I'm sorry I haven't posted in a long time and I have lots of lame excuses.  I've done a lot in the two and a half months that I've been here.  I'll start with some pictures of my classroom.  We had a decorating contest and while I didn't win, it was fun and I like how the room looks now.

I also went to the east coast a couple weeks ago.  Korea's very mountainous especially in the east.  We went to the border with North Korea.  It was very rainy but North Korea is somewhere in the background of the picture.  It was interesting seeing these beaches with barbed wire around them.  No one is allowed to go to them.  At the beaches a bit further from the border there are police that walk up and down.  They make sure people don't go swimming but I think they're also there to make sure that no North Koreans try to swim to South Korea.  We went to a museum on the Korean War.  It was very interesting and I'd like to learn more.  My great-uncle fought in the war.  I'm hoping that I will have the chance to talk to him about it someday.

That Sunday we went hiking in the mountains so my next post will be about the hiking and I will include lots of pictures.  Now that I can update my blog with my phone, hopefully I will post more often.

This past weekend, because it was Buddha's birthday on Monday, I had a four day weekend.  I'm not sure why I had Tuesday off as well as Monday but I'm glad I did.  Saturday and Sunday were rather boring but on Monday I went to a picnic.  I had gone to this website called meetup.com because I need to make some more friends here and one of the expat groups in Seoul was having a picnic.  So I decided to go to a picnic where there were lots of strangers.  At least all of them spoke English.  And it turned out to be a ton of fun :)  We had for a couple hours until it started raining and I meet a lot of people from around the world.  I meet two people from Uzbekistan, a girl from Germany, a guy from Argentina, lots of Koreans who had studied in the U.S. (one at Penn State), and lots of Americans.  We ended up going to a couple bars after that where I tried makoni, which is made from rice and played some darts.  My partner and I won too!  Then we did some karaoke and I sang a couple songs too.  It was quite embarrassing but fun too. 

On Tuesday I wanted to explore some of the markets so I met up with one of the Americans I had met the day before.  He's a captain in the army that's stationed a bit north of Seoul.  We walked around a couple markets, found a second-hand clothing market that I want to go back to, and saw one of the gates that was built back in the 1300s.  It was all a lot of fun and this group meets up to do lots of cool things.  This Sunday I'm going hiking in the mountains around Seoul.  I'm really happy that I decided to be brave and meet people.  It's working out great so far!

Well it's finally Friday!  Which means that I've almost taught for an entire week.  On Monday I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.  Training prepared me for the most part but teaching in front of kids is completely different than mock teaching in front of adults.  I've already had to break up two fights and deal with kids who don't want to listen.  There's a point system here so if they're being bad, I take away one of their points.  This works for most of the kids.  The girls are mostly better behaved then the boys, at least they're quieter.  But overall, now that I've taught for a few days, it's not bad.  I think I can do this for awhile.  Also I have Monday and Tuesday off next week for Budda's birthday :)

Last night I had pizza for the first time in Korea.  Pizza is generally expensive here but there's a chain called Pizza School.  The pizzas are rather small, one pizza is good for two meals for me.  I just got a regular combination pizza with peppers, onions, corn, and some sausage.  Mostly because vegetables are expensive here so I haven't been eating as many as I want.  The pizza cost about $5 and it was pretty good.  Koreans like to put some interesting toppings on their pizzas like corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken tenders, and hot dogs.  Next time I'm going to try the sweet potato pizza because some of my co-workers have said that it's pretty good.

This is what I see when I enter my apartment.  The first room is the kitchen and the one through the door is my bedroom/living room.  The thing that looks like a small fridge is a water purifier.

This is the bathroom.  If you look closely by the tiny window you'll see the shower head.  Korean's don't have shower stalls, they use the whole bathroom as their shower.  Tomorrow I'll test it out.

This is the kitchen.  That door leads to my enclosed balcony.

Here is the bedroom/living room.  The bed is quite hard so I'm going to need a mattress pad soon.

