an afternoon of... monkeys

once i was settled into my school and had met all of my classes between the 6th and 5th graders my teacher sat me down to go over a few things, including:
1. my payday and my check
2. what will come out of my check every month
3. she explained the sort of teachers union that i had to pay into.
4. and a whole list of other things i don't remember and have written somewhere.
5. she also explained that where i stood now i only had 21 teachers hours (GEPIK requires 22). this meant she was going to have to find another hour for me to teach somewhere in the school. and boy did she.

i was informed i would be teaching 1st/2nd graders after school one day a week. this is the grade i though i was going to be teaching originally, so when i heard this i was super excited. i was told that i needed to fill out a schedule of some sort to give to the teacher as to what i will be teaching. my mind flooded with ideas that i started writing down. i looked things up and got awesome ideas of things to do with them.

the next wednesday came around and i showed my teacher what i had done so far. she shook her head and said, "oh, no they don't know English at all" uh... great. so now i am back to square one with a blank slate and no idea where to start. i figured the alphabet would be the best place to begin. you can't really do anything with the English language if you don't know the alphabet.

so here we go.... the alphabet. simple enough to teach right.... WRONG. oh so very wrong. thursday afternoon came and my teacher directed me towards the room where the kids would be. i heard the kids before i saw the room. they were that loud. once we turned the corner it was as if i had entered the part of the zoo that held the monkeys... they were everywhere. running around, jumping, throwing things, screaming, standing on tables and hitting anything they could get their hands on. i walked in and was instantly swarmed with children coming up and touching me. literally, they would come up and touch me, giggle and run away. all 24 of them. the monkey business continued through my whole lesson. it might have been a bit calmer, but not by much. the teacher had absolutely no control over them at all. once she got one sitting down, another would jump up and run off and the vicious cycle continued for the full hour. and when i say hour i mean 45 minutes.

over the last three weeks i have learned:
1. i am very happy not teaching 1st/2nd graders full time. i have come to appreciate and really enjoy my 5th/6th graders.
2. to use lots of hand motions when trying to simply explain things. and drawings, even though we all know i am a terrible artist.
3. if they aren't going to stay sitting down, i am not going to worry about them. the teacher in the room said she would take care of it and i should just keep going through my lesson.

yesterday was a bit of a different story. i walked into the room like i always do 5 minutes early so i have time to set everything up, and all... let me say that again, ALL the students were sitting down and the said, "hi mychaela (or some form of my name) teacher!" i was in shock. from there i went to the computer as usual, plugged in my jump drive, opened the songs and began the lesson. that's about as far as most of the students got. the boys were up running around and the usual began. i have become used to this, so i expected it. what i did not expect was my teacher raising her voice a bit and started writing names on the board. kids instantly started sitting down.

i was successfully able to make it through my whole lesson and actually have a finished product i plan on laminating to hang in the room. this also means this girl gets to color at work! yes! by the end of class i was exhausted.

once we were finished i said goodbye and all the kids either ran and gave me a hug, high five or screamed "goodbye teacher" as i walked out the door to put my shoes back on. the teacher came running after me, came out and handed me a chocolate bar and gave me a giant hug. she said thank you about 12 times and said "you are wonderful" it made my day.

the kids are growing on me... slowly.

new adventure = culture shock!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to go and visit Dani down in Yongin. When she left Ilsan she informed me that it only took like an hour and a half to get there by subway... well she counted wrong... way wrong. I ended up on the subway for a good three hours. With a track change in Bundang, I thought I was home free. Will I got to the Jukjeon station, in which the train announcer said that this was the last station the train was going to and that if i wanted to go to the Bojeong station (the station I was to meet Dani at) I needed to transfer trains. Since this was the first time traveling alone, I freaked out. Transfer trains ?!?! What was i supposed to do? I make my way down the elevator to look at a map. I apparently took extremely lost because a very nice girl came up and told me I just need to catch the next train that is going to Bojeong. Apparently there are some trains that go all the way to the end and some don't. I was supposed to meet Dani at 7:30pm... I walked through the gate at 8:54... 6 minutes before Dani said she was going to leae and find a way to get a hold of me and direct me to her apartment. Thankfully she was still there.

