Gimhae for you-First impressions!

Alright, I have a lot of entries to smush into one for this first week! I will try not to make it ten pages but...don't hold your breath or anything:-)

So Charlie told us we could rest until 1pm on Friday and then he would pick us up so we could meet the Korean English teachers. Rest sounded so wonderful at that moment! I will admit, being in the small apartment for the first time and realizing it was my home for the next year was a bit shocking. It just seemed so small, cold, sterile and dirty. I know, sterile and dirty don't seem right but sterile as in just...white and lonely and dirty as in, old and...dirty. Haha There wasn't much here furnishings-wise and I had just been telling Joey that sometimes a "furnished apartment" can mean a plate, mug, pot and bed! Well, at least we got the dishes part! My bed is a mat. On the floor. I was a little saddened about that at first but very quickly realized that when there are people in the world sleeping in the mud and dirt, why in the world should I be sad about a nice mat on a warm floor? There are plenty of people in Asia who have these kind of beds and I am trying to be as Korean as possible, after all:-) After the initial shock wore off it didn't take too long to fall in love with my little place. Here's a look of me trying to move stuff in! ^

One of the first culture lessons I learned through my Korean dictionary/phrasebook was that Koreans ask "Have you eaten?" as a greeting. Wellll I wish I had learned this before I got here because when Charlie came to pick us up Friday afternoon, he of course asked us if we had eaten. We said we hadn't and were hungry and I wondered why he seemed confused at that answer!! I think it was the next day when I found and told Joey my discovery and we had a good laugh over that. BUT, he did take us to a delicious noodle house which is super close to my apartment and is cheap! Now this was my first dining experience in Korea and it was so cool. There was a platform type floor with all the small tables and you take your shoes off and sit on the floor at the table. Not every place here is like that but most of them are, and that's how we eat at the school too. The noodle house was the first time I tried kimchi (aside from some type of kimchi soup back in Chinatown) and I have had it every day since then! It's quite the popular side dish here, served with every meal. After the noodle house, we finally went to meet the Korean English teachers. They are so sweet and we had our first little meeting where we all introduced ourselves and they explained that the school opens in March and we would be teaching sample lessons starting Saturday, the next day...wait.....what?!

Surprise! What a shocker! The building isn't even all the way finished yet! It's absolutely beautiful with so many windows and really cute wallpaper all over. They told us we would be teaching 4 mini classes THE NEXT DAY! We got to pick which one we wanted to help with, storytelling or cooking. I totally jumped on the storytelling bandwagon and didn't even feel like a jerk. We did some prepping that day and discussing what we were gonna do the next day and they let us set up the computer room so we could write our poor suffering families! Yeah I hadn't yet called or written home. My dad got me an international calling card before I left but when I was on my flight to Japan I pulled it out and saw that you can only call from the US to anywhere!! I had absolutely no way of contacting my poor parents when I got in and I felt so terrible about that. I just prayed SO hard that they would know I was ok! Sorry about that :-)

The first day of teaching went by smoothly and we met parents and talked to kids and taught fun (quick) classes and bonded with the teachers and bosses over lunch at a super nice traditional Korean restaurant in the mountains. By bonded, I mean they went over all their funny stories of the day in Korean and Joey and I sat in the middle trying not to fall asleep! It was a great day overall though! We did a little exploring on Sunday and walked to one of the seemingly many "downtown" areas of Jangyu. It's pretty awesome here! There's so much to see, so much to do!

First Week of Classes
Then came the sample classes! Monday morning came and I was preparing for the two afternoon classes for 9 and 10 year olds. It's a good thing ICS majors at Nyack get taught to be flexible and learn all about going with the flow because while we were eating lunch our director added a kindergarten class...at 2 o'clock...to go to 3 o'clock! It was already 12:30 or 1 so we ran back downstairs and next door to MBC OSS and got to work. Joey and I were supposed to co teach that one. Then we were told that the kindergarten class was just put on the schedule for all week! No problem, turns out they were really adorable:-)

I did get very frustrated with the school one day because we had talked to Hannah, the head teacher, about what we were gonna teach the kinder class the next day. That night and the next morning we planned our lesson and I even had the room set up for everything and then, bam! We were supposed to teach something completely different. Oh, and that week's planner thing we were supposed to make for Hannah? Yeah they made one and gave it to us. I started feelin super irritated until I realized they were just as flustered and rushed as I was, and probably way more. They were runnin around like crazy and so stressed and pressured. So, I let that slide:-) They did a really great job this past week. I know there were a lot of setbacks (wait, which kid is missing?...) and they felt pressure from Monica, the director, to be completely awesome and impress lots of parents. I think the week actually went very well! Lots of students are already signed up. Good news! Without them, I'd be jobless:-D

