Saturday, March 5, 2011

Our first blog...finally!

Adam and I have been in South Korea now for 17 days!! Time has been flying so far. The first week we had orientation with EPIK. Our day was filled with classes on teaching and living in Korea and when I say filled, I mean FILLED! We were in classes from 9 -8:10 with a few breaks to eat the delicious cafeteria food ;).  During orientation we went to JUMP, a martial arts comedy show followed by a very informative trip to POSCO (the third largest steel production factory in the world). Jump was very funny, and POSCO was...well POSCO. It was a 2 hour drive each way and wasn't really worth the 5 minutes we spent walking through one part of the factory.
Now we are on our own in Haeundae, Busan! This week we had Monday and Tuesday off for Korea's Independence day from Japan. Adam and I spent this time making many trips to the E Mart and getting settled in. Wednesday we started work and were introduced to faculty and our classes. We both have another native English teacher at our schools which isn't very common. Our co-teachers are very nice and so far we haven't had any problems.

The low-down


  • Koreans are VERY nice. Adam met an older Korean heart surgeon and his PHD student at a bar who ended up buying us a huge pizza! 
  • Water is served in TINY cups. I'm having a small problem with this because the food is so spicy! I thought I handled spicy food pretty well until coming here. They take spicy to another level! Adam isn't having any problem with it though!
  • Some bathrooms have a roll of toilet paper on the wall instead of the stall, so you have to guess how much you'll need before going in. Some toilets here are super fancy and have a ton of buttons. I haven't tested the buttons out yet!
  • The subways/buses/streets are very clean despite not being able to find a trash can anywhere on the street. Quite a contrast to back home where you can pass five trash cans in a block and still have the street filled with trash.
  • Koreans seem to love coffee as much as I do! I am constantly being offered coffee at work and I LOVE it!
  • Found a cupcake shop that is beyond delicious. I think about it all the time=).
  • To get to work we take the subway four exits away from our stop and then take a bus the rest of the way, it's about 30-40 minutes to our stop. I can't get on the bus without falling asleep. It's so warm and pretty comfy=).
  • Adam and I are going to start learning Korean soon. This should help with our ordering skills! Right now we are dependent on pictures and gestures. It's worked out well though, everything we've pointed too has been delicious!! 
  • All meals come with at least rice, soup, kimchi and some other sides for about 5,000 won. It's great!
  • The koreans are pretty impressed with our chop stick skills. They always tell Adam how good he is.
P.S I'M AN AUNTIE!!! Chloe Dawn Post was born March 3, 2011. She is the most beautiful baby. I already got to skype with her, Neal and Laurie. I can't wait to watch her grow. 

Adam and I will put all our photos on Facebook. Here are a few to hold you over!!


















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