While on the subway I had one interesting encounter. 3 stops after I got on, two drunken old men get on and of course they sit right next to me. I had my headphones and was reading my Kindle and they refused to leave me alone. They kept bothering me and tried to ask me questions. I tried to ignore them but it just wasn’t working. I made it to the point that was going to get off the train and switch just to get away from them and luckily they stood up to leave. Thank god. As they were standing waiting for the train to stop, they still wouldn’t leave me alone. So luckily a man standing across from me came and stood in between us and started talking to me. I was so grateful for this. His first question… “Do you love this football team?” (As he pointed to his Denver Broncos sweatshirt) I laughed incredibly hard and said, “No I don’t, but a very good friend of mine absolutely loves them” It was very entertaining. We talked about football until he got off. Very grateful.

Once we made it to Dani’s apartment, we were both exhausted and decided to just find dinner and crash. We got dinner at an Italian place and then went for beer at a German bar that only had Korean beer, Cass. Cass is the Korean version of Coors. We ended up crashing at Dani’s apartment and then got up to make plans for Saturday.

There are many differences between Dani's place and mine. I live in a nice apartment in a high-rise building that has a car show room on the first floor, many government offices, a convenience store inside the building and an awesome dress shop. I have a killer view of my neighborhood and can see for miles. Dani on the other hand does not live in a high-rise. The one thing I am jealous about is that she lives in an actual neighborhood. The kind of neighborhood where you actually get to know your neighbors (and see them on a regular basis). Another major difference is the bathroom situation. I sort of lucked out in that area as i have a standing shower that isn't extremely short and I have a door that separates the shower from the rest of the bathroom. This is not the case with her bathroom. One room with the shower attached to the wall right in front of her toilet. There isn't much water pressure and you get hot water for about 4 minutes or so. So basically you take the quickest shower of your life and hope it doesn't turn cold. We made our plans to go to Seoul later in the day rather than staying there ALL day walking around... something that later bit us in the butt.

We had "lunch" at a super cute cafe that is right down the road from Dani's apartment. It was absolutely adorable. We grabbed the bus to Ori station, and realized that traffic was awful, so we took the subway instead. First stop was to Seoul station, where Dani's Lonely Planet told us it should be a 20 minute walk to the North Seoul Tower. Lonely Planet lied. The short walk turned into about a hour from the station. Most of which were stairs or giant uphill paths. We did make good time and the view once we got to the top was sooooo worth it. The transition from night to day was awesome to see.

So many steps...

The North Seoul Tower all lit up

The North Seoul Tower is known for it's locks on the fence. Couples in Korea bring their locks, sign them and attach them to the fence. Some messages are short and sweet, while others are very heartfelt. There were locks everywhere. They even had Christmas tree shaped statues that were covered in locks as well. The also have these awesome benches that look broken in the middle, but are really made for snuggling. :) Once it was dark, we walked down the other side of the giant hill and we checked out Namdaemun (a giant street market), which is 24 hours. Pretty much knock-off of anything you could possibly think of, bags, purses, clothes, watches, socks, hats etc. I was able to take my glasses into one of the shops to try and get them straightened (since they are slightly bent). We thought they were fixed... not the case. Still bent, but tighter.

So many locks everywhere

We are officially on the wall at North Seoul Tower :)

Dani had heard of a fundraiser for a women's rights group in Itaewon, the multicultural area of Seoul. There was to be a burlesque show and dancing. So that was our next stop... turns our every other foreigner in Korea had heard about this show. The place was packed and we all had to get pretty friendly with one another. Basically at one point I was sitting in a girls lap. The best part of the show was the girl with the hula hoops. She rocked it! Check out the video of Better Hoops (courtesy of Dani):

After the show was over, everyone exited from Bedlam onto the streets of Itaewon. It was about 11:30 or so, so Dani and I figured we could catch the last train and head back towards Yongin. We got on the subway and were running to try and transfer to the right line, when we ran into a terrible dead end. The station was closed and they weren't letting anyone through.Yaksu station... what's there? Absolutely nothing. A taxi from there was going to cost at least $50 to get back. We were stuck. Dani then suggested we find a "jimjilbang", which is basically a spa, but open 24 hours and you sleep there. Now to find one... We walked around for what seemed like hours. Since we did all the climbing my legs were dead. I was wearing flats (not the smartest choice) but I was ready to find some place to sit down. The logo for a jimjilbang is basically like a soup bowl with three steam things coming out from the top. After talking to a random Korean man, he was about to show us the way to one.

