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BABY BALD EAGLES!!!!

It's Thursday!

There are photos in the previous post! Check 'em out!

I complained about the state of my apartment and they actually did something about it! Many of my coworkers led me to believe that I was perfectly welcome to complain, but that I shouldn’t get my hopes up. Some one came by on Tuesday and scrubbed the shit out of my bathroom. It’s so nice to feel like I can safely touch all of the surfaces in my place without contracting some kind of incurable disease. Even the sink is fixed. Did I mention before that it was held together with packing tape? It appears to be repaired fully, no tape in sight. Speaking of tape, one of my goals for the weekend is to find something to hang stuff on the wall with. I have this really fantastic wallpaper on one side (which you’ll get your eyes on shortly) but I brought a bunch of pictures of all of you (and Oliver of course) that I can’t wait to get up.

I have officially just completed my third day of teaching. It is exhausting!! I teach Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2:30 to 7:10 with a 5 minute break every 40 minutes or so. However, that break is mostly devoted to making sure my students make it to and from my classroom, that no one messes with my school computer and that I have all of my documents in order for the next round of ninos. I guess I need to figure out how to say children in Korean. Everyone else teaches until 8:45, which is what I have to look forward to next term. Tuesdays and Thursdays are much more civilized. I only teach from 4:45 to 7:30 or so, but I have to be at school from about 1:30 to 8:30. It gives me time to do the HUGE amount of grading and documenting I’m required to do.

All in all, the teaching is going pretty well. I’m pretty comfortable in front of the classroom, but there is a lot to remember. I think the kids like me for the most part. It’s strange coming in the middle of the term. The students have been shifted from other teachers even though all of the teachers are still in the building. I get asked “But why, teacher?” a lot. And that’s another thing. It is perfectly acceptable here to say “TEACHER” as many times as necessary to get my attention. We are working on my name and raising your hand to talk to me. I have one class in particular that loves giving me a hard time. Even the good kids are getting in on it. I miss adults! Adult students are so civilized! I know that as soon as I get more comfortable with everything it will get easier. I might need some classroom management tips from you teachers out there. You know how to get a hold of me.

Life in general is pretty good. I’m getting to know my coworkers a little better. I guess a few of them gave up drinking for Lent. I think after Easter it will be even easier to get to know them J A few of the people I met at training live in the Seoul area, so it should be easy to find someone to hang out with on the weekends. This schedule just doesn’t lend itself well to extracurricular activities during the workweek.

Keep sending me emails! I’ve been doing my best to write everyone back in a timely fashion. When I have internet (and a phone!) staying in touch will be much easier. I’ll even be able to Skype!

For those that are interested, my Skype address is: elainecatherinewright

Photos, finally!!!

The first photo I took in Korea. This is from the bus stop at the airport.

 Korean barbeque with some of my fellow trainees. So delicious.

 Japie, the South African, losing at hackey sack to a Korean woman. It was awesome. 

 The fun part of Gangnam at night. 

I just really like the name of this place.

I hate to admit it, but I think my wardrobe is cracker enough, thank you very much. 

It's all about tone. I could make this sound all kinds of inappropriate. 

 Mark, my friend from training, checking out the local offerings. 

 I don't even remember where this is anymore. It's a pretty typical Seoul street. The city looks like this for miles and miles and miles. It's pretty amazing. 

 My building! I live above a garage. My apartment is on the third floor, second from the left on the right hand side of the building. 

 Nadine and Brendan! This is near COEX mall, at the World Trade Center. 

 Being very culturally appropriate and drinking with both hands. Did you know that you should look away when you are drinking alcohol?

 Korean barbeque!

 Take creepy pictures of yourself while I'm in the bathroom and they go on the blog. BE WARNED. 

 See what's there in the bottom? Outside! This is on my street. 

 It's universal.

 Apparently Koreans are afraid of cats, so I got a scary pencil case. 

 This park is a block from my house. Check the sweet exercise equipment. I hope Korea's ready for me lifting in a park. Booty camp anyone?

