I've been in South Korea for a week now. It feels MUCH longer. I've been too busy to start this blog and now if feels as though there is just too much to say. I don't know where to begin...

My flight was surprisingly good. On both flights I had an empty seat next to me so my space wasn't invaded. I got a bit of rest, but naturally still felt pretty crazy when I finally arrived. In the airport I waited for an hour before I decided that they weren't just late picking me up and that I should attempt to call. The lady at the info booth was nice and called the school. They decided that the best thing would be for me to just take a cab to Suwon. The cab driver was nuts. He drove all over the place, went through lights that he should have stopped at, drove on the line, cut people off and honked when someone was "in his way". (Later I realized that this is normal.)

We picked up Emma (my councilor at school) on the street. She directed the cabbie to my appartment, which was in a dark ally. We dropped off my bags and went to the school for me to meet the Korean staff. We talked for a little bit and then Emma walked me back to my appartment so I knew how to get there the next morning.

Back at my place I was overwhelmed. I was so tired and thought that I was crazy for coming here. Just when I was about to call it what it was I heard a knock at the door. It was Matt and Mandie. They somehow managed to find my appartment. They were my heros. I felt instantly better. You have no idea how good it feels to see a friend when you're in a new place. They showed me how to work my washing machine, water heater, air con and heating systems. Then we went to the home plus down the street. They showed me where the neccessities were and got me started with some food so at least I had something for the morning.

We went out for my first real Korean meal. We had Kim bap (Korean style California roll), Rapolkie (spicy ramen, radish and thick rice-like stick things) Kim Chi (the Korean specialty of spicy formented cabbage), some type of soup with tofu, clams and jalepeneo pepers, mando (steamed pork dumplings) and so much other stuff that i can't even remember. The thing with Korean food is that you get way more than what you pay for. It always comes with at least 3 side dishes. People order a bunch of dishes and all share. (lots of fun, but bad for spreading colds....i guess that's why everyone at my school seems to be sick right now!)

Matt and Mandie filled me in on so many things. They were such a help. I felt much more prepaired for the upcoming week. Its so different when someone is showing you things rather than just telling you about it. I had heard many stories about people's experiences here, but its not until actually arriving that I'm seeing what they ment. Its awesome.

I feel like I've been learning so much. My senses are being overloaded. Especially my sense of sight. I live right by down town YoungTong (an area in Suwon) and there are pretty tall buildings covered in neon lights and signs. Everything is flashing and there is so much life there. There are all sorts of restaurants and stores in this area. I really like it. Before I came here I thought that Suwon was around the size of Markham. Ha. Its not. Its population is around one million. It takes me a half hour bus ride to get to the other side where Matt lives. I like the location. Its close enough to Seoul to be able to go there every weekend.

As for my school, Yes Youndo, I've been spending most of my time there. I really want to get used to teaching and what I'm supposed to be doing before I start learning to read Korean. Its a lot of work. Much more than I anticipated. I know it will get easier as I go along. Its just difficult to remember everything I've been told I should/could do. I talked with 3 senior teachers before starting actually teaching and I sat in on a few classes to see what its really like. That was pretty helpful. All the other English teachers (there are 18 of us) are pretty nice. Its going to take time to really get to know them, but I never expected anything instant. Most of them are Canadian and about half of us are from Toronto area. Its the big joke...figures...she's from Toronto...Youngdo only hires Canadians!

I'm teaching 5 classes. The kids are divided into levels, not by age. I think my youngest kids are 7 and the oldest are 14. They're pretty funny. They ask me all sorts of questions like "how old are you?" "are you married?" do you have a boyfriend" do you like cake?" do you eat hamburgers all the time" what is your bloodtype" (no joke! they asked me that tonight and were so shocked that I didn't know) Some classes they're wild. I can't get them to be quiet and others will only talk to each other. With the younger kids its easy to scare them with threatening to send them to the Korean teachers when they speak Korean, but the older kids hardly speak any English. I know that they can do it, but its like they're too worried about embarassing themselves that they'd rather not say anything. The basic classes love to get rewards. I hand out stickers when they give me a good answer. Sometimes they really shock me. Today a boy said the work "gas range" I nearly fell over. I couldn't believe he knew that. My favourite class is my senior 1 class. They're still young enough to like English, but I can speak reasonably quickly and I can make jokes with them.

The school is very serious. I have been told on multiple occasions that youngdo is a business, not a school. Meaning that you can't give the kids failing grades. If they fail they won't come back and that is money lost. But it still has to be serious enough that they learn stuff. We can't just give them good grades and send them on to the next level. AND they have to somewhat enjoy themselves, or the kids won't want to come back and the parents will send them somewhere else. There are cameras in each classroom to monitor us if needed. Often parents come in and want to see what the classes are going to be like, so they turn on the tv and they can see and hear what is going on. Its kind of strange knowing that you're being watched.

My appartment is pretty good. Its the biggest one that I've seen of different teachers. Its one room with a kitchen off to the side, a bathroom and a seperate laundry/storage room. I have an air conditionner, a tv, table, chairs, couch, full fridge and washing machine. Its pretty good. The one thing that I don't like is that the shower is the bathroom. There is no shower stall, so everything gets wet. Every appartment here is the same so everyone has shower sandles and a mat outside of the door. I'll get used to it eventually, but for now the bottoms of my pants are wet.

On the weekend we went to Youngsan, which is basically the electronic district of Seoul. It was wild. We went into this department store looking place. It was like 7 levels, each one dedicated to something. We were there for a cell phone. We get to the phone level and were hit by a sea of cases with neon lights under them to display their goodies. Right away we're being called at by the people behind he counters. "good han pon here" (han pon=hand phone=cell phone) "nice han pon, come look". I have never really been much of a cell phone girl, but man, this place was awesome. They had phones with amazing tv screens that you turn horizontally to watch. The picture is so clear and the sound is good. They have all sorts of slide-y/click-y/flashy stuff with them that I couldn't even fathom. I ended up buying a pretty cool used one. Apparently Koreans don't buy used phones so there was a pretty good selection. It was only 80 bucks and it slides up and down, has a mp3 player and a camera. Not bad for a chick that has never had a cell phone outside of Paris. Don't even get me started on the digital cameras!

I've been here for one week. I've actually taught 3 days of classes. Now its Chuseok (Thanksgiving equivialent) and we have 6 days off! How sweet is that. There has been talk that we might go to some small island not far from Seoul.

There is just too much to say right now. I'll update again when I have time.