First Week(ish) in Korea

Hello and Greetings to all of my friends and family!

I am finally able to sit down and bash out an email update to you all. So sorry for the delay, considering I have no friends here and not much else to do outside of my work day, you would think I would have had this out to you all at 7 days on the dot. Fraid not. It's quite interesting how busy one can be even without much going on at all.

I arrived last Saturday evening (here, but Saturday morning for you there) safe and sound and without nuclear radiation issues despite my four hour layover in Tokyo. My friend Tori who I roommated with in Honduras last summer is teaching in Busan (about an hour+ away from me) and met me at the airport and I stayed with her Saturday and Sunday nights. Sunday I got to experience some good in-my-face Korea! Got to do loads of traveling on the public transit by bus and subway, went to a very big (almost like Walmart Supercenter, or Dillons for those of you in KS) supermarket and managed to find my way back to Tori and out, and also went to my very first professional (Korean) basketball game! Each team had a token black guy on it but surprisingly enough they didn't rule the whole game. The half time show was very amusing with a man serenading his new fiancee, and there was lots of intermittent interjected entertainment by the cheerleaders--much more so than in our games back home. Busan's team won, so that was fun, and it was the championship game, so even better! All and all it was a really fun time.

After the game Tori and I headed to a different area of Busan to do a little shopping. They don't really have trying on of clothes, nor do they have different sizes. Most everything is a one size fits all kind of deal. And they also don't really do returns. I suppose the latter prevents aimless compulsive shopping! I decided to break myself in right and go ahead and buy an article of clothing. I had low expectations for the whole One size fits all bag but thought worst case scenario the pants I bought would just be really tight pj's. Turns out they actually fit and I quite like them! Pretty great, especially since they were only about $4.50! I still wear them as jammies but at least they are super comfy jammies not skin tight ones!

I took a bus from Busan to Geoje Island (my new home!) early Monday morning to meet with my director and get this whole teaching in Korea thing going! There was no time to waste apparently as I was thrown right in! There are four other foreign English teachers, two Canadian girls, a girl from South Africa, and a guy from the US,  and there are five Korean English teachers. I met everyone right away after dropping my bags off at my new apartment and began observing classes. I taught my first class with no help at all Thursday morning first thing! Then we had a weekend program Saturday and Sunday which I had to teach on Sunday. It was all very overwhelming at first as I have never done ANYTHING like this before! But after a week here and only a few days/classes of teaching on my own and I am beginning to settle in nicely and am feeling more comfortable.

I have already gotten sick starting Thursday night and felt horrible Friday and slept all day Saturday to feel better to teach on Sunday. I am hoping that I now have some Korean bug anitbodies floating about so that I can stay well for months to come.

Now for some interesting differences that I have noticed (or knew was coming but would still like to share with you as you may not be aware of them) thus far in my short time here in Korea:

There is no such thing as a bathtub in Korea. They do have bathhouses, but as far as I know NO ONE has a tub in their house.

Most Koreans don't live in houses anyway, they live in apartments.

Korean ear(holes) are smaller than American's (or at least THIS American's!). I bought Q-tips here and they almost get lost in my ginormous ears! And no, they are not baby q-tips, they are their normal sized ones.

Korean door knobs are lower than our's. Suppose it's bc they're shorter on the average than Westerners. I can almost never find my bedroom doorknob when I go to bed at night after turning off the kitchen light. I always reach about 2-3 inches too high!

Geoje Island (or more specifically Okpo, which is the name of the "city" that we live just on the outskirts of) is very foreigner friendly. There are loads of bars called something similar to "The Foreigners Bar", lots of foreigner friendly restaurants, and even two specific foreigner shops that import lovely yummies from back home like Club Crackers, cheese, and gum to name just a few.

It really is possible to walk up hill both ways! I live in Doekpo (which is a tiny little beach side village if you will that has nothing more than about 30 houses, four small apartment buildings, one larger apartment building, three small restaurants that hardly ever/never seem to be open, two convenience stores, two gas stations, a coffee shop (coffee shops are EVERYWHERE here!) and my school). Doekpo is at the bottom of a VERY large hill. On the bottom of the other side of said hill is Okpo. It is "town" for us. Then there is Gohyeon which is the "city" of Geoje City. It's all a bit complicated. But anyway, to get to town and back home, I have to walk (30 mins ea way) uphill, both ways! It's probably about a mile to a mile and a quarter but that hill is mighty steep!

Koreans love firm mattresses. Pretty self explanatory. I love a firm mattress, but both Tori's and mine are much firmer than even the firmest mattresses I've ever laid on back home or anywhere else in the world.

It is not uncommon to have NO sink in your bathroom. Again, should be pretty self explanatory. This means that I do not have a sink in my bathroom. It is still taking some getting used to.

Ramen Noodles exist in every country I have been in so far. And you fix them all the exact same way, no matter what language the package is written in!

Korean's (with VERY few exceptions) do not cover their cough or sneezes, or wash their hands after using the restroom (and if they do there is often no soap and no paper towels or hand dryers). But LOADS of them walk about with SARS masks on on a regular basis.

When a simple solution could fix the problem, it is not uncommon for a less than simple solution to be implemented instead. Case in point (and my final tidbit before closing this email): The toilet in my new apartment was not in working order when I arrived (as in, it was probably partially blocked bc when I flushed for the first time, the water rose to nearly the top then SLOWLY went back down over the course of an hour or so). This happened for the next three days with promises each day that someone would come to fix it. I am thinking "just give me the frickin plunger and I'll sort it out myself!" at this rate, but no. Then, finally, on Thursday, it became totally blocked. The water never went back down, just stayed at the top. Still, a simple plunger would probably have done the trick. But still, no one came Thursday, plunger or other tool, to fix it. Finally, Friday EVENING, someone comes. And rather than just plunge it (or even attempt to plunge it) he replaces my entire toilet! LOL!!! I mean, seriously!?!?! Too funny! Except that bc they have just put new cocking on this toilet, I cannot use it OR my shower (as the shower is not in an enclosed space in the bathroom but rather the bathroom IS the shower space and therefore will inevitably get the toilet and the new cocking wet if used.) for TWENTY-FOUR HOURS!!!!! Please take note that this is now SIX days without not only a working toilet, but also a blocked, backed up, full of yuck toilet! Yeah, I was LESS than PLEASED at the less than simple fix. BUT, I do have a very nice, new toilet that is functioning just fine now, so all is right with the world again!

There are TONS more things I could tell you about my time here so far, but this is getting quite long, so I will wrap it up for now.

I hope that this email finds you all well. Take care of yourselves and I will try to keep my updates a bit more frequent and a bit less lengthy, but I make no promises to that effect!

Love to you all!