Exploring Songtan

  I have lived in this town for more than a year now, and I regret to say I actually haven't explored it much. I just walk the some tried and measured tracks and don't really try anything new. I eat at the same places and order the same things.... Until recently. It's all part of my "see Korea" mentality, and what better way to see Korea than to start with my own town? I have wandered around Seoul more than Songtan!!!

  Milky and myself went for a walk yesterday, and can I just say, Fall is such a nice time to explore. The weather is pretty cool here, but the place looks amazing with all the colours. Some trees are still holding onto their leaves with a death grip, and some are even still green! So in my area I have a lovely mix of leaf colours - green, brown, yellow, orange, red and all colours in between. No purple or anything like that, which is unfortunate.
  Anyway we walked up the street and I decided to go to the park off to the right instead of the left where we usually walk. I like to go to the left because there are a shit load of stairs on that side, and I tend to walk that path with intent (my idea of exercise). Seeing as we were just strolling on Sunday, I figured we may as well check out a new route. And I am so glad we did.
  The park on the right has the same things as on the left, in terms of exercise equipment strategically placed around, but the thing I right away preferred about it was the distinct lack of path. Its as if this mini park/hill/forested place is trying to be a mountain and you can trek and hike it. We trekked in and followed the track up to the top, past all the oldies doing their routines in the bars and leg swingie thing (it can't possibly working any muscles, I have no idea what the deal is) and up to the top. I saw a clearing through the trees and came across some burial mounds.
  WTF BURIAL MOUNDS IN THE MIDDLE OF SONGTAN??? Yes, thats what they were, complete with little grave markers and trimmed grass. It was weird, I never knew that it was up there... On one side was the park/forest and then a clearing with graves,

and then a house! And a bathroom :s TOTALLY WEIRD! I am not sure what the deal is with taking pics, so I quickly snapped one and went on my way. We continued strolling through the park and I decided to take us down a slope which opened up into another clearing. Ahead were new buildings, apartments and a new road. To the right of me was another grave, but this one was bigger, like a full on shrine. And it was recently tended to, there were fresh flowers there. And to the left was a cleared hill with more grave mounds at the top. Now, I have so many questions about this so I need to get asking, but are people just allowed to buy their family members anywhere they like? Are there people in there? Or cremated people? In jars??? And, the land around here is pretty hard to get at the moment I would think. There is always a new building or something going up... So do the families own these plots? Or does the council? With so many people living in Korea it seems unlikely that everyone would have their own little park for graves, so is it only rich people??? Sooo many questions!
  Either way it was a peaceful place, out of the way of other houses and the road, and away from the park too. I want to include the area in my walks now...

  The next place I want to talk about is the new cafe that has opened basically across the road from my apartment. Me and Jess went there the other day for coffee and decided it was the best, and then I went with Ben on Saturday and we ate. The food was amazing, its all organic and they cook it all there and you can tell that it tastes better than the usual fare. The price kinda reflected that, Ben's salad was something like 13,000 and my pasta was 15,000 but it was sooo tasty. AND YOU GET FREE BREAD so bargain!!!
  Its also a gallery, and whoever the owner is has put pics up from around Songtan, and I liked trying top guess where the photos were taken. The photographer has also been to Paris and taken some fab photos there, and the Paris pics are all on display upstairs. Its really trendy and looks like the whole place would fit in better in one of the trendy Seoul areas, not in Songtan. But I am glad it is there and I am totally gonna eat there again!!!

The free bread (eaten lol) and Ben's huge
salad.
And the cool coffee :)

 
It makes being in Songtan more fun, going and finding new things to do and see... I a few weeks I am planning a mini trip to another province to see some more interesting things. To be honest I was feeling a bit stuck in a rut of late, and I needed to get myself out. I mean, I have great and fun friends so they are always handy but you need to be able to get yourself out of a slump too. I think it was the initial change in weather - it is getting really chilly. And I felt like I didn't do enough with my Summer... I spend too much time doing the same things. So first I started planning other things to do. And then decided to explore my area. And I plan to continue my adventuring! Time is going by soooo quickly and I don't want to look back on my year and feel like I have wasted it.

  So I am mega saving... After I get back from Aus I want to put cash aside for a trip to Hong Kong, and of course I want to see more of Korea.

