First Few Days

Very first breakfast. A carmel and banana waffle. Yummy!

Scary washing machine that I have no clue how to work

Notice the hole in the ground? Yeah, that's my shower.

Door to my apartment

It's weird to imagine that I'm finally here! For awhile I thought I was never going to make it. With the long delay from des moines to chicago because of fog (over 3 hours) I got off the plane about 20 minutes before the plane to Korea was supposed to leave. Having to run across the terminal and hop on the train to the international terminal was very stressful. When I got to the terminal I had to check-in and go through security once again. Waiting in line for security, a few Korean Air workers spotted me and helped me through security much faster than everyone else. That was very nice of them. I was relieved once I finally got on the plane.

Getting into my apartment was nice. From what I've seen from Emily's apartment, mine is 2-3 times bigger. It's hard to imagine but there are so many apartment buildings here each one is completely different from the next. Also, the girl who just left POLY from my school left a bunch of helpful things in the apartment. I was also told that people leave stuff for whoever moves in next which is really cool. The girl left me a ton of books about korea, maps of the subway, a few chick flick movies which I'm sure I'll watch because what else am I going to do sometimes?? A few minutes after I moved in the man who showed me into the apartment (Joon- he is one of the academic coordinators at my school) took me down to the subway station that is closest to my apartment to meet Emily and her co-worker. With Emily having been in Korea for over 2 months now it has made things much easier for me. I haven't met any of my co-workers yet because I'm not allowed in the school for 1 week just to make sure I don't have the H1N1 flu, so I can only imagine how much harder it would be to not know a single person right when you get there. I have been familiarzied with the subway already. It's very easy to learn the system because the subway maps on the subway are also in English and each stop is said in English over the intercom when the next one approaches.

So after meeting up with Emily and her friend the first night they took me out to a Korean BBQ restaurant. I have a feeling I'll be eating at these types of restaurants because they are very good! Each table has its own grill so you cook your meat, kimchi, garlic, onions, or whatever else you prefer right in front of you. When you eat it you take a piece of lettuce and first put rice on it, then add the meat and whatever else you want onto it, then wrap it up and eat it. Apparently you're supposed to eat the wrap in 1 bite since thats what EVERYONE does, but sometimes I don't know how its humanly possible.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. It was my first full day. When I got up I unpacked everything and set up my apartment how I wanted it. Next I wanted to find the school on my own (very close to the subway) so I walked around the area for a little bit just to see how it would be easiest to get there. Since I had not eaten breakfast yet I thought about getting starbucks and maybe a muffin or something. After I left the school I notice a coffee shop called Caffe Bene that is very close to the school. I had a frappucinno, strawberry gelato and the best waffle in the world! I have a feeling that will be my favorite coffee shop for the next year. It was also fun to try and practice my korean when I was in the coffee shop. The two guys working were around my age and they were very nice. Last night I had a meeting with the Director and Vice Director of the school (obviously after all the kids were gone since I'm not allowed around them yet. The school is on the 4th floor of a building that has over 10 floors. It's very nice inside, although I didn't really walk around I just sat in one of their offices while we talked for a few minutes. After leaving I met emily again and she invited me to go out to dinner with a bunch of her co-workers because it was someones birthday. The guy who had the birthday was from Chicago and he was wearing a Cubs shirt which was awesome to see. He has been teaching here for 3 years! Another guy in the group was from northwestern Iowa. He went to school at Bethel in Minnesota. I never imagined meeting someone from Iowa this soon into my trip. We went out to another Koean BBQ. It was just as good as the one the night before. By the time we left the restaurant it was around 11. Next, we went out to a bar that emily and her co-workers love to go to. We ended up staying until 3:30! That seems very late to people in the United States, but there was still a TON of people out and about. At this bar we went to, the bartenders do a fire show. This is where they light both ends of a special bottle and twirl it around doing crazy stuff like spitting out alcohol onto the fire making a huge flame.

Today I had my health check up at the hospital. It was really weird compared to the hopsitals in the states. What I got was prettymuch a regular physical with a few random things. I had blood taken, eyes checked, height and weight measured, blood pressure, x-ray, etc. Unlike having the same nurse do all of this for you, we went to a different person/part of the hospital for every task.

Tomorrow I have training at the POLY headquarters somewhere in Seoul. I get to start teaching Monday which I cannot wait for! As fun as it is not having to work this week, I do get very bored during the day because I can only do so much walking around before I get tired. And there really isnt much to do in my apartment besides read or play on the computer. I think people in the U.S. definately take for granted all the things we have because people in Korea seem to live very simple lives!

Hopefully this hasn't been too long, but I wanted to let everyone know about what has gone on so far! More updates will come whenever more fun/or not so fun things happen. Feel free to email (mjdempsey09@gmail.com) or facebook me whenever. Also, go Hawkeyes!!