First post from Korea.

Alright. So as most of you know by now, my first week here was pretty rough.  I arrived on Friday afternoon and was immediately taken by my co-teacher to a random Korean lady’s apartment, where I was to stay for 3 nights, in Seoul.

The next day I went to see the apartment I was supposed to be moving into. Unfortunately, it was on the ground floor with bars on all the windows and it made me feel very unsafe.  I talked to the teachers and they agreed to take me with a real estate agent around the area and find me something I liked better.

The next day I went to my school. I met the other native English teacher, Luke, who is from England. He gave me a tour of the school, which is pretty standard, except for the high tech projectors and stuff in each classroom for the teachers. Some of the teachers took us both to a very traditional Korean lunch… I ate a whole fish… haha. Afterwards we came to my new apartment to move in!

That night Luke and his girlfriend Louise came and got me and took me to another couple’s apartment for dinner and a scary movie. I tried soju for the first time, which is like Korean vodka, but very watered down, and costs around 80 cents for a bottle.

The next morning I ran some errands around town and set up my apartment a little bit and then went into Seoul. The couple I had met the night before (from Australia and Canada) happened to be going to the same subway stop as me so they offered to show me how to get there.  I took a bus for around 40 minutes and was dropped off at a subway station on the main central line in Seoul.  I took the subway for another 30 minutes to meet my friend Isabelle. We walked around Seoul all day and went to different temples and bookstores. For dinner we had traditional Korean bbq where you cook it yourself.  It was actually pretty good, oh and I’m not a vegetarian anymore, haha.  I took the subway and bus home all by myself and it was a really good feeling.

Today I just hung out in my city… I tried the Korean version of McDonalds, called Lotteria, which was pretty good for fast food, and the French fries are decent! I also found pasta and olive oil at the market, which I was very excited about. My apartment is coming together, although I can’t find hangers anywhere so none of my clothes are put away yet. Haha.

I start work on Monday. And I’m planning on going out in Bundang with Luke and Louise (and others) on Friday and then going to Seoul with people from Wisconsin on Saturday. I’m excited for the weekend!

Thanks to everyone who has sent me an email or message this week, I really appreciate it. Ill try and write back this week, but I rarely have internet. Most posts won’t be this long, sorry for the novel. Love and miss you all!!