South Korea, Gyeonggi-do, Pyeongtaek-si, Jangdang-dong

Welcome to my apartment!

Kitchen.. Juha showed me how to use the oven and rice cooker....hopefully I remember because all the buttons are in Korean...

Bedroom.. first big girl bed I have ever slept on!

Living room.. there's a big TV here that I have no idea how to work. Also, through the glass door there is a large closet-ish storage space... and a small room that is a shower ???


AND... don't be jealous... I call this my pretty pretty princess bed. 

안녕하세요 from Korea

Hey everyone,

I have had the chance to talk to a few of you, but wanted to let everyone else know that I've arrived safely in South Korea and have survived my first few days without major disaster. I arrived in Seoul on Friday at about 4pm (2 am Chicago time). After the 13 hour flight, I was pretty exhausted and simply ready to be off of the airplane. One of my co-teachers, Juha, picked me up at the airport and drove me to my apartment about 2 hours south in Pyeongtaek. After dropping my stuff off at the apartment (which is actually very big- photos to come) we were both starving so we went to eat dinner. We ate all kind of sea food and beef and vegetables, which were cooked in broth over a stovetop on the table. you mixed everything in and then pulled the bits out with tongs to eat, after the main bits are eaten you add a big plate of noodles and dumplings to the broth and eat the rest as soup. Cooking was the easy part...eating, not so much. Koreans use only long metal spoons and metal chopsticks to eat and, while I am quite proud of my chopstick abilities, I think my skills will be put to the test this year! Thus far I have learned to eat noodle soup and peel shrimp with my chopsticks, though I am pretty sure I am not very graceful while doing so.

After dinner Juha dropped me off at home, where I proceeded to pass out at 8:30 pm, only to wake promptly at 4 in the morning. I decided to unpack and try to clean the apartment before Juha came to pick me up to bring me for my health check. She also took me to Homeplus, which is sort of like a giant walmart/grocery store, to get some things for the apt. From there I have pretty much been on my own the last 2 days.

It has been confusing and disorienting to say the least. This has been enhanced by the fact that, since I arrived, it has being raining almost non-stop and looks as though it will for the rest of the week. Boooo. BUT, I know that I will begin to find my way, both figuratively and literally, and now that I have finally been able to place myself on a map, hopefully things will get easier. I've figured out that I am actually not in the main city of Pyeongtaek, but in a smaller area (possibly a suburb??) to the north, called Jangdang-dong.  "Dong" is the ending which means something like town, "Si" (as in Pyeongtaek-si) means city. I am 2 train stops North of Pyeongtaek station, and one train stop South of Songtan, a bigger area where many U.S. servicemen live. After looking at Google maps for hours, my adventure today will be to try to get myself to the train station and take the train to Pyeongtaek. I am in need of some people to talk to and there are a few people from UW in that area, so we have planned to meet up at the train station. Everyone cross your fingers that I don't end up in China!

More to come once I figure out what is going on in my life! ( I'm sure that will be soon.. right?)
Miss you all!
Emily

반지초등학교 ...48 hours and counting.

Insanity. In about 48 hours I will be at the airport, waiting to board my flight, and probably totally freaking out. After a brief 13 hours 20 min and 6,538 miles (no big deal) I will land in Seoul, South Korea and begin day one of my adventure.

I finally found out that I will be teaching at 반지초등학교 (Banji Elementary School), in Pyeong Taek, Gyeonggi-Do, which at this point actually means very little to me.  I have tried to learn a bit about the city, and check out the schools website. However seeing as much of the information on the school is written in Korean and, even with all the Google action I can get, random info about the city wont really make sense until I am actually there.

So, at this point we wait and see... more to come once I am settled. I don't really know how soon I will have access to the internet or phone communication of any sort; but, once I do get myself sorted, I will do my best to keep everyone updated and would love to hear about everything going on at home as well.

That's all for now. Next Post from 평택!

Almost there...

As many of you have already heard, at the end of the month I will be moving across the world to South Korea. I will be spending the next 12 months teaching English in a public school in Gyeonggi-Do, the province surrounding Seoul. I should be finding out which city in Gyeonggi-Do, as well as which age group I will be teaching, within the next few days... I hope.

Over the last week or so, I have started to compile a list of things to accomplish before I leave and have tried to start checking some of those things off. Some of these tasks are proving more daunting and difficult than others. At the top of my list, for example, I have written "PACK!" While packing to go somewhere for the first time is usually an act I get weird personal satisfaction from, the idea of packing my life to move somewhere for a year, not to mention to a place where I apparently have to bring a years worth of deodorant, has become increasingly mind-blowing. So, ignoring number one on the list, written a few spaces below “pack”, with things such as “practice Korean flashcards” and  “see my family/friends” in between is “Set up Blog.”
On that note, here we go….

Instead of sending annoying mass emails, I decided I would write a blog to let everyone back home know what I am up to. That being said, the choice is yours, to read or not to read? I imagine my stories will be more interesting at first and become a bit boring as I start to actually live; but, I am sure the whole year will be an interesting, exciting, and education experience, for myself personally, and hopefully I can share some of that with everyone back home. I will likely not be posting much until I arrive on Aug 27th; even then I am not sure how soon I will have an Internet connection. I will try to post as often as I have something interesting to say, so I we will just have to wait and see how often that will be!

21 Days
안녕히계세요!
Emily