I have arrived!

The trip went smoothly from start to finish. I arrived at Incheon airport at around 8:00 P.m. After strolling through customs and exchanging some money, I walked outside and met Mr. Kim who escorted me to my apartment. The drive through Seoul was exhilarating, i could hardly believe that after all the work I put into this endevor that it had finally arrived. After zipping through the city we arrived in the foothills of the mountains and finally to my humble city of Gwangju. A fellow teacher of mine (mark from New Zealand) met me and helped me get my things oriented. Mark also informed me on some burning questions that i had about my living situation. Thankfully he knew where to find the school in the morning. I was also informed that i cantdrink the water! its like in in a foreign country or something. rude. ill just have a coke.

Well the weekend flew by and it now monday afternoon. I have finished all of my lessons for the day so i will have some time to type. My school is pearched on top of what appears to be the highest point in the city. It sits about 3/4 of the way to the top on a rather steep mountain. The view is spectacular out of the frondt doors, but it is hard to get a good view of the city below due to the smog. My hike takes about 15 min and can best be desctribed as the cowpath that ran between frekendorf and beinenburg in switzerland. At least i know i will get a little bit of a workout every morning.

The best way i can describe my working situation is like a TV set. There are about 6 rooms all connected that have different themes and are decorated appropriatly. There is a "house" Airport, Restaurant, hotel, library etc. My job is to develop dialogues that will appropriatly suit each situation. for instance if the class will be in the "food stall" today then i will come up with a simple conversating that might take place between a merchant and someone wanting to buy some bananas. Its simple and only a few hours a day. I was under the impression that i was going to be in a classroom, with a co-teacher and would be developing lesson plans. That is not the case, there are 2 other teachers that do that; but i cannot complain, i think i will enjoy my classes even more, as i get to plan then and dont have to worry too much abut curriculem.

I do not know my complete schedule yet, but i do know that on monday i have 1 class, and the rest of the week i have an average of 2 hours of lessons per day. but next semester will be different and things may change.

Jet lag continues to be a problem. On a regular basis i will wake up at arounf 3 am and be completely incapable of falling back to sleep, so i get up and bustle around until 8am arrives and i make my way to class.

I think the hardest thing to to get used to is the way the sun shines here. Since landing in Tokyo and then in seoul i have not felt the warm rays of the sun. The amount os smog makes it seem like the sun is in a constant state of setting, but not the bright glorius setting accompanies by dozens of colors. Its a color that seems to be a cross between a pale yellow and a dirty orange. It leaves quite a bit to be desired.

FOOD! oh my Lord, What can i say about the food... I have made a regularbreakfast of either Pringles, soda, an egg, potato, or fish patties. GROSS GROSS GROSS! But thankfully my co-teachers will be taking me to the E-mart today where i can do some shopping. Other than that it has been quite interesting. Each day the school brings in a big cart filled with food for the teachers. Today i had a lunch of raddish soup with beef tips, anchovie babies fried with peanuts, some sort of brown mush in medalion shapes (i dont want to know what they were, but i ate them to not be rude) Kimchi, and rice. Friday it was pretty much the same only with octopus soup with pickled alphalpha sprouts.... hmmm this is going to be an adventure.

Well i will get an update to everyone soon but right now i am going to poke around the school for a bit.

peace from the far east!
and as the koreans say

"YES BETA TEACHER"

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A Prologue

Monday morning at around 12:30 in the afternoon i departed from Harrisonburg! For 5 years i called this city my home, I experienced some of the best times of my life, and also some pretty crappy ones. I Made the best friends i have ever had at EMU and i will never forget them.

My time here has expired though. it is time for me to pass from the wonderful world of the EMU community to a world far separated from it. In one weeks time i will be departing to leave for South Korea. For one full year i will spend abroad, Teaching English to children ranging from 5 years old to 10 years old. What experiences the world has in store for me i do not know. But i do know that i will approach them with an open mind and a persevering attitude.

until then i leave you with these words::

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Peace from the far east,

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