After finally finding it we checked in at about 2:20am or so. We were given what looked like a prison inmate uniform. Orange and stretchy. After walking into the ladies area, we were bombarded by 4 completely naked middle ages Korean women. They must have seen our complete confusion as to what to do, because they tried to help us out of our shoes and show us to our lockers. Once we were changed we walked around looking. Through some doors there was a couple giant tubs with a couple women scrubbing the life out of the skin of each other. There was a mother and her daughter sitting on the ledge of another just chatting.

Once downstairs, there was a large common room with about 40 sleeping mats and foam blocks for pillows. At first we didn't see any women at all. Dani was a little apprehensive about sleeping in the big open common room , but once we saw another woman walk in and sat down near the TV, we figured it would be fine to sleep down there. We found a couple mats and crashed... and by that I mean Dani crashed. I already sleep awful in areas I am unfamiliar with. Add in awful mats and rock hard foam blocks and that makes for me sleeping about 2 hours.

Once morning came... Dani was rudely awakened by a guy grabbed her foot and tried to snuggle. It was rather entertaining. We made it back to Yongin at about 9am, where we immediately crashed yet again, this time including me. We said a short nap, which turned into about 3.5 hours of nap. We spent the day being lazy, though we did find an awesome shop called Daiso. It's like the Dollar Tree back home... only 100 times better.

Around 4pm I headed back home to Ilsan. The 3 hour subway ride was so tiring. Luckily it's pretty easy from Yongin. Bundang line and then switch to the Orange line where I ride it until the very very end.

Weekends have been awesome in Seoul, but I am hoping this weekend to stick around Ilsan. I finally met some people in my area, so here's hoping for a good weekend.

costco... in korea!

yes you read that right... costco in korea! :)

after saturday's adveture into seoul for the st. patrick's day festivities dani and i made our way back to ilsan and sort of slept in on sunday. we then decided we were going to find the costco that was supposedly somewhere in ilsan. being that ilsan is so large we thought it would be best to google it to see if we could find anything.

i found the address finally from the costco website and we eventually got google maps to tell us what bus number to take to get there. (considering i am still stealing internet, sometimes it hates be and refuses to work). we got the bus number, but we couldn't figure out the direction we were supposed to go. so we set out to first find an ATM for dani and then figure out which bus stop to take to get to costco.

after asking a few people, we figured out where we needed to go. turns out it is the same direction to go to costco as it is to go to western dom and la festa (which are giant outdoor shopping areas). after passing those i figured where we were. once we made it to our stop, we weren't really sure what to look for. it's funny, back in the states costco is a big thing and pretty much everyone knows about it, unless they have been living under a rock for years. here in korea you ask someone of they know the direction to costco and a lot of them just look at you in confusion having no idea what you are talking about. it took a couple people to finally find someone who first of all understood us, and knew where to go. we managed to get a front desk worker at a hotel to point us in the right directions.

we didn't know what to look for. being that costco in the states would be this giant warehouse looking thing. considering there isn't a ton of land space in korea, especially in the city, we weren't sure if that is what we were going to find. luckily the directions too us right to it. and it sort of looking like a warehouse thing, just multiple floors. two floors of shopping and then parking of course. always at least two floors of parking in every building.

we managed to fill out the paperwork and were able to get one account with two cards... because you know we are related. (woot for pulling that one off!) and then it was time to find cheese! literally that's why we wanted to find costco... for cheese. and tortillas.

