Monday, August 25, 2008

More Pictures

Hey all! I've been so busy lately, no time to blog, but just added some pictures online, check them out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessicajanehu3/AYearAwayFromHomeInPictures

Start at picture 69 for the new pictures!

More later, I have to go teach phonics now.

XOXO

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Picture Time!

Hello everyone! How are you guys doing? Hope you all had a good weekend. :)

So, Friday was actually a national holiday in Korea, but for some reason, the 학원 (hakwon: school) I work at was open and the majority of the kids were there. After work, the head English teacher and I took the bus then subway to 부평 (Bupyeong), which is just a few subways stops from where we live. There were a lot of different restaurants, nightclubs, stores, karaoke clubs, and bars around there (just like every other popular part of Korea). There were a lot of 닭갈비 (chicken) restaurants so we decided to try that. It was kind of like chicken stir-fry; there are many ingredients that you can choose from to mix in, but we kept it simple and had spicy boneless chicken, with rice cake, and some cabbage. Oh, it was delicious! After dinner, we walked around for a bit, went back to the Bucheon station near our place and walked around there for a bit. From there, we decided to walk home. It was about a 30 minute walk.

Saturday, the head English teacher and I took the subway out to Seoul, specifically 강남 (Gangnam), supposedly a nicer, richer area of Seoul. I can’t remember how long the subway ride took, I think about 30-40 minutes – will have to pay closer attention next time.

Anyways, we wanted to eat some kind of stew or soup because it was rainy and chilly, so we decided on
부대찌개 (Budaejjigae). Literally translated, I think it means Army Stew (at least that’s what Andrew once told me – he said that in the army, they didn’t have much food, so they just mixed everything they had to eat into one stew). In ours, there were vermicelli noodles, spam, sausage, tofu, and kimchi, but there are so many other things that you can add in… cheese, ramen, etc. Again, so yummmyyyy!

The rain put a damper on walking around outside so we took the subway a few stops to the COEX mall. There were a lot of people in the mall; it had a variety of stores including the big Western brands to Asian/Korean stores and small stands. We even went inside a little art gallery. Here are some pictures from COEX mall:

We also sat down for some kind of performance. I didn’t know what or why this event took place (something about bridging China and Korean culture together because of the Olympics?), but the performance was really entertaining. It started off with an electric violinist. He was really good, and played one of my favorite Korean songs. Up next was some kind of Chinese mask-changing performance. It was really interesting to say the least, here’s a short clip, check it out:



Lastly was a lion dance. Also very entertaining. After the performance we headed back to Bucheon, and grabbed a bite near the Bucheon station. I had 회덥밥 (hedobab: rice, raw fish, seaweed, tobiko, veggies - mix it all together). It was… can you guess? Yep, suuuperrr!

Sunday, I was at the PC bang before heading over to Won Jong Dong to meet some new foreigner friends. It was nice - we grabbed a bite to eat, and did some walking around the area. It's nice to meet some people who are going through the same things I am!

Monday - not that exciting. Class, then came home, cleaned, and did a little bit of laundry. Tuesday (today) - I got internet installed in the morning before work. Today was an easy day for me, only four classes. I like Tuesdays and Thursdays' classes - the students are more responsive and are easier to engage with. But as their English teacher, its my responsibility to get them to start to understand English. Right now, I think most of the classes are using textbooks that are way too hard for them; the students are so clueless, especially when it comes to listening. Another downfall is that the textbooks are culturally specific to Western culture. For example, there was a question about sending the elderly off to senior homes, and none of the students understood it. Lastly, the English teacher before me was fired and had to leave abruptly, and a lot of the students didn't even know he was gone so there was no transition period for me. Well, I guess this is it! I just walked into the classroom as the new teacher, and that was that. This year is
definitely going to be a challenge (that's an understatement... it's like saying Phelps is a pretty fast swimmer), but it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to this year!

The pictures take forever to load onto this website and it's hard to format, so I just chose a few. I'm going to upload the rest onto this website: PICTURES (If the link doesn't work: http://picasaweb.google.com/jessicajanehu3)

Miss you all, keep in touch!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Work Begins

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for all your encouraging comments, e-mails, and messages - really, they mean a lot to me, so by all means, keep them coming!

So the last few days have been more productive than exciting. Yesterday, Wednesday, I planned to explore and walk around my neighborhood, but to my surprise, it was dead quiet! What was a bustling and lively place the night before completely transformed into this deserted and quiet area - there were barely any people in the streets and most of the restaurants by my house were closed! I guess the people come out at night... So, I walked over to the department store and had lunch (some kind of Bibimbab) at a restaurant upstairs. It was yummy!

Later that night, my meeting with the head principal went well. He was friendly and I don't anticipate any problems with the school. After that, the head English teacher (who also lives in the same building as me) took me to E-mart, a big supermarket near the subway station, because I wanted to get a bunch of cleaning supplies. Korea is so expensive!!! I bought an air freshener for about 5 dollars! And toilet paper was about $10 for about 12 rolls! Ridiculous!!!

Today, Thursday, was my first day of work. I was nervous at first beacuse I didn't have any training at all, just the textbooks, but everything turned out well. I had four 55-minute classes today with kids ranging from 12-16 years old. The classes were small; the biggest class I had was with four girls. Each class is different, but they either focus on speaking, listening, or writing. After work, I had complimentary dinner at the cafeteria in the building. Nothing special, just some side dishes, rice, seaweed soup, and a little bit of pork, but good enough for me. Even though I've started work, it still feels like I'm on vacation!! :)

After that, I headed home to do some serious cleaning. I rearranged some furniture and cleaned for almost three hours straight! Let's just say the bathroom was NOT white before I got to it. Anyways , I'm still not done cleaning, but enough for today. Now I'm at the PC bang responding to some e-mails and what not. I'm going to get internet installed at my apartment next Tuesday. It's later than I would like, but it was the only meeting time that worked with both the company and I. The only thing is... internet is so expensive too. It's about 30 something US dollars a month, for internet only. It's because I'm a foreigner and the price is doubled. Bummer. I do have my own computer and internet access at work, but won't be able to webcam with you there. So, I'll post up some pictures once I get internet installed at my apartment.

I'll update again probably, at the latest, the beginning of next week. Don't know what plans I have yet... maybe head out to Seoul for the Saturday. Miss you guys much!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Greetings from Bucheon!

Hello! 안녕하세요!

I'm here, in Korea! I'll be in 부천 (Bucheon) for the next year teaching English; it's a decent-sized city located somewhere in between Incheon (the airport) and Seoul. Right now, I'm at a PC방 (PC Bang) - literally, a room full of computers! I haven't set up internet at my apartment yet, so until I do, I'll be here. Internet's $1 for one hour.

I love it here! Despite the long Visa process, and at times thinking that I wouldn't be able to make it to Korea on time, I'm here and looking back, it was all worth it. The neon lights illuminate the sky; it's really beautiful. (Pictures soon, don't worry!) The lights are ten times brighter than Hong Kong and maybe even brighter than the Las Vegas lights. The streets are lined with restaurants, shops, and more... I can't wait to walk around and do some exploring tomorrow.

My apartment is a lot bigger than I expected - there's even a built in washer/dryer! That was definitely a nice surprise. The school that I'm going to be working at is about a five minute walk from my apartment. So convenient!

I'm exhausted... going to head back and unpack a little before passing out! How are the Olympics going? I miss you all, keep in touch!