Today Alison and I went to the Suwon Fortress. We had to take the subway there which, gratefully, was in English as well as Korean. When we got off the subway, we got on a bus to the fortress. The bus driver was very nice and told us when our stop was. We walked around the area around the fortress for awhile before stopping inside a Tourist Information Booth. There, these two Korean men sat us down to tell us the history behind the Suwon fortress. It was a bit random, since the one man was telling us the story and the other man behind him kept taking our photo. At the end of his lecture, he beckoned us to follow him. His English was very bad so we weren't really sure where he was taking us, but we ended up at the palace inside the fortress walls. There was a stage there with traditional Korean dancers, and inside the palace we got to see the old suits of armor and other war/kingdom stuff.
After this, we walked to the wall. The stairs to the top of the wall were EXTREMELY long and steep and we felt quite dehydrated by the top as it was very warm today. The view on top of the wall though was beautiful, you could see the entire city of Suwon. I wish I could post pictures, but those will come soon enough. :)
We took the bus back to the subway station after this and we somehow ended up getting on the wrong train back! We got on the "rapid" train instead of the normal train, so it took us straight from Suwon to Anyang, completely skipping our stop. It was only about a 15 minute train ride though, and we didn't have to pay to get back to our stop. We finally got back around 4:30 and decided to explore our area of the city some more. We walked downtown and decided to go into this Korean restaurant that appeared to have pictures of their food on the menu. We thought this would be relatively safe so we went in. The menus turned out to be entirely in Korean, and our waitress didn't know any English either. We asked her if she had an English menu (by pointing at our menus and saying, "English?") and she went over to a fellow customer and dragged him over to talk to us. He pointed at the three sections on the menu and said, "Meat, noodles, drink." So we ordered off the "noodle" page and waited in confused expectation for our food. We both ended up getting some Korean spaghetti dish, so that was fine.
Tonight I think we are going to retreat back to one of our apartments and watch some "Friends" on DVD and eat green tea ice cream. :)
My first "official" teaching day is on Monday. So exciting! I'll be sure to update about that as soon as possible.
Love you all.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
I'm here!
I arrived in Seoul after a long (21 hours to be precise) trip from Michigan. The plane rides were not actually that bad, even the 13 hour flight from Detroit to Tokyo. I spent a lot of the plane ride reading (my amazing best friend made a care package of letters from my other amazing friends...spent much of this time crying), doing some Sudoku puzzles, sleeping, watching movies ("Made of Honor"...for the third time), etc.
I was waiting at my gate in Tokyo for about 15 minutes before this Korean guy, Seihyon, started talking to me. That was pretty cool-- making a Korean friend right after getting off the plane in Asia!
I arrived at Incheon airport and made my way through customs fairly easily, and when I came out there was this big sign with my name on it, and I found out that I wasn't the only teacher arriving that day. Another girl, Alison, had flown in from Boston about an hour earlier and she was at my same branch so we rode to Suwon together. We've been hanging out constantly ever since!
My apartment is a lot nicer and bigger than I expected. Once I get internet access in my apartment I'll post photos of it. The staff from the school have been very kind, driving us around, helping us out, etc. They left some food/drinks in my apartment as a welcoming gift. I had some adventures the first night...trying to find my apartment after going to the phone down the street...blowing up my alarm clock because I forgot that I needed a converter in addition to the adapter for the outlet...haha.
I had orientation all day yesterday, which was pretty cool because I got to meet all the new teachers at the other branches. We practiced teaching and that got me really excited about getting started here. I got my class list today and I have about three or four textbooks per class...kind of overwhelmed, we did some lesson planning today and I think I spent a good 10 minutes just staring at the books. I get my very own class room (room # 8) and a desk and a white board and everything. It was pretty exciting.
My two biggest adventures took place today. This morning Alison and I had to walk to the school to meet Lynn, our supervisor, so she could take us to the hospital to get our physicals. I was not excited about this, since I was informed that it involved getting my blood drawn. As many as you know, I have a death-fear of needles. Last time I got a shot, I nearly fainted. Anyway, we got to the hospital and proceeded to get an X-Ray, which went fine. Then we had to have a urine test, which proved to be extremely difficult for me since they didn't have TOILETS in the rest room, they had a hole in the ground in the stall. Then came the infamous blood test...............I didn't pass out, it went well, I have a very small bruise on my arm now but that it is the most damage I had.
