in the states. =/

I taught my first class by my self. They were 5^th graders and it went well. One of my classes had a group of boys that I had to separate, but other then that it went well. I am still trying to get the hang of things at school, but I know it will take time.

The English Department bought pizza as a welcome for me and for Brooke’s birthday. The pizza was good; the curst was a little sweet. They also served pickles on the side, which was odd.

Latter that night, we went to the park and had more pizza to celebrate Brooke’s birthday. I met other foreigners living in Pyeongtak. We played and egg toss game and lit some fireworks, which was a perfect way to end the evening. 

Day 1

I woke up at 3:00 am and then again at 5:00 am. I don’t think the jet lag pills worked but I definitely did not feel as awful as anticipated. I got ready for school and finished unpacking. I didn’t get lost going to school. It took about 20 minuets walking. I had to ask a kid how to get to the classroom. Where I work is called the English Village. The door was decorated with balloons and had a sign saying “Welcome Rosana”. I met my co-teacher Sue and the other foreign teacher Brooke from Colorado. I also met the principal, vice principle and other teachers at the school. I taught with my co-teacher that day.

Brooke showed me around town. We first had dinner at a place by her apartment. We ordered Tuna Kimbap (Which was amazing) and what we thought was kimchi fried rice, but it was some other kind of rice dish. Then we went to the super market by bus. The bus ride was intense; you really do have to hold on for dear life. The bus drivers accelerate and brake really fast, which sends you flying in every direction. I purchased the essentials: toilet paper, paper towels, blow drier, flat iron, yogurt, and some fruit.

I was exhausted by the end of the night.