Training

Training is over and hurrah for us! Kendra and I both passed. We spent the week going to and from the training center and the hotel, about 45 minutes traveling time (subway and walking). The subway is awesome, by the way. It comes every few minutes, all the signs have English translations, and they flash the destinations in English on little TV screens hanging from the ceiling as we approach a stop. Very crowded, though. Lots of people use the subway so we got to stand most of the time.


Our days started at 9 (we'd leave a little before 8). We learned the structure of the memorization classes, how to use the various activities we'll be teaching, and mock teach the different parts. We did that until 11:30, got a 30 minute break for lunch, then did the same thing for the reading classes until 2:30. After that, we would have additional training until about 3:30. Then we'd head back to the hotel (subway!) to watch additional training videos and prep lessons for the next day's mock teaching. We would crash in bed about 9 and then wake up the next morning to do the same thing! Yay!

Friday, we had our final exams. For both memorization and reading we had a written test over the class structure and then we had evaluated mock teachings. We all got to training early to do some last minute studying.


We ended up finishing the final mocks at 3pm. Then we sat around to sign contracts and hear about how to go about finding housing. We finally left a little after 5. We were SO hungry! We walked up the street to a little store that some girls told us sold great kimbop (like unto sushi... though this one had no fish) because Kendra wanted some. I tried some of hers and wished I'd gotten some. It's pretty good. :) Then it was back to the hotel.

We finally got to the hotel around 6. We wanted to do something to celebrate, but most of the other teachers were going out to drink and, well, we didn't feel like sitting around with people who were getting drunk when we wouldn't be drinking ourselves (LDS, you know). So, we headed out to find some food. We walked around forever but couldn't find anything that looked appealing and since we weren't in the mood for a Korean ordering adventure (sooo tired and hungry...) we stopped at the Burger King. It was great.


I think we were just so sick of ramen bowls that anything with actual food in it would have sufficed. Did I mention that since we are kind of tight on money and we're in a hotel (and have not yet purchased pots or pans) that we've been living off of cheap ramen and snacks? Yeah. That giant lettuce piece was the first real veggie we'd had all week. It was awesome.

Saturday was super lazy. TV online, grocery store visit (ice cream and more ramen... aren't you glad to hear we're eating healthy?), and attempts to procure cash from an international ATM. That was it. Wonderfully lazy.

I did end up being able to get cash today. I don't know what the heck was going on with that stupid ATM yesterday. I'll need to get more cash for tomorrow to pay for the realtor and (possibly) rent deposit if we are able to find apartments.

Today was great. We went to church!! We found out that the church, while being about an hour away from our hotel, it's only two stops away from where we will be living! Yay! We did get a little turned around but another American took pity on us. Gina saw us standing in our Sunday best and asked if we needed help. Turns out she's in our branch! Lucky for us because I don't think we would have been able to find the church building otherwise. We met a lot of really nice people and I really look forward to being able to make some good friends. One girl, Jessica, lives in Mokdong and so hopefully we'll get to see more of her outside of church. Also, there's a single's activity this next Saturday about Korean culture. Fun! I'm glad I like our branch. :)

On the subway ride back to the hotel, we met some interesting peoples. There were these two older men that talked to us. From what we could understand, they are ex-marines (Korean marines) and they parachuted in Cambodia and *maybe* Vietnam. They offered us seats on the subway because they wanted us to have a good first impression of Korea. Sweet. Then there was the guy that was less than sober that struck up a conversation with us. Told us we were very good girls. I think he thought we were missionaries because he said, "You're Mormon, yes?" I don't know how he knew... we weren't talking about church or anything and it's not like we were particularly dressed up or anything. Kind of weird. But, like I said, we was less than sober and kept repeating things. I think he was just really excited to be practicing his English and after a few shots of soju he wasn't as clear as he would have been otherwise. As it was, we were rather glad to get to our stop and find out he had a few more stops to go. Oh, good.

And that's been my first full week in Korea!! Wow, I can't believe it's only been a week. This week has been so crazy that it just feels longer. Tomorrow we're going to go look for apartments and then meet with our supervisor at our school. Probably get our textbooks, see our classrooms, stuff like that.

Love you, everyone!

1st days in Korea

Yesterday was our first day of training. They keep telling us that it's going to be an INTENSE week. Prepare yourselves! So, in light of the fact that we're going to start an INTENSE week of training today, I thought I'd post a few pictures and tell you a little about our first day before heading out for the second day of training. I don't know how much more time I'll have to post this week so consider yourself warned. ;)

All right. So, yesterday's training wasn't too horrible. We took a shuttle to the training center where they welcomed us and then gave us four tests: Culture of Chungdahm, Faculty Codes of Conduct, Reading, and Grammar. These tests were based on videos we were supposed to watch before the first day of training. I passed all of my exams and so I don't need to retake any later today. Yay!
After tests and some more introduction to Chungdahm, we were taken over to the hospital for our medical exams (dun dun duuun). It was a little confusing, but they were seriously efficient getting us through all the tests: weight, hearing, blood pressure, sight, a chest x-ray, blood, and urine. Whew! Lots to do. I hate needles but I was very brave getting my blood drawn. I just closed my eyes and looked away. The nurse was really good, too, she only had to poke me once and no digging around! People usually have a hard time taking my blood but she was spot on! She should be commended.
I still don't like needles, though.

