Hi everyone!!!!
I arrived here in south Korea last weekend and it has been a busy week for me already! I flew out on the biggest plane I had ever been on! It was a loooong 14 hour flight from Chicago (TO to Chicago) to Korea on Korean Air. When I arrived at the airport it was a culture shock immediately. I was greeted by hundreds of Korean faces waiting for their family, friends or whoever to arrive. Grace (my director) picked me up and took me to my new apartment, and that was an experience in itself!! Korean drivers are CRAZY!!!! The signs on the road appear to be non-existent here, along with the traffic lights. NOBODY stops at red lights, not even the town buses...which is why I now prefer the subway.
My apartment is called an "officetel." It is a building like many other buildings in Korea, having many different things in it other then just apartments. My officetel has a convenience store on the 1st floor, an optometrist office on the 2nd, and some other business office on the 3rd. I live on the 6th floor. Korea is so overpopulated that there is not enough land to build new offices, hence offices are built on top of one another in tall, tall buildings. The building I'm in right now has a night club on the 2nd floor, offices on the 3rd, and the internet cafe (where I am right now) on the 4th.
The school that I teach at is an ESL language institute. It is a seperate school that the children attend after their regular school, it is simply to teach english and grammar. I teach from 1pm-8pm. The kids are so overworked here. they attend school from 7am-10pm. the Universities only admit so many students so they are very competetive, so the parents have thier children in schools after schools to try and better their education. Some kids come into my class straight from a martial arts class, then after leave to attend a seperate school for math studies. But I guess it is worth it b/c they are so smart and they catch on to things very quickly. I have 5 year olds who know how to read and write in english and know the days of the week, and the older (13-15yr olds) kids can almost speak english fluently. They are so funny too, they love the word "gorilla" and "king kong," they think it is hilarious when they hear those words. I have yet to figure out why.
As for the adventures outside of school, its been amazing! everything is so interesting to me! the first thing that I thought was interesting is their food delivery routine. When you have food delivered to your apartment it is delivered by a man on a little scooter, he delivers the food to you on real dishes, then when you are finished you place the dishes outside the door like room service, and he will come back later to pick it up. This is to cut down on the all the trash. Another thing they do here is when a business opens up, for instance Papa John's pizza just opened up across the street...mmmm.....other businesses around them will deliver flowers and balloons and set them up outside to wish them good luck with the bussiness, how nice, eh?
Also, apparently computer games are HUGE here, I am at the internet cafe (PC BONG) and there is not a single sould on the internet, everyone is playing a computer game, even all the girls!
I live about an hour (on bus) outside of Seoul, but I prefer the subway....much safer!! Anyway, in Seoul vendors are selling everything on the streets and you can always bargain with them. I bought a beautiful necklace and earing set for $3 the other day!! Along with clothing and jewlery there is also market foods you can buy. But the foods are all out in the open, the meats and everything. Nothing is covered up! It's crazy b/c the Koreans are such health nuts, most of them wear masks to protect themselves from germs and almost everyone wears gloves as well, however, not a single person washes their hands after using the bathroom......its quite strange, as well as disgusting! lol.
anyways, I think I've written a novel here....but I will keep you posted. Hopefully I will have some pictures to put up soon as well!!!
Keep in touch!
miss you all!
Deanne
I arrived here in south Korea last weekend and it has been a busy week for me already! I flew out on the biggest plane I had ever been on! It was a loooong 14 hour flight from Chicago (TO to Chicago) to Korea on Korean Air. When I arrived at the airport it was a culture shock immediately. I was greeted by hundreds of Korean faces waiting for their family, friends or whoever to arrive. Grace (my director) picked me up and took me to my new apartment, and that was an experience in itself!! Korean drivers are CRAZY!!!! The signs on the road appear to be non-existent here, along with the traffic lights. NOBODY stops at red lights, not even the town buses...which is why I now prefer the subway.
My apartment is called an "officetel." It is a building like many other buildings in Korea, having many different things in it other then just apartments. My officetel has a convenience store on the 1st floor, an optometrist office on the 2nd, and some other business office on the 3rd. I live on the 6th floor. Korea is so overpopulated that there is not enough land to build new offices, hence offices are built on top of one another in tall, tall buildings. The building I'm in right now has a night club on the 2nd floor, offices on the 3rd, and the internet cafe (where I am right now) on the 4th.
The school that I teach at is an ESL language institute. It is a seperate school that the children attend after their regular school, it is simply to teach english and grammar. I teach from 1pm-8pm. The kids are so overworked here. they attend school from 7am-10pm. the Universities only admit so many students so they are very competetive, so the parents have thier children in schools after schools to try and better their education. Some kids come into my class straight from a martial arts class, then after leave to attend a seperate school for math studies. But I guess it is worth it b/c they are so smart and they catch on to things very quickly. I have 5 year olds who know how to read and write in english and know the days of the week, and the older (13-15yr olds) kids can almost speak english fluently. They are so funny too, they love the word "gorilla" and "king kong," they think it is hilarious when they hear those words. I have yet to figure out why.
As for the adventures outside of school, its been amazing! everything is so interesting to me! the first thing that I thought was interesting is their food delivery routine. When you have food delivered to your apartment it is delivered by a man on a little scooter, he delivers the food to you on real dishes, then when you are finished you place the dishes outside the door like room service, and he will come back later to pick it up. This is to cut down on the all the trash. Another thing they do here is when a business opens up, for instance Papa John's pizza just opened up across the street...mmmm.....other businesses around them will deliver flowers and balloons and set them up outside to wish them good luck with the bussiness, how nice, eh?
Also, apparently computer games are HUGE here, I am at the internet cafe (PC BONG) and there is not a single sould on the internet, everyone is playing a computer game, even all the girls!
I live about an hour (on bus) outside of Seoul, but I prefer the subway....much safer!! Anyway, in Seoul vendors are selling everything on the streets and you can always bargain with them. I bought a beautiful necklace and earing set for $3 the other day!! Along with clothing and jewlery there is also market foods you can buy. But the foods are all out in the open, the meats and everything. Nothing is covered up! It's crazy b/c the Koreans are such health nuts, most of them wear masks to protect themselves from germs and almost everyone wears gloves as well, however, not a single person washes their hands after using the bathroom......its quite strange, as well as disgusting! lol.
anyways, I think I've written a novel here....but I will keep you posted. Hopefully I will have some pictures to put up soon as well!!!
Keep in touch!
miss you all!
Deanne
posted by Mama D | 4:33 AM
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1 comments