costco in korea is absolutely INSANE! take costco in the states... lots of people depending on when you go. lots of carts. everyone trying to find what they want. long lines to check out. take that and times it by oh let's say 15 and you have costco in korea. people were everywhere. people stopping in the middle of the walk way. carts everywhere. getting rammed by carts. i swore if i got hit one more time i was going to ram their cart into them. so irritating.

we managed to find cheese... tillamook cheese! it's the little things. and tortillas. and cinnamon. and muffins. :) considering we didn't bring a bag and we had to ride the subway back we didn't get a lot. if i go back i am going to bring my duffel bag. or my coteacher. when i told her that we found it, she told me she had never been and that when i go again she wants to go. so i might take advantage of that and use her car. :)

the day my wall fell...

So upon my arrival in my apartment, I found that the wallpaper under and around my window was falling off. The guy that lived here before me tried to tape it up, but the tape was no longer sticky and it no longer was holding it up. Day after day the wallpaper continued to fall even more until finally it was hanging on by one small corner. I said screw this and told my teacher about it. She then proceeded to call my front office, who said they would send a wallpaper repair man to come and fix it.

Imagine a Korean woman and a Korean man, both of who don’t speak a lot of English and me, who speaks probably about 5 words in Korean in my small apartment for a good hour or two trying to communicate. Needless to say the woman used her dictionary in her phone a lot and I was able to put my Korean phrase book I bought the first weekend in Seoul to use.

I am not entirely sure why I needed to be in my apartment while he was doing the new wallpaper. I mean I guess I felt better about being there than having two strangers in my apartment while I was working. Watching the man while he proceeded to tear my walls apart and rebuild them was rather let’s just say interesting. On top of that he was trying to explain what he was doing while he was working, all in Korean mind you. So I just sat there, smiled and nodded my head.

My new wallpaper does not match my old wallpaper at all. The old stuff is very plain and just white with a lined pattern. No texture or design to it really at all. My new wallpaper, that will be around my window on all sides and completely covering the whole wall below my window has this sparkly affect to it. Very different. So basically I am going to have different walls. Hopefully I will be able to cover a lot of my walls with the pictures now that I have string and tacks.

I am fairly certain in the middle of this little adventure of watching the man put the wallpaper up, the woman that came with him asked me a series of questions, including,

“You speak Korean?”
“Is this your first visit?”
“Are you a native English teacher?”

“How old are you?”
Which of course she was shocked that I was only 23. “So young and so beautiful.”

“Do you have a boyfriend?”
Which again shocked her when I said no. Which is not the first time I have gotten this response either. Apparently at 23 I should have a boyfriend. Typical.

“Do you like to drink beer?”
Which led to her I think telling me that she should go have Korean food and beer together next weekend. She gave me a business card and wrote down her name and everything. Though I am not entirely sure how I am supposed to communicate with her if I actually call her. She was very sweet.

She was also completely fascinated by my pictures that I had laid out. Since I finally got my packages, I am now able to hang my picture how I want to. (Though I did learn that both the wall that my bed is on and the wall straight across where my desk is refuses to take my tacks, I have broken 4 already) She went through all my pictures that Dani backed for me as a gift. Awe-ing and asking if I was related to certain people. When she came across the picture of Jared “proposing” to me from Pacesetters in 2007 she got very excited. I laughed extremely hard and shook my head and tried to explain that it was a joke. Actually every time she saw a guy (Mark, my cousins, Jared etc.) in my pictures she was very excited.

She saw the tattoo on my foot and had a very shocked look on her face. Apparently the only people who have tattoo’s in Korea are men in gangs and such. I think everyone that has seen my tattoo has either been shocked a little or told me that it’s “cute”.