The cheesy pasta - 15,000 won

  Hope everyone is having a stellar day, and not freezing. Even though outside it isn't too bad I am in my classroom with a blanket wrapped around my legs. No lie. And I forgot my lunch. And looking at my food pics is killing me.

Sigh.

xoxox

Trying New Things

Before the weekend is completely over, and the events turn into a hazy, drunken mess, I thought I should jot some things down. Considering I did some new and amazing things, and very Korean things too!

Nightclub/booking club

A few weeks ago while on the subway, Heejin and I had agreed to go to a nightclub. I know I kinda described to you in a previous post what it was so I won't go too overboard, but lets just say I went on Friday night to one in Songtan and I want to tell you what it was like.

We had dinner and pre-drinks at Heejin's place and waited for her friend Kyeon (dunno the English spelling, only Hangul and I don't have a keyboard for that on the mac) to join us and get ready. Heejin's apartment is super awesome, she lives with her little sis who is adorable, and they have a super cute tiny dog too. The 3 of us girls all got dressed up and then headed out to a bar in Songtan near city hall where we drank delish strawberry soju in a very Korean bar. These bars are a little different from bars at home - you sit in a booth or at a table and you stay with your group. People don't mingle around, and you have to order food. We ordered some fruit and sat and drank and gossipped. Very fun.

Strawberry Soju at the bar

We then jumped in a taxi and headed to the nightclub. Turns out the place is literally around the corner from my house, making it a blessing and a curse. We walked in and were taken to a table. The DJ made an announcement at out arrival and we hardly had time to sit before a waiter came over and escorted us upstairs to a private room where 4 blokes were sitting around. We sat with them for a bit then got back up and went back downstairs. Where we were then grabbed and taken to another table. And so the night progressed. No sooner had we sat down that we were taken to a different table. It was a very strange but super fun experience. I think guys liked the novelty of a foreigner sitting at their table but not many people were comfortable with their English so it was a little hard for me. And my Korean os terrible so Lucky I always had one of the girls with me for translating haha. Heejin was (as usual) Miss Popularity and everyone wanted her at their table. She got a few numbers but neither me nor Kyeon got any haha. 

At around 4 or 5 am we went to McDonalds (of course) and unfortunately were stuck with the breakfast menu. As you can already tell this was a bad weekend for my diet. Ughhh...

Some of the guys from the club came and met us there and we went upstairs to Jammers for more drinks. Amazingly we saw some friends for Ptaek still out so they stayed and drank with us too. 

The girls wanted to head home at I have no idea what time, but I was naturally having too much fun chatting with everyone from the bar, and some of the girls form Click had finished work and had come across to have some fun. I was on home turf now and just running around chatting to everyone. Heejin and Kyeon left (those girls are the best I love them) and the guys from the club went too so I stayed and hung out with Ginny and Lexi for a while. Then it was def time to go home, I said goodbye to the girls and went to walk home but Ginny was having none of it. She said it wasn't safe and that her friend would give us a lift...

So us 2 girls jumped on the back of her friends motorbike and he drove me home. It was amazing. And yes, the sun was well and truly up. I went straight to sleep... Lucky I had thought to set my alarm the night before!!!

Jimjilbang

During the week Heather had messaged me and asked if I wanted to go with her for her first jimjilbang experience. I was yet to try it out too so we agreed to Saturday. Now, let me explain his one...

A jimjilbang is a big public bath and spa, which is seperated into male and female areas. There is the spa/bath area, and then there is another area for sleeping and eating and whatever - a big social area. Now, in the spa area everyone is NAKED. But in the other area you wear these pyjama thingies and there are guys and girls together. In this particular one we were at there were separate sleeping rooms for guys and girls. I am guessing they are all like that...

Now, I jumped on the subway and met Heather at a little after 1 (hungover but not drunk this time haha poor Heather she must be so sick of making plans with me only to have me show up drunk or hungover) and we went to the spa. It was right next to the station and very close to her house. We went up and frightened to poor guy behind the counter with out foreigness but it was ok because an older lady who worked there could see that we had no idea what we were doing and shoed us the ropes. We dropped our shoes in one locker then took our bags and clothes to another. When we walked through we both stopped dead - all around us were naked girls of all ages - babies, kids, teens, adults, mothers, grandmothers etc. All naked. And yes, we stared for a minute before we got ourselves together. We found our lockers and then faced each other. It was time to get nude and we were having minor freakouts. 

