After a over a year of dreaming about it, and about 4 months of ridiculous hoops to jump through, I am finally here in Seoul, South Korea!
I left Minnesota at 7:57 am on Wednesday, February 25th, and I arrived in Seoul at 4:20 pm on Thursday, February 26th. I've been meaning to start writing this blog ever since I got here...but I've been so busy already that I haven't had time. and now so much has happened already that I don't even know which parts to tell you. I guess I'll just highlight a few things for you:
My Apartment:
The apartment I'm in right now is very "cozy". It's really small and they are trying to find a bigger one for me soon, but I guess it's hard for them to find open apartments in the winter.
View from the front door. I feel like I'm living in a dorm room again, so it's really not hard to get used to.
Table and chairs and matching couch. I decided that my mom would love the color of the floors and couch!
Microwave, sink, and "stove" (it's just a single burner)
The bathroom. It has a washing machine in it but I can't understand it because there's like 50 buttons on it and they are all in Korean. I will need to get a translator in just to do my laundry!
This is my "shower". It's just a little hose thingy attached to the wall. The whole bathroom gets wet when I shower. It's weird, but I'm getting used to it.
This is what keeps the toilet paper from getting when when I shower.
This is my bed. I brought my own sheets, but then when I got here, my employer had bought sheets for me and put them on my bed for me. I tried not to laugh when I saw all the butterflies on them.
And Lauren, I thought you would enjoy the brand name of my bedding!The School:
The name of my school is Jang-wi elementary school in Seoul. I will be teaching from 1-6 everyday (I get to sleeeeeep in wahoo!), and I will be teaching English to 1-6 graders. I don't actually start until Monday, March 9th. This week I have orientation and I will be observing another American teacher at a different school. I met my principal on Friday and learned that she speaks very little English at all. It was a very awkward first meeting. I sat around a table with 7 of my Korean "bosses" while they all just talked about me in Korean. I had no idea what they sad. They did tell me though that I should be a model.
My Name:
I have started to introduce myself as Judy here because it is very hard for Koreans to say Judith. Is comes out as Judees or Judas...and I decided that I would rather be called Judy than Judas. It's weird tho.
The Subway:
The subway here is awesome. It's very fast and easy to use. It's crowded all the time and people are really pushy to get a seat...so I usually stand.
My Friends:
When I first got here my friend Kyle from Carthage was still here and he introduced me a bunch of his friends. I am so grateful to Kyle and Chip, because if it weren't for them I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have met all the awesome people that I have met here. One of my friends, Lucy took me too her English speaking church on Sunday. It was so great! The body of Christ is very alive in Korea and it is so awesome to get to be a part of it. After church there is a college age bible study that I also went to and then everyone usually goes out to dinner or something afterwards. I'm getting really excited to get to know everyone better.
I guess that's all I have for now. I am going to try and make some sort of video diary while I am here, but for now you'll just have to be content with all my old ones from back home! I miss you all and hope that you are all doing well! MUCH LOVE FROM KOREA! ~judith (haha...or judy)
