Tidbits

I just opened a little container of cream cheese and there was a little security device inside the lid.  And they told me theft wasn't a problem in South Korea.

There is a black box on the wall in my apartment that says "Fire Escape". This is what's inside. I live on the eighth floor. Let's hope there's no fire, because I played sick the day we did repelling in gym class. 

This sign caught my eye because I suffer from the itchy ailment and I need to figure out how to say it in Korean so I can get some spray or something. Unfortunately, I don't think this would be the place to go. 

What to Eat?

So much to say, I don't know where to begin. People have been asking about the food, so I guess I'll start there. I really don't have all that much to say because I still haven't eaten at a lot of Korean restaurants. Sadly, most of my exposure to Korean food comes in the form of Korean school lunch. From my experience, school lunch in any country is not exactly good food, and I don't think Korea is any exception. Every day, we teachers get a box lunch, pictured below. You never know what you are going to get, and in my case, even as I'm eating it I don't know what I am getting. I hate asking what every little thing is, especially when there are 6-10 items in the lunch, so I just take a deep breath and take a bite. Sometimes that backfires, like when I thought it was egg and it was fish sausage covered in egg. When I first got here I tried almost everything once (except the chunks of spicy squid and breaded mystery meat), but I am finally starting to become familiar with a few recurring characters and I know what I like and what to avoid. The kimchi, for example, is not good. And to think I told the immigration people it was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Korea! I'm not saying all kimchi is bad; I've had some good stuff at restaurants, but the school lunch version is nasty. As is the kimchi-type diced radish (pictured below, upper left). Blech. I tried it about four times before I decided it was okay to not like it. Other then that, this particular lunch wasn't bad: 2 little potatoes, 2 tomatoes, some kind of tofu (the brown cubes), breaded fish, fried squid (did not eat) and some seaweed. There is usually some kind of seaweed in every lunch, which is pretty decent,  and I'm interested in the nutritional value in it. I kind of feel like I'm eating grass or something. Oh and there's always rice and soup to accompany the box. So overall, I feel somewhat satisfied by the lunch but don't know if I'm getting much protein or anything. More than lunch, I look forward to my afternoon snack (not provided) which is usually an apple and some nuts. I have been eating almonds like crazy! They are way cheaper here, which is exciting. 

Other than Korean school lunch, I have tried Korean BBQ, where the meat is grilled in front of you and you make little lettuce wraps, and some delicious fried rice that was so spicy in made my nose run, and went to a Brazilian steak house with coworkers, which was not Korean at all. I think it is going to be really hard to be a veg here, but I am going to do what I can. There is a Seoul Veggie Club that goes to vegetarian restaurants together, so hopefully I can meet up with them. I got a pizza at Pizza Hut the other day. It was delicious. I had heard that Koreans do not consider pork as meat, and I found this to be true when I ordered my pizza. "No meat, just vegetables," I said. The very nice waiter said, "No beef. Vegetables and pepperoni." "No, no, just vegetables." Funny. It was delicious, with lots of real cheese, which was the best part. Or maybe the best part was the ring of sweet potato around the crust. Crazy but good. Oh course it was sweet because EVERYTHING is sweet here. I just wanted something salty yesterday and got some Cheetos, and was sorely disappointed to find that Korean Cheetos are sweet and slightly fishy tasting. Not horrible, but just not what I was looking for in a Cheeto.

Figuring out what to eat is a slow process, but in the meantime, I have my staples of yogurt, fruit, eggs, PB, cereal, and an assortment of crackers that turn out to be cookies. 

Coffee

As you may or may not know, I love coffee. I have said many times before that I don't know if I could be a teacher if there was no coffee. Well, the past few weeks have been filled with grumpy, groggy mornings because I didn't have my standard two cups every morning. Some mornings I went without (devastating), some mornings I got by on drinking two instant coffee packets they have at school, which are more sugar and creamer than coffee, one morning I got cafe americano (espresso and hot water=gross), and the grumpiest morning of all, I ordered a large coffee at Dunkin Donuts and watched the girl fill it halfway with drip coffee and fill up the rest with hot water. I was so irritated and uncaffeinated that day. I spent about twenty minutes in the coffee aisle at the grocery store, trying to find a single bag of coffee that was not freeze-dried. Unsuccessful. BUT, this is all about to change. Yesterday I found some ground coffee and today after work I bought myself a cute little red coffee maker. Now I will be equipped to handle my 10 hour work day! 