Even though they were all so busy, the teachers and Charlie helped so much to settle us in. I was able to use the school's internet but really wanted to Skype so I was close to impatient about getting internet in my apartment! Charlie went out and got us some sweet cell phones in the middle of the week and I felt a little more like myself...isn't that terrible? Haha, I don't have any reason to expect a phone call or anything but I realized I was carrying it around like I do my phone at home! One day I had it sitting beside me at the desk at work and it was time to go eat lunch so I grabbed it like I actually use it. Psh. Probably not a good sign. Ha! Then Charlie got us internet and came over while the guy installed it. I showed him pictures of my family and friends and we talked about Cambodia and my "daughter" over there. He's been to Cambodia! He's a very nice, wonderful man. The kindergarten had a music festival that night so we hurried over after our internet was finished. Let me just tell you, it was so cute. Just picture a bunch of little Korean kids singing badly and playing Korean instruments while all the parents wave from the audience and take pictures and run up and give high fives and thumbs up as soon as their kids are finished. It was basically amazing. Oh wait, here's a little help picturing it...



There was another music festival the next night and Monica brought us to the front and said stuff about us in Korean then handed us a microphone. Haha it was so awkward and I had no idea what to say so I did an awkward bow, a little weird wave and said thank you in Korean AND English...just in case.

Well I have one or two more stories then I will dismiss you:-) So I tried to use the bathroom that's on the same floor as the little library and I'm preeetty sure it was straight out of Elf. I felt like a giant in a tiny land! First, I hit my head on a metal bar trying to get into one stall. So I go to the next one and realize the door probably wouldn't close unless my knees didn't exist. Well as I was attempting to escape from there, the door flew open and hit the sink and I was actually laughing out loud at that point. I decided to use the handicap one, which I think is actually the "adult" one. Good to know! But definitely made for a good story.

This has been such a long post and I won't even try to tell every single story and detail because there is truly so much that is different and amazing. While I was on my extremely long and eventful yet boring flight I kept going between "This is the coolest thing I've ever done" and "This is the DUMBEST thing I've ever done, what am I doing?!?!" That was before I met these kids, and my co-workers, and Monica my Oma (my director, my Korean mother!). I'm having a wonderful time and I look forward to so many adventures! I will tell you one more story because I'm terribly proud. Tonight I went to a yummy dumpling stand and I ordered in Korean!! I greeted, ordered, thanked, and said my goodbyes all in Korean. Yay!! I still have so much to learn though! But with that I leave you and your tired eyes. Thanks for reading! More stories to come, you can count on that!

"Erica Teacher"

Turbulence, yapping pups and evil flight attendants

Annyong haseyo! I realize it's taken me a long time to update you all but I'm having to use the school's computers and internet for right now so I don't have a long time to play around before classes (yes, I am already teaching!). Let me start with the trip stories.





One valuable lesson I learned: ALWAYS have a travel buddy on long flights so you have a shoulder to sleep on!! I had 3 flights total; one from Charlotte to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo and Tokyo to Busan. I didn't have anyone sitting next to me for the first flight and thought that was a good start to the journey. I did, however, have a complete spaz sitting in front of me! I think I may have laughed out loud once because when the air turned on really high the first time he freaked out and almost jumped out of his seat to turn it off and he quickly fixed his hair. It was hilarious. That was before we even took off! I slept most of that flight which was nice but I could almost feel his spaz-tastic energy the whole time. I had a 1 or 2 hour layover in detroit and I made sure not to sit at all. There were so many people waiting for that flight so I knew it was going to be crowded. Brad, my recruiter, had told me the other foreign teacher going to my school may be on that flight with me so I was looking out for anyone that looked like an adventerous spirit/teacher type. Everytime I saw a single guy I would either think, "oh please be him" or "oh please DON'T be him!!" Ha, lame for sure. The flight was delayed a little cause they were cleaning and catering so we were all waiting there forever and there was one guy standing near me, probably 25ish and I was kinda hoping he was the other teacher haha. We started talking and joking around and he kinda calmed my nerves even though we were joking that I was probably headed to my death since everything was so uncertain! He's actually in the airforce and was headed back to Japan for another 2 years. He had a middle seat while I had an aisle seat and he kept saying he wanted to trade. Let me just tell you how much I wish I would have traded!!





