The Genesis of Korean Life

I am so sorry that I have not written anything since we have arrived to Korea. Before we left the US, I began to write a post of what we were doing leading up to the point of departure and it was never completed. But briefly, we had a wonderful last three weeks visiting family and friends in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. We were able to go apple picking, fishing and enjoy the great outdoors before moving to one of the largest cities in the world. Thank you so much for housing us nomads feeding us great American food before we left!
Jon and I have had a great week and a half in Seoul. Throughout this time, I kept thinking of things I would write here that we were accomplishing or comical things we came across. But now, I probably only remember a few! But, I will try to make the other information interesting as well.
We arrived in Seoul Monday around 4Pm their time. It had already many hours of traveling and then we had to wait several more before we got home. First, we waited an hour for another teacher to arrive at the airport and then we drove to our school campus (Polaris) where we met our director. Four hours after, we arrived at our apartment. We were happy to see that it wasn't as small as we thought it might be. It still is basically one room, but it has enough space for the two of us. I was most excited to see that we do not have a traditional Korean toilet (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/102993539_82c7af4a02.jpg?v=0). Although, it's not heated and won't clean your bum bum for you (like others in East Asia), it does the job. Our home is also equipped with a washer/spin dryer, stove (no oven) and a kitchen sink. On Friday, we received a fridge, tv and stand, table and three chairs from the Poly School. I have never been more thankful to have a fridge. Every night, Jon and I would walk home and bet on if we had a fridge or not and that was the highlight of our night!
On Tuesday, we had half a day of training and then eight hours of observation of the classes. Wednesday, we started teaching; talk about being thrown right into it! Jon was such a good sport and I was/am very proud of him. He said that he had the attitude of he had no idea what he was doing, but he was going to just go in and hope for the best. He made it through and the head teacher, Janis was impressed that we didn't flee the building like some new teachers seem to do.
Because we do not go to school until around noon, we have the morning open to explore and what not. By riding the bus to work, we discovered where the nearest superstore was-HomePlus. It is four stories(underground) of everything imaginable, yes it is even better than Target. On the bottom floor, we discovered the amazing supermarket. The meat area is our favorite because you can get fresh anything out of the ocean such as squid, salmon, shark, etc. Although we have not figured out how to use a full squid, Jon has cooked with shredded squid several times. ---The discover of HomePlus was very exciting, it was a fifteen minute walk from our home and we were eager to get necessities such as towels and food. After five days of drying off with a t-shirt, we were very thankful to have towels. BUT-I was a wise Italian girl and did bring Nona towels so we at least had towels to wipe our hands. I mean, who would be dumb enough NOT to bring a Nona towel or two, wherever you travel. After all, they are truly a necessity! Thanks a bunch Nona, you were a lifesaver and our only reminder of back home!
The second thing we were also very excited about was coffee. There are shops all over the blocks here, even in apartment buildings. Two shops that happen to be right next door are unfortunately Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts-what a bad temptation! We were going to wait to buy a coffee maker on Payday, but due to a mistake made at the ATM, Jon got many more Won than he originally wanted. So, we decided to splurge for the 19,000Won maker, which is like $16-great deal! The only problem is, where to get real coffee. Most coffee here is made by a mix-in...no thanks. We are both quite picky with our coffee and knew that this would be difficult. But, I thought I could handle deciphering Korean and choosing the bag of ground coffee as opposed to the mix-in. The next morning, I was excited to use our new appliance for the first time and dumped the coffee and water in and pressed on and stood by eagerly. What I saw coming out was the consistency of watery mud and I became suspicious, but was still semi-hopeful. I poured the "coffee" into my tumbler, sniffed and took a sip and gagged. Yep, I had definitely bought the mix-in and used about 15x the amount you actually should for a cup. This "coffee" tasted more like molasas. ugh. Later Jon traveled to I'taewon, a town near an army base and found some good ol' Foldgers for me! What a guy-my hero!
Anyways, this is just the beginning of our fun adventures, I am sure. This is just a little (or a lot) for you to imagine about our life so far in Korea. Soon, I hope to have pictures up as well.
Thank you so much for your prayers and emails, I love hearing from all of you!