annyeong haseyo!

First post from Korea! HOLLA!! I would have posted earlier, but was working with limited internet. Anyway, I'm here, bags are finally here, and I have worked 2 days at the school. Where to start? Here's a quick rundown on different stuff:

Neighborhood -- it's pretty awesome. There is a ton going on around here. I live/work pretty close to central Seoul. Within a couple blocks of my apartment, there are hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping, a huge mall, a coffee bean(!!!), an imax theater, something that def looks to be a strip club, an Outback (where I ate tonight...say what?!??), and prolly much more. I have only explored a few blocks. And there is a gym in the apartment building so chunkaaa can work on her fitness.

Apartment -- it's pretty small. I will post pictures at some point. I have a stove with 2 burners (no oven, koreans dont have ovens), pretty big fridge and freezer, washing machine, couple closets, tv, table and chairs, etc. My bed is the most uncomfortable bed I have ever slept on - except maybe for the ones Bri and I slept on when driving cross country, yikes! This frigin thing is hard as a rock. I might as well be sleeping on the floor. The first night I kept waking up thinking I was sleeping somewhere else - like on cement. So I am going to have to get some nice blankets and an egg crate or something to fix this shit! The most interesting thing is the bathroom. It's like a shower, but with a toilet and sink inside. Def need pics of that!

School -- the kids are adorable. They might be the cutest kids I have ever seen. Some of them are a handful, naturally, but overall they are pretty awesome. I teach kindergarten and pre-k in the morning (reading teacher), and in the afternoon the kids range from 1st to 5th grade. Man, these kids work hard. In the afternoon, we are required to assign homework in every class, every day! Even on Fridays! Even for winter break, the kids have homework over Christmas. If we don't, the parents call complaining the kids are not getting enough work. So, yeah, Korean school is a lot different that the US. I am pretty tired after my first couple days. We work 9am - 7:30pm Monday-Friday and teach between 8-10 classes a day. That's a lot of kids!!!!

Food -- nothing crazy so far. It can be really hard to order in the restaurants, everything is written in korean characters and no one speaks english. Pictures are helpful, because then you can just point to what you want. I need to learn the names of a bunch of dishes and then just hope that restaurant serves them. Vegetarianism is out the door for the year bc half the time you have no idea what you're eating. And try asking for a dish without something -- good luck! You should have heard Jullia try to ask for soy milk in her coffee the other day, "do you have milk that's not milk?" LOL! Obvs the barista had no idea. And yeah, tonight I ate at the Outback with some teachers who were craving American food. It was still Korean-ish though. My seafood skewers were squid and the steamed veggies were baby bok choy. So yeah... Oh, and you can go out for a full meal for $3, score!

What else? Jullia and I live no where near each other. We are both in Seoul, but this city is effing huge -- 11 million people! Good thing is the subway is awesome, and super cheap (like 75 cents to ride it). I haven't gone too far yet, mostly to and from school, but tomorrow or Friday I am going to attempt to make it across town to her place. Should be interesting. If you're curious, here is the subway map. I live on line 5 (purple) at Wangsimni, you if you can find that! But overall, I don't hate the subway. It's super clean, incredibly fast, and there is a ton of shopping in there -- even a dollar store!

I have more, but am super tired. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, but the school is still open, and it's another 10.5 hour day. I am bringing my camera tomorrow (Santa is coming!), so pics to come soon :)