My First Full Day of Classes

Oh man!! Mr. Jung (the ECC driver) rushed Beth and I over to Gumyedong (our temperary apartments) to pick up out belongings and move us to Howon (our permanent apartments). Beth has a single apartment that is really awesome. All of the Howon apartments are small, but the single has more storage and a bigger bathroom, which is great!

Mine has kitchen with a pot, pan, some dishes, and some silverwear. I brought my own chop sticks, and borrowed a spoon from HomePlus, so I'm pretty set for that! The washer, that only uses cold water, is outside on the incredibly cold balcony. We have plenty of hangers and a place to hang the clothes to dry. However, Reggie and I discovered last night that my washing machine is broken. It's kinda crumby and dirty, so I am hoping that I can get a brand new one. Both Beth and I had really nice washing machines and stoves in our temperary apartments, which was kind of useless to us at the time because we had no drying rack, pots, or silverware. Reggie is going to let me borrow his broom tonight so that I can re-arrange my room. It is quite tiny, so it will take a bit of creativity and staging (Yes, I have watched HGTV) to make it liveable. There is a thick layer of dust on the floor under my bed, and everywhere else, so I was unable to unpack or re-arrange furniture last night. I also have a portable closet with limited space and no dresser. But once I get everything cleaned, I can make it all work.

The apartments are pretty chilly, and the walls are all concrete, which doesn't help the matter. Fortunately, my mom made me lots of warm clothes for Christmas, so this is wonderful!!! There is an electric space heater in my room, which I've been told is cheaper than turning on the gas heat. My stove and hot water is gas as well. However, my stove had a semi-explosion when I tried to turn it on last night so that I could cook some ramen that was left in Beth's apartment. Needless to say, I didn't use it, and used Beth's instead. Reggie has a protable electric stove, so I think I might buy one of those. I have to turn on the gas hot water heater 10 minutes before I want to take a shower. My Korean friends will know this, but Korean showers get the whole bathroom wet. There is a nosle on my sink that makes the shower start. There is a moveable showerhead attached to a hook on the wall near the sink. I didn't take a shower last night because my water never got warm. However I did turn on my electric space heater and almost burn down my apartment. I was quite nice..hehe :)

I am hoping to get my room sweeped and perhaps buy some contact paper-type stuff for my counters and drawers at the nearby Lotte Mart. I've been told that this store is like HomePlus, which is now quite far from me. Right now my clothes are just all over my suitcases in the middle of the apartment. I am hoping to fix that soon.

I am at school right now, and just met my roommate, Alley. I totally had roommates named Ailey, Allison, & Anna at Alabama, which is weird. She is supposedly an opra singer from South Africa; however she doesn't really have a South African accent, so who knows. All these white people look like they could have all come from America because it is so diverse. She is moving in tomorrow night. Just enough time for me to clean...I hope. I also need to buy groceries! How in the world do I carry all of that from Lotte Mart? That seems to always be my question. I guess I might make a couple trips. Cleaning first. I am running out of money too, and don't get paid until April. Mr. You will give me paycheck advance if I need it.

My first full day was hectic! Beethoven kindy class for most of the morning and lunch, then Davinchi kindy class for fifth period. No one has a cirriculum for kindy yet, so I have just been playing games and singing songs. However, Beethoven is NEW. They are babies that know no English. Raya Teacher, my Korean partner teacher, has helped alot. No one is suppose to speak Korean in teh school, so when your kids can't even follow English directions, like "repeat," "point," or "sit down," it is quite hard. All of the children have English names given to them buy there parents. As I learn bits of Korean, which is hard to do when you teach English, it is hard for me not to use it. So I can only imagine how hard it is for Raya Teacher. Sometimes even I slip up and say "neh" to the kids instead of "yes."

After putting on the kids outside shoes, buttoning their coats, walking them down the stairs with all the other kindy classes, somehow Raya Teacher and I got them on the right bus...ahh!! Then elementary. It turned out that I was to have a break, however I ended up covering for Rachel Teacher's class last minute. So I grabbed the material for that class and ran upstairs. Luckil, afterwards, I had a supplementary classes (one-on-one teaching) that didn't show up!! This is how I had time to write on my blog. However, my back is aching quite alot, so I'm gonna quit.

Hope all is well with everyone back home; in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Virginia. Love to all!! Talk again soon. Oh, and sorry I can't always answer individual emails as quickly as I blog. The information in my head is only there so long, so I must write it down as it comes.