Noraebong & Medical Check

Well I know these are 2 completely different topics but they were both humorous and worth blogging about events. Saturday night a bunch of people from work went out to eat and then to noraebong for some of the teachers last weekend here. Noraebong is like karaoke. You rent out a room so that you only have to sing in front of your friends instead of in front of a bar full or random people, so you embarrass yourself a little less. We went to a top notch one this weekend since we had a lot to celebrate, but all the teachers told us not to get used to this one because usually they are dumps. This one on the other hand had a drum set and tambourines out for people to play along with the singers. This was quite an experience and is a big thing here so I imagine I will be doing this a few more times throughout my stay. On Monday the school sent us to get our medical check done so that we could apply for our alien registration card. They pretty much just want to make sure you are not bringing in any diseases. This was quite the experience. We get there with our instructions written in Korean as to why we are there, which the lady immediately just throws away. I guess she has seen enough foreigners come through that she knows why we were there. We go into a locker room and are asked to strip down and put on this LOVELY pant, robe and slipper set and meet back out in the lobby. When we meet in the lobby we are quickly shuffled into various rooms. I first went into the doctors office where she asked if I had depression or any trouble breathing. I passed this room so then I moved onto a room where I got my blood pressure, blood, weight, height, and chest measurements taken. Why they need to know my bra size I have no clue... but I was not going to ask any questions. Then I got shuffled to the vision test. This room was followed by the hearing test. Next came the chest X-Ray. Then the urine sample. Lastly the dental check, which literally was just looking in my mouth and viewing my bite. Finally we were able to go change back into our clothes and try to explain to the people where they needed to send the results, since the lady had previously thrown away the written explanation. This description does not even begin to explain how humorous this experience was. You would exit a room and sit on a bench for the next room. Talk about assembly line medical check. Mind you there were about 50 people here also all being shuffled through different rooms. I would say their theory is pretty efficient and they don't mess around there. All this for $74.00! The last few days before we get kids, which is Friday, will be planning and workshops. We do have a Korean holiday on Thursday so no school, which I think will be a shopping day for me. Although we do have off on Thursday unfortunately we have an all day workshop on Saturday, but everyone tells me they serve us awesome breakfast, lunch and dinner! Well this is all for now! Hope all is well with everyone!

The Good, & The Bad Of South Korea

I don't really have any new stories to write a whole blog about so I figured I would tell yall some things I will learn to adjust to including the good and the bad!

The Good:

Each dinner table at a restaurant has a little button. When you are ready to order or need something else or need a refill on anything you push this button and a server immediately comes to your table. This keeps down on the annoying servers that always want to ask if your ok or want to fill up your drink every two seconds. I thought this was pretty cool and think America should pick up on this little dining experience. Another thing about restaurants is you do not have to tip the server. It is not expected and rarely happens. The level of respect this culture has is phenomenal.... another thing I think America should pick up on. You never hear students back talking or being rude to teachers or parents. If you see a person that is older than you, you should give them your seat, open the door, let them go first etc.

The Bad:

You have to separate your trash everywhere including your house. You have one bag for regular trash, one bag for recyclables and one for food scraps. I get the separating your recyclables but separating your food scraps worries me a little because I wonder what they are doing with them from there. I have been told my one person they heard they feed it to the pigs, but I don't know if I quite believe that and I hope that is not the truth. When using the restroom you throw away your toilet paper as opposed to flushing it. By every toilet there is a little trash can and no matter what business you have on the toilet no paper is to be flushed. This is one habit I WILL not pick up on at my home but I do have to follow at school because they get backed up easily. Your bathroom is just that BATHroom. I will upload pics when I get into my apartment because I'm still in the hotel but it is literally a toilet, sink and a shower head with a drain on the floor. There is a little flap that covers your toilet paper so that it does not get wet during your shower. I have also seen washers in the bathrooms also, which doesn't seem safe!

Im sure I have left some out but that is all the MAJOR things I have noticed thus far!

