First couple days in Korea: May 19 ~ 21

If you want an actual account of the long, grueling, 24 hour traveling time plane ride to South Korea, then read Erin's Blog: http://www.krwmillionaire.blogspot.com/ (in the May section, titled The Flight) I'm eager to get this blog going and get it caught up, and the plane ride wasn't that exciting. Oh, except for the scare of missing our flight from Japan to Korea when we were being held on the plane to get infra-photographed by people in masks to make sure no one had a fever and would possibly transmit the Swine Flu to Japan or Korea... They also checked our temperatures when we landed in Korea and my school checked my temp. a few times during my first two weeks! They are pretty paranoid over here...

Anywho, we arrived in Korea on May 19th around 9:30p.m. and dragged our luggage out to the front of the airport to be greeted by my co-teacher, Sun Jung, who graciously picked us up after our agency informed her that they would not. She is really, really nice! She's already done so much for us, I don't even know how to show her my appreciation.

We got to my apartment around 11. I had been in contact via e-mail with the English teacher (Asif) I replaced and he gave me the code to get into the apartment building, but not the code to get into the apartment. Luckily, my co-teacher went up to the 4th floor and talked to the land lady who gave me a electronic key and a code to get into my apartment. The apartment itself is pretty small. I knew I would have a studio, but some of the more modern apts called "officetels" have a loft and I thought I might get one of those. But alas, I did not. It's not so bad now. At first glance though, I was a little bummed, especially since Asif told me the apartment would be clean and it wasn't my idea of clean at all. Boys! Hmph.

So, we put the t-shirt sheets I brought on the bed, hit the shower, and went to bed. I had to start work the next morning at 8:40 a.m. Because of the 13 hour difference between Korea and Florida, Erin and I were wide-awake at 6 a.m.! This lasted for about a week, and we finally knew what being a "morning person" must feel like. It wasn't bad. We got up and walked around my area, ate breakfast, and then came back to the apartment where Sun Jung, her husband Jinho, and their adorable 7-year-old (Hyun Joon) picked me up to take me to school.

The first day was not too bad. I just basically introduced myself and let the students ask me question. The questions I got from just about all of the classes were as follows:

Where are you from?

How old are you?

Are you married?

Do you have boyfriend?

Do you like Korean food?

Do you like Kimchi?

What's your favorite movie/color/music group/food?

What kind of boyfriend do you want?

Why you come to Korea?

Are you famous in U.S.A.? (which, of course, i answered "yes" to)

How tall are you? (The measure height in cm. so they couldn't grasp inches)

The kids are cute, I'm not gonna lie. I teach 3rd ~ 6th grades, but the kids start school at 7 here so the ages range from 9 or 10 ~ 13. But they still act and look like they would be around 8 ~ 11. I think the mentality of the students is different here and they are respectful, for the most part.

I have my trouble-makers in each grade level (5th grade being the worst), but on the whole, they do what they're told. I'm currently thinking of ways to punish bad or disruptive students and I'm open to suggestions.... Right now, the students who don't bring their books to class have to write this sentence 15 times:

Next time, I will bring my textbook to English class and be a good student.

I've seen some teachers here make the bad students sit in the hallway with both arms raised straight up until the teacher tells them to come back in. My co-teacher doesn't do that, she's nice. Sometimes she has them stand up and she yells something in Korean to them and you can tell they feel ashamed or embarrassed and they remain quiet.

Anywho, back to the first day of school. After the 4 classes were over for the day, the Principal, my co-teacher, and another teacher came back to my apartment with me and helped me move around some stuff to make room for the brand new sofa and vanity that he bought for me. He also took us to the local market, where we went in this random shop that sells bed spreads and pillows and whatnot. So I picked out a "padded" (not really) sheet to put on my rock-hard mattress, with matching blanket and pillows. [Later, my wonderful mother sent me an egg crate pad to put on my mattress. It helps, a little.]

By the second day of school, the jet lag started to catch up. We woke up early and got breakfast. This time I walked to school. It takes about 10-15 minutes, depending on how sluggish I feel. And I have to walk up-hill, which better do something in the way of slimming down my thighs or I will just start taking taxis in the winter!

My teaching schedule is not bad. I have 4 40min. classes a day and 2 afterschool classes a week totaling 22 classes. So I pretty much just work 22 hours a week and get paid a montly salary of 2.1 million Won and the only bills I have are internet, electric, and cable. Not bad at all...

