Jeju Island

So this happened before my last post but I just got the pictures from my friend. I had only been here a couple weeks and we already had a 3 day weekend at the school. A group of girls had planned to go to Jeju Island, Korea's version of Hawaii, and they got me a ticket to got. Lucky me! It was so much fun not only to have a little vacation already but to be almost a celebrity. Only Korean's vacation there so they are not used to foreigners. We had about 3 people ask for pictures with us and boys hitting on us. LOL. So much fun.

The first day we spent the entire time on the beach. It was great. They had umbrella's set out for people to lay out on. They rented tubes so float on, too. They only bad thing was that there were so many people it was hard to relax without bumping into someone.

The second day we went to a couple of the beautiful waterfalls on the island. Chungeyon and Chungiyon (I think that is how you spell them) falls. The last day we went to see some volcano lava tubes caves. Awesome. The most fun part, though, was renting ATVs on another island we took a 15 minute fairy to. It took only 1 hour to drive around the whole thing. So much fun.

A great start to my time here.

Month 1

So I have been here for a month. I still don't have a camera so I am waiting for pics from friends. I have a few from my video camera. I went to Seoul Tower this weekend. It is in Namsan (South Mountain). It is a beautiful tower in the middle of the city. You can see the entire city. I am gonna try to go back in the fall when the leaves change, in the winter when it snows, and in the spring when there are flowers and take more pics. At the bottom of the tower, to my suprise, there was a mexican band playing!! So funny. Something I thought I would never see.

Nothing crazy exciting has happened but I was told about an amazing Italian restaurant. I have also been to some great Indian places. I have loved all the Korean BBQ. Love it so far.

The only bad thing so far is that I have not been able to get a cell phone. Aparently foreigners dont pay their bills so no one wants to cell to them. Great. Also, asians have such small feet that no one carries my shoe size. The only place that did wanted $80 a pair!! I don't pay $80 for shoes. I can barely get myself to pay $25. It's okay though. My mom is wonderful and is sending me some. I love her.

I am here!!!!

I miss and love you all so much. I am so sorry I have not written. Tomorrow I will have been here 3 weeks and I just got internet at my apartment today!!! There is so much to say. So, I wont lie. My first night here I freaked out. It was a combo of stun and no sleep on the 12 hour flight with only 4 hours of sleep the night before. But I overcame that quickly. I am so lucky. I was hired with an amazing school. There are many horror stories of private schools only being in it for the money and doing things to the teachers but this one is amazing and really is in it for the kids. I have my own classroom and I teach 5 different sets of kids in 5 and 6 year old classes. They are all 3 hours long. Some kids come once a week, some 2 and some 4. My apartment that they provided me is amazing for Korea. It is big and modern. It is only a 15 minute bus ride from the school. There are about 15 foreign teachers. Some leave at the end of the month and when they do I will be the only American left. The rest are from Canada. LOL. They have all been so amazing and helpful. I have already become close friends with a few of them.

So, I have already been shopping twice in Miyoung-dong, a big shopping district near the school. It is my new home away from home, away from home. =) I have already spent $250 on clothes, YIKES. Very little of the clothes fit me, which sucks but is kinda funny, because Asians are usually so petite. I don't think I am going to find any shoes, with my size 9 fat feet but keep your fingers crossed for me. The jewelery is amazing, though! However, they have recently opened a Forever 21 which is just my style.

The teachers have taken me to eat many places including Korean which my new favorite meal is Shabo-shabo. It is a meal where they serve slices of beef with mushroom, bean sprouts, lettuce, onion and more. You boil it in a pot of broth right on your table. AMAZING. There is also Kimbop, and others I can't remember the name. So far I have not found anything I don't like. (I refuse to eat anything with tentacles) There are also American chains here like Pizza Hut, although they love to put corn on their pizza. Who knew?

Itewon is an "white town" where many of the American chains can be found and a lot of foreigners like the military. Too bad I don't like military men. LOL

I have also been to Hongday, the party district where it is easy to be out till 4am.

I am having so much fun and I appreciate every ones love and support. I miss you and hope you are all doing well. Please, keep in touch. I will try to post photos. I will write more as soon as I can.

Marissa, give me suggestions of places to go!!!

THANK YOU

So, I want to take this time to thank everyone: all of my girls (and boys) who I miss horribly already, and the parents who have been so supportive of me. Thank you so much for the gifts, the gift cards and the kind words. I will be taking each of you with me in my heart. I wish I could list everyone here who gave me a small gift but the list would be too long, but know I remember everyone and have been extremely blessed by each of you. I feel like I am leaving a family. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

It's Official

I have my work visa and the school has bought my plane ticket!!! I leave July 28th at 12:30pm. I will arrive the 29th at 4pm. Crazy I am gonna loose an entire day. I will shadow the girl I will be replacing for the 39th and 31st and Then I start teaching the 1st. Funny I start the first because the schedule of the school is Tuesday-Saturday with Sunday and Monday off. So, I will teach Saturday and then have a weekend off. Sounds good, I can get a feel for it, just play games and stuff with the kids and then have the weekend to really plan the upcoming lessons.

I am really excited. I can't believe it is actually here. I have been thinking and talking about doing this for a whole year and it is finally here in just over a week.

YIKES

Comments

I have been told by a few people that, for some reason, my page will not allow people to leave comments. I know you have to sign up with an email address but for some reason the comments still are not showing up. If you do want to leave a comment please email me.

Bananasplitsgymnastics@yahoo.com

I know I am going to cherish everyone's love and support while I am gone. Being so away from home the connections to those I am missing will be, and are already, so important. Hope to hear from everyone.

Maple Bear

I officially accepted a job offer! It is with the company Maple Bear. It is a Canadian based company with only Canadian and American employees. This will be good for my first time because hopefully I will avoid some of the problems that would arise because of the different culture, such as language barriers and ways of doing business. The director sounds great and was very understanding of my position. I am not 100% sure but I think I am leaving July 24th. Yikes!