We counted to 3 and stripped off to nothing, and scuttled into the spar room holding ourselves with out tiny towels. 

The idea is that you shower before jumping into the pools so we did that first and then found a spa that was 44 degrees and jumped in. And then we went to a different pool. And then another. And something strange happened. I mean, you never forget you are nude, but it stopped mattering. We got some initial stares, but no more than you get when you walk into a shop or bar - people were a bit curious but it was because we were white not because we were naked. And, it was crazy the amount of different body types that were there. You assume that all asian women must look the same naked - they all seem to have the same shape while clithed. Not true. Its as different as us whities. So yeah, we did a fair bit of staring ourselves... But it was totally fine. By the end of it I was totally comfortable being butt naked with my friend in front of a shit load of other naked women. Best experience ever. I can honestly say it is one of the best things I have done in my life. 

The thing that I did notice was this - Korean women are not really "well groomed", and no one had any tattoos. Oh, one girl walking in had one on her back but we only noticed her as we were leaving. Now, I have a few dotted around my body, and both Heather and myself have stategice tatts placed below the hip and above the thigh so they got noticed too, but in general no one cared that we were there anymore than they cared that others were there. 

It was a great experince and the actual spa was fun. The water was super hot or cold, depending on the pool and I loved this weird steamy raining room. Next time I will be better prepared with a bath kit. Yes, there will totally be a next time. 

If you are in Korea I 100% recommend you give it a try!

Last night I was so tired and wiped out I just went to bed. And this morning Milky woke me up early and wanted to go out, so here I am before 10am on a Sunday blogging instead of sleeping. But I feel well rested and ready to start the week. 

In other news...

The kids are back at school starting Monday. I have no idea what the new timetable is, what the expectations of me are for this year, or what is going on in general. But what's new? I never know what is going on. 

I have nothing really planned for this week other than get back on my diet. Jess's wedding is creeping up really fast and I want to go at some point into the city to find a new dress. 

I have actually not spent as much money this month so thats another interesting thing. Maybe I am finally getting into a groove in terms of spending my money. So maybe now I can start saving hahahahahahahahaha as if. 

At home, Louise got married. Shattered I missed the wedding but I have already seen some pics and she looks beautiful and Ty looks very dashing. I wish them an amazing long happy life together. If anyone deserves it then its Lou. We have been friends since the start of high school and I love her to bits.

I uploaded another vlog to my channel, so have a look. You can check out the whole channel here.

Anyway thats about it for now. I have no idea what I am going to do with my day, but it won't be busy I can tell you that! 

Till next time

xoxoxox

Weekly wrap up

Weekly wrap up - 

So here we are again on Sunday. I always like to do a weekly summary, and share some deep insight with you, fellow citizens, but this week nothing really comes to mind. I mean, OBVIOUSLY things happened (you know when you haven't seen someone in ages, and you ask them "so, what have you been up to?" and they reply, "oh, nothing much." and its obviously a lie - as if they haven't done anything in MONTHS) but I can't decide whether or not they are worthy of a blog entry.

For example, I made myself pancakes for breakfast this morning. I am getting way better at pancakes actually, so maybe this is worthy of writing about.

Ooo, another worth event - it was Cheng's birthday on Wednesday and we went out for a bite to eat at a Chinese restaruent in Pyeongtaek. The food was really good, it was a nice change from Korean food. And the company was fantastic as always. Then on Saturday night we trekked into Gangnam for Cheng's birthday celebration 2.0, having dinner at an Italian place and then to a club.
The restaurant was called California Pizza Kitchen, and it is located in Gangnam right near Sinnonhyeon Station exit 6. The food was great, I forgot my camera and my phone ran out of juice so I don't have any pics to post unfortunately. But I had the walnut carbonara and it was lovely and creamy. Actually it was the richest thing I have eaten since coming to Korea so I was feeling a little gross after I ate but I swear it was so good I had to keep eating! And what I didn't eat lovely Mathilda finished off for me :) It was a little more pricy than the foods at home (by home I mean Songtan), I think it was 13,900 won for my meal.
Then we went after to a club down the road called Eden. It was super fun, and regrettably I went home early but I wish I had stayed. We got in for free thanks to the beautiful Catarina who got us all on a guest list, but once in the drinks were SUPER expensive - I paid 12,000 for a vodka and soda. The shots were something like 9,000... Very pricy. But, the music was really good, it was all house music when I was there and apparently it stayed good all night. The best part? They were songs from home!!! And the DJ was a chick (which is probably why the music was so good). I mean, some of the stuff was a little older, and maybe it wasn't good at all and I was just excited to hear familiar tunes. Whatever. And... They boys were WAY hotter here than at home. I mean, super good looking. So now I know where all the hot Korean boys have been hiding. If you are looking for one, they all live in Gangnam, which actually makes sense.
I ended up cathing the last bus to Osan home with Heejin and Dave, but I think Heejin actually would have rather stayed and partied. Next time we will!

