Thanksgiving...Korean Style!

Happy late Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone enjoyed a day with family, yummy food, football, and getting up at 4am to go shopping.

Since Thanksgiving celebrates America, the Koreans didn't celebrate. I know, shocker. Haha. I did take the liberty of sharing with all of my students that it was Thankgiving in America and even let some of them say what they were thankful for! It was quite fun!! Since Kami and I are the only Americans at our school, we also got to share the holiday with our co-workers. Our boss lady was even so kind and got us fried chicken during one of our breaks so we could celebrate. That was so sweet. All of the teachers definitely liked Thanksgiving after that!!

Today we did have an official Thanksgiving celebration! Our group of English teachers (mostly Americans, a couple Canadians) got together for a Thanksgiving feast! It was quite enjoyable! There were many people there, beyond the Tongyeong English teachers. There was a French couple and two teachers from Busan and a guy from California that is traveling Asia. Kami and I made mashed potatoes for the celebration and I think everyone liked them!! I mean, who doesn't like mashed 'tators!! It was quite a fun day. Here are a few pics by Kami....she's the resident photographer!

In other news, Kami and I have officially applied for our alien registration cards so we will soon be legal!! Whoo-hoo!! That's quite exciting! We should get them at the end of next week or the following week. Yay!! Teaching is still going quite well. I love most of my classes and the kids are all just so amazing!! My co-workers are all really great and I think I'm really blessed to be here!

I think Kami and I might be going to Seoul for Christmas break with our friend, Amy. We get about 8 days off I think, so we're going to try to explore Seoul for a good part of it. I think it'll be a great way to spend the holidays. I can't wait!!

I think that is all for now! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break! Miss you!

Our First Visitor!!!

What a great weekend!!! My friend, Amy, from college (who is also teaching in Korea) came down from Asan for a visit! We had such a great time exploring the city and just being girls together. Amy has been here for several months, so a mini vacation to see fellow Texans was in order for her! We were definitely glad to host her and show her our wonderful town that we now call home!

Here are a few pictures from our few days together. Thanks to Kami for sending me the pics!

Besides the great company she gave us, Amy also served as our translator and introduced us to different things in the Korean culture. This is me getting educated at the street market.
We spend several hours along the coast...just admiring God's beauty. It's so amazing!!

In other news, my second week of school was a good one. I really love the kids...they are just so precious. I've enjoyed getting to know my co-workers and the other English teachers in town. I'm enjoying having my own apartment now and really feeling like I'm settled finally. I'm really happy here and think it's going to be a great year!

Happy Day!!! :)

Yay!!! Happy Day!! I moved into my apartment today!! I'm so excited!! No more sleeping on the floor and living out of my suitcases!! Whoo-hoo!! Now I can get settled!! I already unpacked all my luggage and am settling in! I'm so happy...now I can really feel like I live here and I'm not just visiting! I should be online more now so feel free to call!! :)

The past few days have been good ones. On Sunday, Kami and I joined one of our directors and her children and went to a get-together with another Korean family at their 'weekend home'. It was a really good cultural experience and I enjoyed myself. When we got there, the ladies worked on cleaning all the dishes and everything to get ready for us to eat.
And it was quite a feast...let me tell you. These people don't hold back! They had a little grill in the middle of the table and they just cook the meat and you take off little pieces. They started with some delicious beef and then got out some sausage. Think it's over?? Oh no...then there was some yummy pork and tons of seafood...crab, some kind of fish, so much stuff. It was insane. I quit after the pork but I was just so shocked with how much food there was. I still don't get how they are all so small here.

Here is the pretty sunset we witnessed while at the get-together. It was really amazing.

So besides our fun day with the Korean families, here are a couple other pictures from the past few days. This has become my favorite meal here. It's tuna kim bop...a roll with tuna, egg, spinach, and lots of other stuff that tastes yummy!! It's less than $2 bucks and it's amazing!!!

On our way to Lotte Mart (just like Wally World), we saw a stone that reminded us of Texas!!

That's all for now. I'll update more later! Miss you all! :)

I Survived!!

I can now say I officially survived my first week as an English teacher in South Korea!! Whoo hoo!! It's now Friday night and I'm just sitting at school waiting for Kami to get done with class so we can go home or somewhere...not really sure yet.

The first week teaching was a good one. The kids are just so adorable and they are so smart! Don't get me wrong, there are still some kids that are 'naughty' (they use that word a lot here) but overall they are just precious! This week was our intro week so we only had about three classes a day, but next week we start in full speed ahead with 6-7 classes a day! Yikes!!

