I survived week 1!

All in all, I'd say this was a very successful first week. My coteacher takes such good care of me! I went to get an Alien card, it'll be here within the month. I then could use my new alien number to get a bank account, and a cell phone. And WHAT a cell phone. After my decrepit blackberry, I really don't know what to do with this high tech thingamajig. Of course, give me a week and I'll be as hooked as the rest of you.

The cell phone shop owner was sweet, he said his very first customer was a foreigner, yay. Also you get so many extras here in Korea. He gave me and my coteacher free phone covers, and also gave me a screen scratch protector. He then asked me what colour I'd like him to order for ANOTHER phone cover as all he had was black! I have a Samsung Galazxy RStyle, I believe it is a Korea only phone. Unfortunately I will have to buy it out of the 2 year contract early, but it won't be unreasonable and I think I'll be able to re sell it. Or maybe I'll stay for two year ;) My coteacher said I should.

The food has continued to amaze me. Yesterday we took the day off to go into Ulsan to register for the alien card. Yay. But Koreans love to feed me so my coteachr bought me dumplings for lunch. SO GOOD. She showed me a place right by my apartment that sells giant burger sized dumplings. We got kimchi ones, they were super amazing and super spicy. We also passed by this store:

I'm famous!

Today I went back to school and did my intro for 4 more classes. Lunch was AMAZING. It was something called Ssambap I think. Basically rice, beef stew and some yummy sauce wrapped in lettuce and giant herb leaves. It was kinda mexican tasting, and super delicious.

About teaching: It's astounding how different each class if. Also it is sad how huge the skill levels are. I have some students who stare at my, absolutely petrified, then I have others who will casually say "No, thanks." or some other colloquial term. I have been singing an old camp song "There was a great big moose" and I swear I will never ever sing this song again haha. It gets quite tiring. Luckily, they all like the funny versions of it (slow motion, underwater) but I have yet to determine if they're laughing at or with me.

Today I got the most "hello" and "hi"s so far. Children on the street pretty much yell it at me haha. Sometimes I also get a "nice to meet you!". My favourite was as I was walking by some kids playing soccer one starting frantically calling out " HI! HI! HI! HI! HI!" It took me a while to realize this was to me, and not a soccer call.

Everyone also keeps telling me I'm pretty. Whether or not I agree, I will take the compliment. Ok not everybody. This morning a teacher asked me what was wrong because my eyes looked so tired? I was not tired!

Random thoughts:

- I'm so happy my coteacher showed me how to turn on the hot water.

- I have NOT been doing polite hand gestures at all. I completely forgot. Luckilly, no one seems offended, and they usually laugh when I try to remmeddy the situation a few minutes later.

- My coteacher said I am good at teaching.. but she's so nice I'm not sure if she's telling the truth. One of my classes actually went INSANE today I thought I might get trampled haha.

- Teaching is hard work yo!

- Koreans use the "~" symbol instead of "-" to mark points, or notes, which made me very confused. I thought everything was an approximation for a while.

- It's amazing how quickly a fish hater can become accustomed to fish tasting everything

- I have no idea how to use a rice cooker. Korean instructions/buttons don't help.