My days in Seoul.

So I haven't really had any internet access for the last few days because I was up in Seoul - the capital city - from Monday to Wednesday for Orientation. It was a really great experience, I have to say. The workshops were really informative and now I feel so much more prepared. Plus the guy that was directing the orientation was so into it that you can't help but feel inspired. Today I taught my first classes and they went pretty well I thought. I think once I build a rapor with the students it will actually get a lot better. But I'm skipping a lot, so...
On monday I woke up at 6AM and Mr. Kim the manager at the school took me to the train station. When I got to Seoul I even got on the right subway... going in the wrong direction. Yea the blonde is coming out again. So I was a little bit late the first day but what can you expect really?

-----The beautiful view from the YBM building in Seoul.

For lunch I went out to eat with the other people at orientation. I actually got to know them a little bit and they are some really cool people. There's Jessica (a pretty blonde girl from Minnesota), Brendan (a really mellow, fun, nice guy who also happens to teach in Daegu with me, so I have a new friend in Daegu as well, yay), Adam (a really funny Canadian who got piss/vomit everywhere drunk on soju the first night we were there), James (a cute and really sarcastic brit who would totally get sooooo much ass if he went anywhere in the US), Jure (a big Croatian guy who is super nice and sweet but it's really funny cuz i feel like I'm 5 when i stand next to him), Sam (the funniest/sarcastic/overly verbal/wise-ass english major ever), Dominic (a really thin nice guy from Boston), Hunter (a gay fashion designer from Texas), Matt (a really quiet British guy), and Marnie (a girl from Canada who decided that people eat Guinea pigs in Cuba...ok random). So these were my orientation people.

----- Orientation people at dinner (from left to right: James, Matt, Jessica, Hunter, Jure, Brendan, Dominic, Adam [see the Soju?], and Sam).

----- Me with Sam (the funny Texan) and James (the Brit).

-----Me and Jure (the Croatian).
----- Me with Brendan, the other Daegu teacher (he made sure I didn't get lost in Seoul).
-----Brendan doing his happy dance cuz I actually told him he was right (those of you who know me, know how rare that is).

The first night we all went out to eat and drink together. Mostly I drank beer. I swear I'm gonna be a beer drinker before I leave here because I tried Soju and it tastes like sweet ass water. YUCK! So beer it is. Then on the second night we all we all went out to eat again and it was actually pretty funny cuz we went to a place with no pictures and an all korean menu so we just pointet at stuff on the menu. We got something called "cajun chicken" yea it was definitely breaded fried chicken with honey mustard sauce on it on top of some salad???? I don't get it. Then after that I mostly hung out with Brendan, Jure and Adam. We went walking along this really pretty area that was this river that they had built over and then they dug it up again and made it all pretty. It was really nice. I just didn't end up going to sleep until late so...
-----Me sitting by the pretty river in Seoul.
-----They're so goofy. I think they were trying to be turtle??? (Adam, Brendan, and Jure)
-----Brendan... umm... yea. You gotta love it.

Wednesday I totally woke up late. The guy from the front desk didn't call me until 9:30 and then I realized I should have packed my stuff to check out. So I got to the class late. So we had some class presentations in the morning. And then after I got my stuff and I went to eat with everyone else at a traditional Korean place. It was pretty good. I had Bulgogi again, that seems to be my safe bet as far as food is concerned. My train went back to Daegu at 3:00. So Mr. Kim picked me up again. We went over to the school and he told me my stuff was already at the apartment so I waited for David and Nathan to show me to the apartment (since David still had some stuff there anyway).
I will now take the opportunity to say that David had painted me a grim picture of what the apartment was like. I pictured a horrible, bug infested, hell hole. I think he did it on purpose so that what I imagined would be so bad that the reality would not compare. The truth is that it was absolutely filthy, but that's the way every apartment that was formerly inhabited by a guy has been like in my experience. I immediately got to cleaning and moving around furniture (the flow of energy was horrible). I'm not like a feng shui expert or anything but if a room is set up wrong it can be really bad and it puts me in a bad mood. So I fixed it and it looks a whole lot better now. I swept everywhere, I even lifted up the mattress and the bed supports and swept under the bed which I don't think had been cleaned in years since it had food and socks and papers and all sorts of shit down there. Then when I moved the TV unit I discovered that there was a huge infestation of mold growing on the wall. It was really bad. So I got worried about how the hell I was going to explain mold in Korean but luckily in the morning Mr. Kim went by to introduce me to the landlady (who seems very nice and she kept saying how pretty I was) and when they saw it they immediately realized how bad it was. So they ripped out the wall paper on that part of the wall and tomorrow they are supposed to go in the morning to fix it. We'll see. But so far they're being very cooperative and Mr. Kim is also going to get me a new comforter and pillow. Now I need to get back to the apartment and try clean some more and do some lesson planning for tomorrow.

