Out with the Old and in with the NEW!!

At club' TAO' for Michelle's bday




Some new Korean friends!



Ohhh Korean fashion!! I loved his hair haha




'TAO' Club! The lights were insane




'The Dublin' Irish bar in South Korea!





We found someone else who is from WA in South Korea!! Crazy!!






Sarah's Bday!!! :)






Monday February 22, 2010

“If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.”

“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching.”

These quotes really represent how I want to be in 2010. It’s going on my third week in Korea and I want to see everything and I want to continue to try new things. Every day is so different here and I’m glowing with the positive change Korea has given me. I can’t wait to travel the world…Tia, Bri and I are thinking about going to Guam for our summer week vacation and then Thailand for our winter vacation! I’ve been looking at pictures of both places and I get so excited thinking that I will soon be walking the beaches of those beautiful countries! I’ve also been listening to Bri’s stories about Rome and Tia’s experience’s in Greece and just listening plus being here is giving me the case of the travel bug!!!


This past week has been more comfortable and I feel less foreign…I could definitely get use to this lifestyle! (minus the language barrier… but I’m learning some new words!) On Thursday Me + all the Dongtan girls went out to Korean BBQ for Ta-leah’s (a girl we work with) 10 month anniversary of being in Korea! We took the bus then the subway to Suwan. The food was delicious and very spicy! We ordered two large bowls that cooked in front of us. By the time we were finished (and incredibly stuffed) we were all very satisfied! We decided to walk around Suwan and look at all of the little boutiques and crazy shops. I enjoyed seeing all of the bold fashion and everything is very affordable here. However, the sizes are a bit wack…asain frames are a lot smaller then us in the U.S. and a lot of their clothes is a ‘one size fits all’ which…is a lie haha. Tia and I also cant fit into any of the shoes we’ve looked at so far!! They think size 9’s are huge…lucky Bri w/ her size 6’s!!! After a couple hours of browsing the racks of clothing we got back onto the bus and headed back to our apartments in Dongtan.

On Friday Tia, Bri and I went over to two girls named Alia and Michelle’s apartment. We had met them the previous weekend through Kevin and Daniel and they are really fun and we love their friends too, Heather, Carly and Ani. We had a girls night for Michelle’s 23rd birthday. We played some getting to know you games then called a taxi and went to a club called ‘TAO’. The lights were insane and all of us girls went up on stage to dance. The Korean boys loved us and we felt like celebrities. At one point of the night Bri and I lost Tia for like 10 minutes and it was funny how fast we could spot her because we totally stand out in Korea!! The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the fact that in Korea you’re allowed to smoke cigarettes indoors, it gives you a headache after awhile! I had a blast with those girls, and with Tia and Bri of course. Like I said, I’m so glad we are experiencing this together!!! We had to go home kind of early because we had to be back at work on Saturday for LCI parent orientation.

On Saturday morning we woke up not reallllly wanting to go to work on our weekend but we would be off by 4pm so it wouldn’t be so bad. Work was a whole lot of down time. We had to get introduced to a bunch of parents 4 times but the introductions only took about a minute and we were there from 10am-4pm and it got kind of boring. After work I took a quick nap then got ready to go out for Sarah’s birthday (Another girl that we teach with). The first place we went to was called, ‘The Dublin’ it was an Irish themed bar. The drinks were way over priced. Tia got one ‘Hoegaarden’ and it was $15. So I wasn’t too enthused but it was Sarah’s birthday and we wanted to go where she wanted to go. After that we went to a place called ‘Gecko’s’ which was okay but not my favorite…at this point of the night I was kind of tired and was thinking about going home but then we left and went to a club called, ‘Cacoon’ and I had the best night ever!!! Tia, Bri and I danced the night away to techno and crazy lights. I love dancing and it was so fun!! We ended up meeting a guy from WA (so random and ironic) and he introduced us to his friend and we all hung out and danced. Getting home was a long and tiring trip and all we wanted to do was sleep!!! We all crashed the second we got to our rooms.

