Good morning!!! It’s Tuesday morning at 5:30am, and I am wide awake! I haven’t been adjusting to the time zones very easily. When I’m supposed to be awake, I want to be sleeping. And when I’m supposed to be sleeping, I’m wide awake and it’s the middle of the night!!!
On Sunday, my first real day here, I woke up to some screaming girl fans across the street. They were out there until about 2pm, where I could see them waiting by where the cars pulled out, and every van that pulled out they would scream and chase it until they realized it wasn’t the famous person. FINALLY, whoever they were waiting for, pulled out, and I have never seen anything like it. These girls were sprinting after the van screaming their heads off! When the van had to stop at the red light, the girls attacked the can and were surrounding it. A Security man came and was ripping girls off the van and throwing them! It was insane. I think there were also cabs that girls were in that were waiting for the famous person to leave, because about 8 cabs pulled out right after the van. It was unbelievable. Then they all disappeared and it was quiet again!!!
So Sunday afternoon a coworker, Amanda, who I had been talking with before I came to Korea, took me shopping! We went to the dollar store first which was great! It isn’t actually a dollar store, because things cost 1000 won. So it was a 1000 won store. I got sooo many things there! A bath mat, garbage can, hangers(which I need to go back and get more), dish soap, a salt dish(which I will talk about later) a piggy bank, and tons of other stuff that I can’t even remember!
After the dollar store we dropped off my purchases and went to Homever, where I bought an iron, and the cutest tiny ironing board, a hair dryer and straightener, a drying rack for my clothes after the washing machine, and a mattress pad.
On Sunday, my first real day here, I woke up to some screaming girl fans across the street. They were out there until about 2pm, where I could see them waiting by where the cars pulled out, and every van that pulled out they would scream and chase it until they realized it wasn’t the famous person. FINALLY, whoever they were waiting for, pulled out, and I have never seen anything like it. These girls were sprinting after the van screaming their heads off! When the van had to stop at the red light, the girls attacked the can and were surrounding it. A Security man came and was ripping girls off the van and throwing them! It was insane. I think there were also cabs that girls were in that were waiting for the famous person to leave, because about 8 cabs pulled out right after the van. It was unbelievable. Then they all disappeared and it was quiet again!!!
So Sunday afternoon a coworker, Amanda, who I had been talking with before I came to Korea, took me shopping! We went to the dollar store first which was great! It isn’t actually a dollar store, because things cost 1000 won. So it was a 1000 won store. I got sooo many things there! A bath mat, garbage can, hangers(which I need to go back and get more), dish soap, a salt dish(which I will talk about later) a piggy bank, and tons of other stuff that I can’t even remember!
After the dollar store we dropped off my purchases and went to Homever, where I bought an iron, and the cutest tiny ironing board, a hair dryer and straightener, a drying rack for my clothes after the washing machine, and a mattress pad.
This is a gnome that I bought at the 1000 won store because I missed the gnome that Grandma Rose made and gave to me. It's not even CLOSE to the quality of my Grandma's gnome, but it will work as a replacement for the year!
This is an awesome tooth brush holder that I bought. It suctions to the mirror and my tooth brush clips into it. It has a little Asian man on it.
This is my bathmat that i bought at the dollar store.
These are the silly shower shoes I talked about before. They dont have a left or right shoe, so they always look like they are on the wrong foot!
See how tiny my ironing board is? My hair dryer is ALMOST as Barbie-ish as Katie's hair dryer, and it over heats just as quickly!
My piggy bank that is very Asianish.
My Tmoney card that I can use on the train, Sunway, bus, or in a cab!
My Rachael Ray salt dish!
We ate lunch at a real life Korean restaurant. My first Korean meal!!! It is called Kimbop, and it is sushi with cooked tuna. It came with soup, and some other stuff that I didn’t try. It was super cheap! It only cost $2.50!!! And in Korea you don’t tip, so it actually cost $2.50 (well technically it cost 2500 won).
After the shopping trip with Amanda I went food shopping alone. It was a lot harder than I imagined! I had no idea what most of the stuff in the store was! I bought soda, bottled water, pasta, rice, cookies, butter, salt, and the two major brands of beer in Korea so I can try them (I haven’t yet). I couldn’t find a salt shaker, so when I went back to the 1000 won store, I bought a salt jar! I feel just like Rachael Ray!!! That is how she uses salt, she doesn’t use a shaker. Also, so butter is delish and tastes like movie theater popcorn butter!!! That probably means it is very fake, but it is sooo good! Oh, I bought bread and bananas at the store too, and that’s what I’ve been eating for breakfast. A banana and bread and butter, which is my version of toast since I don’t have a toaster. One major problem I'm having so far, is that I don't think Koreans eat frozen vegetables, and anyone who knows me, knows I find it hard to live without peas in everything that I eat!!! Maybe I'll be able to find fresh peas and I will love them so much that I will never be able to go back to frozen peas!!! I will do some researching and let you know how I make out!!!
On my first morning of work I met some girls downstairs and we walked to school together at 8:50. We have an office on the 5th floor of an office building, and the school is on the 3rd and 4th floors. I have my own desk, 5B. I sit next to a boy named John, and I will be taking over two of Johns classes, and I sit across from a girl named Jessica. The people I work with are all very nice. Some are from Canada, one from NY, CA, VA, MD, and FL that I can remember. There are also two people from Newfoundland who have a very funny accent! I haven’t been able to talk with them much, but I can’t wait to hear their voices again!
When I first got to school I had to read some paperwork and talked with my two bosses. Then I watched a movie, and went to lunch with some girls from work. We walked to a restaurant and I had Kimbop again, which was just as delicious as the first time! Again, it was only 2500 won! What a deal. After lunch I observed two of John’s classes that I will be taking over. They are the only classes that I know I will be teaching. The kids are pretty young, about 7-9. The first class is MUCH better than the second class. In the second class, one of the naughty boys took out his penis and was playing with it while laughing. John called in one of the Korean “Desk Teachers” and a woman came in yelling in Korean and dragged him out of the room. I hope she yelled at him enough so he doesn’t do that when I am teaching!!!
I sat in on a few more classes until 7pm. One of the classes was the highest level, but they were still only 12, and they were talking about astronomy, and anatomy in English!!! When I was 12 I don’t think I could talk about those things, let alone in a second language! I was amazed how well they were doing! I noticed so many of the kids wear glasses! In one of the classes, 6 out of 8 of the kids were wearing glasses! Maybe it’s in the water, so it’s a good thing I don’t drink it!!!
At 7pm, after the last class that I watched, we had to run to catch the bus. It was the SLP bus that the kids ride home, but it stops right by our house so they allow us to take it home. When I got home from work I was sooo tired, and I made some microwaveable rice and went to sleep! I slept through most of the night, only waking up a few times. I did get up at about 5am this morning, but I don’t think I’ll be as tired today at work as I was last night!
This morning I was able to talk with my dad on the webcam, but neither of our microphones would work! I don’t know what the problem was, but I was able to give him a tour of my apartment anyway. He was finishing work and it was 5:30am here!
My alarm just went off, which means it is time to start getting ready for work!!! I miss everyone from back home!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment