Apartment Tour: Terribly Exciting.

Haha, the first image looks pretty grim, eh?

Picture Post. Video Post Soon.

In Naju:

Sujin (with a Korean radish)

Hyung-bu and some of the super delicious food Sujin was constantly preparing all weekend.

"Do you usually eat this often?"

"In winter season, yes. Are you hungry?"

The childrens!

My camera is sometimes being stupid as of late. Sorry 'bout the quality.

Also, Chong-won is holding the puppy I made her at Build-A-Bear. She liked it, I think.

Oh no! Dong-gun is dead!

No, really. Look how dead he is!

The family presenting my welcome-back-to-Korea cake. ^_^

The axis deer antler I brought for Hyung-bu in its place of honor.

Back in Busan:



 The kimchi that Sujin sent home with me. Soooo good.

Largest department store in the world, eh? Take that, America.

Also, I LIVE IN THIS CITY! AHHHHH!!

Some flatscreen TVs.

(the one to the left is about $6000)

HOLY HELL, LG! You're not kidding around!

(My coworker Kelly is in the background taking a picture, doing the same thing I am...cuz holy shit)

ja ja!

And today, I love my job.

had a set schedule, only taught 4 classes, only 1 was grumpy and the other 3 were AWESOME, had books (mostly).

Done at 5:30. Gonna do laundry and draw (exciting, I know...). Maybe I'll even bop around.

quickie

SIMCHAH!!!!!! MY WEEKEND WITH SUJIN'S FAMILY WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Also, my address (finally):

부산 수영구 남천1동 69-6 로얄오피스텔 1005 호

or

1005 Ho Royal Officetel
69-6 Namcheon 1-Dong
Suyeong-gu,  Busan

Korea: Where nothing is a To-Don't

Good gravy, it's been an up and down couple of days. Yesterday morning, I decided to finally watch Harmony, the Korean Sister Act. It was sooooooooooooooo cute. It played me like a fiddle and I cried my face off like 7 times.

Then I went off to the bank, praying that I still had a bank account and that I could somehow figure out how to communicate whatever needed to be done to get me a working account and bank card. I was a bit nervous and when I bopped upstairs with my terrible "sorry, Korean language, a little,*" the woman replied in perfect English. Oh, big city life....you're the best.

* I'm a serious douche-b for not even knowing how to properly say "I'm sorry, I don't speak very much Korean," after living here for a year... >_<


So, good news there, then it was off to the hospital for the round of pokings so that I can work in the country. I really, really suck at peeing in a cup. I don't even understand the trajectory that happened in there. But again, there was NO WAY I could have done my med check by myself last year. Well, besides the fact that I was a bit overstimulated, Eun Ju and I had to run all over the hospital to different buildings and floors and I think I would have just sat on the floor and cried. The Good Kang-An Hospital in Namcheon was easy as pie. There was a desk for foreigners to ask questions, I got directions, and off we started. I bopped around the numbered stations that were all in the same large room. For some reason, my bust was measured and the nurse ran out of tape. That was pretty priceless. It was mind blowing that I was able to do it alone. The nurses were really sheepish about their English, but they'd think a minute and say "oh! urine sample!" SO MUCH ENGLISH. AH, THE CITY.

The big adventure today has been hauling ass back to Jeolla province to see Sujin & Co. and grab my stuffs from Whit and Lindsay's. Soooo late for the first train, grabbed a cab, bought a later train ticket. Then I realized I left the bag containing gifts for Sujin's family and my army bag to haul my shit home IN THE TAXI. So I ran around hoping the ajushi would have left it near the entrance or given it to the ticket people. Then I gave up and decided to get on the train. And stood at the platform as it slowly left (I missed it by about 30 seconds). Well, then I did sit down and cry. For a second. And then got a new ticket and tried to leave my address at the ticket counter. The woman there to me to try lost and found (oh, duh...). It seemed pretty hopeless, but I explained what happened and the man there took me down to a mini police station AND THERE IT WAS! Oh, the dance I did. And now I'm chilling here in Daejeon where I had to change trains. The two KTX lines are like an atari symbol. Busan is the end of the right leg and Naju is about 3/4 of the way down the left leg. So in Daejeon there are 2 train stations on the opposite sides of town and you can swap lines. CRAZY MORNING and it's worked out pretty well, despite looking pretty bleak for a while there (at 7am, mind you). Thank G-d.

