Happy Halloween!

Hey there. I had a long day today. I found out what my classes are going to be today. I have Rainbow class and Yellow kindergarten classes in the morning then I have a three hour break then I have four elementary classes until 6 on Monday Wednesday Friday and two elementary classes on Tuesday Thursday. Rainbow class is the youngest class, they are Korean age 5 which is American age 3 and 4. They are still babies! I'll post pictures next week. I lost my camera last night. I just bought it too! Maybe I'm not meant to go digital. I'll go to Emart tomorrow and buy a new one. They are pretty cheap here. Hopefully they have the same one I had, I liked it! I got all of the pictures off of it yesterday though so that's good. Well, I am staying in tonight even though it's Halloween and there are parties going on, I need a night of rest. It has been a whirlwind since I got here. I'm going to eat Korea's idea of Mexican food now. Bye!

Busy week!

Hey guys! It has been really busy the past few days! I've been doing a lot of observing classes and eating Korean food! There is a place right by the school that all the teachers go to on lunch. It's pretty good and really cheap. I got ramen with dumplings today for 3000W. I've gotten Bibimbap also, which is basically vegetables and rice with some other stuff. They serve kimchi with everything here. Some kimchi is really good and some is gross. I like the food here though. I'm just trying new dishes every day. After work today, Ben and I went to Kraze Burger. They have really good burgers. We needed a break from the korean food. There are Starbucks and Dunkin Dounuts everywhere here. We had to go to the hospital today for our drug and AIDS test. The hospital was really nice but the bathroom was a hole in the ground. I guess that is traditional bathrooms here. I had to give a urine sample and I wasn't sure how to use the toilet. It was wierd.

So, last night one of the teachers who is leaving took me and Ben out to GangNam. It's a pretty cool place. Lots of western bars. We ate some chicken Korean dish. Then we went to a bar called Woodstock. It was pretty cool. They were playing really good music and they take requests too.
This is Ben, the other new teacher

After that, we went to a hookah bar. You had to take off your shoes. They had mats on the floor you sit on. It was cool, they had a DJ.

This is Christen Teacher, she leaves on Friday and I take over her kids.

All of the kids call teachers by their first name followed by teacher. I'm Liz Teacher.

Here are some pictures of my apartment:

Kitchen, cool cabinets huh?


Living room

My bedroom

Bathroom, see the drain? That is the "shower" drain

The shower aka the whole bathroom

This is the bedroom/living room/kitchen (it's all one room)

Ok, time to get ready for school. TGIF! And Happy Halloween!

I made it!

Hello all! I am very excited about being here! The plane ride was soooo long! 13 hours from New York. We flew over Canada and Alaska and I think I saw Russia at some point! Now i have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin. The plane ride was exhausting. The first half wasn't too bad but the second was just very boring. I watched a lot of movies. I finally saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Getting to Korea took a long time (including all of the paperwork and such) but as soon as I got off the plane I was super excited to be here.

This city is huge! I will post pictures soon, I haven't taken very many yet, I keep forgetting I have a digital camera. The school president picked me up from the airport last night and we went out to dinner. Then he took me to my apartment. It is very small, just a studio but big enough for me. The bathroom is Korean-style which means no bathtub or shower, just a shower head coming out from the wall. Essentially the whole bathroom is a shower. It is very cozy though. The area I am living in is very nice. It is one of the richest areas in Seoul. It is a short walk to school and there are many markets and little shops everywhere.

Today I woke up and realized I didn't bring a towel, so I went on an adventure to Lotte, which is a high end department store and spent way too much on a towel. Then I went to school and had orientation which is just me observing classes. There is another new teacher that got here on Monday as well. The kids here are so cute! Some are very well behaved and really enjoy the classes and some are very shy and don't like speaking english in front of the class. I think that I will have a pretty easy time teaching these students. I am teaching at a Hagwon which is basically like an after school private school that teaches English. Older students are there after public school for about two hours. Little kids go in the morning, most don't go to public school yet. I am going to be teaching a few different ages which will be fun. All of the other teachers are really nice. We went out to lunch today.

After school, the other new teacher, Ben, and I went on an adventure to find alarm clocks. We ended up at a bar and had some Soju and chicken. At the bars here you have to order food with your drinks. The language barrier was a big problem. I think the waitress was getting annoyed with us, but I am learning a few words pretty quickly, such as thank you and I'm sorry. We wandered the streets for a little longer and finally found alarm clocks. So, now I am back at home, trying not to go to sleep too early. It is only 9 here and i haven't felt the effects of jet lag yet. I am hoping that I won't at all.

I am so glad I came here. This city is really cool. I can't wait to post pictures. I will take some tomorrow. I miss everyone and please feel free to post comments and send me emails. My email address is lizlib62@gmail.com. Here is my physical address if you want to send me anything ^^

Liz Liberatore
765-15, Youksam-2Dong
ChunkwangJoo Taek Ga-Dong 101-2
KangNam-Gu, Seoul, Rep. of Korea

Love you all!
-Liz