 I walk through this park to get to school. 

 My apartment! Check out my super sweet night stand!

 This is from the kitchen/front door. I love the wall paper.

 The kitchen!

 My new and improved and CLEAN bathroom!

Training, Visits and Mold

Well, I passed training! Good news is that I get to work and continue living in Korea. The bad news is that I won't be returning to Washington and living in my parents' basement in shame for the next year. Well, bad news for you. Still good news for me. It was pretty intense, but I think training went pretty well. April (the part of ChungDahm Learning that I'll be teaching for) is focused on young learners, so I didn't have to learn a lot of complicated grammar concepts. I get to ask questions like "Ok, what's blue? Good! It's a color. What can you see that's blue?"

The worst part was that at the end of training we were all whisked off to our respective schools and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to any of the friends I made. We didn't have a chance to exchange emails or anything. It was pretty crazy to get into a cab all by myself without having said goodbye, and really sad! About 5 minutes into my cab ride, the driver pulls over, hand me his cell phone and someone says, "Is this Jennifer?" I said, "No, this is Elaine". She said, "Ok, let me talk to the driver". All I could think was, I can't communicate with this man at all and he doesn't even know who I am or where we are going. Then we u-turned and got back on the road and I was driven to my branch. I was met by one of the bosses, then was told to take a 2 hour break. Then, I had dinner with my direct boss, who seems like a pretty cool guy. I start teaching unsupervised tomorrow afternoon. I can't believe it! It feels like getting here took soooo long, and now everything is going so fast.

Yesterday marked a very important day in my Korean life: Nadine and Brendan were here!! They had a 12 hour lay over in Seoul. We met in the center of the city and basically just ate. It was so surreal to see them here, especially so early in my year. I feel like I'm just getting adjusted and getting things figured out and then suddenly it was just like being home! It's almost like it never happened. They had a great trip and it was fantastic to hear about it firsthand and not just over email. They also brought me phenomenal gift of a plate with their photo. It looks perfect in my apartment.

Speaking of my apartment, I've moved in! It's cute and I have a seperate shower, which is pretty unusal for Korea. The only problem is that it's DISGUSTING. The person who lived there before me must have been really, really dirty. I can't imagine living like that, let alone leaving something like that for someone else. It smells like mold and every single surface is disgusting. Oh, and the bathroom sink leaks. There are dishes in the cupboard, so I took out a bowl to catch the water from the sink and that was dirty, too. I can't see the pipes for the kitchen sink, but it's making the same noise as the bathroom, so that will be my first major complaint. I've already put in a bunch of time cleaning and after I leave this internet cafe, I'm cleaning some more.

For now, I'm trying to figure out the neighborhood and hoping to find something to eat. I won't have internet in my apartment for a couple of weeks, which is lame. But it also means no skype. I also do not have a phone, which is double lame. For now, it's not that big of  a deal because I don't really have any friends, but hopefully I will soon and then I'll need a way to contact them!!! Ok, I hope that was enough information for you. I'll post again soon!

OMG I LIVE IN KOREA NOW!!!! Part 2: It's wonderful!

The training has begun. Chungdahm is doing everything it can to emphasize how freaking sweet they are compared to the other Hagwons in Korea. So far, I’m buying it. I like the methodology and the basic principles we’ve addressed so far. My Master’s seems to be helping. I passed the grammar test!! I also feel like most of the stuff we’ve covered so far is either review or a concept that is closely related to something I already know. One thing that’s crazy to consider is the business aspect of the company. It’s different to look at student retention as a business issue, but it’s definitely the case here.

The best part about training is meeting the other teachers that are here doing the same thing. The variety of backgrounds is really impressive. There are about 17 of us; we are mostly Americans, with a South African, an Irishman, and my Kiwi roommate. We had our first few hours of training, followed by our medical exam. It was insane. We all went into the Korean Medical Institute. We were handed keys to lockers, told to put on these crazy Asian style scrubs and ushered around by women with clipboards. I got a chest xray, a blood draw, a blood pressure test, a hearing test, an ekg and a bunch of other tests. It was so confusing and insane. I never really knew what was happening or what was about to happen, just that another woman with a clipboard was calling my name. It was hilarious and awesome.