For anyone wondering, the last bus from Gangnam to Osan leaves from near exit 7 at Gangnam Station at around 1am. It was a little late, I think it arrived at about 1:10, but it got us back to Osan by 2ish. And then the cab ride to my place was about 7,000 which was great. So there is some new info for the masses! Don't all thank me at once.

Umm... I don't think I did anything else of note...

I am in the midst of a disagreement with Co. Its over winter camp of course, not the first disagreement we have had over it either. This time, I suggested that we make the camp shorter and have all the students in together. He is convinced that i am lazy and trying to get off doing work. And so it goes on. He called my recruiter at Korvia for some reason, to say that I didn't understand my contract. I have since emailed my GEPIK co-ordinator to double check that I am right (which I am pretty sure I am...) anyway watch this space.
God I hope I get a new co-teacher next year.
I have said it before and I will say it again. I am sure he is a nice enough guy. I just don't want to work with him. I can't remember if I blogged about it or not, but his idea of dicipline leaves a lot to be desired, and he is a control freak. I need a more positive and imaginitive person to work with. or I just need to come to terms with the fact that I have a long time to go working with this bloke so I need to suck it up.
End rant.

In other news...

It hasn't snowed this week but it has gotten warmer. As in around 2-5 degrees C so practically balmy. And I fell over on ice on Monday or Tuesday and made a dick of myself in front of a heap of people. It was awesome (not).

Thank god it is payday tomorrow, because I am broke... And I need to get some Christmas gifts for people. Anyone at home reading this be warned - you will probably not recieve a gift. Its not because I hate you, actually I love you all more that you know, but I just can't afford it at the moment. So I will just save up gifts and send them over when I have some spare cash. Or you can have something fun from me when I get home. 

We are doing some cool xmas things with the people here, I am going to Mia's for Christmas Day, and doing a pot luck Christmas party with another friend before Christmas. So we have that holiday covered... And then SISSY arrives! So pumped for that, we are down to 11 days to go :D

Milky is doing really well, even though I didn't go back to the vet on Saturday. I couldn't afford to get the booster vaccinations, so he will have to wait until next weekend. I am hoping it is no biggie, they even sent me a text to remind me. Oops. But we had to eat! And drink... and party... Ok, so maybe my priorities are a little bit out. But trust me, Milky is fine and happy as a pig in shit. He is currently snoozing in front of the fridge, one of his fave places. 

Plans for this week? Well, hump day has been moved to Tuesday because we all (well, most) have a day off on Wednesday. WOOOHOOO!!! 

"Why, Bonnie?"

Well, because of the elections! We may have a race that stops a nation, but in Korea the elections stop the nation. I don't know too much about it to be honest, but I think I want Number 2 to be elected. The old guy, for those playing at home. But because if the day off, it will be a HUGE night on Tuesday night I am fairly certain we will be getting pissed in Suwon and being hungover all day Wednesday. If not hungover I plan on going to the Tim Burton Exhibition which is on in Seoul atm, and then maybe iceskating in the city. Romantic huh!?!

And then friday is the last day of term, and I have 2 weeks off! So excited, I really need a break. 

No pics to show you this week, I haven't really taken any. Sorry, my bad. But I haven't been anywhere!!! I promise I will have more to show next Sunday.

Till later, then.

xoxo

God Bless America

Having never really met any American's,

I realise now I have been seriously generalising. 

Which isn't entirely my fault, all I know about America is from what I see on t.v, and by t.v I mainly mean C.S.I or Criminal Minds rather than the news. So I naturally assume that everywhere in America has a heap of crime, and that everyone is either obese or super skinny. 