Finally once the wall was done, the cleaned up their mess, which was gigantic and all over my apartment, and said thank you at least 10 times, and left, only to come back 2 minutes later because i had to sign off on things at least 6 different times.

first weekend in a new country means.... ADVENTURE!

the first weekend in south korea was pretty relaxed. all week i fought major jet lag and attempted to get into a regular sleep schedule and get adjusted to the 17 hour time difference (now 16 thanks to daylight savings back in the states).

saturday i had to go and get my medical check results so i could apply for my alien card (which i am stilllllll waiting for), my coteacher took me to get a few more things for my apartment, we had lunch and she walked me around my neighborhood and showed me a few things that will be helpful to me in the future. one of those finally being a t-money card, which they use for using public transportation here. it's basically a card that you can reload with money on it that are used on the machines in the subway stations and on the buses.

technically i do not have my own internet at my apartment, but i have managed to find a wireless internet connection that is fairly decent at times that i am able to connect to when i need to. so i was able to get a hold of dani on skype (granted my skype kills the internet connection since then) and we were able to make plans to meet up on sunday. with my t-money card in hand, a subway map in full korean, my camera, my phone and a water bottle, i set out on my first adventure bright and early sunday morning.

(Insadong-gil Market)

(Insadong-gil Market)

dani and i met at Anguk Station in Seoul, near Insadong-gil, a famous street that has a weekend market and many different art galleries. we walked around the area, just expl oring. we enjoyed the delicious street food, laughed through the bilingual demonstration of the making of some traditional honey candy and took in a bit of everything. after we ate an a pretty good bento place (and my mouth wasn't on fire for about an hour afterwards). from there we went to a small coffee shop and figured out the rest of our day. which ended up having dani ride the subway back to daewha station and coming to ilsan to see my area. she was able to see my apartment, i walked her to my school and we adventured around the daewha area.

We learned that i can access my roof top and took some awesome view pictures.

after that we found the RotiBoy that dani insisted i try. aaaaaaaamazing!!! new fan right here. from there, dani made her way back to her side of korea and i was able to relax and read a bit more. all in all it was a good weekend!

teaching in korea... the first few days

so it is now wednesday afternoon and i have finished teaching my third day in korea. so far a lot of it has been introductions and a get to know "the native english teacher". which means that i introduce myself, tell the students where i am from, what the weather is like in oregon and a little blurb about myself. from there the students were able to ask me whatever questions they wanted (as long as they were appropriate). some of the questions were,

"how old are you?"

(when i told them that i was 23, i am fairly certain ever class gasped in amazement. they were in shock that i was only 23. "very very young teacher")

"do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"are you married?" "do you have a boyfriend?"

(the second most popular questions. one student even asked if i had more than one boyfriend.)

"why did you come to korea?"

"is that your real hair color?" "is that your real eye color?"

(i had to explain that i used to be blonde but then it turned dark. they were all very sad for me. some of the students wanted me to prove that it was my real eye color. because apparently having a mix of blue and green eyes is a surprise. all the students think that everyone in the US has blue eyes and nothing else)

"which do you like more, korea or the united states?"

"what is your favorite sport to play?"

(they were all shocked when i said soccer and then said we will play together someday)

so as stated before i am teaching 5th and 6th graders. there are 7 different classes in each grade and they meet with the english teachers 3 times i week. i am in the 6th grade classes twice a week and the 5th grade classes once a week. each class is 40 minutes long. my office hours are from 8:40 - 4:40. classes start at 9:10 everyday. my class schedule looks something like this...

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Period 1	6-1	6-6	6-3	6-7	5-4
Period 2	6-2	6-7	6-4	5-1	5-5
Period 3	6-3	6-1	6-5	5-2	5-6
Period 4	6-4	6-2	6-6	5-3	5-7
LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
Period 5	6-5	Prep	Prep	Prep	Prep

so basically i have lunch/prep time for the last 4 hours that i am at the school. which is when i write my lessons and prep the games that we do at the end of each lesson. lesson writing for what the students are learning is way different than it is in the states. during student teaching it was so extensive and everything had to be written out and labeled. over here it is very simple. i already have my lessons for 6th grade completely done for the next two weeks.

after the introductions were done we dived right into the lessons. already two of my 6th grade classes are at least a lesson or two behind because of testing. chaos is what it is. my co-teacher wrote the first lesson to show me how to set everything up and how to go through the cd-rom that we use that goes along with the students book. in each lesson there are 6 "periods" so basically each chapter takes two weeks to get through. i am required to write the lessons for 4 of these periods and my co-teacher will do the writing lesson and the review before their tests.