Random side note: So when I got to my school this morning there was a huge box waiting for me and what should it be but like 20 fruit roll ups boxes. I was sooooo excited. I've already eaten 4 but I need to make them last. Thank you Randy!!

Better Day.

Today was the first (hopefully of many) good day(s) I've had in Korea. In the morning David (one of the other teachers) came by to get me because he had promised to show me a cool tea house in Downtown Daegu. I took the bus for the first time, an overall not unenjoyable experience as it wasn't too crowded, and then we wandered around downtown for most of the day. We went to the "bad" part of town which is where a lot of the southeast asian immigrants are with their cheap wares. It's awesome. I love it there. Piles of used - cool - clothing for 3000 won apiece (that's like $3). Then we went to the tea house which was one of the neatest places. It smelled so good and I got to have something called chrysanthemum tea. Then afterwards I got to keep the flowers. I'm going to try to dry them tonight and put them in my journal. We just sat in the yummy-smelling tea house for a few hours and chatted and read. It was really nice.

-----The yummy things at the tea house. Those are the flowers on the right from my tea.

After that we wandered some more. We saw some really cool graffiti all over downtown Daegu.

-----What do you guys think??

Then David took me to what he calls the "ghetto market." It was one of those markets you expect to see in Asian countries. With barrels of cool things that you can't really identify. Piles of chiles that would probably melt your eyeballs if you made the mistake of touching one and then rubbing your eye. Buckets of live eels (which the lady obligingly poked at to make them go crazy for my amusement). More fish than you can possibly imagine. And of course, endless displays of things you could buy at the dollar store - be nice this is their home country. I really liked it there. I think I'll try to go back and buy random things once I have an apartment to take them to.

-----The piles of chiles. -----Endless baskets of spices and stuff.
-----The EELS!

After a while David decided to leave but I decided to stick around and explore some more on my own. This was one of those good idea/bad idea things because left to my own devices I (inevitably) went shopping, which I'm definitely not supposed to do since I don't make any money until the 8th of January. But I think I needed a small, celebratory, welcome-to-korea, little shopping trip to lift me out of the existential funk I'd been in. And you know what? It totally worked. I ended up getting 3 pairs of shoes (fun patent leather brown boots, super cute flats, and a pair of little school marm looking lace up shoes that I've been wanting forever - which also happened to be the first time I haggled in korea, they went from 30000W to 23000W, so yay!) and I also got some leggins, which are so in here, and also a beautiful ivory coat. I love it!
I will now transition from that into saying that I LOVE the way people dress here. Especially in Daegu, which is like the fashion capital of Korea. I've decided I'm just going to start taking pictures of the way that the girls are dressed and posting them up for inspiration because I seriously am loving it. There's a lot of funky layering. Not crazy harajuku girl funkiness either. It's more toned down and girly. Anyways, I like it a lot. And the shoes here... Let's not even go there.

-----Here are the shoes.

----- I need some help.

-----Tati, you need to help me decide which kind I want.

Additionally, on the food front. Things are definitely looking much better. Today I had Tonkatsu for lunch (japanese fried pork) with the best side dishes i've had since coming here. Then I bought some candy off a street vendor. Then I found a guy that sold fried boniato strips (how great is that???) at his cart. And for dinner I also ate food from another street vendor. A really sweet old lady had some of these awesome shish-kebabs. Yummy! And I ate like 4 of them for under $4. That's pretty cool.

-----Here's the sweet old lady that gave me yummy food and was kind enough to point out which sauce was yummy and would not burn off my tongue.

So yea. That was my day. Oh and I managed to take the bus back from downtown to suseong-gu (my area of town) all by myself. Today was definitely a better day. And now tomorrow morning I head off to Seoul for training. It should be fun.

Mission Accomplished

I found food. I did the whole pointing at a picture thing but this time it actually worked. I ate some things that were like dumplings. I guess more like japanese gyoza but they were pretty good. So now I am not nearly as cranky and I can head back to my motel and get some rest. That is good.

I need FOOD!!!!