I also assumed that they all love God, or follow some sort of religion (not that I have anything against God, I am a Catholic myself albeit not a very good one) and watch the Superbowl. I assume that people from the South don't have all their teeth and have names like Cletus and Mary-Sue. And that people from California are blonde and tanned. I also didn't think they seemed like friendly people, rather, that they would be obnoxious and rude.

What I have discovered is something else entirely.

The American's I have met are warm and friendly, welcoming and helpful. The other teachers I have spoken with are outgoing and happy, and have come to Korea to shake their lives up and do something exciting. They are super fun. 

The military guys are proving to be both what I expected, and also not what I expected. They are rowdy and flirty (I went out to Songtan drinking with one of my AWESOME new girlfriends and we didn't need to buy a thing) and have weird drinking chants that involve guns and ammo or something like that. If they had started shouting "USA! USA!" it would't have surprised me. But they are also really polite. Well, the guys we met were polite anyway...

 

So I have learnt something about myself since coming here.

I am a serial generaliser.

It doesn't matter what it is, I will make an unfounded blanket statement about it. I used to joke around with one of the guys at my old work, we would play the 'Generalising Game' in which we made terrible statements like "Well he has an Indian sounding name, he must smell like curry" and other inappropriate things. It was a fun game... 

But it is a good example of what I am like. I don't ever generalise to discriminate, I am not that sort of person (even though I see I am coming across that way) it's more I don't know enough about something or someone so I make an educated guess. I had done it already about Korea too. In this case though my assumptions and generalisations have been pretty accurate. But that's for another blog...

Its an easy thing to do (generalise, I mean) but its also the lazy thing as well. So my new 'thing' will be to try and understand more about something before I jump ahead and call a spade a spade. Because it might be a shovel. 

In other news...

I am slowly starting to make some friends. I have met some really cool people from Pyeongtaek. I won't name names, cos i'm not sure how ok people are with that here, but I went out for dins with a group on Wednesday night and it was super fun. We ate Shabu Shabu (I think thats what it was called??) which is soup that is full of veggies and all that, then you throw meat in it and the meat cooks in the soup. Then once you have eaten all the meat the lady brings out noodles and puts them in the soup, so you wait for the noodles to cook then you eat the noodles. THEN she brings over rice and cooks it in the soup pot. It was souper tasty (see my play on soup? HAHA i'm hilarious ey?). Then a couple of the girls went but 4 of us went back into Pyeongtaek to meet up with another girl and her bf for Honey Bread. I capitalise this because of how awesome it was... To me, it tasted kinda like fresh toast without the egg and waaayyyy sweeter. It was the most fatty and delicious thing I have eaten since coming to Korea. 

 Every meal you get here comes with side dishes included.

 Honey Bread

Approx. 3 minutes later...

And last night was an awesome night! Shanda and I (I hope she doesn't mind I have named her - apologies if you are not cool with it I will update the blog ASAP) went out for dinner first here in Songtan then went boozing around the strip. We played beer pong, bar hopped and danced the night away. I bought our first drinks, but soon realised I really didn't need to bother. Everyone wanted to buy us a drink. Being in Songtan on a Friday night is an experience in itself, the military boys are out in force and getting wasted, the boy/girl ratio is about 20:1 and they just wanna party. And they were good fun for the most part. They fully acknowledge that they buy all the drinks, one guy even said something along the lines of "it must be nice to not have to buy any drinks when you go out". Shanda said she wants to take me with her all the time, i'm a "military magnet". I think its just they haven't seen a blond chick in a while. 

I was totally drunk, and ended up refusing drinks cos my belly literally couldn't take anymore. And then they boys bought us water instead :) so that was nice of them too. 

By 12:30 the party wraps up, they need to be back on base or they get into trouble. So we stayed for another song, and stumbled back to my little room and tried to sleep off the grape soju. It was a really fun night with a new friend :) So shout-out to Shanda!

Tonight hopefully it will be back to Suwon to go out with Mia for a party, its a friend of hers birthday and 15000won for all you can drink cocktails. Thats about $15 for the people playing at home. So probably another messy night.

Right now I am sitting here waiting for my washing to finish washing so I can put it out, i'm gonna have a shower and then go to E-Mart cos I can. And then come home, maybe have a nap and then head out again I guess. 