The urine test was also exciting. I won't go into any gross details but I'm very glad I found the Western toilet. I almost had to use a squat pot on my first day out!*

After the hospital, we took the subway back to the hotel to change before heading out to have dinner with some of the other teachers. We walked around quite a bit before finding a place. It was a little difficult since three of us don't drink and didn't really want to go to a bar to eat and another girl was a vegetarian. Thus, our choices were rather limited. Lots of tall, tall buildings, though!We also made a mad dash across traffic!
Ok, this shot was from before we ran across the street. But, still. It's a big, busy city here. Very fun. :)

We finally found a place to eat that wasn't a bar and had some vegetarian options. Before they brought the food out, we got bowls of sesame seeds with a big stick. I'm not sure what they were for but we all got very busy grinding them up. It smelled really good at least.
I ordered delicious donkatsu curry with rice. Yum!! It was a fried pork cutlet with a beef curry sauce (carrots, corn, beef, and potato) over rice. It was SOOO good!

Luckily, we had a few boys in our group of people who were American born Korean and spoke a little bit of Korean and so ordering wasn't too bad or confusing. You can see one of the guys in the picture I took.They were way impressed of our knowledge of the language. Haha! Mostly that I can read it... even if I don't understand. The phrase for the day: Ahn mep geh. Means pretty much "No spicy." Good to know here.

And that's the first day of training. Today starts the hard stuff. Wish me luck!

또봐요! Toh bwahyo! Bye!

*For those of you who don't know, Eastern toilets are pretty much just like the toilets we're used to in the States, but just set into the floor. I'm sure there will be more adventures with these in the future.

Arrived and Alive

After a long, long day (emphasis on LONG), Kendra and I arrived safe and sound in Seoul. Now I’m trying to sit down and watch the training videos for the tests tomorrow at training, but the internet I’m using right now is super slow so I’m still waiting for it to load. So, I figure I’ll work on a blog update.

Yesterday… the day before yesterday? Whatever. Friday I got up about 4am to get ready to head to the airport. Mom, Dad, and Jesi came with to see me off. Little bit of crying at security and I was off. My ticket to San Francisco said my seat was 8D which made me really excited. All summer, from Salt Lake to Chicago, Chicago to Germany, Chicago to Salt Lake, Portland to New York I have been sitting in 8D. I only noticed because it looks like a sideways smiley face.

Well, I thought it was cool, at least.

I met up with my friend Kendra in San Francisco (which is a terribly confusing airport… Seoul was even easier to navigate and it was in KOREAN!). We had some lunch, walked around a bit, and then sat by the gate.

The flight was a little delayed, but we were soon off and running… or, sitting, I guess.

The plane was HUGE! We were sitting near the back of the plane and we couldn’t see the front of it!! Also, two stories tall, baby. Crazy sauce.

See how we can’t see the front of the plane? Those aren’t curtains closing us off from first class. Oh, no. It was just a massively huge plane.

The flight itself wasn’t too bad. It ended up being twelve and a half hours. A long time to be sitting on an airplane, but our personal entertainment centers made it not too bad. Oh, it was awesome. We could choose from over a dozen new releases (Is the new Nanny McPhee movie even in theaters, yet? That’s what I watched), tv episodes, documentaries, music CD’s (from which you could compile your own 50 song playlist),radio channels, games, flight map, it was awesome. I watched three movies (Nanny McPhee, the new Shrek, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Friends, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, and played a lot of memory and blackjack.

Food was good, too. We got two meals. The first one we had a choice of Korean food of beef. I had the beef and it wasn’t too bad.

Kendra was a little more adventurous than me and had the Korean food. Complete with seaweed soup.

Not a terrible flight. Couldn’t sleep, but I was still pretty entertained. The last two, three hours were the worst. So close, tired, and ready to just get up and go.

Then we were over Korea!! We could tell from the map on our personal entertainment centers, which also told us what time it was back home and how long we had left of the flight.

Here’s our first view from the window.

Yeah, it was really cloudy so we didn’t actually see Korea until we, like, touched down. By then the stewardess had told me that I couldn’t keep my back pack by my seat (no underseat storage where I sat so it was between the wall and my seat… pretty nice actually; more foot room) and she’d put it top. My camera was inside so I didn’t get pictures out of the window. Oh well. I also didn’t take any in the airport because I didn’t feel like hauling out my camera.