The second adventure...after work, Alison and I decided to go to the Lotte store to get groceries. This was pretty fun, we didn't know what half of the items in the store were but I managed to buy some Diet Coke (yay!), rice, shrimp, noodles, milk, and dish soap. We successfully purchased our groceries even though the cashier didn't speak any English. THEN we had to carry our groceries home, which happens to be about a 20 minute walk. It was a nice walk today when we didn't have heavy bags, but tonight, in the dark, it was a bit harder.
I have to wait about a week to get my health test results back, and then I can apply for my Alien Registration Card. When I get my ARC, I can get a bank account, internet, and a cell phone. Until then...........I have to carry cash, walk down the street to this place called PC World (actually pretty cheap for internet use), and rely on the school's phone to call home.
I'm still adjusting and I miss everyone a ton, but so far I'm very glad I took this adventure. :) This weekend Alison and I are planning on visiting the Suwon Fortress and maybe going into Seoul.
More stories to come!
I was waiting at my gate in Tokyo for about 15 minutes before this Korean guy, Seihyon, started talking to me. That was pretty cool-- making a Korean friend right after getting off the plane in Asia!
I arrived at Incheon airport and made my way through customs fairly easily, and when I came out there was this big sign with my name on it, and I found out that I wasn't the only teacher arriving that day. Another girl, Alison, had flown in from Boston about an hour earlier and she was at my same branch so we rode to Suwon together. We've been hanging out constantly ever since!
My apartment is a lot nicer and bigger than I expected. Once I get internet access in my apartment I'll post photos of it. The staff from the school have been very kind, driving us around, helping us out, etc. They left some food/drinks in my apartment as a welcoming gift. I had some adventures the first night...trying to find my apartment after going to the phone down the street...blowing up my alarm clock because I forgot that I needed a converter in addition to the adapter for the outlet...haha.
I had orientation all day yesterday, which was pretty cool because I got to meet all the new teachers at the other branches. We practiced teaching and that got me really excited about getting started here. I got my class list today and I have about three or four textbooks per class...kind of overwhelmed, we did some lesson planning today and I think I spent a good 10 minutes just staring at the books. I get my very own class room (room # 8) and a desk and a white board and everything. It was pretty exciting.
My two biggest adventures took place today. This morning Alison and I had to walk to the school to meet Lynn, our supervisor, so she could take us to the hospital to get our physicals. I was not excited about this, since I was informed that it involved getting my blood drawn. As many as you know, I have a death-fear of needles. Last time I got a shot, I nearly fainted. Anyway, we got to the hospital and proceeded to get an X-Ray, which went fine. Then we had to have a urine test, which proved to be extremely difficult for me since they didn't have TOILETS in the rest room, they had a hole in the ground in the stall. Then came the infamous blood test...............I didn't pass out, it went well, I have a very small bruise on my arm now but that it is the most damage I had.
The second adventure...after work, Alison and I decided to go to the Lotte store to get groceries. This was pretty fun, we didn't know what half of the items in the store were but I managed to buy some Diet Coke (yay!), rice, shrimp, noodles, milk, and dish soap. We successfully purchased our groceries even though the cashier didn't speak any English. THEN we had to carry our groceries home, which happens to be about a 20 minute walk. It was a nice walk today when we didn't have heavy bags, but tonight, in the dark, it was a bit harder.
I have to wait about a week to get my health test results back, and then I can apply for my Alien Registration Card. When I get my ARC, I can get a bank account, internet, and a cell phone. Until then...........I have to carry cash, walk down the street to this place called PC World (actually pretty cheap for internet use), and rely on the school's phone to call home.
I'm still adjusting and I miss everyone a ton, but so far I'm very glad I took this adventure. :) This weekend Alison and I are planning on visiting the Suwon Fortress and maybe going into Seoul.
More stories to come!
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