Now on to work stuff.

I did get Wednesday off of work! Thank G-d, I needed it. Got in, bought some food and a broom (at the department store with the small box fiasco), passed out, and cleaned.

 My first day of teaching was ok. A bit boring as I only had 2 classes, no computer, and none of my drawing stuff, but the classes were AWESOME! The lesson plan were super easy to implement, the students were super smart, eager, and curious, AND there was only 5 or 6 of them per class. BADASS. And my foreign co-worker IS really nice dude in person. We work with 3 Korean teachers (who speak such good English!!! AHHHH!) and they're pretty cute. Although our department is kinda new and they're running their asses off doing a million things to get things proper and would kind rather not do a bunch of translating for us to speak with the director. Adam and I don't really like the arrangement either...they're our co-workers....they don't need to know that my gas wasn't working. But our director doesn't speak English and the "team leader" who was going to help with our logistics quit for some reason. sigh.

Yesterday was not as fun a teaching day. There were missing books, books with lots of Korean (which won't be a problem once we work on translating together, but it was a shocker at first), missing CDs, pissy kids, and messed up schedules. I had 5 classes (not bad in and of itself, but it was a big jump from 2) and my last class finished at 10:10. I finished up with a class of two ja-sa (advanced) boys and we did some story writing. That was nice. Then home to pass out (still have jet leg. blech) and up again at 5am to go on TODAY'S crazy adventure. Eeesh.

I'm typing this in a tiny pc bang in the Seodaejeon train station. In about 2 hours, I'll be in Naju again with my Korean family!!!!! YAY.

displacement

It's suddenly occured to me that almost all of my work clothes are on the other side of the country. Oops.

The good news is that two washclothes work just fine as a towel. I was pretty impressed.

state dependent memory

Soooo effing tired, but some things I don't want to forget once I've rested up and become a normal human again. stream-of-I'm-typing-this-shit-as-I-think-of-it.

• being in Korea again is really bizarre. it's like that time I went before was a dream and now, I've just randomly decided to go where I had a dream about. Like, say, you had a dream about selling pickles in India. Then you wake up and actually go there and do that.
• the little baby on the bus to the hotel last night was THE CUTEST THING, AHHHHH. His name was Eugene.
• I have Korean city culture shock. There's a mega mart near my apartment. Where they sell pet stuff and coffee beans and Heinz mustard. Ho-ly shit. Lacey works nearby. I might go have tacos with her after I pass out. THAT IS BIZARRE AND AWESOME
• Don't ever, ever think you know what you're doing in Korea. Because I've never been for-real-shopping at a Korean department store, I didn't realize that you have to request and then pay for bags or go to a counter, tape up a used box, and put your shit in that. great for the environment. I was mightily perplexed by it, however.
• The taxi driver who drove me from the Busan airport put glasses over his glasses to read the paper I gave him with my recruiter's phone number on it. I giggled and assumed bifocals. WRONG. The glasses he was already wearing didn't have lenses in them.
• the apartment next to mine is a babysitting placement agency
• I WILL LEAVE HERE NOW AND SHOVE KIMCHI IN MY MOUTH AND THEN HAVE THE BEST SLEEP

close enough!

Safe in Korea!

Busan tomorrow, cuz flight delay.

Don't worry...no more travel entries after this one. Promise. Next mention will be a home safe mention.

I got an outlet! And wifi suddenly happened!

Now I'm sitting pretty for my last 2 hours here. Just enough time to watch Being There starring Peter Sellers.

Airport face.