It has been quite a rough adjustment to be at work that much every day, but I am finally starting to accept it. The coffee will help with this. It's not extremely challenging, it's just a LONG day. I get 40 minutes for lunch and and hour and a half of prep time, in which I am usually bored. I think I am going to start bringing a book. I just found out that on Wednesdays and Fridays I get off at 6:30, which will be nice. I think this schedule is will force me to take advantage of my weekends. I need to start planning some trips! 

My digs

These pictures are on here in the opposite order I intended. Didn't mean for the first picture to be of my toilet but I'm too lazy to fix it. Enjoy the tour!

The shower comes right out of the sink and sprays everywhere. Still getting used to that one. 

The washing machine is also in the bathroom. Haven't tackled that one yet.

Here's a few shots of my apartment in Gangdong-dong. (Dong means neighborhood. Isn't that cute?) It 's a pretty nice place and was very clean when I moved in, which I've heard is rare. It's pretty sparse at the moment. I'm still working on getting the basics. But I do so enjoy the beautiful murals provided by the pulled blinds. Depending on my mood, I can imagine myself out on the stormy sea or out for a pleasant afternoon stroll in a European village without ever leaving my apartment.  

No oven. I guess I won't be baking any cookies. 

I'm not sure if they use sheets in Korea. They didn't give me any...

Ahoy, matey!

 

Oops

Ok, let's try this again. Here's the link.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046554&id=59202927&l=acfff

More pics

For those non-facebookers, here's a link to all the pics: 

Sights around my neighborhood

Today I was planning on doing some exploring but it turned out that going to a coffeeshop and to E-mart for some groceries turned out to be enough for me. I sat in Holly's Coffee, drank my mocha and read Lonely Planet Seoul. You would think it would be a good idea to read the travel book before you go to that country, but hey, better late than never. It was pretty amazing to read about the sights of Seoul and then realize that I could see them tomorrow if I want! There's so much I want to do, but on the other hand, even going to the grocery store is exciting. I took some pics on my way there and back. I wanted to put them all up, but couldn't figure out how to make a slideshow yet. I'll work on that. I put an album on facebook, so for those of you who can, check it out. Don't worry, Mom and Dad, I will find a way to put them on here as well. For now, enjoy these glimpses of Seoul! 

Typical street on my way to E-mart

A random sign: a glimpse of Hangul, the Korean alphabet

The deadly scooter!

The street I live on 

The view from my apartment window

First Impressions

Well, I made it through the first week of teaching. It was a long one. I leave my apartment at 8:30 in the morning and return at about 8 at night. Especially during this adjustment period, it doesn't leave time for much, other than a little emailing, blogging and sleeping. What a life. I am really looking forward to this weekend so I can finally unpack and start to explore a bit more. But even in the hustle and bustle of the work week, I have made some observations that I thought I'd pass along. 

I love the style in Seoul! Everyone looks so nice and put together all the time. I hope some of the fashion rubs off on me because it is so cute! All the Korean teachers at school have the cutest clothes and shoes. And the men! Wowzer. So fancy. American men could learn something from the Koreans about how to dress. So for those of you who thought I might fall in love with a Korean, I'm not ruling it out because they are looking good. And they are not short, by the way. There are many tall Koreans. 

I am still trying to figure out if the people are friendly or not. Half the time when I interact with a Korean, I feel like they're making fun of me because I don't speak Korean, but that's probably just my insecurity. And they don't smile much. But on the other hand, I had three people helping me at E mart last night, and the other day I was waiting for someone outside a shop, and the clerk wanted me to come in because I looked cold. So I think it's true what I've heard that Koreans are very friendly and helpful. I'm sure I will be in need of this numerous times in the coming months. 

You may think, like I did, that Korean children are very well-behaved. This is true, to some extent. They very quickly quiet down when asked and seem to have a better attention span then American kids. But they are also spoiled. It seems to me that everyone treats them (especially the little ones) like your grandmother would treat you. I can't say I blame them because they are so darn cute! Today was the first day that I actually did my hair curly because I finally bought a hair dryer last night, and the comments from the students ranged from, "Teacher, your hair looks strange," to "Teacher, you are beautiful today!" Who wouldn't want to spoil the kid that tells you you are beautiful?

Motorcycles, bikes and scooters ride on the street, on the sidewalk, through traffic lights, pretty much wherever they please. At least three times on my way home last night, a scooter type thing came zooming up behind me and scared the living daylights out of me. Seriously, these big things just dart in and out of people walking on the sidewalk, almost touching my side. And then you have to watch them go back and forth from sidewalk to street and fear for their lives. I wonder if I'll ever get used to that. 

That's just a glimpse of life here, a sliver of the thousands of things I am taking in and trying to make sense of. Tomorrow I hope to do some exploring, venture further than my previous two stops on the subway, and maybe even find something to eat? Who knows. 