This is the left part of the balcony.  As you can see it's also where my fridge is.  There isn't a spot for it in the kitchen.  To the right of the balcony door is my washing machine and drying rack.  Koreans don't use dryers.

This is the view outside of my balcony.  Not terribly exciting though the main street is on the other side of the buildings on the left.

My apartment came fully stocked with toilet paper :)  Yes it's all covered in puppies and leaves. 

And that's my apartment!  I still have to unpack my biggest suitcase but wanted to show where I'm living.  So far I like it.  The building manager is really nice and speaks English.  Though he speaks so fast that I have trouble understanding him sometimes.  He took my grocery shopping tonight though we were only there for a couple minutes.  I now have a towel (super tiny because Koreans don't use large towels) and some juice.  I saw a small grocery store nearby my apartment that I'm going to check out tomorrow.  I promise this is just the beginning with the pictures.  I'll try to post more as I explore Seoul.

Training ended on Friday and I passed!  Everyone in my group did too though apparently that doesn't happen every time.  Our group worked really hard and showed improvement everyday.  Since then I've been busy finding an apartment.  I had been hoping not to spend more than $500 per month but that's impossible in Seoul.  The first apartment that the realtor showed me was what Koreans call a "one room" which is basically a studio.  It wasn't very impressive and I was quite surprised when the realtor said it cost about $680 per month.  I was shown a few more apartments, a couple were nicer but none that I really liked.  The realtor was really nice though and took me to McDonalds for lunch.  Afterwards I met with the logistics guy at my branch and he showed me a building where lots of teachers live.  It was a much nicer building, with better security, and nicer apartments with brand new beds.  And it was the same price as the ones I was thinking of going for.  I move in tomorrow.

My first surprise of the day was when we got to the training building.  I had thought that most of the teachers were from English speaking countries and maybe that's true for some orientations but mine is mostly Koreans.  There are two other Americans in the group.  A guy from California who's been here for 3 years and a girl from Texas whose been here for 1.5 years.  I'm the only one who's just arrived.  So we had an orientation this morning before we went to get the medical exam.  Meaning we couldn't eat until after 3pm.  I felt sick most of the morning because of lack of food and then the medical exam wasn't very fun either.  Getting my blood drawn was quite painful and walking around in a scrub-like top wasn't enjoyable either.  Afterwards we went to a Japanese restaurant where I had Japanese curry.  Which I didn't know existed but was very tasty.  We got back to the hotel and I took a long nap so maybe I'm not quite over the jet lag.

Another surprise was a Korean Christian preacher, rather like the Wells Hall preacher, that was standing on the sidewalk talking to people as they walked to work.  I guess it's good to know that where ever you go, there will always be someone trying to make you think how they do about religion.  

Well I slept for 14 hours last night and think I might have adjusted to Korean time fairly easily.  Today I spent my time trying to pass a small test on the company that I'm going to work for (Chungdahm).  Unfortunately one of the parts is about grammar which is definitely not something I'm good at.  I studied for a couple hours and took it several times but it doesn't tell me which questions I'm answering wrong and I'm starting to suspect that in order to pass I can't make any errors.  Hopefully my recruiter can help me out.

Sukyung came by the hotel this afternoon and I just got back from walking around with her.  She's making my life so much easier just by being here.  So far I now know how to use the subway and the buses.  We ate some steamed chicken with noodles and luckily she told the waiter not to make it spicy because it was about as spicy as I can tolerate. 

Tomorrow training starts which will hopefully go well.  I think I have a roommate now but haven't met her.  Hopefully she'll come by soon and hopefully she's met some of the others that we're training with.  I haven't met anyone yet.  So far I'm enjoying Korea and being in a big city.  Now if only I could pass this silly test.

I have finally arrived in Seoul, South Korea!!  The flight was long but nicely uneventful and I actually managed to sleep for part of it.  Unfortunately I didn't get to the hotel until dark so I'm going to venture outside tomorrow.  Right now I'm going to snack on beef jerky and dried fruit before I go to bed.