On Saturday night we got a new teacher, Andrew, and he’s the only guy in our group of teachers..lucky odds haha! He’s from Canada and seems really nice, it will be exciting to see who we become good friends with!

Today and tomorrow at work we’re just practicing for the kid’s graduation on Wednesday. They all have to memorize speeches and stories…kind of stressful! I love hearing them say their speeches; they are adorable and so smart!! The parents are really intense here with schooling. Most kids go to school until 5pm then go to a sports practice or music class until 7 or 8 and don’t get home until 9pm! Could you imagine?! No wonder they are so smart! I guess once they're done with high school they have a college placement test that they only get ONE chance at. If they don't pass they can't go to college in Korea. So the parents and teachers place a lot of pressure on the kids...super stressful!!!!! Starting in March Brown English School is turning into LCI so I will have my own class all day long...like a real teacher! Until LCI opens I'm taking Daniel's classes because he returned home.

I’ll let you know how graduation goes!!!

<3 KATIE TEACHER

MY ROOM in KOREA!

Crazy shower!!






My kitchen





My sliding door that leads me from my room to kitchen






My desk and mirror




My big purple bed!...not bad right!?

Antonio's Speech

This is Antonio's speech on his favorite animal, a porcupine! The kids have to memorize speeches in English for their graduation! So smart/cute!

Valentine's Day!

I saw this wall artwork on the wall at Suma Station and loved it! The fashion in Korea is wild!! I'll be coming back with some bold things!!!





We saw this lady walking and she was balancing bags on her head!! Thats some serious talent!!





Waiting for the Subway at 'Suma Station'





My VALENTINES :)








Sunday February 14th:

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE <3 x0x0x0x0!!!! This morning was stressful…I woke up and thought I lost my credit card; needless to say I started to panic. I thought I had it with me…but it wasn’t in my purse or any of my pockets. I decided I needed to get a hold of my mom to see if she could cancel it. I skype called her totally forgetting it was 1am Washington time…oops! But my mom is a great mom and she sat and skyped me for about 2 hours trying to help me. She canceled my card, and hopefully I get one soon—THANKS MOM!!! But that’s not the end of it…I went into my bathroom to grab a bobby pin for my hair and of course it was laying face down on my shelf. I was so embarrassed and was annoyed that I canceled it. But I’ll be getting a new one in a few weeks, and maybe it was a blessing in disguise. I turned up my music and started getting read for a Valentine party at Katelan and Chase’s apartment. Tia, Bri and I had to take a taxi to ‘Suma Station’ where we got on the subway (my 1st subway ride ever!) it was really crowded and we all had to stand. A guy named ‘Rome’ introduced himself and asked if we needed any help, he told us where our stop would be and it was actually really helpful! Foreigners here really love to help each other out, it’s really nice!! After the subway dropped us off in the area where Kate and Chase live we called for a taxi. Our taxi driver was sooo crazy. Chase had to get on the phone with him to give him directions and he kept yelling. Korean’s get louder when we don’t understand…but it doesn’t help because WE STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND!! (To think of it, I do that too haha) He kept trying to ask me questions, but I had no idea what he was asking me. He finally dropped us off and we met up with Chase and went back to his place. Bri brought over red valentines glasses that Tanya and her used last Valentines Day. We made a drink in them and all cheers’d to Tanya!! (I miss her everyday and I know she would be so proud of me spending a yr in Korea, I know she visits Bri and I and gives us strength to try new things!) It was a fun night and I’m glad I spent it with Tia and Bri, but I do miss everyone from home and I hope you all had a great Valentines Day <3
X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0

FIRST Friday in KOREA!!! :)

Tia and I enjoying our 'service' at the bar!





The Dongtan girls at Daniel and Kevin's going away party!






Charlie reading Daniel Teacher his 'goodbye letter'...the kids were so sad to see Daniel and Kevin leave! I hope they're sad when I leave haha






Antonio and I! He's a silly boy!





