Bienvenido a Korea!

Yay! Finally a blog entry! Sorry it took me so long but things have been pretty hectic and since the move to my apartment I have been internetless. However, I am "borrowing" it from a neighbor and since it hasn't immediately booted me off and I finally have time to take a breath I figured why not get that blog finally going?
To start off: don't worry. I am totally fine. Seriously. Everyone I've met has been wonderful (minus the scary ajummas that push you out of their way in the subways) and the food has been great.

So let's start from the beginning...

Duuuuuuuude, anyone who comes out here... FLY SINGAPORE AIR. The flight was amazing. I only ended up sleeping 2 or 3 hours becuase there was so much I wanted to do. Each seat was equipped with their own screen with remote. There was a huge library of movies, tv shows, operas, documentaries, video games, and language lessons (including project runway, dad, so you can get your Tim Gunn fix). So with endless amounts of entertainment, which included Back to the Future, and the mid- flight snack of king-sized ice cream sandwiches I figured I could sleep once I landed. Here's a pic of the menu and the remote. On the reverse side of it is a full keyboard and buttons for the games.

So, made my way through customs without any hassle and scurried off to collect my luggage. After waiting... and waiting... and finally realizing that I'd seen the same bags rotate by at least 10 times without mine in it that they were not there. An airport employee approached me and informed me that my bags were not put on my last plane and that they'd send it to my hotel as soon as they got it. Bah... well, it made traveling to the hotel that much easier. Luckily, I was only without my bags for a day. On the way I met a couple of other CDI-ers, including my hotel roommate, Tracy. We all were pretty exhausted by the time we got to the hotel around 11 so we just crashed. Here's what my home for 2 weeks looked like. It's a typical officetel which is what they call most apartments out here. The beds were comfy, the floors were heated so your feet don't get cold and the toilet seat was heated which was always a pleasant surprise. There were loads of buttons on the side of it which I never really experience since you had to be sitting on them in order for it to work. A ladies only button was extremely tempting though, but a male friend, Jason, later informed us what it was like.
So the first week was pretty much a blur. We had classes everyday from 9 to 3 to prepare us for our first week of teaching. Classes consisted of learning class structure, mock teaching and tests. The word of the week was definitely Intense. We still managed to have fun inbetween though. I made some great friends who I definitely plan on staying in touch with.

Now for a flood of pictures!


Bi bim bap! Definitely one of my top 5 meals thus far. Take rice, mushrooms, mung beans, onion, seaweed and various other veggies, top them with an egg and throw them into a sizzling bowl. mix 'em all together so that the egg gets cooked from the hot pot and consume.








One day after work and after our mandatory health inspection, a bunch of us wandered to The Coex, Korea's largest mall. It's huuuuuge! Not only does it have so many stores and food stalls but it's own basketball stadium and ice skating rink. Here are the boys trying to figure out where to go on the interactive mall map (shown below).
























Here's Gangnam, the area I trained in. Pretty nice. I'm not use d to being surrounded but such huge buildings.We were in the business district so there was a lot to do with plenty of places open all night. Coffee is a big fat deal here so there is a Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks or some coffee equivalent on every corner. Too bad I don't like coffee.

Here's Ethen and Ari at Korean BBQ. So here, rice doesn't usually come with this meal and needs to be ordered specially and is eaten with a spoon (oi! We had it all wrong!). Also, once the bulgogi is cooked you dip it in sauce and wrap it in a lettuce leaf with various spicy vegetables. So gooooood...







Here's my roommate, Tracy, and I. We got along right from the beginning and were definitely the most extroverted girls during training. It's too bad we didn't get placed in the same branch. That's all for now! Tune in next blog where I shall continue my game of catch up with updates about my apartment and work!