So yea. I am now totally having flashbacks of all those psych classes where we discussed Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Ignoring the fact that I'm a total nerd referencing Psych 101. I think we seriously underestimate the necessity (and frustration that comes along with) not being able to get food. I've been in Korea for 4 days now and I have not really (not at all) mastered the art of ordering Korean food. I really thought this would be the easy part people.
Right now I'm sitting in a PC Bang (and internet cafe, but I think the Korean name is funnier), starving, posting about how annoyed I am about the fact that I'm starving but still refusing to get up and do something about it because of the inevitable frustration that will come from going out (in the cold) and trying to get someone to understand that I just want a dish that has some meat in it. I'm a freaking carnivore here, most of Korea's dishes are mostly meat dishes. You would think it would be simple. Its not. This morning I pointed to a picture of a stew with some seafood stuff in it. It gets to my table and all I got is noodles and veggies. Where was the error in translation. I pointed to a picture. Ok forget it. I'm done ranting. I'm heading out to hunt down some food (at this point it might be easier for them to drop me in the middle of the woods with a makeshift spear a la Lord of the Flies... piggy anyone?). Jeez. I'm horrible. That's it. Hunger has turned me into a cannibal.
I think once I move into my apartment and I have a kitchen things will be a lot easier. Next wednesday. Wish me luck!

Korea...First Impressions

I'm officially in Korea now. It's very different. To say the least. I now realize how spoiled i was by doing my study abroad in spain where i never struggled with ordering food, or finding my way around or just basically being there. The actually city is very nice and its pronounced Taegu, not Daegu, because as i discovered at the airport they will look at you like you're crazy if you pronounce the d. I can see mountains if i walk just a few blocks from my hotel. So that's amazing. The people have been very nice to me, especially the other teachers (both korean and western) at the school. I haven't really gotten into the grove of everything and i'm not yet feeling entirely comfortable. More than anything the difficult parts have been missing people and feeling so out of place. I'm really hoping that that will end soon because i feel totally uninspired. I haven't even started taking pictures, which is so not like me.
Additionally, I still haven't gotten to move into my apartment, I actually won't be until next wednesday. I'll be spending this weekend holed up in the little motel they put me up in, then on monday I take a train to seoul (for orientation) and then when i get back from seoul on wednesday i move into my apartment and officially begin teaching on thursday November 29th. I'm a little nervous because I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I think once i get into the grove of things and i start being able to explore more i'll feel more comfortable. In hindsight i wish i hadn't arrived here at the beginning of winter because considering how much of a weinie i am for the cold it has (so far) detered me from going crazy and just wandering around. This weekend I think that I'm going to just bundle up and try to venture downtown. Jenny, the other American girl, who has been sooo incredibly helpful and sweet, drew me a little map and gave me some directions (since she'll be out of town this weekend) so we'll see what happens.
I'm having to use the internet at the school so I haven't been able to write very consistently but once i set up my internet it should be better. I haven't even gotten to discuss all the things about my trip. Here goes: My flight over here was nice. I sat next to a fun and interesting guy named Tom so it wasn't too boring being stuck on a plane for 15 hours. Navigating the Seoul airport was not so fun being harrassed by all the taxi driver who saw my face and figured "here's a chump" and then me being an airhead put the baggage on the cart incorrectly so it kept falling off. When i got to daegu mr. kim, the school's director picked me up and took me by the school (to call my mom) and then to the hotel (which is funny in itself because i don't really think its an entirely reputable hotel. case in point: when i turned on the tv what should i find but korean porn). Anyways, I've spent the past two days observing a lot of classes and meeting everyone. After my first day of observation some of the other Western teachers invited me to go with them to a sauna so I had an interesting experience at a korean bathhouse/sauna (so much nakedness). It was a funny way to introduce myself to my fellow teachers. Like "Hello. Here I am. I'm naked." The actual sauna was this amazing room that felt more like a tomb. Its this infinitely tall, black room that when you look up it looks like you're soooo far underground. It was strange sensation. And it was also like 80 degrees celcius which made it hella freaking hot. Then when you weren;t trying to boil yourself you could fall asleep while using a piece of two by four for a pillow. LIke i said... interesting.
Yesterday on thanksgiving i didn't really do much. My stomach was being a little weird and also i was feeling pretty lonely. I think i underestimated how lonely i would feel on a day when i normally sit around with my family and eat my dad's awesome food. Once i have my own kitchen and start to cook things may be better. Plus since i actually cook, some of the other teachers may want to come visit and i won't be so lonely all the time. My hotel room (aka the korean porn palace) is a a little depressing. Although the bed itself is awesome because it is the room's heater. Like rather than have a heater, the bed itself has a control that you turn up to the desired temperature and then when you lay in it, its so warm and cozy. Tonight I think I'm going to hang out with Jenny (the other American girl) for a little while and maybe practice learning some korean, so that may be fun. Well, I'll write a lot more later.