The drama on the 13 1/2 hour flight was absolutely ridiculous. First of all, I sit down and there's a dog just yapping away somewhere close...of COURSE they are sitting right behind me with the dog UNDER my seat! And then, to top it off, none other than the spaz comes to sit in the seat beside me. It's comical now but not so much right then. When we finally took off (late), the dog lady takes out the dog and put it on her lap. Well everyone around them is thankful because the dog stopped barking and is happy...until the really really awful flight attendants freaked out and start this huge, 12 hours long fight. Lectures were involved, fingers in faces, tears (on not only the lady's part but a flight attendant too!!), and unity among passengers who thought this was all ridiculous. We all preferred she keep the dog on her lap instead of a loud annoying barking!! On top of that situation WE DIDN'T HAVE A MOVIE!! Our screen was broken!! The front and the back of the plane had movies, TV shows, etc...but not us. Anytime the FAs (flight attendants from here on out) were serving anything they would either be rolling their eyes at people, basically yelling at people, and just very obviously irritated and seriously just mean. There was one nice FA who was on the dog lady's side and that got her in trouble!! She was yelled at by the head FA and was the one who ended up in tears. So of course we had the head FA visit our section and lecture the dog lady (she wasn't the first to lecture her...poor lady was crying:-/) and instead of talking quietly and only involving the two ladies with the dog, she is talking SO loud and kept pushing on my seat!! I was actually sleeping soundly until she came around. But my nice little row (the spaz guy was really nice when he was talking, then there was a Thai lady and her American husband going back to Thailand to visit family. The spaz was going to Vietnam to visit family) and the row behind us complained a lot to her because of that plus the movie thing so we got free drinks:-) Actually, we demanded free drinks. Anyways, it got a little better but I did tell my air force buddy that he can absolutely have my seat if he wanted it about halfway through the flight! I also got a $50 travel coupon because of our lack of entertainment situation! Sweet. Can't wait to go to Cambodia for $50 cheaper:-) There were so many things the FAs did that I would tell you about but it would take too long. Just know, they were MEAN!





Wellll I was so relieved when the long flight was over. I was getting so bored even though so much was going on! We got in late and I was concerned that I may not make my Busan flight since I had to go through mini customs in Japan. I went through as quickly as possible and made it in enough time, even though they were gonna leave early! I began to scan the passengers for Joseph again (fellow teacher) but was so tired, nothing really mattered but getting on the plane and sleeping again! They served sushi that was shaped like an ice cream cone for dinner and I thought that was pretty awesome. I could not keep my eyes open for that flight and was hoping I would be awake enough to attempt to communicate with "Chally" (wasn't sure who he was at the time but I knew, whoever he was, he was meeting me at the airport!). We go to Busan and had to take a bus to the terminal and it was so cold!! After going through a customs-type thing and an xray I was finally at baggage claim and once I started collecting my huge suitcases I had a lot of Korean eyes on me. I know they were thinking, ohhh no, another stupid American moving in! Haha! But then the guy I was pretty sure was Joseph came up to me and asked if I was the awesome, popular, amazing, Erica Jane. Ok, he didn't ask it that way exactly but I understood what he meant. We got all our stuff and found the "Way out" (not the exit, it's the "way out" here hehe). We found Chally, who is actually CHARLIE HAH! I guess he didn't know how to spell his American name. He and his wife were waiting for us with signs and when they saw all our bags they said, "oh...ohhh." And we had to call a taxi for Joseph and Charlie! His wife and I went in their car (which is INCREDIBLE, as is basically everything in Korea). We couldn't say much to either of them but his wife speaks NO English but wanted to talk to me so I got out my Korean book and was able to say a few things to her. We connected:-) She's my Korean mother! She took me to my "one room" which is what they call our apartments.

Ok, that's basically the end of the TRAVEL part of the first week so I am going to post this and go teach my kindergarten class! There are so many more stories to come and I cannot wait to tell them!!

~Teacher Jane~

And heeere we gooo!!

Alright, here it is! Well, I finally got my visa issuance number last week and learned that I had to go ASAP for an interview with the Korean consulate in Atlanta. I was able to schedule an interview for Wednesday and someone covered my shift at work. The interview was, well, weird and hilarious. Ha! It went well and I met a few others who will be leaving soon for Korea as well. I wrote my recruiter when I left and he quickly wrote back to tell me that the school wants me there JANUARY 21ST!! That means, yes, I'm leaving January 20th. That's THIS Wednesday. It's really crazy, exciting, and a little scary. I got my passport in the mail today with my new WORK VISA in it and I also received my itinerary today. I am definitely leaving January 2oth at 9:43am! Super awesome. Well that's that for now! I'll be updating FROM KOREA soon!

Erica Jane