I should be moving to my own apartment Monday night or Tuesday and then Kami and I can both really start getting settled into our new homes. I should have internet regularly then too so I can call some of you...don't worry, I haven't forgotten you!

I think Kami and I are going to visit one of the islands this weekend so that should be lots of fun! THE Amy Rice is coming to visit next weekend...can't wait!! :)

Have a great weekend! Miss you all! :)

I'm A Working Girl Now!!!

Hello everyone! I haven't forgotten about you, don't worry. I haven't had internet on my home computer since I'm at Kami's for now, so I just wanted to give everyone a quick update from the computer at work.

I'm officially done with my first two day of teaching at ILS!! Whoo hoo! It's been great so far and I'm really loving it. The kids are just so precious! I love it!

I'm teaching 2-3 classes a day this week but that'll go up after next week when Greg (the teacher I'm replacing) leaves. I think I'll have 6-7 classes then. This is definitely a good way to start though...not too overwhelming. All the people at work are really helpful and so nice, so it's been great so far!

This morning, our boss took Kami and me to the hospital to get our health check done so we can get our immigration cards and be citizens of Tongyeong. Everything was so easy there...they just took did basic stuff (height, weight, sight, hearing) and then we had to get a chest x-ray and give a urine and blood sample. Nothing hard about it. Good thing for us! :)

We're into Kami's apartment now, and when Greg leaves next Monday, I will move into his apartment and we can both get all settled. It's nice to be closer to our school and more centrally located in the city.

I hope you all are doing well!!

Exploring Tongyeong City

Good morning all. It's about 9am here on Monday morning and I'm getting ready to start my first week of teaching. I'm so excited and can't wait to jump right in! We're leaving our hotel in little while and moving into Kami's apartment for the week, then when the guy I'm replacing leaves, I'll move into his place.

Yesterday was a good day. I went walking around in the morning to explore and just try to get my bearings a little more. I continued to be amazed with how beautiful it is here. Here is a picture of Tongyeong City looking over from the island. You might thing that is a mountain range in the distance, but really it is just a bunch of islands out there...kinda crazy.

Right out of our hotel, you can see an island that is not even a quarter of a mile away. It's where we had dinner the other night with our boss' family. While I was walking, I found an undersea tunnel that took me to the island. Tongyeong City is a big tourist place for Koreans, so there were a bunch of people in the tunnel and touring around. I'd like to say I blended in with the tourists, but that would be a lie. I was still the only non-Korean walking around in the tunnel. Ha. It really is magnificent how pretty this place is. I am still in shock that this is my home for at least the next year.

This is one of the two bridges that connects Tongyeong City to the island. I've seen pictures of it at night and it's really pretty. Here is my attempt at using the timer on my camera since I couldn't ask the Koreans to take a picture of me!

My Day in Pictures!

Before I get to the pictures, I remembered that I forgot to write about something yesterday..."Sniper Hellos". I had heard about these before I came and we experienced our first one yesterday...so hilarious. What happens is you're walking along, just minding your business, and these little kids start yelling 'hello' at you. It's really funny. I think we'll get these a lot since it's obvious that we are foreigners so they like to use their English on us. Ok, now to the pictures.

My first Korean meal. We found a place with pictures so we could look and point...always a good way to order food! It wasn't bad. The chicken was just regular fried chicken but it was accompanied by an interesting omlette. The omlette was filled with fried rice...interesting but pretty yummy.

Barbara showed us around town for a little bit. Very good knowledge to have.

Our bosses took us around the coastline and we stopped to take pictures at the national park. It was really amazing. There are about 120 islands around Tongyeong...as you can see, some really tiny ones and then ones that people live on and visit.

This is picture celebrates my first island experience. There is an island easily accessible by bridge just south of Tongyeong where the national park is and where we ate dinner.

A quick shot with the lion...gotta love it! :)

Dinner was amazing. Our bosses took us to a traditional Korean restaurant and we got to have a truly cultural experience. It was so great! It started with leaving our shoes at the door (typical here at homes too) and sitting "indian style" at a table resembling a coffee table. Then they brought out about 20 bowls of stuff...it was insane. In the middle of the table, they put a bar-b-que type thing so you can cook your meet while you eat. We had pork for our meet and it was amazing....so yummy!

I was finally taught how to use chopsticks...so my first Korean goal has been accomplished! Whoo-hoo! There were tons of things to try and I tried most of them...not the spicy ones...but most of the other ones. So good, some not so good, but all worth the try to experience it!

Here with our bosses, Ryan and Sara, and their daughter Ruby.

That concludes my day. I'm tired now...still adjusting so I think I'll be going to bed early tonight. It was a fun day though!

