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
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