I so got this!

Ok so today was basically completely on my own. Luckily the older kids like to come into the teacher room and grab my books and basket and take them to class so I could follow them to the room.

So highlights:

*Saw a poodle with pink ears and tail. Weird!

*One of the Korean teachers asked if I modeled and was very excited when I said yes, and still was even though I told her I just did it for fun. I'm not sure why she asked, I know I had told the teacher whose job I was supposed to take but I'm not sure if he told anyone.

*A kindergartner today was passed out! Kids were screaming in his ear and I and another teacher tried to pick him up several times and he just kept plopping down on the floor in fetal position. He almost hit a couple kids trying to wake him!

*Had my first encounter with a Korean trying to practice English with me, the clerk at the video store. He told me his father moved to Denver.

*I pass every day a place that has 2 signs.

Sign one: "Dirty Math"
Sign 2: "Clean English"
Must be lost in translation because I don't get it.

*Kid had a pencil case with cows on it that said "Milch Cow". Seriously... no one picks up a dictionary before they put products on the production line? Then again I supposed our shirts and other items with Chinese and Japanese characters for decoration look just as ridiculous to them.

*I've been seeing these giant headshots of men around the city looking no where near the camera or facing down and thought "Gee they have strange headshots here!" assuming they were like the real estate ads back home, "maybe it has to do with how Koreans think its rude to make eye contact". I am so dumb! I realized today they were adds for hair restoration!


Went grocery shopping in a bigger market today. Found tomato sauce but no canned tomatoes. Thought that was weird... didn't find any beans. Maybe I was looking at the wrong things? Cans don't seem to be too common there except for tuna. Lots of stuff in plastic pouches and containers. Ugh. Sooo much plastic. But then again, sooo much recycling. Apparently they will dig through my trash and fine me if I throw something away that I shouldn't. I handed the lady a note that I hoped said "No plastic bags please" and handed her my totes but she seemed really confused... maybe it didn't say what I thought.


Ok so. The last week of July is already a vacation. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand... vacation yay! On the other it seems so soon from when I get here... Like I don't have the bearings or the friends to enjoy a long vacation yet (we only get 2 and the other one is Christmas!). But then again it is a month away... maybe by then I will know what I want to do with all that time.


Oh and so it seems it is "official" now (that being a relative term in Korea) that I am moving to a new apartment. Starting in August. It is an officetel which is supposed to be much nicer and cleaner than my place now... but no balcony! :( Where will my Mable the succulent live? (Don't ask me why Mable, it popped into my head while I was holding her.) But again, I've told myself to take whatever comes my way. Oh and it's very close to the mountains. I still can't walk to school from there... a 5 minute walk and a 10 minute subway ride I was told... I don't really see how that's better than a 15 minute taxi ride but sure. I'll go with it. Maybe cheaper for the school? They reimburse the taxi rides, but I don't know about the subway ride. Also at the same time I will have a schedule change. But not as early as 9 am, probably more like 10 or 11. That seems good to me.



I promise once the excitement wears down I won't write a book every day!