Birthday/Going Away Party: May 16th

Day Time:
My 27th Birthday was on May 16th. I conveniently told the agency we went through that I couldn't leave Korea until the 18th because I wanted to have a big bash before I left. Also, not only were Erin and I moving to Korea, but my brother J.C. was also leaving the same day we were to move to Orlando and start UCF.

There was a day party in my parents' neighborhood at the pool house. They rented it out for the day and my mom, gramma, and aunt mary cooked way too much food, as usual, but it was great. A lot of people showed up and we just hung out around the pool, ate, and drank some of my champagne punch ;) Meredith made a video of it and got it edited in time before I left for Korea. It's nice to be able to see everyone whenever I want on the video.

Anywho, my uncle Phil and uncle Barry also came up for the party so I got to see everyone pretty much. It was soon time to rap things up and head back to the house. Erin went with Rachel, Nick, and Lily to go to the store for some last-minute necessesities and then off to their hotel. Kristina also got a hotel for whoever wanted to crash, downtown after the night party at The Pearl. It was so nice! The nice, gay boy at the front desk noticed that we got a good deal on the hotel through Hotwire or something, and asked if we would like to upgrade to riverfront for just $20 more. Why not? Best $20 I ever spent! The view was great and the sliding window even opened so that you could smell the good ol St. Johns. Kristina, J.C. and I were extremely giddy about the whole thing and it made getting ready to go out that much more exciting...

The Pearl:

I had a blast at The Pearl, at least, that's what everyone told me. I got pretty wasted, no thanks to everyone who bought me raspberry lemon drop shots ;) I remember the first half of the night, but the end is a little fuzzy. What's more is that I thought I didn't even get to talk to some of the people that came to say goodbye to me, until I looked at the pictures on my camera the next morning and found that I had taken pictures of myself with just about everyone. At least my camera could fill in some of the gaps! I'm pretty sure I passed out not long after we got to the hotel, even though people came to the room afterwards to hang out. I didn't want to get that drunk, but it's too late for that now. Oh well. At least we all had a great time, and I've got the pictures to prove it!

Atlanta and the Korean Consulate: May 13th~May 15th

I left Aunt Mary's on Wednesday evening and headed to Atlanta to meet up with Erin. Her sister, brother-in-law, and neice drove her to an exit off of the highway where I picked her up. It was so sad to see her say goodbye to her family, I almost felt awkward witnessing it. The sadest thing was see her adorable, little neice (Annabel Leigh) with a sad face and tears streaming down her face as she waved bye bye to Erin when we drove off. It made me think of how emotional I would likely get when it was time for me to say goodbye on the day we would fly off.

When we finally get to Mary Frances' house, I had a detailed list of directions on how to get into her 3 story home. MF wouldn't be home until the next day. She travels constantly for her job, currently to Tennessee. After finding the key inside the lock box in it's special hiding place and opening a door and entering a code and opening more doors, we got our crap and settled in. After I called her and fed the kitties, we soon discovered that there was no running water. MF called her neighbor and we walked next door with whatever pots and large containers we could find to fill up with water to be able to flush the toilets, wash our faces and whatnot. Erin and I discussed how convenient it is to have running water. I really don't think I could live without it; it's a bitch.

The next morning, we got up early and found our way to the Korean Consulate downtown.

Thank whoever came up mapquest, otherwise I'd never find my way around. Anywho, we had a group interview scheduled and the Korean man who interviewed us just basically talked about himself and how great Korea was the whole time. The first girl to be questioned had a degree to be a Principal at a public school and tried to kiss ass a little, but it didn't really work out for her. I mean she got her Visa, but he ignored her attempts to show off what she researched about Korea and all her qualifications. When it was my turn to be questioned, he quickly noted my English degree (I think he was happy about it) and asked me why I wanted to go to Korea. I used my bartending experience at Kan-Ki to get out of the question. (For those of you that don't know, I bartended at a Korean owned Japanese restaurant for 4 years and that's one of the main reasons I chose to come to Korea.) I told him I got to know my Korean co-workers and about their culture and all he wanted to know is what kind of restaurant it is. When I told him it's a Japanese Steakhouse he suddenly went into this long tangent about the time he spent working in Japan, etc. Then I was off the hook and he moved onto Erin. He pretty much breezed over her as well and went on about himself some more. She even took a picture with him after the interview was over, knowing that he would gladly do it.