Also, just found out I live on the same floor of the same apartment building as my coworker...erm, I really hope we like each other. He seems like a pretty nice dude and we've both got our own stuff going on, so it should be easy to not get all up in each other's business. Anywho, Adam says our building's a bit old and the apartment is small (most Korean apartments are and I knew karma/logistics was gonna knock me down a peg or three after that palatial set up I had last year), but that the insides have just been redone and the appliances and cupboards are tops. Cool.

Mom's talking me on Skype. She's the cutest and just reminded me that when I finally hit a bed, I won't have a blanket. Jerk. Hahaha.

MOVIE TIME. THANKS, BRO.

Annyong from Seattle! It's my first, very own flight delay! I've been hanging out in this airport for 4 hours and I've got 4 left. There aren't enough outlets for everyone to charge their various electronic bits, so my laptop's died. There was news of free wifi, but Sir Sparkles wouldn't pick it up before his demise, so I've hopped on this TERRIFYINGLY expensive internet kiosk ($5 for 15 minutes) to alert my recruiter of the haps. And the entire post shall go in the subject line because the box for the body won't load. But I'm safe, and I'll get to Korea eventually. Maybe I'll even get Wednesday off. Haha, likely not. Now, let's see if this uploads. only 40 seconds left!

My flight HAS been booked!

Just got (some) of the haps this morning in a series of e-mails from my recruiter. And one e-mail devoted entirely to fretting about blankets. Like three paragraphs of blanket fret. Adorable.

So, I fly out from Cleveland at 6:30am on Monday (because when has a flight ever left at a reasonable hour?). With the general rule being to arrive 3 hours early for international flights (especially this close to Christmas), Dad and I will simply leave the Belden house at midnight. You know, when I've just finished packing. ^_^

Two small issues.

One is that my itinerary isn't showing a flight to get me from Chicago to Seattle. I e-mailed my recruiter about it and hopefully the document they sent me is simply a compilation of all my flight schedules and they just forgot to paste one in. Or there's a giant gap in flights and they've got a serious problem to deal with, haha. My mom, being the cleverest lady, reminded me that the airports will be insane because of holiday travel. Maybe it would just be faster to take a bus for those 2000 miles. ^_^

Also, I HATE layovers. They terrify me. It's not the hassle or waste of time or blah. I'm just afraid I won't be on time for my next flight or I'll miss some crucial memo and not be allowed to go. I CAN'T LIKE IT. Oh well. At least I didn't have to pay for the flight up front like last year.

The other, smaller, issue is that I've got to change airports in Korea. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Korea is a silly place, full of last minute tomfoolery, disorganization, and just plain chaos. .....+ Airport. Dear G-d. Incheon International's got its pants on, but who knows where the pants are at Gimpo Int'l. Not to mention I've never been to Gimpo airport, but there's likely a shuttle that I'll stumble into.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'll get to Busan on Tuesday around 9:30pm KST (or 7:30am EST...25 hours in transit....yaaay) and I'll go to work the next day. Now here's what's up...I looked for this job for THREE MONTHS. My ass doesn't go to work until 2pm. Suck on that, public school.

That's haps.

And here's my dad grinning next to the family's yet-to-be-chopped Christmas tree:

(also Tyler sitting in the snow)

ja-ja!

Uhm, I think I leave in 3 days. I wonder if my flight's been booked yet...

Hopefully my visa comes tomorrow or Friday. If not, Namcheon Highest ELC is going to be pissed at all that money they spent/will spend on a useless plane ticket. Excellent reminder of the everything-at-the-absolute-last-minute life I'm headed back into, ㅋㅋ. Also, haven't started packing yet. Thought I'd make a day of that on Friday.

Also, also, if you or someone you know is thinking of bopping on over to Korea to play at teaching, go read this excellent blog entry:
http://imnopicasso.blogspot.com/2010/03/formspring-2-lizs-first-top-ten.html

This is also a really handy way to make sure I know where this link is the next time I get an e-mail asking about what to expect. ㅋㅋ And her blog is quite excellent in general.

And of course, make sure to check out http://kimchicornbread.blogspot.com/ for a great picture of life in Korea (and great pictures, period) as well. Whit and Lindsay are great writers and their blog helped me understand what my life might be like be like once I landed. And luckily for me, they started their own recruiting company just as I started looking for a recruiter. THEY ARE EXCELLENT AND I RECOMMEND THEM 100%.