After the medical test, a bunch of us went and had Korean BBQ. I had soju for the first time. It was great to bond with a bunch of others, as well as check out Korean BBQ. There are several Korean Americans in our group and few that have been here for a while learning Korean. It's great to have people who know what they are doing. Everyone is really cool and interesting, so I'm excited to continue to hang out. 

Moral of the story, I am so happy to be here. I love Korea so far, I think work is going to be great and the people are awesome. It's so great to feel like I made the right decision by coming here. You all have to come visit. It's great. Unfortunately, I'm not at the top of my game. I promise to be way more clever and interesting in the near future. And I'll post pictures.

OMG I LIVE IN KOREA NOW!!!!

After saying a sad goodbye to my family and Kate at the airport (and eating my final American pizza), I made it safely to Korea. My flight was uneventful. I had my own screen for the first time ever!!! Brian was right, the 777 is pretty sweet. I watched 4 films: True Grit (Western, made me wish I’d actually watched all 6 hours of Lonesome Dove), The Romantics (sad white people, mostly sad white Katie Holmes), Love and Other Drugs (Jake Gyllenhal and Anne Hathaway have a lot of sex and she has Parkinson’s) and Beauty and the Beast (which I unfortunately slept through). I also played a little Tetris. I suck at it. Mostly I tried to keep to myself and not be too fidgety.

Upon arrival, everything went great. I rode the bus and stared out the window. I saw a lot of amazing things and took a few pictures. I shared a cab with a guy from San Francisco who is teaching for the same company as I am. During training, we are staying in a hotel in the Gangnam neighborhood of Seoul. We have a sweet suite!! I have three roommates; one from Gig Harbor who went to UW (oddly enough), one from Utah and another from Auckland, New Zealand. Lauren, from Gig Harbor, and I spent the Sunday exploring the city. I bought a new purse and a few other necessary items. We figured out the subway system and ate delicious Korean food. Don’t worry, Kev, I’ll be an expert by the time I come home.

I’m happy to report that I’ve already had a mishap! My first attempt at a shower was foiled by freezing water. It was early in the morning on Sunday, so I thought, “Oh, it’s a popular shower time, I’ll wait ‘til later in the day.” I waited until the afternoon and took the coldest and least satisfying shower OF ALL TIME. Literally the second I got out, I remembered the youtube video of someone’s apartment I watched with Kate and Erin. YOU HAVE TO TURN THE HOT WATER ON. It was a life-changing realization. I took the hottest and longest shower to make up for the horrible first one. I’ll tell you one thing, I will never make that mistake again.

So anyway, I’ve arrived. In order to keep this post of modest length, I’ll detail my first day of training in a second post. Stay tuned!

I got a visa!!

Just one more quick little meeting with the Korean Consul tomorrow morning and then I should be all set. I am so happy to know that I will be leaving in a couple of weeks for sure, and that I won't have to wait until the last minute to find out. I'm sure that the next couple of weeks will go way too fast. I'm buying a plane ticket this week. It looks like I'll be in the air on Friday, March 25th.

In the meantime, I'm back at SGA. It's nice to see everyone and nice to have a paycheck. I fully taken over the Command Center at Nadine and Brendan's. I miss them, but it's really nice to have a place to stay and not feel like I'm in their way all the time.

I'm sorry I don't have more fun, cool, interesting things to blog about yet. Just you wait! This should keep you entertained for now. Or, perhaps for the intellectual reader, check out North Korea's Official Website. Despite not having the internet, they do have a website. It's great to learn about North Korea from North Korea's perspective.They have tours!!!! I'll do my best to get on that. I would love to see the Mass Games.

Finally, if you click FOLLOW at the bottom of the page, then you'll get sweet updates when I post something!! Hooray!