Oh, something of note. We didn’t see any currency exchange spots before customs and you need 3,000 won for a luggage cart. So we had to drag all of our luggage through the airport and finding the bus. Also of note, there’s no luggage carts for purchase past customs. Nice.

Finding the bus and taxi would have proved problematic had some very nice people who spoke English not stepped up and helped us find them. The people here have been very nice. When we were dragging our luggage into the hotel, this nice couple who was standing outside talking offered to help us bring in our bags. We were all, “Oh, no, that’s all right,” but they just smiled and started rolling in our suitcases, wishing us a pleasant trip. So nice.

Then it was showers and sleep. I woke up about 4:30 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep to I just figured, what the heck, I’ll stay up. I had a quick chat with the parents over slow Skype this morning and Dad warned me not to take a nap when I get tired about 3 in the afternoon when I get tired again. I will try. The plan today is to watch the training videos and possibly walk around town a little bit. I’ll be wearing a summer dress to do that walking bit. It is hot and humid here.

Hope everyone at home is well. Miss you bunches!

또봐요! Toh bwahyo! Bye!

I'm off!!

Here we go... I leave in a few hours for the airport to head off to teach English in South Korea! Can you believe it? I'm so nervous right now. REALLY excited, but just that little bit of nervous that comes with starting something new. Especially something like this new.

Wish me luck, friends!!

Visa!

Got my visa today (and a free tourist map of South Korea... after all the Fed-Ex and processing fees it doesn't seem very "free"). I was very excited to see it considering I'm leaving for Korea in a week and I won't be home for most of that week. We're heading up to Whidbey Island up in Washington so it's going to be fun.

Just thought I'd share the joyous news. Ticket and visa are both accounted for. Just some last minute baggage checking and then TADA!! I'm off! :)

Is anyone else getting nervous? I know I am... just a little.

Almost time to leave...

I have twelve days now until I leave for South Korea. Wow. It's sneaking up on me. Tomorrow the travel agent will issue my tickets and later this week I'll get a package from the Korean Consulate with my visa stamped passport. Friday is Diane's bridal shower (congrats Diane!) at my house, Saturday we leave for Whidbey Island with my two little cousins getting back just in time for a day at home and then poof! It's off to Korea for a year!

Don't get me wrong, I am super excited about going to Korea. I'll have my own place, get to see and try a million new things, hopefully learn a new language, and have a classroom all my own! It will be so much fun. I'm still nervous, though. This will be my first Christmas without my family and I'll be so far away from home for such a long time.

I know that there will be days when I hate it. I'll wonder why I decided to go in the first place and try to think of ways to go home early. However, I also know that if I didn't do this, I would always regret it. I would wonder what opportunities I might have missed out on because I didn't go. I need to prove to myself that I CAN do this.

So that being said, here's me freaking out a little bit about leaving to live in a foreign country! 12 more days!! Can you believe it? 12 MORE DAYS!!

Wish me luck keeping my cool so my parents don't freak out, too. ;)

Job Placement

I have just recently received my job placement from Chungdahm Learning. Along with that came my official arrival date: August 14th. That means I'll be leaving Oregon on August 12th. That's less than two months! Wow. My actual start date is August 30th. My training is August 16th-20th. My arrival date gives me two days to get over the jet lag (16 hour time difference - Ufda!). After training I'll have a week to get settled in my new apartment, start some lesson planning, and just in general get to know a bit about my new neighborhood.

Speaking of my new neighborhood, you might have noticed that I haven't mentioned where I will be exactly. I will be in Mokdong (the o's are pronounced long like "mOAt" or "OAts"). Mokdong is a dong (or a neighborhood) on the west side of Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. It is part of the Yangcheongu (pronounced yahng-chun-goo), a district of Seoul. According to Wikipedia, "Yangcheongu is home to mostly middle and upper-class families and is considered one of the best wards in Seoul to live."

Above is a lovely picture of Mokdong all lit up at night. I think you can see the Hyperion Towers in the picture. They're supposed to be pretty famous there and are the 105th tallest buildings in the world. Pretty cool. To the right is a daytime view of the same buildings.

That's pretty much all I got on Mokdong. It looks like I'll be living in a city (which is to be expected). I'll definitely post my own pictures once I get there and then you'll have a primary source of pictures of Korea (Mokdong in particular) for your viewing pleasure.

It's kind of crazy how real this is now. In less than two months, I'll be living on my own in South Korea. I'm really excited, but still a little bit scared. It's nice that Kendra and I will be going together. That way we'll have someone we know and can look to for support.

Now I'm just waiting for my visa code before I can go to the Korean Consulate for my actual E2 Visa. Did I mention it takes A LOT of paperwork in order to get this job? It really does. I'm very thankful that I've had my Aclipse Recruiter, Zach, coaching me through all of this and taking care of everything. I don't know that I could have ever figured any of this out on my own.

I'll let you know how when anything happens. Wish me luck, everyone!