The Bathroom

Here are the pics of my bathroom. Just to clarify after the messages I've received on myspace I do not use the green hose to shower...lol.

More pics of the apartment are on the way, I'm waiting for my couch to arrive to give the full effect. I did just get my washer the other day which was pretty exciting. No dryer though...sigh. It's the old hang dry method over here. Anyway the last pics is of the view from my room. It looks even better at night with all the lights but i have yet to get a good image of it.

Bar Food

This is the crazy bar food I was talking about earlier. No pretzels and fries like back home, nope here you get a dried fish cut in half (I'm pretty sure the eyeballs were included) with dipping sauce. Yum! So far I've only seen this once, usually the free food you get is actually pretty good.

Mud Fest 07!

To start, I'm sitting in my apartment right now!!! I love my directors! This afternoon they took me to the electronics store to buy the right cords for my computer, everything works now!!! I have power & I can upload my pics...sweet!

This weekend was amazing! Pretty much just what I needed after a frustrating couple of days. Some of the other ESL teachers and I went to the Mud Fest at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, which is basically like spring break for foreigners. It was crazy! From being covered in mud, to taking soju shots on the beach, eating at my first traditional Korean restaurant (where you sit on the floor), finally trying pulgogi (which is marinated barbecued beef cooked in front of you on a burner...which by the way is my new favorite Korean dish!), to crashing in a hotel room with like 8 other random people, I don't think I could have asked for a better time. The best part was finding my way back to Gwangju on my own. Try figuring out a bus schedule in hangul. Not happening...lol. Luckily I met some incredibly nice ESL teachers from Seoul who showed me the ropes :) Buses out here are crazy. If they sell out of seats they sell standing tickets. My bus back to Gwangju was 2 hours, I can't imagine standing for two hours on a bus. People out here are nuts!

Enjoy the pics finally!

Good old Korea!

Well apparently Korea hates my computer!...lol. So I'm sitting here at yet another PC bang. I've now learned how to say one hour and no smoking in Korean. Score!...lol. This time I got an iced coffee, much better then the green tea.

I had my first Korean lesson today. It actually went really well, and I got to meet some other foreigners (always a good thing). A couple of the girls from Japan gave me directions to this huge electronics store where I found a new universal USB cord and converter. I think the old converter killed my adaptor though, so the computer is still not working. Soo sad. I think it also killed my straightener but I can live without that. The curling iron is the only thing that has survived so far.

I feel like being here is like being on a roller coaster. I'll get a huge high from something little like learning a new word and then become so frustrated I just want to cry. For example today I was so excited to start my Korean classes, learning to use the bus system (even though I took the wrong bus and ended up in the mountains...I got home, no worries),finding the underground shopping mall (which is HUGE!), and finding bagels AND cream cheese! (thank god for duncan donuts). Then I got back to my apartment, realized my computer still didn't work, couldn't figure out what was laundry detergent at the grocery store and couldn't ask anyone because no one spoke English, almost got ran over by some idiot on a motorcycle and then walked home in smog (ick!). Everything is a trade off I guess.

K question time.

So I went to the soju bar with the two other foreign teachers from my school, Chris and Jill (the two from Oregon), and my neighbor Jesse who is Korean but spent 5 years in the US. I'm recruiting Jesse to help with my computer :)

The smell here is definitely sewage but it's not everywhere, just down certain streets. My apartment smells good though,there is absolutely no kimchi! ...lol.

And no I am not taller then everyone. I am taller then almost all of the women, but not the men. I've been surprised at how many really tall Korean guys there are.

p.s. I love how I totally misspelled Coors, I'm going to fix that.

So the second day has been tough. The adaptor for my computer stopped working, and I discovered I forgot the cord to upload my pictures. I was supposed to start taking my Korean lessons today but due to the computer problems I lost track of the time and missed the bus downtown...oops. I spent the last three hours walking around gwangju trying to find a computer store, yeah that didn't go so well. The closest thing I could find was the Lotte... which is like the Korean Fred Meyers. They had had my camera but not the USB cord.

I finally decided to be brave and venture into a PC Bang (there is one on like every corner). I didn't want anyone to worry :) It's crazy! PC Bangs are like computer labs full of young Korean guys who just play video games all day. To use the Internet for an hour it cost 1,000 won... which is basically one dollar.

Walking around by myself has been really eye opening. People stare, little kids say "hello" and think it's cool and laugh because they're talking to a foreigner, cars stop for no one, the smell is not so good, and literally none of the older people speak English. I'm confident that things will get easier with time, it's just hard right now.

On a more upbeat note I did have a lot of fun last night. I went to my first soju bar! Soju tastes like vodka but without the horrible after taste. It mixes really well too! Afterwards we tried out an international beer bar. One Coors light was like 8$ US! I went for the 4$ house brew which was huge and basically tasted like PBR. I also got a sweet picture with the complementary bar food...you'll have to wait for that one...lol.

Before I forget I also wanted to tell you guys about the bathroom since I can't upload the pics yet. It's basically like an all-in-one type of deal. There is a room with a sink, toilet, and detachable shower head. No bathtub or shower curtain, you kind of just close the door and while you're showering you're cleaning your whole bathroom at the same time! It scares me that there are outlets too though (at least they are covered).

Well that's all I got for now. I'm going to try and finish my complementary cold green tea and get out of here!

Peace out from the land of morning clam :)

Hi guys!

So the trip went well, we never got lost or took any wrong buses. The flight from San Fran to Incheon was around 12 hours. It wasn't that bad though, I had a little monitor with a screen on the seat in front of me with like 40 different channels of news, movies, and TV shows to watch (all in English too!). I basically watched three movies and then knocked myself out with sleeping pills.

I'm not going to lie I'm having hardcore culture shock. A lot of people so far have gone out of their way to speak English to me so that's nice, but it's still hard.

I'm going to try to unpack and figure out my crazy bathroom before I have to meet with my directors for lunch (both are really nice). I'll include a pic of the bathroom on my next post. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting...lol.

Thanks for comments! I miss you guys tons! :(

I'm here!

Wow!

I'm finally here! So tired, need sleep. Google and blogger are in Korean...damn it. It took me a while to figure out how to get to this point. I'll figure it out later.

I'll write more tomorrow. I pinky swear!

Packing

I HATE packing! I hate it with a deep passion! How do you know what to pack for a year? Everything? I can't fit everything in my two suitcases and super huge hardcore hiker backpack...trust me I tried...lol. I tried to go back through my bags and ask myself, "do i really need this?" The answer was obviously YES :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed I don't go over the 50 pound limit per bag for international travel. If worse comes worse the customer service lady promised me there is no weight restriction for carry-ons. Hell ya!

p.s. I was so excited I got a comment! Then i realized it was in Spanish...i don't know Spanish. So then I tried to use one of those free translators online. Yeah that didn't go so well...

I heard, achei teu blog hair google tá bem interessante gostei give post. Quando der dá uma passada I peel meu blog, é on personalized T-shirts, mostra passo to passo like bem maneira raises uma personalized T-shirt. I tied mais.d.

Wow those suck!

...hair, blog, personalized t-shirts...I have a feeling they want me to buy something. Oh well maybe next time.