The current time is 5:00 Am. Not too long ago I got back from a good ol night of hanging out with other foreign teachers. god, we have it good here in korea. we have a pretty easy job and we have benefits up the butt.
everybody loves it here.
here is my first day in korea.
well, first, my first night. i arrived to the jinju airport, the director of my school and his wife amet me there at the airport. neither of them spoke much english, but we talked as much as we could. they asked me what i did before i got there. so i told them, nd, alaska, etc. blatm. korea. thenhey brought me to the school. it's sooo nice. they started it just a year ago - it's super new. very nice. i met a couple members of the staff and then the son of the director of the school, scott, drove me to my apartment. it is the shit. all kinds of furnished, plenty of room. it's great. the floor are heated here in korea, there are no radiators. all powered by boilers. don't know what that is? steam powered? dont know what that is? alright, let's move on.
yeah, my place is great. the next day, i started teaching. how much, you ask? one hour that day. four kids total. what a breeze! then i was told that i have to start preparing for an advanced class that i will teach for next week until our other teacher, vincent, arrives from australia. good times. sooo i study that material. thats the great thing about this schothol, the curriculum is provided, so i hardly have to prepare. pretty much everything is layed out for me. what a breeze.
but before i got to school yesterday i went shopping, had to buy an iron after all my clothes were stuffed at the bottom of my backpack for days on end. so i wandered around for about two hours, asking workers at different stores "iron?" in korean. they would point in a direction and i would walk that way. finally i found a store that sold all kinds of stuff. i bought an iron, alarm clock, etc. spent about a hundred bones.. money spent. aint no thang, i just saved a bunch of money by working in the oil fields. n. b. d.
then school. all the teachers there at the school are really nice and pretty fluent in english, which i hae heard is pretty rare. man, they speak it well. i am impressed. well done
then today:
the people here are super helpful. my computer and my camera died, so i needed a .converter/transformer so that i could use this koean outlet to charge my USA products. so i went to samsung, asked if they had it. they spoke english and literally took about ten minutes out of their day to find where i could find a product, walked me there, and found it for me. wow - i was so thankful to have them there as i was helpless there in the middle of jinju, not speaking a word of korean, only having a phrasebook to guide me. woof. nightmare. i can honestly say that so far it is the only thing that i do not like about this place - the fact that i cannot communicate in their language. mexico and ecuador are one thing - this is another.
today was good at work though, taught 20 kids abhout different lessons - insects and pyramids - kid shit. good times. i was dying to get out of there though. i had chatted on the fb with other foreigners in my city - planning to meet downtown in the university area. finally i got off work, changed, and i was on my way.
it's pretty difficult to get around here by cab. it's really inexpensive compared to the usa, but man, no cabbies speak english. but i found my way, met some new peeps, and we had ong to avoid going to bed so i don't feel like total garbage as i lay in my bed. but that was just about what happened this evening - met some fellow foreigners, along with a lot of koreans, who for the most part really love americans. one guy kept saying how much he truly hated north korea and loved the usa. we shook hands many times and he wanted to hold my hand, which is a common thing in korea. no homo, it's just the way it is here. dudes just hold hands, hug, etc. in fact, i saw it at the school to just two boys holding hands, not gay at all, they're just buds. dats how day do. but man, they do hate that north. i am their ally. we are their ally. i heard of recent UN sanctions on the NK. awesome. effective? idk, i just read about it, dont ask me, mralright?
the food here is great, not sure if i have mentioned that yet. our director's wife cooks for the teachers pretty regularly. last night i ate that food like nobody's business: beef, kimchi, broccoli, cabbage - da good shit. and then today we had korean dominoes pizza.
ay, yo usa. switch to korean pizza. holy shit, its so good. the sauce is a sweet, white sauce, they top it with potatoes sometimes, the crust is super flaky and delicious, and i think they even put turkey on it. whatever they put on it, it was super sweet and delicious.
also, i smoked a korean cigarette, my mouth tastes disgusting. i mean, it always does, but this is gross. brush. teeth.
everything's very electronic here - doors and urinals especially. locks are oldschool.
sidenote: our govt. is why this country and i are here today...
i was told that apparently you can't be too vocal on how much you dislike north korea. why? unification? idk
again, the food here is dat shit. like, in a good way.
tomorrow is filled with possibilites. most likely, i'll be going to busan. busan - many wonders. many fun times. busan - second largest city in the country. busan - on the beach. busan - crazy times. busan - i like. busan - hostels. busan - 24 hour trip. busan - i want. busan - i was thinking about living there and then i got the offer to move here to jinju - people had great things to say about jinju. here i am.
again, i wish i spoke korean. my crap factory (tummy) hurts. simpsons.
also, i saw a dead cat in the middle of the road today. greeeewwss. they keep good care of their streets though, so no worries. i bet the carcass will be gone by tomorrow. that's anot but hher thing about this city - it's very clean. they know how to clean that ish. there aren't a lot of public trash cans, but they do have rando trash bags sitting out - just put your trash in there i guess.
i guess that's about enough for now. i go sleep now.
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