So, yeah. Ally's coming home from school for the semester tomorrow and I leave (again, tentatively) Saturday. One in, one out, eh? In general news, my parents had their 19th wedding anniversary yesterday. I made them a brownie cake and they were huggy and cute.

Happy Annivers(mumble), Mom & Dad!

Please take a moment and learn of the hilarity that is the Korean National Assembly: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/12/ask-korean-news-yearly-tradition.html

NYC, Here I don't come!

I DON'T HAVE TO TRAVEL TO THE KOREAN CONSULATE IN NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I can just mail my application! yeah! yeah, yeah, yeah! oooooh oooooooh!

by Kate Beaton (click to enlarge)

I almost wrote "Ack," but then was suddenly reminded of "Cathy." Man, Jim's a dick.

I (finally) got my Visa Issuance Number! That's the take-home!

I'd suggest skipping the indented bit. Ceaseless whinging.

I suspect my aforementioned recruiting agency is a bit swamped. While I've been waiting for my visa issuance number for two weeks (and freaking out a bit as it's not supposed to take that long), I suddenly get an e-mail asking when my visa will be finished. Which I just stared at, blinking. Uhm, what do you mean? I pointed out that I was waiting on my visa issuance number and suddenly "YOUR VISA NUMBER IS READY!" I'm sure that I'll be getting frantic/snarky e-mails about needing to hurry up to meet my start date......because someone at my recruiting agency missed a memo. Adorable.

I've got to order transcripts that may or may not actually be required and then figure out how to get to the nearest post office (currently buried under 3 feet of snow) without a car. The post office is 7 miles away.

I want to spend as much time as possible living in a place where a bank, post office, and a market are within walking distance. Or at the very least, where there is extremely regular public transportation within walking distance. Urban sprawl infuriates me. Getting from store to store without a car in many places in Erie is incredibly awkward if not outright dangerous. And I don't understand why there's a casino closer to my parents' house than a post office.

I didn't even call the consulate today because I was afraid. Afraid that I'd have to go for another 10 minute interview in New York City, a shitstorm of money and logistics 300 miles away.

All I want to do is fast forward through the next week and a half, when I should be soaking in every last second I have left with my family before I leave for a year. I am SO annoyed and I'm acting like a giant bitch. I keep snapping at everyone and I hate it. I think I need a nap.

Edit, Some hours later: I finished reading Bone by Jeff Smith, had a small sleep, and then told my family sorry for being such a grump.

 (click to enlarge)

My dad had been explaining that he'd help me get to the post office and we'd figure everything out, but I just wanted to be upset. Anywho, after reading and indulging a moment of ridiculous self pity (Phyllis taught me that a good way of doing that is to press the back of your hand against your forehead and cry "My life is soooo hard!"), I was a decent human again. It's all about just doing the next right thing. I don't know why I insist in all of this fit pitching so much of the time

Someone from my recruiting company called and we talked about document stuff and I've got a list of questions for the consulate. Tomorrow, I've just got to think of my Julie and get outta bed, make those phone calls, help out around the house a bit, and do some drawing. Oh, and lay off the coffee a bit. I think it was tweaking me out a little. It's possible that the paperwork for the consulate could be in the mail tomorrow and that's when I've decided, officially, to stop stressing out about my new job in Korea. And if things don't mail tomorrow, progress will be made.

In other news, all this snow and holiday stuff is making me feel rather warm and cheery. I guess I missed it last year. My mom's been the biggest bundle of cute....and so's my dad. And all three siblings. I love my family. 

As I've been told a dozen times and I'm (obnoxiously) quick to forget, I'm a lucky girl.

bleh.

the exact location of my school! still dunno where my apartment is yet!

p.s. There's a great blog post [>> here <<] from "Ask a Korean" about how "South Koreans generally tend to grit their teeth without necessarily expressing their frustration [toward North Korea]. . . . and the exceptions to that general case are rather spectacular."