Friday February 12th:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC <3 !!!!! Today was Kevin and Daniels last day of work. It was really sad because I know them from WSU and it was helpful to get advice from them. All of the kids were really sad too. I can’t believe they are leaving and we are JUST arriving, it’s crazy. They said their experience went by super fast and they absolutely loved it, which is nice to hear. All of the kids wrote them goodbye letters and then read it to them. They were so cute! One kid’s letter said, “When I grow up I want to be as strong as Daniel Teacher!” I wonder what they will say in my going away letter…? However, that’s a long way off, we’re here for 13months!!! I took over a girl named Sarah’s classes today because she had to go to the same LCI training that we went to yesterday. The classes went really good. I definitely like the older classes better though, the 6 year olds are so young and hardly speak English so they just kind of blankly stare at me so we end up playing musical chairs or duck duck goose! They are all really cute though! After work was over around 5pm we all walked home to get ready for our first Friday night in Korea! Kevin and Daniel invited us to a going away party at a bar called ‘Wa Bar’. Katelan and Chase were planning on joining us and I was so excited to finally get to see and hang out with them! Katelan was in my sorority at WSU and I knew Chase from WSU also. Troy picked me, Tia, Bri, Daniel and Kevin up at our apartments. Troy is Joanne’s husband and Joanne was our Korean recruiter and was the one who introduced us to Jade our school director-she was incredibly helpful in getting me to Korea! She just had a baby boy named Paxton and Troy showed us pictures of him in the car, he is such an angel! At the first bar Kevin and Daniel introduced us to some girls that also live by us named, Alia and Michelle. They are really cool and I enjoyed hanging out with them so I hope we all become good friends…the more friends the merrier right!? When we got there our server brought us ‘service’ which is basically free food. Our service was French fries with smiley faces in them, too funny! At the second bar we went to Katelan and Chase were there and it was a great little reunion with lots of pictures!!!! It was a great day and a great first night in Korea! I wonder what we’ll do tomorrow…!!

<3 KT Rose :)

More Training + Goodbye Dinner!

Dinner at Outback for Kevin and Daniels going away party. I got salmon, Tia and Bri got steak!






My meal at our welcome dinner..check out that octopus!! Tia ate it..I was too nervous haha






Yuna came up to me and said, "Katie Teacher I drew a picture of you!!!" She is adorable!!!






This is Tyler.. I had the kids make a Valentine wreath for their parents. The prompt was "I love you because..." They are so funny, one kid said, "Because you had me!!" ha ha





Thursday February 11th:

I woke up in a panic, I had set my alarm clock for 6:45 pm not am and it was 7:25am I guess I wasn’t going to shower…we had to meet Jade outside our apartments at 8am to head to Seoul for LCI training. LCI bought out Brown English Learning so we had to go observe teachers from the school. It was snowing and the ground was so icy, Jade had to switch her car to her brothers since her car couldn’t handle the snow. I didn’t mind because her brother’s car had seat heaters  Once we arrived at LCI we went upstairs to the teachers lounge to make some toast and coffee. Our first class to observe started at 9am. The classes at LCI seem to have more structure. I’m a little worried though because Brown’s classes are only 40min long and LCI is about 2 hours, yikes!! We left LCI at 5pm to head to Outback Steakhouse for Daniel and Kevin’s going away party. Jade told us we could order anything we wanted so I got salmon and Tia and Bri ordered steak. It was delicious!! The boys got going away dress shirts similar style to our Polo brand, I wonder what we will get as our going away presents haha! Tomorrow is our first Friday night out in Seoul and IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!! I hope we get to see Katelan!!!! Until next time ;) 

Love: Katie

First Monday in Korea: Work time!!

WSU reunited in Korea! Kevin, Tia, me, Bri and Daniel! :)






Making clocks for science class! June and Bebe are in the far left and are too cute!!





The boys pretending they're Michael Jackson...hilarious!!!!!





Charlie, he's adorable, and super energetic!! <3


Monday February 8th 2010: First Day of Class!


The first day of school was a success! When I woke up this morning I was anxious to go and see the kids and finally get back into a normal routine. I wasn’t really nervous to be inside the classroom, for my senior project back in high school I taught 2 5th grade art classes for the year and I absolutely loved it so I figured it wouldn’t be hard.

