This has been an interesting week. I have been having people banging on my apartment door pretty regularly. They bang on the door, ring the doorbell, and go around to do the same thing to several other apartments. I never answer the door, because there is no way for me to talk to them, and I always keep my door locked, because they usually try to open the door. Lately I have been having the same person at my door a lot more often. I got a slip in my mailbox yesterday (a Saturday) that I think is for rent. I don't pay my rent, my school takes care of that, but from what I can tell my rent was never paid for last month. The person that has been at my door must be my landlord or property manager. Yesterday my gas was turned off. I can't cook, and I have to take cold showers. Hopefully when I go into school tomorrow I can get it taken care of.

I spent today in Itaewon, which is known as the foreigners capital of Seoul. A lot of people there speak English, there are a ton of American brand stores, and there are even some small foreign food stores. I was warned before I went there that it was pretty crude. Aparently it is very normal for a blond woman to be called a Russian Prostitute. Fortunately, that didn't happen to me this time, but being there is sure different than being in Bundang, the rich folk part of Seoul. On the way back, I got off the subway at the Han River and went for a walk. There is a path that is right down by the river. Most people were riding bikes, which made me really miss mine. I going on rides that last all morning or afternoon. I might have to see if I can find an afordable one to buy for the time I am here.

Next week is Chu-suk, which is basically the Korean Thanksgiving. We will celebrate at school on Wednesday, and have Thursday and Friday off. The school is renting a Hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing, for each of the teachers. I will have pictures next week for all to see.

For now, here are the pictures I have:

These first two are taken from the roof of my apartment. (These are for you, Bruce)

This one is just another of the mountains. It is on my way to school.

This is a very typical apartment complex from accross the Han. Most complexes have more than 20 buildings and stretch on forever.

I thought this was kind of cool. It is someone wakeboarding on the Han. Not something that you typically see on the Mississippi.

All along the Han, people would come set up multiple fishing lines, and just kind of leave them there. I'm not sure how those rocks are able to hold the line if a fish is tugging at it, but I guess it works.

This is just a bench at one of the subway stations. I thought it was interesting...not quite sure why it has handles on it.

This week has been relativly uneventful. I'm still finishing up my lesson plans, but they will be done soon.
My birthday was good. My kids had known about it because we had talked about birthdays a few days before. They were really cute about it. They sang a few times throughout the day. One of my students even gave me a present. It was a little box with about 800 won in it (about 70 cents). I didn't know if it was appropriate for me to accept it, but someone said that it was a gift and I had to. My supervisor found out about it part way through the day and yelled at me for not telling her. They ended up getting a cake and we celebrated after our main session.
I was really nice to get cards and packages from home. There are so many things that I was kind of missing that I loved getting a restock of.
On Thursday night there was a little flea market type of thing a few blocks from my school. It was really cute. There were tons of tents set up and people were selling lots of different foods and merchandise. There was also a live entertainer who was hilarious. I am hoping to get into Seoul for the first time. That will help break up the monotony and let me experience something a little different.

This week has gone by really fast. I am starting to get into the routines and things are going smoothly. I found some other teachers to go to worship services with. On Wednesday night we went to a service at this rooftop English cafe that was beautiful. Everyone there spoke English, which actually felt kind of weird. It was a great experience that I was really needing.

Right now I am bogged down with lesson planning. They have us do a month of lesson plans at a time, so having five classes of plans due at one time is a little overwhelming. My two intensive kindergarten classes are the most work, because I teach Reading, Writing, Grammar, Phonics and Speaking. We have a chart of what lessons need to be covered in what subject, but it is up to us to figure out how to teach them, and come up with homework assignments for them. I literally lay out all six of the books that each kindergarten class uses on my bed and go through them all figuring out how many pages of what books to do on what day. At the same time as doing all of those lesson plans, they want us to start working on the Christmas program now. It is up to each of us to figure out what our class is going to do on stage for ten minutes. For the level class that I have, I need to write a play of some kind. I am still at a loss for what to do for
There are quite a few things that they have here that they have back at home. Of course, since I am living in Bundang, the mall is filled with only the highest end fashion. We have Gucci, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Burberry, and even Swarofsky. There are also some typical restaurants. There are Dunkin' Donuts on almost every corner. A Krispy Kream is just outside the mall. I have also discovered KFC, T.G.I. Friday, Dominos Pizza, Papa Johns, California Pizza Kitchen, Baskin Robins, and of course, McDonnalds.

Now for a couple pictures:

This is my apartment building. My apartment is on the fourth floor, but is an interior apartment. The halls of the building actually go around my unit. Most apartments have one those big beautiful windows.....not mine.

This sidewalk is in the middle of the city. Just on the other side of the third row of trees, not ten feet from the sidewalk is a busy main road.

I have small hands, but my hand would have to be waaaaayyyy smaller than it is for this to be a normal size leaf.

One week down

I have taught for one week now. I am starting to get into the swing of things. I have made a few mistakes, like forgeting to send homework books home (Which results in every single parent calling the school to ask what's going on), and not really knowing what the procedure is when a student smacks another. But I love the students, and know that at least one student has told her mom that she likes me too.

My apartment has really grown on me. I had a problem with the hot water for a while. Hot water in apartments here either goes to the floor for heating (That is how apartments are heated, because it is the most efficient) or to the tap and the shower. There is a post-it note on the control panel on the wall telling me how to switch it. The problem was that even when I had it set on heat for the shower, I still had ice cold showers. After a week of taking cold showers (which was kind of okay because I am always warm from my morning run), I found another post-it note on the floor saying that the hot water tap leaks, so I have to turn it on under the kitchen sink too.

I got a chance to talk to both my mom and dad the other day. I called them using skype, which is only 2.1 cents a minute to a land or cell phone. I was really nice to hear a voice from home.

Okay, so I have some pictures of some things that are just different here.

When you buy carrots at the store, they look like they were just pulled out of the ground. This picture does no justice to the amount of dirt on them. It was kind of gross.

The sidewalks are half brick (Yes, brick, everywhere), and half the kind of surface that is on a track. On the sidewalks down by rivers or streams, it is all this track-like material, and when you are more in the thick of the city, it is just brick. I don't know if it is like that in Seoul too, or just in Bundong, where all the money is.

This is what all the buildings in Central Bundang look like. They are filled with signs, top to bottom.

McDonalds delivers! Can you imagine how many people they would need to deliver in the states if they did that?

In all of the parks there are at least eight different weight and resistence machines. And there are parks all over the place.

Here is a link to the video tour of my apartment on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8y1QPBJbB8

I moved into my apartment last night (Monday night) My first few hours in it, I was feeling like I just wanted to go home. It is soooooo small. After spending a night here I am feeling a lot better about it. I had a videou tour of my apartment, but I couldn't get it to upload. I'll see If I can find another way to do it eventually.

The pillow case on my bed is so gross. It has to have been here for decades without being washed or changed. I found a spare sheet that I wrapped around it until I can I can get to a store to buy a new one.

My kitchen/laundry room is really interesting. My kitchen kind of turns into a drying area when I do a load of laundry. (See picture)

I am loving teaching. My morning kindergarten classes have 6-8 students, and my afternoon classes with older kids (8 to 10 years old) only have two or three students in them. In one of my classes, this is the first English class that the students have ever had. It is really quite interesting. It is definately a challenge, but it is fun.

My apartment is right at the base of a mountain. I got the chance to go a little ways up on my run this morning, but I can't wait until I have the chance to climb to the top!!!

Let me know what is going on back at home. I love getting emails and hearing from everyone!