MY FIRST DAY IN KOREA AND AS AN ESL TEACHER in SEOCHANG

I made it through my first day!  And I think I managed pretty well.  I've learned so much already!

I found out that I live in a little suburb of Yangsan called Seochang which is about 20 minutes away by bus (or so they tell me) from the big city of Busan.
     When I was doing my research on which city I wanted to live in, Busan sounded right up my alley.  It is the 2nd largest city in South Korea (after Seoul of course) and is on the southern most time making it a very popular beach town.  

My studio apartment. Looking at the bathroom and kitchen

Here are a few photos of my new apartment!  

The entrance way _ Closet _ Bedroom

As you can see, it isn't anything luxurious but definitely enough to get me by.  I have hardwood floor living room, a tv on the left. Thru the sliding glass door is my little kitchen and the door on the left is the bathroom. Then you can see a little sneak peek into my little kitchen area.

The bathroom _ and sink shower

I have a full sized bed in this little space. The wall in the middle is my closet. The side towards the bed opens on the top (for clothes) and the side by the front door opens on the bottom (for shoes, etc). As you can see, I'm still unpacking, etc. So there is a little of everything around. To the left is my little kitchen. i got the basics, stove, microwave, big fridge (no oven), and then in the nook on the right there is a washing machine. The photo to the right is the view from my kitchen window. I know it doesn't look like much but it actually looks better in person (trust me, i don't live in the ghetto or slums lol). The person next door is growing a lot of crops. Next door is also a high school. See if I can get pictures of that for later. The next picture below the kitchen is my bathroom. Tiny but it works. The one thing I am not used to is not having a seperate shower.

The Kitchen

unpacking, etc. So there is a little of everything around. To the left is my little kitchen. i got the basics, stove, microwave, big fridge (no oven), and then in the nook on the right there is a washing machine. The photo to the right is the view from my kitchen window. I know it doesn't look like much but it actually looks better in person (trust me, i don't live in the ghetto or slums lol). The person next door is growing a lot of crops. Next door is also a high school. See if I can get pictures of that for later. The next picture below the kitchen is my bathroom. Tiny but it works. The one thing I am not used to is not having a seperate shower. The shower head is attached to the sink for water. It can be held right above the sink but it's easier to just take it off and wash yourself. There is a drain in the middle of the floor. Still very weird but not as bad as I thought. I just have to make sure not to get my towel wet which is right across from it. From what i have heard, this is pretty common in a lot of the Korean homes. So hopefully you just got a little bit of an idea of what I come home to everyday. Again, nothing huge but perfect for little old me :)
So at 1pm, Ho, the director of my school, picked me up and took me to the school. On the way, he described the bus system (i live off a main road so I will be taking the bus 10 minutes to school). I am a little disappointed because I was hoping to get a bike and ride around but he said that certain parts of the main road do not have a bike lane or sidewalk area to ride bikes so it is not very safe. I can walk along some parts where there are lots of shops but again, a certain area doesn't have a sidewalk. Looks like I'll be doing many trips to Busan and get my walk/workout on. Because of the rain, I have yet to explore outside my apartment. But I look forward to doing more of that when it clears up.
Ok, school. I arrived at school. Everyone asked if I was hungry and immediately ordered me udon soup (which i was familiar with). A delivery service brings it in a very nice dishes (no paper or plastic here) and when you're finished, you leave it in a basket by the door for them to pick up Pretty cool! The soup was very good! Esther went through some of the basic procedures with me and I shadowed Christine for most of the day. It looks pretty easy. Some of the classes had 3 kids in them, others had 16. Between 2:20-8:20 there are 9, 35 minute classes with a 5 minute break inbetween. Depending on the day (there are 2 different schedules), i have 2 or 3 35 minute breaks. OH this is a pic of my school :) at least the inside. It is on the 4th floor of a large building. And yes it's hard to figure out which building is which. They all have korean characters that all look the same lol. I really need to learn the alphabet. So yes because of all the crazy classes, it gets very busy. The books are very self explanatory. Lots of reading outloud, fill in the blanks, games, etc. The english teacher here before me wrote me out an entire 'how to' list explaining everything about getting around the city and how the school works, etc. It can get very confusing and overwhelming the first few days. I was asking so many questions. I think its one of those things that you'll just learn with routine. So it is a work in progress. As soon as the kids heard there was a new teacher, they searched far and wide for me. Not like I don't stand out or anything (yes all the other teachers are Korean). When they found me, whether i be in the teachers lounge, the classroom, walking around, etc, I just got stared at. It was kinda cute actually. They'd look at me stare, smile, wave and say hello. All very curious about the new english teacher. In every class I went into, I got asked 'where are you from,' 'how old are u,' 'when did you arrive in Korea,' 'do you speak korean,' 'what are your hobbies?' They were so cute. when they'd play games in class (one person had to guess a word and the rest of the class had to describe it), say the word was 'ink' they would say 'a pens friend' or if the word was moon 'the suns friend.' So cute. There are lots of kids and all very different. Some have ADD pretty bad (i wonder if they do the whole ADD thing here in Korea). I really think this could be good for me. I can learn so much.
After class, one of the other Korean teachers offered to take me to Lotte mart, their version of Walmart (apparently Walmart came here and failed... hilarious). I was so overwhelmed in Lottemart. 1st u have to pay like 800 won (80 cents) to get a cart (stupid), then she helped me go throughout the store to get everything i needed. Toilet paper, dish soap, food, hair straightener, notebook for school, mat for outside the bathroom, etc. Some of the food they had was pretty normal. I think I'm going to go aisle by aisle and just see what's what. I bought a korean tomato sauce and for spaghetti so we'll see how good it is. So it was probably mydownfall having her there cause like home, I went for 10 things and came back wtih this (below). Go figure lol. All necessities though

So that was my day #1 in a nutshell :) More to come...

p.s. one thing I didn't really think of... silverwear. I can usually find spoons (but different spoons) at Lotte mart but I haven't found forks or knives yet. lol. I'm sure they're around. I just have to find them... chopsticks it is!