I woke up around 5:30am I don’t know if it was because I was excited or the floor was uncomfortable. I got into my ‘shower’, which is basically a removable showerhead that sprays the toilet and sink, I was a bit skeptical at first but actually it wasn’t bad and quite convenient. I got ready, checked my e-mail then went into Bri’s room to chit chat before work. Tia and Bri seem really nervous about being in front of the classroom, but I know that they will do great and kids will love them. I learned that if you go into the classroom confident in yourself then the kids would respond in a really positive way. We just need to be happy and confident!

We walked to class around 8:20am with the other girls in our program, Ta-leah, Amy and Sarah. They have been pretty helpful with info for us and I’m curious how close we will be by the end of this journey. When we got to the school our director assigned us teachers to follow. Bri followed Ta-Leah (who I hear has great ideas w/ kids and can also understand Korean so she is a good person to follow!), Tia was with Kevin and I was with Daniel. Kevin and Daniel both went to WSU so that made me more at ease to ask questions. Daniel has 40minute classes and we didn’t start until around 10:40ish (I think..) so the morning was really chill before class. Daniel slept and I talked to Amy about the classes. When it was time to go to our first class it was only 4 boys, Charlie, Paul, Randy and Tyler. They are the cutest kids in the entire world!! I noticed that they love to speak in front of the class and perform. They aren’t shy at all and want to impress you with their English. In the US kids wont want to raise their hands or do speeches in front of the class but these kids were so enthusiastic and had more energy than I have ever seen in my life. Korean kids are adorable but also the most rowdy kids ever!!!! They had to practice their graduation speech in front of me (graduation is in 2 weeks for these kids then we will get a new set of kids). The speeches were too cute; they were about what kinds of super powers they would want to have. They were all soooo creative! And for 5 year olds their English is amazing.

The age groups are really interesting here. The classes are grouped by ‘sixes’ or ‘sevens’ etc. when you are born in Korea you start at the age of 1 not 0 and once the New Year hits in January you turn 2. So the kids who were born in December can be 2 years old a month later. So in the classes the sixes can really be 5 or even 4 and they are all so bright! You would expect them to be older than they are.

My other favorite class of the day was with a little girl named Lily in it. Daniel had them play musical chairs and once she was out she came right up to me to talk! She loved my hair and said, ‘Katie Teacher you beautiful’ and another little girl chimed in, ‘Like a princess!’…(I can get use to this kind of confidence booster haha!) Lily loved my hair and called me ‘yellow head’ because of my blonde hair she kept trying to teach me how to say it, and when I would try she would giggle. The kids love it when you try and speak Korean with them! She loved my eye color and my rings, she counted them and asked to try one on and told me she has 7 rings at home. She was adorable. At the end of the day all of the kids said ‘bye Katie Teacher’. These kids know how to make you smile!!

After work, Kevin and Daniel took us to Pho a Vietnamese restaurant. Tia got beef flank pho and I got a seafood pho dish. I ATE OCTOPUS!! It was really squishy and definitely not my favorite thing in the world…but I didn’t hate it. I gave Tia a bite of what I thought was a sprout and Tia and Kevin played along but when I took a bite it was some sort of meat, possibly octopus legs? They tricked me!! But I’m really glad I tried it. After dinner Kevin asked our server to call a taxi for us because it was raining and our walk home was about 20-25minutes long. Kevin sat up front and directed the taxi driver, our taxi home was a about a dollar each—so cheap!!!

When we got home we all just relaxed. We couldn’t eat or drink past 8pm because Jade wanted us to ‘fast’ before our medical checkup tomorrow. (I was so so thirsty!!!) We have to get blood drawn and I’m not looking forward to it. But once we pass our checkup we’ll receive our alien card in a few weeks and that will let us open up a bank account!

A sign on our way to lunch 'downtown' Dongtan..super confusing right!!?






Yay, our first dining out in Korea. The lady who served us was so sweet she took this picture and we got out our Korean language books to help us communicate, they liked our efforts!





Our first meal!! This is a 'breakfast' sushi roll--mmmm!






