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!! :)