Oooo, and there is apparently a big typhoon coming on Monday, so hopefully it will be huge and I can have a day off school! I will keep you informed about the typhoon... I have never been in a huge storm so I am actually pretty excited. 

Thats really it for now...

xoxoxo

School Blues

High excitement at school? Only for a few hours.

I know its only Wednesday, I have have only been here for a few days, but I have a pretty good feeling this may be what the rest of the year holds. I know I said I was going to give a blow by blow of the days, but as every day so far has basically been the same I will give you a taste of the timetable and what I do...

Daily breakdown

7:00 - wake up

I set my alarm for 7am, but in all honesty normal people could easily get up at 7:45 and still make it in plenty of time. I fluff around, eat breakfast (a piece of toast with weird grape-seed butter and strawberry jam), have a shower, do my hair and make up (a must), get dressed, make my bed and then leave. All the while I watch the Australia Network on t.v so I know what's going on at home. I left the house today at 8:15is and was still here a bit early.

8:30 - School time

I need to be here by 8:30, and there are already students wandering around. The class bell goes at 9am and the students have time in their homerooms before coming to class. There is an English classroom here, I will take some pics or do a video or something, I just want to check with my co that he doesn't mind. I think he would be fine but you never know...

First class

This morning there was no class at 9, but Monday and Tuesday there were students dying to come to class first thing. My co-teacher and I walk into the room together and the kids are supposed to already be there sitting and ready to learn. They would rather play in the hallway and go in when they HAVE to. On Monday my co rearranged the seats so the students are now sitting in small groups rather than in lines (much much better for learning), so when they come in they go to their respective groups. There is kinda a group competition going, so hopefully that will encourage them to speak more English. 

Each class runs for 40 minutes, and there is about 10 minutes between classes. I have no idea what time the morning classes are over exactly, as the clock in the classroom doesn't work and it never occurs to me to check my watch. But there are 3 classes before lunch, and 2 after lunch.

Lunch

Like I said, I dunno what time lunch starts, but either way I need to be back in the teachers room by 1pm. 

Lunch is eaten in a huge cafeteria, where you walk over to a rack full of metal trays with indentations in them where the lunch ladies scoop your food. There are cutlery buckets with metal chopsticks and metal spoons (no knives or forks, so i'm forced to use the chopsticks lol), which you grab and then head over to the lunch ladies. 

There is always rice and some kind of soup, and there is always kimchi (pickled spicy cabbage = gross) and then a bit of something else. Te first day the 'something' was potatoes, then pork, and today tofu. The school lunches have actually been kinda tasty, and today the rice was a fried rice rather than plain. So there you go. 

Food scraps go in a big bin, and you put your cutlery and tray on a wheely bench when you are done. Then wander around until time for class.

Afternoon classes

To be honest, the kids are over it by this point. Which is rubbish because I really have no idea what they do in the other classes but they sure as hell don't do much in English. Either way, they seem to be more easily distracted in the arvo. There are either 1 or 2 classes after lunch depending on the timetable. Either way, I am done teaching by 2-2:30pm, which would be fine if you can go home. But no, I need to sit here until 4:30 and it is driving me crazy! Its ok today because my co has had to go do something, but with him sitting there I can't exactly sit on FB all arvo :s

I need to find out what to go is here, because as much as I like not having to do anything, it is driving me crazy having nothing to do for hours every day. I am sure that as I get into this whole teaching thing he might let me plan some lessons, but until then I sit here getting more and more drowsy and feel like a snooze. 

Hometime

I am well and truely packed up and ready by 4:30. In fact, I am at the gate by then. I figure if anyone asks I can say my computer clock must be fast or something lame like that. I then walk home (10 minutes) get changed, and sit on my bed. I need to find a social life here in Songtan! I really don't want to have to catch the bus/train every arvo just to hang with people, so I need to meet some people here to hang with. Yesterday I wanted to go for a walk but the rain was terrible so I stayed inside and played online. Today the weather is waaayyyy nicer so I will wander out for dinner tonight and get out and about. 

And this is pretty much what I have done the last few days. This is school.

Highlights so far?

Yes, there have been a few. I love that every student says hello to me. They greet me with "Hello Teacher Bonnie" and then run off. 

I got told by one girl today I was so beautiful (awwww). 