E-mart!..similar to a Walmart but nicer, and wayyy bigger! you can see the flat escalators going up up to each floor..its sooo chaotic...think of the Nordies sale chaos and times this by 10000000!!!!!! And Tia, Bri and I got stared a lot, mostly by little kids.




Part Two: February 7, 2010—8:20pm

Jade’s dad, (who built our apartment building) came over around 2:30pm to fix my heat and water situation. It was really funny because he was trying to explain to all of us how to use our heating system but he doesn’t know English so we all were using hand motions and laughing together, we all looked ridiculous but we actually understood each other after awhile. I mean body language can definitely get the point across. I was really appreciative of him coming and fixing it for me! Now I will actually be able to take a hot shower before work tomorrow! Thank goodness!!! After he fixed our technical problems we got into his car (which was really nice, it was black with black leather interior and had mini TV’s on the back of our seats…now that I think of it we haven’t seen one beat up car yet they are all pretty nice and pretty much look the same besides the color) where was then going to drop us off at our new school, ‘LCI’ to meet Jade. The school is just opening so when we went inside it was pretty empty and the teachers lounge needed to be organized. We waited for Jade to finish up some paper work. She looked so adorable! I love her sense of style. She was wearing the most stylish slouchy gray jacket with her striped black dress peaking under. Her black nylons were striped with a slight metallic stripe. Our favorite piece of her outfit (besides the jacket) was her white calf length flat boots. She is too cute. When she saw us she meekly asked ‘do I look okay?’ and we more than approved. After Jade’s paper work was complete we got into her white car and headed to ‘E-Mart’, Jade told us it was like our Walmart but after going I disagree, E-mart is way nicer, bigger and incredibly chaotic!! Once we arrived to the E-mart Jade handed us coins for us to get a cart for our items. The carts are all connected to each other and once we place the coin into a slot on the handle the cart releases from the other carts. We went inside and the place is 3 levels! We rode up a flat escalator to get to each level. The cart automatically sticks into place once you’re on it in order for the carts to stay in place and not slide into the person in front or back of you. We first started with home items like dish soap and toilet paper. Jade bought us new pots and pans plus pillows and a mattress pad which will be incredibly helpful. As we looked around we realized how much stuff this place had, sporting equipment, home décor, clothes, a Hello Kitty SECTION J, hair items, makeup, shoes, liquor, food…you name it! Once we finished getting our home supplies it was onto food and that’s where we got so overwhelmed. The place was so crowded it was hard to move your cart around. We were getting flustered because we couldn’t read the labels on the food and didn’t know what things even were; we basically just depended on the pictures. Down every aisle people stared at us because we were the foreigners. At one point I looked down an aisle and looked to Tia and said, ‘Look oh my gosh!’ and a group of little boys walked by, looked at each other and said ‘oh my gosh!!!!’ it was really funny to me hearing them repeat me because they didn’t know what I said or meant…kind of like everywhere we go people kind of smirk when we repeat them it just weird that we are the minority. After we filled up our carts with the basic essentials we waited in line to pay. They don’t use bags to bag up our items we have to go to a separate line to place our items in recycled boxes. Which is very eco-friendly! We loaded our items in both Jade and her husband’s cars and went back to our rooms to drop everything off. At this point it was almost 7pm and we were getting pretty hungry so we decided to walk to downtown Dongtan to find a noodle place that we spotted earlier and really wanted to try. We went in and sat down at a table, we were the only ones dining. A lady came up to us and Tia and I had to take her outside to point to a picture of what noodle soup we wanted. Once we ordered she brought us sides of 3 hard-boiled eggs, un-cracked, with a bowl of salt plus kimchee. The noodles I got were served cold and had a spicy sauce with kimchee in it. Tia and Bri got hot soups with a broth and tofu slices. We all shared and it was really good and very filling. After dinner we all wanted to ask for the check so I got out my Korean language book to look up ‘bring me the check please’. We decided that each time we go out we have to take turns to ask in Korean and Bri said she would go first. She walked up and asked and to our surprise she delivered the sentence perfectly. They brought us our check, which was again $4 each. You don’t tip in Korea, which is really nice. On our way out the door Tia looked in her language book and said something like ‘the food was great’ and they all smiled. They definitely enjoyed our efforts! We are all so eager and motivated to learn the language, its just so hard but hopefully one day it will click. On our way back to our apartment we stopped inside a bakery and Tia bought a pastry that looks amazing! We then walked back to our rooms. We have to be at school by 9am to help set up. We all set our alarms for 7am so I’ll probably go to bed (aka the floor) pretty early tonight to try and get some sleep. I hope tomorrow goes well. I’m excited to start my routine!