i haven't taught with my 5th graders yet, that starts tomorrow, but i am going to assume that it is going to be very similar to what i am doing with the 6th graders, only i will only be meeting with them once a week instead of twice.

the lessons are very simple... and i do a lot of follow the book and add things in where i think i can explain it better. the most recent lesson i taught was about ordinal and cardinal numbers. which you would think would be very easy to teach and the students would be able to look at the numbers and be able to figure out which ordinal number goes with which cardinal number... not the case. i had to go over each number individually very slowly. we went over 1st through 10th i don't even know how many times before the students finally got it.

one thing i found that is very different from the states to here is the punishment for things. in my 6th grade class if you forget your book, english notebook or your pencil, you are required to stand in the back of the classroom for 20 minutes. just standing there not doing anything. in my 5th grade class she has 3 chances. the first you stand in the back for 5 minutes. the second you stand in the back for 10 and if you get to the third, you are required to write the story of "hansel and gretel" which she has typed out. you have to write the whole thing before being able to go back to their classroom. it is an entire typed page... there is also a lot of yelling. i am told this is more in the first month or so of teaching. it is so the teachers can get control of the classroom to make the rest of the year much better.

i was informed yesterday that i am one hour short of having my 22 hours that is required by GEPIK. so to make up the last hour i will be teaching an after school class for 1st and 2nd graders with one of the classrooms. that is the age i thought i was going to be teaching in the first place, but now that i am with the older children i am a little nervous about working with the younger kids. there is no textbook or guide to what i am supposed to be teaching. i was basically told that i can teach whatever i want, i just need to map out what i am doing for the semester. anyone have any basic ideas for me?

for now i am going to sit here at my computer streaming country music to keep me company and look up ideas for my1st/2nd graders and game ideas for the others.

every 99 times...

i survived my first trip to the grocery store by myself without my teacher there to help me translate things! no problems either. though i was shocked by a few things while i walked up and down the aisles.

~ fruit is so expensive. with the exception of the bananas. i saw strawberries... 7,000won per what i am going to assume was a pound. that is basically $7/lb! for strawberries. what was worse were the kiwi's i passed... 12,000won for six... may i repeat SIX kiwi's. yeesh. so basically i am going to be living off of banana's as my fruit for the next year. and strawberry jam. there is a possibility i might cave and buy the strawberries. but i am going to have to be craving them super bad to pay that price.

~ meat is expensive. it doesn't matter what it is... it's expensive. even the ham they have as lunch meat. which isn't really like ham in the states, but it works i guess. i think 8 slices of that was 3,700won. and we are talking super small circular slices.

~ i found grape juice. :) this makes me happy. i saw the minute maid label and got excited. i ended up getting the korean brand because it was cheaper, but it's 100% juice. so i am not expecting it to be much different from minute maid.

~ i have a feeling i am going to be eating a lot of ramen. so much salt intake going to take place.

~ you don't drink the water from the tap here. audra told me that they were told it was alright if they drank there, but i was strictly told not to drink it. so this means buying my water. in very large jugs.

~ if you want a bag you have to pay for it, whether it be paper or plastic. you have to pay for it. thankfully my teacher gave me one of her reusable bags to keep. though you do have to pay for your garbage bags, which are 20L plastic bags.

since i live about two blocks from the grocery store i will be carrying everything i buy home to my house. i am going to be doing a lot of walking over the next year.

i was told today that i should be expecting a total of 3 packages in the next week. this makes me happy as i am running out of the mini shampoo/conditioner that i bought at the airport because my shampoo/conditioner did not fit in my luggage. there are also treats in there apparently, though no one is telling me anything. it's supposed to be a surprise. i am not a fan of surprises... basically i want to know now!

new post about my first two days of teaching to come tomorrow. i was informed today that i will be teaching 1st/2nd grade after school class to make up the last hour of my 22 hours of teaching. currently i am sitting at 21. i'm sort of nervous/excited!

