3 weeks...in the bag

Well, we have conquered week 3 of our Korean journey.  We are finally out of the Coatel Hotel in Seoul (thank god!).  

Like I said in my last post, our arrival in Pusan was postponed due to Chusok which is the Korean Thanksgiving celebration.  So, we got an extra 3 days in Seoul.  In those days we did some karaoke (way different in Asian countries), visited the Korean War Memorial, and explored.

Now we are in our amazing new apartment in the Seomyeon district of Pusan, South Korea.

We have a great 2 bedroom apartment on the 14th floor in the middle of the city.  We have a beautiful view, a big living room (with nothing in it), a bathroom with a bedet and hard wood floors.  Of course, we don't have any furniture except for our beds, but we will eventually work it out.

And of course, bad luck follows me wherever I go!  Here's a recap of my first meal in my apartment...

I go down to the family mart store (its like a 7-11) which is conveniently located on the 1st floor of our building.  I purchase a pack of 4 slices of bread, a thing of ramen, a pack of american cheese, a box of butter, a bottle of water and some cheetos.

I get upstairs to make myself an amazing grilled cheese sandwich and some soup...so excited.  All I have wanted to do for the last week and a half was eat this and be able to make it on my own...

So I break into my supplies...

the bread is not a loaf of bread at all.  It's a chocolate sandwich (white bread with some chocolate frosting crap in the middle)

my butter is not in a cube...its a box of tiny butter packets that you would find at a restaurant

So after finding this out and making due with what I have, I come to find that we don't have gas or hot water...meaning no soup or grilled cheese or a hot shower that I was looking forward to.

Then I start to thank god that I bought that extra bag of cheetos.  I open them...THERE IS NO CHEESE ON MY CHEETOS!  They're like ranch flavor or something horribly unappetizing!  Needless to say I was a little upset!

After the grilled cheese incident, Sara and I proceeded to live without gas for the next 3 days.  Thank god it was hot and humid as all hell so we didn't mind taking cold showers!  We didn't have to work our first week in either, so we spent a lot of our time sleeping and exploring.  We went to Haeundae beach and layed out one day.  The beach is gorgeous and we were lucky to have some superb weather!

We also explored the Pusan National University district with the bars and restaurants, the night life in Seomyeon, by our apartment, saw a movie in Nampo-dong and the casino/5 star hotel/giant department store that we have a block away from us!

We actually have gotten to meet some really cool people that also work in Pusan for CDI.  Funny story how we met...we were given a temporary cell phone that used to belong to another CDI employee, and one of her friends called us looking for her.  We had an awkward convo and he invited us to a party by the beach...which we went to of course!  We ended up getting stuck in a monsoon on the beach and staying out until 8 in the morning...indulging in free breakfast in the casino before retiring to bed.

I started work last Tuesday (09/23/08).  I screwed up pretty badly my first set of classes, but i think that I have everything pretty much figured out now. 

Monday:        April English 240-630

Tuesday:        CDI English Chip  720-1015

Wednesday:   April English 240-630

Thursday:     CDI English Chip  720-1015

Friday:          April English 240-630

April English is the younger kids that don't know much English at all.  We work a lot on phonics and basic vocabulary.  These kids are freakin nuts!  Actually, most of my April English kids know more English than my upper level kids in CDI do!

CDI English Chip is a higher level of English with kids that are like around 13-15 years old.  I am working at the Saha branch with Sara, but she is working different classes.

Now, I'm beginning week 2 of teaching!  My little ones are brats and I want to hit them every chance I get (which is totally an acceptable punishment here btw) but I just can't bring myself to do it!  So I yell until I'm horse, which obviously doesn't make them stop.  I will eventually figure out how to bribe them into behaving well!  My older class on the other hand doesn't speak at all.  I guess Sara and I are splitting this guy, Paul's schedule.  He was brought in and failed training but they tried to give him a second chance by allowing him to teach while closely monitoring him.  Well, he obviously didn't do too well cause Sara and I took over for him!  More proof of his "job well done" is the withdrawl rate of the kids in my class...the class started with 10 kids.  When I started (only 4 weeks into the session) we were down to 3.  Pretty pathetic.  So, these guys know nothing and probably aren't too comfortable considering I'm like the 4th teacher they have seen in the past month!

All in all, Korea is great and I love it here thus far...

O and here's all my info...

Cell:                 010) 2993-9408

Address:         Erika Ulfelder

Busan, South Korea

Saha Gu, Sang ri Dong 321-27

Seung hak Building, 3rd Floor

(this is to our school branch because we don't know how reliable mail is in our building yet...)

But everything is great here!  Miss you all!  

O, and all of my pictures are posted on facebook.  Here's the link...

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014022&l=7903b&id=83900407

love love love

erika

ocsoccerchick@aol.com

ps...I'm definitely going to be on top of this thing and updating it WAY more often...come back in a week :)

"Annyong haseyo"...How are you...in korean

korean adventure...week 1

seoul, south korea

09/11/08

hello family and friends!

obviously you got my email and that is why you are on my blog!  thanks for visiting!  

as you can see, i am in korea, alive and well!  there were a couple of bumps along the way...well actually i hit the bumps in the airport before we even left...but that is all done with and united will be kissing my butt soon enough!

this week sara and i are in seoul at the Coatel Hotel.  We arrived on Friday night and started training on monday morning, bright and early.  the room is nice...two twin beds, kitchen with a stove, sink and fridge, bathroom fully equipped with a bedet, washing machine, smoking room (no idea why), etc...

training went well.  i was a little worried at first since i have absolutely no idea how to teach, but everything is very structured and planned out with little room for improvisation or creativity.  Basically it is all on a computer program, we just facilitate what the program is providing.  They are using us for our accents most of all.

What else is going on...hmmm...i'm the tallest person here!  i catch people staring at me everywhere i go!  not only am i the giant white girl, but tattoos are illegal so i dont really fit in too well.  I looked around a department store and all the clothes are tiny...i barely even fit into the fitting rooms or the bathroom stalls!

Sara and I took a bus tour of the city on sunday and we saw a lot of neat things.  we went in the biggest shopping mall in all of asia and a district that they proudly refer to as "the mecca of electronics"...literally 2 floors just of digital cameras.  absolutely INSANE!   there is also a very touristy district called Itaewon that has western food and brands and things.  

Other than that we have just been doing training.  a group of us that are staying in the hotel went out for my birthday to hooters.  The girls made me do an embarrassing stupid dance and song...i wanted to die!  sara has the video of it which i will upload soon.  we got to play drinking games in there like flip cup... and we even got one of the girls to play with us!  after hooters we went to a soju bar (soju is a korean rice wine that is almost the equivalent to sake).  one of the girls that is in our training class has been living here since may and is actually korean so she taught us all the traditional ways to serve and drink soju...we ended up stumbling back to the hotel just like any good american girl should on her birthday!

Plans have changed as to our departure.  Originally we thought we were only staying in seoul until friday and then heading down to pusan to get into our apartments but, because of a huge korean holiday this weekend we were unable to get tickets and will be staying in seoul until sunday night...then off to pusan!  i'm very excited to stop living out of a suitcase and to get settled in.

i should be posting blogs once a week, so please keep checking back!

otherwise, i'm on skype and aim all the time...my screen name is ocsoccerchick

i cant wait to hear from all of you!  thank you for all of the bday wishes!

love love love

erika