PS: I miss you all and hope you miss me too! haha <3

HERE WE GO... Blog One: February 7, 2010

Our view of the city, Dongtan: South Korea




Our City, Dongtan South Korea




This is our apartment building, 'B'. Tia, Bri and I all live on the 3rd level thank goodness :)! The apartment is new so everything is really nice.





This would happen to me..Tia, Bri and I got our rooms and mine was the only one without a bed! Our school director gave me mats (that are paper thin..) and a blanket, the first night I didn't have heat either so I was 'roughing it'. I get a new bed in a week (I can't wait, and I will post pix of my apartment once I get things organized)..I do have heat now though :)





“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
The night before leaving for Dongtan South Korea was a restless one. Sleeping was just out of the question. We had to be at the airport Friday February 5th by 5:30am, I set my alarm clock for 2:45am and woke up so excited and filled with anxiety. We left Sammamish around 4:45am and headed to the airport. My parents kept asking me if I was nervous but it really hadn’t hit me yet, I was in such a daze not realizing that it would be our last car ride together for 13months! We arrived to SeaTac airport right on time where I met Brianna and Tia. We all checked in our bags and to my surprise and relief my bags were right less than 50 pounds so I didn’t have to shuffle things around or pay the extra pound charge. After checking things in it was time to say our goodbyes to our parents. I gave my dad a hug and when I went to hug my mom and when I saw her tear up it made me sad. I gave her a kiss and then headed to towards security, I looked back and waved bye then we were off to start our adventure. Security was stressful but we made it through. Our flight was at 7:30 am so we had a bit of time to kill. We grabbed some starbucks and bagels plopped down on some chairs and chit chatted about what we were getting ourselves into. The flight from Seattle to San Francisco was a breeze. Once we got to California we had about 4 hours to kill before our next flight to South Korea. We walked to find our gate then decided we wanted some food. We sat down at a Mexican restaurant and ordered a drink w/ some chips and salsa. We were all so excited to arrive to Korea and we were looking through all of our Korean info books to try and learn simple words. Once we boarded our flight to South Korea my stomach kind of dropped it was all kind of hitting me that we were doing this and there was no backing out now. A few hours into our flight I was listening to my Ipod and thinking about everything and I was making myself feel so nervous. I started tearing up; I went from being so excited and sure to asking myself, is this really worth it? Then Brianna saw me getting scared and we talked about how amazing this trip is going to be and what a great growing experience this will be. She told me, “This is going to be Katie Harper’s year” and I was like you know…that’s so true, this is my time to go out of my comfort zone and really learn about my capabilities and myself. I took a deep breath and was again excited for experiencing everything new. The flight seemed like forever. It was weird to be on a plane for a whole day! The plane food wasn’t bad but it wasn’t my favorite by any means. Once we landed we were all so ansy to get up, walk around and more importantly WE WERE FINALLY IN SOUTH KOREA!!! Customs went fast and we then grabbed free carts to load our luggage on. When we walked out we saw Mr. Gan holding a sign that said, ‘Welcome to Korea Tia Low, Brianna Duval and Katie Harper!” it was pretty exciting!!! Mr. Gan called one of his friends and once he arrived both of them lifted all of our belongings into a van and we got in. It was us and the Korean taxi driver…who spoke no English. I noticed that there were no seat belts and was just hoping that it was going to be a smooth ride. The trip from Seoul to Dongtan was about an hour. The buildings and lights were really pretty and neat to look at but we were all so tired and after about 15 minutes of having my face glued to the sights I fell asleep. We arrived to our apartments and met our school director Jade there along with her husband. They were both really welcoming and excited that we made it. The building that we are in is building ‘B’ and it brand new. We all went up the stairs and were very pleased to be all on the same floor. Jade showed us our rooms and I realized I was the only one without a bed. I was really bummed but was trying to make the best out of it. She gave my two very thin pads to sleep on the ground and because