School has been pretty routine. I wake up in the morning, do some cleaning/organizing around my apartment, chat/skype/facebook friends (when i wake up it is usually like 3pm california time), shower, get ready for school and then school from 2-9. Starting this week I am vowing to work out before school. I have no excuses. I was really hoping to get a bicycle. However, turns out that it's not very safe to ride along the main road to the school. Not any sidewalk or even lanes big enough to fit a bike on the side. So looks like I will be walking as much as possible.
Today I got picked up earlier by Ho, my school director, and he took me to the Ulsan hospital. As an international teacher, you are required to get a health check before you can obtain and ID card (need ID card to open bank account, get a cell, etc). Let me start by saying that the decorator at our hospitals needs some serious lessons. These are the waiting rooms at the hospital.
Let me just say that 1st... their waiting 
rooms have COUCHES!! leather and suede!! The main waiting room also has a huge fish tank to the right (not visible in his photo), people are walking by in the back but in back of them is a piano... yes a piano is played in the waiting room of the HOSPITAL! Then there is a 7-11 and a coffee stand there...you can pay 500 Won (50 cents) and have a chair massage. We are getting ripped off in so many ways!!! Back to my check up... i probably went between the 3rd and 1st floor 4 times. Paper work on 1st floor, urine test and blood test on 3rd floor, sight and hearing on 1st, then x ray on 3rd, etc etc. After the hospital, Ho and I went to the civil service officIerica the parents do it anyway but it was a big thing here. very odd. After was lunch... where to go. "what do you want to eat? Do you want korean food, hamburger, or TGI Fridays?" HA HA!! So random. While I have the urge I decided to go for Korean food. We went into a store that reminded me of target and on the side was a food court type thing. He took me ther
e because I could see in the window what kind of food they had.
Hmmmm after looking at all this, how was I supposed to choose? lol. I couldn't tell what some was. At one point I pointed to a plate (on the left) and was like 'sushi!' Ho said no they don't have sushi here. hmmm. We ordered 2 dishes and decided to share (i read that it is very traditional for the Koreans to share their meals with strangers. It is almost an insult if you do not). He got Kimchee stew (which was surprisingly better than I anticipated) and a rice dish. They give you a cup of rice and a large bowl of veggies and sauce. You pour your rice in and mix it all up. Very tasty. 
I tried to remember the name of it in Korean... but i forgot lol. I wound up getting seafood Udon soup. Comes with a small cabbage salad (yummy!) chicken cutlet, kimchee (of course), and yes sushi lol... it was definitely our kind of sushi... i guess they do not consider that sushi though. This is the normal size of a korean lunch. As big as it is, I was not heavily full after. My question is, if they eat this much food at one meal on a daily basis for every meal (check out how much food comes on some of the other plates) how do they not get fat? Where us Americans tend to watch what we eat and still blow up like a balloon. Makes no sense to me lol. Overall it was a great meal. I enjoyed it. Afterwards, I hopped on the bus for the first time and rode 25 minutes back to school from Ulsan. One of the teachers was very nervous about me riding for the first time so she met me at the bus stop. Very sweet. Then back to school (this is the teachers area at my school. My desk is covered by the plant).
I have come to the conclusion that the Koreans are just very very nice people. Everyone has done so much volunteerily to help me. Ho was so nice and friendly. He's picked me up at home everyday and took me to school, taking me to the hospital, helped me exchange money at the bank (i needed my ID card... which i didn't have), gave me his own families personal cell phone and has invitied me over to have dinner with his family. His mother is a chef so he offered her services to give me korean cooking lessons! They loaned me money to shop with before I had exchanged mine. They didn't even know me and gave me money. The girls I work with have all offered to give me a ride home everyday. They have all gone above and beyond. I am so greatful for them. It is almost like I don't know how to respond to their generosity and kindness. Just not common in the US.
So with that said... I am going to head to bed. I am hoping to take my Saturday to walk around the city of Seochang. I've been in contact with some friends in the city and am hoping to make a trip on my own by bus into Busan. Bus to Nopo-dong and then subway to either Hwamyeog or Seomyeong... and yes i am starting to learn the city names lol. So weird. And hopefully explore Busan in it's entirety on Sunday :) I found out that I have February 15th off work so I am hoping to plan a trip to maybe Seoul??
OH and for those asking my new address is: Pyungsan-dong 20B 1N Yangsansi Kyungnam Republic of Korea :)
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