So far, so good.

I really need to go out into my neighborhood and take some pictures, but by the time I get home, I really tired and hot, and just want a shower.  It is so humid in Korea.  And my school is pretty hot all the time too.  Today, while teaching my class, I was positively dripping wet, and the wife of my boss (Mrs. Lee), saw and thankfully (finally) turned on the A/C for me.  But A/C seems to scare some Koreans.  When I first moved into my apartment, my boss, Mr. Lee told me I could not sleep with the A/C on because I would suffocate, especially while sleeping.  He called it Korean Bed Death.  This of course is not true, but A/C really does seem to scare them. 

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I work from 10am to 6:40pm with a two hour lunch break.  And on Tuesday and Thursday, I work from 10am to 5:55pm - with a 1.5 hour lunch break.  So fairly long days - at least in teaching english standards.  I teach all levels of English from pre-school in a classroom setting to high schoolers in a one-on-one setting.  The high schoolers one-on-one is actually kind of hard.  There are some words that they have in their workbook that even I don't know.  Like SAT type questions. Which word is the most exact opposite meaning of Martial - I don't know Martial's meaning well enough off the top of my head to be able to tell the student. Oh well.

For breakfast, I have been eating rice porridge - very similar to oatmeal in consistency, but made of rice. But here they don't have any "breakfast" flavors - my rice porridge is mushroom flavored. Along with the rice porridge, I've been eating a banana and an apple and some Orange Juice -- in a effort to make it feel like to me breakfast.

For lunch, I have the option of either eating lunch at the school with the pre-schoolers - an old lady cooks lunch every day and brings it to the school (today we had pickled cucumbers, tofu and radishes, black beans -but seasoned with soy sauce, and left hard(er), not mushey, rice and a mushroom soup - or, I can eat a restaurant downstairs of my building.  As far as I can tell, it's a "be been bop" restaurant - and everything is very cheap. You can get more than you can eat for 3,500 to 4,000 won (depending on what you order), so $2.85 to $3.25 -and there is no tipping in Korea!  Also another interesting thing that I find is that all the chop sticks here are metal - back home I've seen plastic and wooden chop sticks, but never metal.

For dinner, I have also been eating out as well - as I have no cooking furnishings at my apartment.  The teacher that I am replacing at my school never ever cooked. He didn't even have a bowl or a cup at the apartment. But my school director has agreed to get me some kitchen furnishings, so I hope to cook, at least a little bit, mainly breakfast, here soon. 

Today was the first day that I took the bus to school alone.  And it was a major fail.  I got off the bus too early and than got incredibly lost. As I walked down the street, I showed an old korean lady and envelope with the schools address written on it. And like all Koreans, wiped out her cellphone and promtly called the school and asked how to get there.  She has me cross the street and popped me on a bus.  But having no idea where I was, or even if I would recognize the school from the new bus, I hopped off after a stop or two and flagged down a taxi.  Turns out I was more or less just across the street from the school - well, across a 6 lane highway full of crazy korean drivers!

I promise to whip out the camera soon and take some pictures to share.
-Carly