My co teacher asked the class the other day who thought I was the most beautiful teacher and they all put their hands up (awww again - but as if they would say no, their teacher asked them)

One girl had an obvious light bulb moment when she figured out 'your welcome' comes after 'thank you'

Another girl pronouncing "December" like an Aussie, not an American

Anyway, its 4:23 so I better get ready to run out the door! I'd hate to be here alone in an empty classroom any longer than I have to be. Better to be alone in my own house lol...

If anyone has anything specific they want to know, shoot me an email or FB me, and I will try and get something specific... I can be a rambler and not get to any point so I do need to be steered sometimes haha.

More tomorrow i'm sure!

xoxo

The first weekend

Songtan, E-Mart and Suwon

Getting to know my area, with the help of some awesome new friends!

You can count friday as the weekend if you want, but nothing exciting really happened. Friday I went back to the shops and got more supplies, had a really good wander around my area and eventually went to bed after a dinner of noodles and a cup of tea (I finally got a kettle - I was desperate for a cuppa).

I wouldn't say it was super early when I went to bed. I was pretty wired from my day of wandering, I had made my first solo purchase at the shops and was excited after unpacking my stuff and putting my pics from home up. This was also the last of my skyping, my battery had died on my Mac and I had left my plug adaptor at home. This also meant that my hair was in complete disarray - a big no no for women in Korea. They ALWAYS do their hair and makeup. I was at a disadvantage.

Saturday

I couldn't sleep in... I woke up just after 7 and couldn't get back to sleep. The sun was out so I figured I would get up. I was meeting my co-teacher around 1:30 to go into the E-Mart in Pyeongtaek. I needed to get a plug before I went crazy, and only the bigger stores stock this type of thing. Plus, all the homewear things are cheaper at the boggier places. And he wanted to show me how to catch the bus. On the way, the bus ran up some car's ass which was funny, we bailed off the bus. You can use what's called a T Money card on all the public transport in Korea. You pay 25,000won for the card, and then you can just top it up whenever you run out of money. The public transport is really cheap, it was only a few dollars to go into Pyeongtaek, and when I went into Suwon on the Sunday it was only 1500won or something.

Anyway, I finally got back into Songtan in time to catch Amelia and Tyler who were coming in to 

Songtan to meet me in person and to hang out. It ended up being an awesome night!

I won't go into too much detail, but in summary:

We ate mexican

I got my first taste of shoji (google it - its potent)

Went to a country bar and a soldier taught me to two-step (no, he wasn't hot, but was very polite)

Went to a club, which was full of black people (mainly military guys, but also randoms)

All this and I was home by 12.

Side note - 

MASSIVE shout out to Mia and Tyson. But especially Mia, you have been super awesome and I hope its ok that I make you my new bff.

Sunday

I woke up with a mild hangover on Sunday, but I maintain it was worth it. My night was mild compared to Mia and Tyler, who had an epic story of finally getting home at some stupid hour and finding a super awesome couch. I'll let her tell it...

I finally got my plug to work, so a fair bit of the day was spent playing on FB and uploading some pics. i also thought it would be a good idea to do a practice walk to the school, as I wasn't completely sure I remembered where to go. Lucky I did, I went the wrong way and ended up walking around for nearly n hour trying to find the freaking place. My school is called Songshin Elementary, and has under 400 students. But I will tell you about the school in another blog. ( I have been there 2 days now, and there isn't too much to tell so I think it can wait)

After finding the school I was starving, so I wandered up to the strip and bought some food from a street vendor. Now, I don't do this sort of thing because as I have said in the past I have Crohns and its asking for trouble to eat weird things. But, I am in a new country and feeling awesome, and have been told the food is safe so just give it a go. So I got a spicy chicken stick and it was so tasty! I Will totally go back and get another one sometime! 

Main strip in Songtan, just down from Osan Air Base. I took this pic while my chicken stick cooked :)

After that I went home (via the shops for more supplies - I swear im done for this week) and had a nap. I was pooped!