Needless to say, we got our Visas. We went back to MF's, still no running water, so I thought we should just go hang out in Little 5 Points (way bigger than the 5 Points in Jax. btw). We get out there and walk around, have a shot, buy some books, etc. Erin wanted to find Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, and she did. I bought Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch (whom the term Masochism came from). I thought this book would compliment The Story of O, which I just bought from Chamblin Bookmine the previous week. [Oh, and speaking of O, at the Foodcourt in the mall where the Consul was, one of the meun items was called Story of Oreo. Ha!] We then had another drink and played some expensive pool because Erin and I will pay whatever cost to play pool, apparently. We went back to MF's to meet up with her and go grab some sushi. When MF caught her "second wind" we went down to Highlands for some drinks...which turned into a lot of drinks equaling drunken pool and a taxi ride back to MF's where the driver played Everclear and we drunkenly sang along to it. Eh, what can ya do.

Girls' nights are always good nights. MF said she will come visit us in Korea. I hope she does. After all, it's the perfect opportunity ;)

The next day, we left Atlanta and on the way back home we stopped in Hilliard so Erin could say hi and bye to her Nanny and Papi. They seemed worried about us going to Korea. They said a prayer for us and told us to be safe. It was cute.

When we got back to my house, my Gramma and Aunt Mary were already there. They decided to come to my Birthday/Going Away Party....


...to be continued in Birthday/Going Away Party

Blue Ridge Mountains: May 11th - May 13th

Erin and I had to go to Atlanta to get our Visas to work in Korea. That's where the closest Korean Consulate is to Florida. Luckily, my friend Mary Frances lives in Atlanta, so we stayed with her, but more on that later. Erin's sister lives in Monroe, Georgia, and my Grandparents along with some of my other family on my mom's side lives around Blue Ridge, Georgia. So we decided to visit our families and make a little road trip out of the whole thing.

We woke up around 9:30a.m. and hit the road about 10-ish. The drive wasn't bad, partly because Erin and I talk a lot and also because the weather was nice. We stopped at a trucker stop along the way and I got one of those chicken twister (taquito) things. Deep fried to perfection. We also stopped at an Adult Novelty store along the way that advertised free coffee. When I inquired about the coffee the nice, southern girl behind the counter offered to brew me a fresh pot, which I accepted kindly. We walked around, etc. And went on our merry little way.

The way to Erin's sister's city was long and in the middle of nowhere, but it was still a nice drive. It took me about 3 hours longer to get to my Aunt Mary's cabin than usual, but I didn't mind. At least we both got to visit our relatives for a bit before we headed off to Korea for a year, ya know.

When I arrived to Blue Ridge, well actually McCaysville, I was so excited to be able to visit with my family for a couple days. It's so beautiful up there. My Aunt lives in a valley with mountains all around and a spectacular view on a large plot of land. I was lovingly greeted by my Aunt Mary, my Gramma, and my cousin Shannon along with the cats and dogs. Aunt Mary had my favorite dinner she cooks for me ready. Penne pasta in a vodka cream sauce with fresh, succulent shrimp. It was delicious! She makes it specially for me whenever I come visit. We had a great time eating and drinking wine and talking, us girls. The next day I was treated to a pedicure for an early birthday present and we went out for breakfast at a quaint little cafe in Blue Ridge. I enjoy being around my family. I got to hang out with my Papa a bit too, but unfortunately I didn't get to see my Uncle Mark and my little cousins.

My grandparents live in an apartment above a barn that was built on my Aunt Mary and Uncle Phil's property. They had a goat named Dolly and a pig named Arnold while I was there, but their menagerie has since been expanded with two mini horses and a donkey. By the time I get back from Korea, it will be an actual farm for sure...

*See the Atlanta post next for a continuation of this story...

The First Blog: An Introduction and Overview

So, as most of you know, I"m a procrastinator. It's now June 13, and I've been in Korea for about 3 1/2 weeks now, so I have a lot of writing to catch up on. I want to make sure this blog gives everyone a good look at what life in Korea is like, as well as capture the essense of this time in my life so that I'll remember it well. Luckily, I have 4 hours a day of "planning" at my school. As long as I get my lesson plans done, I can do whatever I want (except sleep ;).

I don't know if these blogs will be automatically arranged by date or what, but I'll try to title them appropriately. And I also don't know how detailed I will be on any events from the past few weeks, even though a lot has happened. If you would like to read a more detailed account of everything from going to Georgia a week before Erin and I came to Korea all the way up until now, then check out Erin's blog: KRW Millionaire (also on blogger). Just remember, you're getting Erin's side of the story when you read her's, and anything bad she says about me is probably just a dramatic exaggeration. ;P Haha.

Anywho, feel free to comment on any postings or ask questions to both of us about our experiences. And don't forget to come visit us! See ya on Skype...