my room was also freezing I was getting frustrated. She gave us all heating lamps and dropped off some snacks then left us be. We all were in complete shock of our living situation. All of the appliances are new, but everything was so empty and we were cold hungry and tired. We all piled into Brianna’s room where we went through the emotions of crying and frustration. I guess we didn’t know what to expect but this wasn’t exactly it. My Internet wasn’t working in my room, but it was in everyone else’s room, which was also getting me angry. Jade had told me she was going to have a cable guy come in an hour to fix my internet but it was already around 10pm and I really didn’t want to wait up. We all decided that it would be a good idea just to go to bed and wake up with a fresh positive start. We gave each other hugs and preceded into our own rooms…it was a scary feeling to be alone in our rooms. It was easier when we were all together. I unpacked some of my blankets and tried to make do with the mats and being on the floor. Jade had said I would be getting a bed at the end of the week once some of the other teachers leave so I knew it wasn’t going to be permanent and I just had to deal with it. I brushed my teeth and laid down. I was almost asleep, it was about 11pm and I heard pounding on my door…a ‘thud, thud, thud’…I was startled and figured it was probably the cable guy, which was weird because it was 11pm. I debated whether I should answer it because I was alone and it was so late but Jade had told me he was coming so I decided I would go for it. I slowly opened my door to find a tall Korean man who spoke absolutely NO English. He pointed inside and I asked him if he could fix my Internet. He looked at me confused and said, ‘I speak no English’. I let him in and went to my computer and was fixing the problem. He kept asking me things in Korean and we were both frustrated that we couldn’t understand each other. It took about 5 minutes and I had Internet, and he left. I crawled back onto my mat and prayed that the next day would be better. I was thankful we made it safely and I’m really trying to keep an open mind about everything. We’re here, and when things don’t go our way we need to be patient and know that its all apart of the adventure and more importantly it will get easier. The next morning I realized not I don’t have heat or hot water so I used Tia’s hot water to wash my face. I’m hoping Jade can fix all of my hot water and room issues tonight or else I’m going to have to switch rooms. Once we all got ready for the day we went down the hall to talk to another teacher in our group named, Amy. Amy invited us in and showed us her set up. It instantly made us feel so much better about how we will have our rooms set up nicely, it will just take a few weeks. She has been here for about 3 months and seems to really enjoy it. She was helpful on some insight as far as our school goes. I guess for the next few weeks we are just helping set up the new school, moving desks, observing other teachers etc. We were hungry and she told us to go talk to Kevin or Daniel, two boys we know from WSU and see if they recommend any food places. We walked to Kevin’s room and he walked us outside and gave us some direction on how to get into town. It was about a 20min walk. It was cold but really sunny, I really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the street signs and buildings. Once we got into town there were little food markets, venders and lots of random misc. shops. We found a food place that had pictures on the outside, the pictures looked delicious so we went inside. The ladies that owned the restaurant were really sweet and tried to communicate with us. I pulled out my English to Korean help book and pointed to different words, which really helped. I saw a woman making sushi rolls and pointed to them, and the lady brought me a bunch of rolls, they were soooooo good!!!!!!! Then Tia and Bri got Kimchee soup, so spicy!! And everything came with a lot of side dishes like rice and sweet and spicy kimchee. We were in heaven the food tasted amazing. We got our bill and each of us only paid about $4, food is so cheap here. Then we walked around some more and took a bunch of pictures of the surrounding buildings. Which brings me to now. I’m sitting on Bri’s bed and all of us our blogging and listening to music, waiting for Jade to come and take us shopping for FOOD!! (And hopefully she can fix my heat and water!!) I’m so thankful that I’m here with Tia and Bri; we all were saying how we were so lucky to be here together. Being in Asia is so different then home. But that’s what makes it exciting.