The Arrival
Hello Everybody!! I am here safe and sound after a long and tiring journey. The Seoul airport is was very pretty, and the first thing I saw, when I walked out of bag check was a Dunkin Donuts! At the exit of the airport there were about 12 Korean women in traditional dresses giving out flowers and greeting travellers when I walked to ground transportation. Then I met the other teachers at ground transportion and a host from the school who loaded our bags into the van that would take us to the house that we will be living in for good. The driver we had must have went to taxi school taught by African Matatu drivers cuz the ride there was like being in Grand Theft Auto except driving 130 Kilometers per hour. I am still wondering how we dident smash into anyone. The drive was very pretty through, because the airport was in the country side right next to the Yellow river.
When we got closer to Seoul, the traffic made the Dan Ryan during rush hour look fast paced. It took about an hour to get to where we needed to go, but we got a good sight of the city. There are moutains everywhere and the dirt is bright red, just like the south. It was all misty out and mysterious. At the house I met all the other teachers, including 2 more from Ball State and one from Iowa City and another from Chicago. They showed us the rooms that we would be staying in for the first week, but then we move into rooms that are all are own with a kichen and refigerator.
The bathrooms are like phone booths. I fell asleep in about one second that night and the next day we went to the school, which is an easy walk, not even a mile away, passing 3 coffee shops and a Chocolate Cafe. The school itself was much more than what I expected. Its is actually one whole building, not on some office building floor. Its 5 floors high with classrooms, a library, offices, even a play place that looks like a mini leaps and bounds with slides and a ball pit. The roof has a full garden with trees and a walkway with those Asian orchids and bushes. It was a very pretty and unexpected touch. Next to the play place is a big open room that is used for gym class and games. We even teach PE class in English, which I had no idea was even apart of the curriculum! The cafeteria is on the 3rd floor were there are three hired, full time chefs that cook everything from scratch were I will buy my lunch each day for only 3 dollars a day! There are about 17 teachers in all, and 5 directors that are Korean that work with scheduling and such.
After our tour of the school, one of the directors showed us around the neighborhood were we exchanged our money and found were to buy groucheries. This store was a quarter of the size of Trader Joe's where every possible space was filled with goods to the ceiling. The city itself is extremely clean, which is ironic because garbage cans are hard to come by. It is a very rich part of town, so there are no homeless people in sight or even street vendors. Its as people say, I feel very safe here, actually much safer than in Chicago, and definitely welcomed here.
The place we went to lunch as such a neat experience. As soon as you walk in, you have to take your shoes off, and there are cubby holes on the side of the entrance which were full of shoes. Everyone, even the waitresses were wearing socks. Businessmen and women in very nice clothing were all in stocking or bare feet. The neatest part however, was that every table was only a foot off the ground, and you sit on flat cushions. It was so comfortable and relaxing. The director we were with ordered for us, and we all got BimBambap, a popular Korean dish which is made up with hand fulls of vegatables and steak served up in a huge bowl. It came with Soup, coffee, dessert, and we all shared 10 side dishes that were placed down the middle of the table. There was so much food, and if we finished any of the dishes, they kept refilling them. I think we went through 5 dishes of those Korean style pancakes, those were very good! So now guess how much all that food was for each of us- 8 dollars! And that amount is considered expensive! We were told that if we ate out for every meal of the day, we could live on only $10 if we really went the cheap route. Tonight the teachers are going to take us to another Korean restaurant that they all rave about, which is also very cheap. Then we are going to "E-mart" which is like a Korean Walmart. I am typing this now with the other new teachers at a Starbucks, which is right across the street from a Dunkin Donuts! I was hoping that a grande-decafe-soy milk-latte, my signature drink, would be much cheaper, but it is actually the other way around, close to 5 dollars. There are a whole different selection of hot teas , and if you order a frappuccino, the bottom will be filled with chocolate jelly, or what they call "coffee jelly."
Stay tuned for more adventures. I have been getting earfulls of all the things that we can do here.
When we got closer to Seoul, the traffic made the Dan Ryan during rush hour look fast paced. It took about an hour to get to where we needed to go, but we got a good sight of the city. There are moutains everywhere and the dirt is bright red, just like the south. It was all misty out and mysterious. At the house I met all the other teachers, including 2 more from Ball State and one from Iowa City and another from Chicago. They showed us the rooms that we would be staying in for the first week, but then we move into rooms that are all are own with a kichen and refigerator.
The bathrooms are like phone booths. I fell asleep in about one second that night and the next day we went to the school, which is an easy walk, not even a mile away, passing 3 coffee shops and a Chocolate Cafe. The school itself was much more than what I expected. Its is actually one whole building, not on some office building floor. Its 5 floors high with classrooms, a library, offices, even a play place that looks like a mini leaps and bounds with slides and a ball pit. The roof has a full garden with trees and a walkway with those Asian orchids and bushes. It was a very pretty and unexpected touch. Next to the play place is a big open room that is used for gym class and games. We even teach PE class in English, which I had no idea was even apart of the curriculum! The cafeteria is on the 3rd floor were there are three hired, full time chefs that cook everything from scratch were I will buy my lunch each day for only 3 dollars a day! There are about 17 teachers in all, and 5 directors that are Korean that work with scheduling and such.
After our tour of the school, one of the directors showed us around the neighborhood were we exchanged our money and found were to buy groucheries. This store was a quarter of the size of Trader Joe's where every possible space was filled with goods to the ceiling. The city itself is extremely clean, which is ironic because garbage cans are hard to come by. It is a very rich part of town, so there are no homeless people in sight or even street vendors. Its as people say, I feel very safe here, actually much safer than in Chicago, and definitely welcomed here.
The place we went to lunch as such a neat experience. As soon as you walk in, you have to take your shoes off, and there are cubby holes on the side of the entrance which were full of shoes. Everyone, even the waitresses were wearing socks. Businessmen and women in very nice clothing were all in stocking or bare feet. The neatest part however, was that every table was only a foot off the ground, and you sit on flat cushions. It was so comfortable and relaxing. The director we were with ordered for us, and we all got BimBambap, a popular Korean dish which is made up with hand fulls of vegatables and steak served up in a huge bowl. It came with Soup, coffee, dessert, and we all shared 10 side dishes that were placed down the middle of the table. There was so much food, and if we finished any of the dishes, they kept refilling them. I think we went through 5 dishes of those Korean style pancakes, those were very good! So now guess how much all that food was for each of us- 8 dollars! And that amount is considered expensive! We were told that if we ate out for every meal of the day, we could live on only $10 if we really went the cheap route. Tonight the teachers are going to take us to another Korean restaurant that they all rave about, which is also very cheap. Then we are going to "E-mart" which is like a Korean Walmart. I am typing this now with the other new teachers at a Starbucks, which is right across the street from a Dunkin Donuts! I was hoping that a grande-decafe-soy milk-latte, my signature drink, would be much cheaper, but it is actually the other way around, close to 5 dollars. There are a whole different selection of hot teas , and if you order a frappuccino, the bottom will be filled with chocolate jelly, or what they call "coffee jelly."
Stay tuned for more adventures. I have been getting earfulls of all the things that we can do here.
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