Health Check

Today I found out upon arriving at work that I was going to go to the hospital for a health check. This was the first I heard about this, but that seems to be the way things work when you don't speak the language of everyone else around you. So I got to miss a little bit of work and go get poked and prodded. My dear Eddie drove me to the hospital (we listened to Beyonce the whole way) and helped me get in to the check up area. I had to go to series of rooms with a little station in each one. It was quite a thorough check: eyes, ears, height, weight, urine, blood, xray, medications, blood pressure. Each one of these was in a different tiny room, so you can imagine it was quite nerve-wracking as I had no idea what the next room had in store for me. I think I passed to test, but you never can tell here. We'll see if I get my health card in three days. I don't even know what the health card is, but I think you need it to get a alien registration card, which you need to get a cell phone, which you need to have friends. So let's hope I passed the test.

Enjoy the clock! I am still getting used to the time thing. I am pretty much over jet lag, but it still amazes me that I am on a completely opposite time schedule than most everyone I know and love (with a few Asian expat exceptions). So I head to bed and say good morning to you all.

Finally!

I guess I have only been here three days but I have so much to say! I was SO frustrated because the blog starter page was in Korean and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it in English. But then my dear friend Mandi helped me from across the ocean and here I am. SO happy I can share this crazy adventure with you all!! 

Where to begin? How about imagining the worst possible thing that could happen when you are arriving in a foreign country with no contact information, solely banking on the fact that "Eddie" (no last name) is picking you up at the airport. I had this thought, but not until we were just landing in Incheon: What if Eddie doesn't come? but I pushed that thought out of my mind because I am a trusting and faithful individual. But that was the point that I realized that I didn't really have any contact info for Korea Poly School, where I would be working. Oh well, I thought. Eddie will be there. We landed, got through immigration, got my luggage, no problem. I walked out to the greeting area and there were loads of people holding signs with names on them. I scanned them in my jet lagged delirium and did not see my name or Korea Poly School as I was told I would see. No big deal. He'll be somewhere.  I stood around for about a half hour, watching all the arrivals being met by loved ones, telling myself Don't freak out, don't freak out. I didn't. I found the phone number I had for Poly School, took it to the info desk, and she called it for me. No answer. I walked away, downhearted, realized that it was Saturday and no one was there to answer the phone, and then I shed a few tears. But really just a few. I don't have anything against crying but I had to keep together. Now an hour and a half has passed, and the info lady made an announcement barely pronouncing my name. She looked at me like I was crazy when I told her Eddie was picking me up. No, just Eddie, no last name.  Still no Eddie. I came up with a plan. Get some Korean money, call my mom, buy some ice cream (they have Baskin Robbins and I was delirious), then figure out a hotel. I got through the first two, although my mom didn't answer, and was on my way to get some ice cream when I saw the sign. I thought I was imagining it at first. We did the Erin? Eddie? exchange and he asked me in broken English how long I was waiting. I told him two hours and he felt bad. Traffic. Whatever. I was too tired to be mad. So we get in the car and start driving to the city. We were listening to Korean talk radio and Eddie wasn't talking and I was feeling so scared and jet lagged, then he puts in a cd and Beyonce's Halo started playing! I was so excited I shouted "Beyonce!" and Eddie jutst looked at me like duh. But I enjoyed it nevertheless. I will never forget that moment and that song will forever have a special place in my heart. Props to Monica for bringing that into my life. 

Just when I thought I was going to get to my apartment and sleep, Eddie takes me into a restaurant where the director is. He invites us to sit down and eat. I just wanted to pass out at this point, but instead I have to choke down some cold spicy noodles and watch everyone else eat what looks like huge chunks of bacon fat on the BBQ. I think it is going to be very difficult to be a vegetarian here. Especially if I have to eat those noodles. The thought of it makes me shiver. 

Finally got to my place which was kind of gross, but thankfully only temporary. The shower is in with the toilet! You just stand right by the toilet to shower, which is fine I guess but kind of a problem if you need to go to the bathroom after you shower. I almost had a cartoonish falling moment this morning because my feet were wet and I tried to walk across the floor. Also, it seems that the water smells like kimchi, which is not a pleasant odor whatsoever. I suppose these are the things I will get used to...

I have so much more to say but I fear this is getting long. I haven't even started in on the job. And there is lots to say about that. In short, yesterday (my first day) was pretty horrible and overwhelming, but today was SO much better and I really enjoyed myself and the amazing kids. I LOVE the kids. Thank God. I was needing to love something about this whole thing. I know this is just a tease but I will write more tomorrow. Gots to go email and go to bed in my new, nice apartment!