Two random side notes: My new official name is Susy teacher. Although if it sounds more like sushi teechr. Cute.. i thought so. And also yesterday i got super excited because David, the teacher that I'll be replacing told me that one of the kids that he teaches is reading the harry potter books and he had me quiz him yesterday on the first book. It made me so happy. I am such a nerd. :-)

Gone (almost)

I can't sleep. I'm hours away from leaving to Korea and I'm exhausted... and wide awake. How does that work? All my things are packed (at least all the ones I could think of) and I've been so stressed that I haven't even had time to deal with the emotional issues surrounding my leaving.
I got to have an amazing weekend with my loves down in Miami and up in DC. In a nutshell: Clubing at Suite til 4, 30 minutes of sleep, almost missing my flight to DC, yummy thai food, late night airport pickup straight to indebleu, Johnny Rockets, snuggling, more yummy thai food, H&M, dancing on the bar at Citron, more cuddling, "it kinda has a mind of its own" (LOL), reluctant touristy pics, ZARA, paparazzi pics, yummy cuban food, by the hour, hip hop class, (random) monday on south beach, Bed (not the cama the club), new - very short - hair, spending quality time, loveyness, yumminess and crying. That was my weekend/week beginning. I'm going to miss snuglling with my titi and diva but I got to enjoy it all weekend. I'm definitely going to miss all the new things that have come into my life recently (a few very significant ones come to mind ;-) at the moment). They've helped me to see thing in a new and interesting and amazing and full-of-possibility-way so I've been enjoying it as much as I can. I was supposed to go to Gainesville but I couldn't and I'm still really sorry there are some people I did not get to spend any time with before leaving but there's been so much to do. So then I came up to Tampa in order to get things done and I proceeded to get sick. Like SICK. I had a fever and I felt like shit. All of it. So all the preparations for my trip ended up being last minute. As always.
But now the time is almost here. I'm going to miss everyone so much. I did a fair bit of crying when i was leaving Miami. I imagine the waterworks will come at the airport. So now I am off...

Going, going, going

I would like to start off by saying (and this goes completely against my gypsy nature, but anyway) I am so annoyed by moving. I was up until 3:30 AM packing everything up and I don't even really know how but I got it all done. Keep in mind that this will be the 7th time - yes seven, siete, chil - that I move in a period of 2 years. Mind you I'm counting the moving of Colin's stuff to DC because I drove the whole way and lifted and was injured and dealt with the military base personnel looking at me like i was crazy (lol), so it counts even though I wasn't moving my stuff. But still...That is ridiculous!! On the plus side I've gotten so efficient at setting up my apartment and at packing that I got it all done within the span of 3 days (thanks to my mami for doing the kitchen, and randy for having the patience to sit in my closet with me and go through my billion articles of clothing). So now its just sitting there in piles and this afternoon a few of the world electric people are going to come and help me (at Randy's behest of course) to get it to the storage place and to my mom's. I'm thinking that since there will be 5 of us there we can totally knock it out in about 2 hours which will totally help to diminish the annoying-ness of the whole thing.
So now we're officially at t-minus: 11 days before I leave to Korea. Moving out of my apartment makes the whole thing seem much more real. The truth is that it hasn't hit me yet that I'll actually be gone for a whole year. I feel like that has been mostly due to the fact that I've been stressed out and overwhelmed by all the things I have to do but now that a lot of those things are getting accomplished it's starting to seep in and the butterflies will be coming soon.
On top of everything, my itinerary for the next week and a half is insane (and even that's putting it mildly). Tomorrow (thursday) is my last day at work, immediately after work I leave to Miami, and I'll be spending the night there (and hopefully partying a little). Then I fly out to DC in the morning (thanks to my honeys for a great birthday gift although it will be incomplete without kristi) and we'll be in DC (again, hopefully partying it up) until Monday, well I'll be there til monday morning. Then I get back to Miami Monday afternoon and I'll be there until tuesday night or wednesday morning at which point I will drive straight to gainesville to spend a little time with Daniel, Jesse, and Katoya, Jose and Gabrielle (the cutest baby on earth). On thursday I drive back to Tampa and attempt to finish getting my bags ready, spend time with my family and friends over the weekend and try to relax because... on monday I have to be at the airport at 5AM, my flight leaves at 8, I connect in ATL, fly for 14 hours, arrive at Incheon airport outside Seoul, connect to another flight for Daegu and finally arrive at my final destination at 9PM (local time) on TUESDAY. So 36 hours will have passed and I will have been traveling for 24 hours straight. It makes me tired just typing it.
We'll see how I do...