Observing & Training

Hello All,

Well training is going great. We are doing a lot more observing now and the kids love seeing our new faces around the school. There was actually a boy in one of the classes today that lived in Atlanta for awhile so he was pretty excited to hear that I was also from Atlanta. We got our schedules today and I got an awesome schedule. I teach Pre-K in the morning consisting of Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary, Gym, Health, Activity (Art), Library/Media and Learning Centers (controlled house-playing/role playing). Then I have a chunk of planning in the middle of the day and Lunch. I then finish up the day with Elementary kids. I will have 2nd & 3rd grades Reading, Grammar, Writing, Science, & Vocabulary. I then have a dinner snack and either go home some days or teach some more after dinner. It works out that Monday & Wednesday my hours are 9-7:30 and Tuesday, Thursday & Friday 9-6, but like I said before a lot of that is planning! Last night all the Pre-K teachers went out for what they call a floor dinner, which we do once a month where they give us money to all go out to dinner (kind of like a team builder). We went to a Galbi restaurant, which is where you cook your meat in front of you. I put some pictures on facebook if you want to check it out. I found out whose apartment I will be taking over in the next week or so and thankfully the girl leaving said she would leave me some things in the apartment so I would not have to buy them and she said it is one of the bigger ones so that is exciting. I guess it will be worth the wait in this hotel room! Well its been a long day so I think I will be getting ready for bed early tonight!

1st day of work

Hello All!

Today was my first day of work. A girl came to pick me up to show me how to get to the school because I'm in a hotel during my training period. Training went great... we learned the basics of our days routine, had lunch with the directors, and observed some classrooms. There were only about 8 kids in the class I observed in, which is nice! We have several 40-80 minute classes throughout the day but we got out early today because they figured we would be kind of tired and jet lagged. Although I had someone come pick me up to take me there I was on my own on the way home. I only got turned around 2 times, luckily only in the subway station and I realized before getting on the wrong subway. The transferring is the only tricky part. Tonight I am going to meet the 2 teachers that took me to lunch the other day so they can show me the store that I can get some food and a straightener, which is saving grace... this fluffy hair isn't pretty and just a hair dryer doesn't cut it! The only difficult part is not having a phone, which I probably wont get for 3 weeks, so I had to make sure of where I was meeting them in the subway station and what time and what floor. I hope I can find them tonight or else I'm SOL! The teachers I will be working with all seem very nice. Three of them are in Seoul for a 2nd time just at a new school and 4 of them are around my age so I think we will have fun! Although all of them are already in the apartments and I am the only one in the hotel further away from them the hotel has wireless Internet so I have been able to skype often from the comfort of my room instead of finding a coffee shop that has wi-fi. I'm starting to take more pictures and hope to post them soon on facebook so be on the lookout for them in the coming week. In my downtime I will be trying to learn the Korean alphabet because everyone has told me this will be the most beneficial for me! Well I'm off to study before heading to get a straightener!

1st night out

Well my friend David Brodie convinced me to go out last night. I met him and his friend at the subway station and we hopped on to go to his friends apartment. This was my first ride on a subway and I realized I was going to have to pay close attention when I ride by myself in the future because I may have to transfer trains and they only say the stops in English once. When we got to his friends house we had some Maki (Beer), Makali (rice wine), and soju (Vodka... which is cheaper than water here $1.00 for a small bottle). After awhile we all went to a hookah bar in Hongdae and then a "foreign" bar/club. It had American music and everyone spoke pretty good English, which made me feel right at home! Downstairs of the bar there was a Korean band playing so I had no clue what they were singing about but I danced anyway! It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I went out. I meeting friends that I see myself hanging out with for the year, which is a good sign. A lot of the people I met are on their 2nd or 3rd year and a few went home for a few months after their contract and missed South Korea too much and ended up back here. This is good sign that I will enjoy my experience here, but don't get worried I am too much of a homebody to spend multiple years here. I'm already missing my niece being born so I think I will be ready to come home after a year! Today I just kind of hung out in my room. I walked to the mall and got some lunch and just got back from the mart where I got my dinner, noodles that kind of look like ramen noodles, so we will see how this tastes. I start training tomorrow and have someone coming to pick me up to show me how to get to the school. I'll update y'all tomorrow on how my first day of work goes. We don't get the kids until March 1st but we should be shadowing a teacher to see how the classroom functions! Good night everyone and I'll let ya know how my day goes!