something keep telling me, she's back isn't she

after a very long week of unpacking, attempting to gain some sort of sleep schedule, being taken in many different directions around town and slowly getting introduced to all the teachers and students in my school i have finally been able to take record of my room. i decided to go ahead and take a video of it while i talked about my room rather than taking a bunch of pictures. much easier. so below is a video of my house where i will be living for the next year.

yesterday dani and i met up at the insadong market in seoul. that will be a seperate post with a few pictures. it was so nice to finally see her after being separated within seconds after making it out of the airport in incheon. next weekend is already in the works...

i am going to be doing a lot more adventuring and getting to know my neighborhood a lot more starting today. since i am going to be here for the next year, i really need to get adjusted to things so that it will be easy to get around. i need to go to the store today and find some slippers of some kind for my house. in korea you take your shoes off when you enter your house. you do not wear them around the house. it is considered rude. well my floor is constantly dusty, no matter how much i clean it, so instead of ruining my socks i need to get some slippers. though i am loving the heated floors. a girl could get used to that.

you will see in the video that my washing machine is below my stove... very weird. and there is no dryers. i already miss them. i did my first load of laundry last night... what a nightmare. all of the words are in korean so i can't read it. i am not sure i used it right. i don't think it runs like a normal washing machine over here. i ended up having to take my clothes out after it was "done" and i had to rinse them in the sink because there was still soap all over them. it was extremely frustrating. i am hoping that isn't how it is going to be the whole time i am here or i am never going to want to do laundry. ever. it's also going to take me two days to dry everything i wash.

the last thing i need to do on my list is go to immigration to get my alien card. hoping to do that in the next couple of days. after that i need to open my bank account. though dani stated that i could go and do that before i have my card. i would just need to go back into the bank to show them i have my card. we will see what my teacher says.

now i must crack down and bust out some lesson plans. it's super easy to write a lesson plan for my lessons. way easier than any lesson plan i have ever written in the states!

little miss brand new start, little miss do your part, little miss big ol' heart beats wide open...

it's friday! i have survived the first two days of my teaching, which were mostly introductions and such with the 5th graders. I will have the 6th graders monday-wednesday next week.

yes you read that right, 5th and 6th graders. definitely not what i was told i was going to be teaching, but since i have been here, i am fairly happy with it. though that opinion might change after monday, tuesday or wednesday. i am told the 6th graders this year are a handful. my 6th grade co-teacher has told me that i shouldn't be surprised if she starts yelling and being super strict with them. because if she doesn't get a handle on the children in the first month, then they are going to be even worse by the end of the year. so basically the first month she is going to be a hard ass.

my signature fascinates the children. i checked their writing work today and i had to sign my name saying it was complete. they all were in shock an awe of how my name looks when i sign it. so many gasps and they would sit their and stare at it and examine it. very entertaining to watch.

i am still in the process of unpacking. not done. by the time i have gotten home at night all i want to do is go to sleep. my sleep schedule is all messed up. 17 hour time difference, a rock hard bed and an already bad sleep schedule doesn't help. i'm hoping by next week i will be regular and i will be able to sleep through the night without waking up 4 times in the middle of the night.

many of you have been asking for my address, so i finally have it written so that i can understand it and it will make it though the mail without getting sent back. so for all of you who have been asking, here is my address:

Mychaela Olson

Room442 SinDongA NobleTower 2199 Daewhadong Ilsanseogu

Goyangsi Gyeonggido, South Korea

i have to get my medical check results tomorrow morning with my co-teacher, i need to find somewhere where i can get my transportation card for the bus and subway. either at the subway station or apparently at a convenience store. there happens to be one on the first floor of my building, though i don't know if they sell the card. so i will check either tonight when i get back or tomorrow before i go to the hospital.

then i think it will be time for some exploring. i haven't been able to do any with work and my crappy sleep schedule, so i am hoping to do that this weekend. and hopefully with dani. i haven't seen or really talked to her since we got here on monday night!

pictures to come this weekend!