Then about 6 I jumped on the train and headed into Suwon to meet up with Mia and Tyler again and have some Indian food. The rain started as i got off the train so I brought a super cute umbrella. Then we had dins, and then went fro a stroll down the strip in Suwon. Now, Suwon is what I expected Korea to look like - flashing signs, hundreds of people (mostly Koreans) and sounds and smells coming from all directions! I loved it completely. Apparently there are awesome bars and clubs here, so i am looking forward to coming into here more often. There is a huge number of foreign teachers here, and they all get together fairly often or so I hear. So i am looking forward to meeting them too :)

We went to a bar where they know the owner, had a glass of pineapple juice then headed back the the station. I caught the train home without too many hassles (I did accidentally sit in the old person seat, but didn't realise until I was nearly at my stop).

Then went to bed. I had a big day the next day as it was my first day of school.

I will fill you in on school tomorrow :)

Now its bedtime, and I am sooo sleepy...

So far, still loving Korea <3

xoxo

Where to start?

Having been in South Korea for 4 nights now, 

you would think I would have some idea about what to say... But I don't know where to start!

So, backtracking to Thursday (gonna skip over the teary goodbyes at the airport - lets just say it involved a lot of crying. Quick shout out to everyone who came to see me off and a BIG thank you to Anne and Jo for looking after me in customs and the international lounge).

The Flight

I flew with China Souther Air, and it actually wasn't that bad. I paid $725 for the flight so I wasn't expecting red carpet, but it was better than Jetstar thats for sure. The meals were Asian food so I wasn't that keen but all in all not bad. I got a little bit of sleep but I never sleep well on planes. I think its more the sitting upright.

There was a stop over in Guangzhou (?) in China, which was decidedly uneventful. I got changed into something less homeless looking as I knew I was being met in Incheon. We boarded the next flight and took off to Korea. The weather in China was HOT and the air con in the airport was shit house so I was looking a bit worse for wear when I got to Korea. 

Somewhere between China and Korea the clouds had rolled in, so when we landed it was still super muggy but raining pretty heavily. I was picked up by a cute little old Korean man who didn't really speak English at all but he tried. My bag felt like I had packed lead cannonballs but he offered to wheel it anyway. We got into his lovely van thing and headed off to Pyeongtaek.

NB

People drive on the wrong side of the road in Korea!!! No one told me that! The poor little man thought I wanted to drive lol

South Korea

The drive from the airport to Songtan took nearly 2 hours, mainly because of the traffic in shitty weather. The rain kept getting heavier so it was a downpour by the time we arrived at the school. The drive over was different to what I expected - the highways here are waaayyyy better than ours, and there were nice small mountains on either side so there was a lot of greenery. And there are these long ass bridges linking the airport island to the rest of the country - side note here is that the eastern side of South Korea has a heap of large islands. The airport appears to be on one of these...

I was so tired by the time I arrived at the school, but put on my bestest happy face and greeted my co-teacher, Jean (haha I know, that was my recruiters name too). I don't think thats how you spell it, but whatever.

He throughout I was arriving earlier, so all we really did was meet the principal and then got back in the car for him to take me to my little house/room/cave. I didn't get a good look at the school, but it looked pretty big. The plan was to go back the next day and have a proper look around.

My studio apartment

I know most of you will have already seen these pics on FB, but in case you haven't here are a few:

So its a bit hard to see, but I can get from one side to the other in 2 big steps. Its adorable and I love it! I am 3 minutes from the supermarket (Highwaymart), 5 minutes from the station and 10 minutes from my school. Walking, not driving. 

It also turns out I am in Songtan, not Pyeongtaek as I thought... This suits me just fine, as I am that little bit closer to Suwon, and there are a lot of people who speak English here because the Air Force Base in 15 minutes away (walking). It also means I am not stared at too much because the Koreans here are used to looking at Americans... I need to get a tee that says 'Australia' so they know the difference.

Anyway, I am dead tired tonight. It was my first day at school today, but there is so much to blog about for my first weekend that I don't want to launch into it. But now that my internet is working, and I have a plug adaptor there is no reason for me to hold anything back! So I will probe add a blog a day for a while so everyone can catch up on my news. 

I feel like I have done so much in such a short space of time. Its the weirdest thing, I don't feel scared or lonely or anything like that here. I wouldn't say I feel at home, because I don't, but it just doesn't feel that foreign. Maybe because I have spent so much time in Box Hill, or maybe because I have made my little cave into a warm fuzzy retreat with pics of home. Either way, Korea feels friendly, and I like it here. 

I think i'll stick around...

xoxo