1st day in Seoul

I got to skype quite a few people this morning so I feel like I have not even had time to miss people yet, which is a good thing! I got a call telling me someone would come to get me to take me to lunch, which was quite a relief! Two teachers from Canada that work at my school picked me up and took me to Coex Mall, a HUGE underground mall, to get lunch and a few other essentials such as conditioner, soap, power converter and a metro card. We had some traditional Korean food and I got to try kimchi, which was delicious! I understand I look different than these people, but I found it pretty humorous that while I was at the mall for 1 hour I got my picture taken 3 times, many creepy stares and 2 people shout the Korean word for foreigner and then wave really big. I guess this shows that they don't get to see Americans often... I kind of felt like a celebrity! They showed me around my hotel so I could get to know the area. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Starbucks and Dunkin Doughnuts within walking distance! Now I have until Monday to hang out before I start work. I am very excited to start work and get to know some of the other teachers. I think I will really enjoy this experience judging by everyone's friendliness and stories from their experiences! Well I think it is nap time now considering it is 2:00 am in Atlanta! Surprisingly I have not been too jet lagged but I may be going out tonight so I need to rest up!

Welcome To Korea

Hello All,

Well I made it here safe and sound. The flight was the longest, most boring flight... 14 hours of sitting there gets pretty old real quick. For some reason even with an advil pm and a bonine I was unable to sleep more than maybe an hour or two. I got dropped off at my hotel at about 8:00pm here and immediately skyped my parents. Then the 24 hours of traveling kicked in and I was exhausted so I showered and went to bed. I had to go to the store to get shampoo because all they had in the shower was a bar of soap. I was unable to find conditioner. I also have not found a straightener for my hair so I should look interesting. I also need to find a power converter. Im at 30% on my laptop but I need a converter to charge it. I met someone that will be teaching with me. He rode with me from the airport. He was here a year ago so I think he will be a good help to me. He was already talking about getting me a metro card and cell phone so we will see how that goes today! The thing that has been the biggest culture shock to me was when I was in the Korean mart. The cashier didnt speak English and everything was written in Korean. I just happened to find one bottle that actually said shampoo in english.. just everything else was in Korean. Well i need to save my battery until I find a converter so this is all for now!

First flight down 2 to go

Well I got to the airport at about 5:30 this morning. Both of my check on bags were 50 lbs. on the dot... couldn't do that again if I tried! I got really nervous sitting outside my flight waiting to board and actually got tunnel/blurred vision and feelings of passing out (which I'm known for doing) and all I could think of was "Lisa get through this you don't want to be THAT girl who passes out in the airport and then miss your flight". Needless to say I made it. I got lucky I was right behind first class and had an aisle seat so I lucked out. As I'm waiting I happen to see Stephen Douglas, a high school friend, who happens to have the seat next to me. I think this really helped to ease my nerves and I had someone to chat with for the short flight. Now if I can only be so lucky on the next flight. Next flight is to New York and I don't think I'll post about it unless I have another crazy experience to write about! Already missing family and friends!

The Night Before Departure

I feel like I have a butterfly garden in my stomach! I keep getting worried that I'm going to forget something (the usual pre-travel thoughts). I'm very nervous mostly of my life being unknown. Not knowing what I'll eat for dinner tomorrow, not knowing who I will hang out with or what I will do this weekend but I am excited none the less. I know this experience will be a life changing one and I'm so ready to start this exciting chapter of my life. Well I guess I should try to get some sleep, although I doubt I will ACTUALLY sleep. I will try to update when I get there to let you know what I just got myself in to!