Korea!!!

I have so much to talk about and don't even know where to begin! The orientation was finally over on Friday and that is when we arrived to Daegu. We had to meet our co-teachers and they did it in a rather odd fashion. We were all herded at the front of the room and the handler proceeded to call our names and then the people picking us up stood up/clapped/cheered, whatever. I found out that the lady that picked me up is not actually my co-teacher but a different one since mine was not back to school yet. She seemed to be in quite a hurry so I accidentally left my passport and really need to get it back since I need to apply for my ARC. She is a really sweet lady and even though I know my co-teacher now I still go to her for help sometimes. Also, we will be doing the school newspaper together which I am excited about. We had to go shopping for bedding and other things I need for my place. I got a $300 allowance for just sheets/bedding and then another $300 for whatever else I need to get settled in. I am not going to go into any more detail about my place since I already have the pictures up on FB.

So that was Friday. On Saturday, Katrina and I arranged to meet at HomePlus at 1pm. We were successful! Woohoo. So we ate, shopped around a bit there, and then decided to check out the mall. We attempted to get pedicures but just got "color chang-eys" that were really cheap, but not what we wanted. For dinner we had Mr. Pizza which was really delicious and cheap. It was nice to have Western food after not having it for so long. We ended up going to HomePlus again since we didn't buy anything the first time around. I ended up getting back to my apartment late so I wasn't able to go downtown. My neighbors ended up coming over though since my stove top arrived but the delivery person took it to them. The mom was so concerned that I hadn't eaten since she knew I couldn't cook anything and she brought me over fruit- very tasty. She has two kids, a boy and a girl. I was afraid the girl would be one of my students but luckily she goes to a different middle school. She has to translate everything which is difficult because she doesn't speak English very well.

On Sunday, the teacher that helped me get settled in asked me if I wanted to go hiking so we met up at 10 and walked over to this trail near my place. It wasn't too bad of a hike and the views were breathtaking. They have random exercise equipment on the mountain too lol. A few women were doing these very strange, heavy-looking hula hoops but they must work since they all had really flat midsections. She also wanted to show me another mountain so we drove there, but being that it was Sunday we couldn't find a parking spot. We just drove around and chatted and then she dropped me off near Katrina's place. Luckily I remembered how to get there. After having a drink outside of GS 25 (convenience store) we made a quick decision to go check out downtown Daegu. We were actually on a mission to find Red Mango but that was unsuccessful. The shopping totally made up for it though! I didn't buy anything but I can't wait to go once I get my paycheck. I have never seen so many shops at once! We ended up eating dinner at The Holy Grill, which is some place I always hear about and it was good - got to see some scores from back home including the Rays! Which reminds me, I saw a lady wearing a TB baseball hat and nearly cried lol.

SCHOOL! This is what I am most excited to blog about. I wasn't nervous about my first day of school since I was told I wouldn't be teaching any classes. The kids are awesome! I was told that I am teaching at one of the better schools so that makes me feel like my job is a little easier. They are definitely more well-behaved than I thought they would be. They are so nice and friendly too! I am nearly late to my classes because they are constantly stopping me and asking "Where am I from?" and telling me "Nice to meet you", "You're so beautiful" etc. On the second day of school we had an assembly because we also got a new prinicpal so I had to make a brief speech about myself in front of the entire school. I loved it though - there were girls screaming and everyone was cheering for me - very welcoming. There aren't any foreigners in my area that I really know of so I guess that it explains it. I felt like a president or something though. The kids at my school think of America as "Obama's Country" it's so cute. The girls are definitely better than the boy students. I have quite a few co-teachers and one of them is this older, soft-spoken woman and she can't really control the boys. Since I am new they listen to me more, and I love using my authoritative voice lol. Today I introduced myself to my class and had the students introduce themselves on a sheet of paper, this is one of my favorite lines: "I'm just a puppet of school which stays in class from 8:00am to 4:00pm." I feel kind of the same sometimes. Especially since I don't know what is going on half the time since I don't speak Korean.

Anyway, that's all for now. I have more but I am sure this is already boring.