Day One in SoKor

My first official day in Tongyeong has come and gone. It was a quite eventful day! It started off by me waking up at 7am...not exactly sure why but I couldn't sleep anymore so I just got up. After watching a old movie on an English station we found on TV, Kami and I hit the town to find a bank to exchange currency and to find breakfast. Apparently, Dunkin' Donuts is really big here, so we headed there where I was excited to get an iced coffee and a flatbread thing for about three bucks!! Made me quite happy!

This is the view outside of our hotel window. We're right by the ferry terminal.

This is the street out of our hotel. We're in the "old town" but we'll be moving to "new town" in a few days.

Me very excited about an iced coffee!!

After our short journey around, we came back to the hotel to get ready for our first day at work. When we were coming here, we asked to have an observation day so we could see a little bit of how things go. Most teachers that come here just get here and start teaching the next day...we didn't really want that...we wanted to see how things were ran a little. So after taking a $3 taxi into the other part of town to meet Barbara (a Canadian teacher at our school that is leaving Sunday) for lunch, we went to the school to begin the fun!


My first impression of the school is that it is really well organized and very structured. The director (Ryan) and his wife (Sara) are very nice and really seem to care for the school. From what I gathered from the first day, students come to the school for an hour and 25 minutes. In that time, there are two periods. One period, the students will have a Korean teacher teach them English for 40 minutes and in the second period, a native speaker will teach for 40 minutes (then there is a 5 minute break for all you math people that were adding). There are three native speaker teachers and three Korean teachers.I shadowed Greg, a Canadian teacher that is leaving next Sunday. During our day, we had all different levels of students and all the kids were just so cute!!


Because Barb is leaving this weekend, there was a going away gathering in her honor. It gave Kami and I an opprotunity to meet some of the other English teachers in Tongyeong and it was a fun night. I'm not sure quite the story behind it, but for some reason, they wanted everyone to have mustaches. It was quite funny. Here is a pic:

One thing we had heard about before we came here was something called a noribong. It is very popular here. What it is...there is a room that you and your friends go to with couches and TVs and you sing karaoke all night! It's quite crazy...but very cool! It's def something you have to experience in order to really understand. I really enjoyed it though...haha. It's very entertaining. I took a pic to try to show you.

So that was our first day in Tongyeong. It was a good day...an eventful day! Today our director and his wife are going to show us around town some and take us to dinner tonight, so that should be fun! Good times await!

Long Journey

Here are a couple of pictures from the journey to SoKor.

The trip to Korea was my first trip over Alaska and the Pacific Ocean. I didn't have a window seat but I did happen to look out a window in the back while we were going over a part of Alaska. It was so beautiful!!

Our first stop after Dallas was Tokyo. International flights always remind that I am blessed to be an English speaker. Here is a sample sign for you.

I went to the restroom in Toyko to change clothes and when I walked in, this was the first stall. I thought 'oh wow, def in a foreign land'...haha. I've seen pics like this, but I had to get my own!The next two stalls were 'regular' toilets, so no worries!

On the flight from Tokyo to Busan, I was excited when they started handing out snacks...until I saw this!!! Def did not eat it...haha. They did have some fruit I ate, but not this stuff. Ha.

That's all I have for now. I'll post more later.

I MADE IT!!!!

I made it to SoKor!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

Kami and I arrived last night (your a.m.) to SoKor after about 20 hours of traveling. We were greeted at the airport by our school director's brother and his friend, and after stuffing all of our luggage into their car, we headed to Tongyeong. It was about an hour and 40 minutes from the airport to our town, so I took the opportunity to take a nice little nap!! I was pooped. When we arrived, we went to our school (looks pretty nice!) and met our director, his wife, and two other teachers there. Everyone has been really really nice so far, so it's been great!

We're staying at a hotel for our first couple of days until one of the teachers leaves on Sunday and then we'll move into Kami's apt for a week together until another teacher finishes his contract...then we'll be able to really settle in to our new homes!

I don't have a great internet connection yet, so I'll post pictures once I do.

Tomorrow!!!

Yikes...it's finally here!!! I will be jetting off tomorrow for a new land and a new adventure!! I'm so excited and can't wait! Departure is at 10:10am so it's going to be an early morning but I'll have 13.5 hours to sleep on the way to Tokyo and then 2.5 more to SoKor. It feels really surreal right now, but I have a feeling once I get to Tokyo, it'll feel more real!

Here are a few pics from seeing my cousin Alichia and her baby Abby...so weird to think Abby will be walking the next time I see her. She's soooo cute!!

Holler at you later...from the other side of the world!! :)