So I realized this week that I am not a very good blogger…or at least not a very dedicated one. I completely forgot I even had a blog until someone mentioned I should start one on my facebook (HA!). I guess what reminded me was that I will have two days of short-notice deskwarming coming up and I need something to occupy my time…

*deskwarming: getting paid to watch Top Chef, check your facebook, and google funny cat pictures

I guess I should start with a recap on what happened since I first abandoned this blog.

Here’s what you missed  in a nutshell:

ORIENTATION:

• Classes about Korean culture, teaching methods and
• Introduction to Soju and Mekju

Soju: watered down vodka

Mekju: bud light a.k.a “donkey piss” as my father dubbed it

This here picture was actually taken at my birthday celebration! Second day of orientation we celebrated my birthday in a true EPIK fashion. They also completely surprised me by calling 3 of us birthday girls up in front of the entire cafeteria and sang happy birthday and had us cut a giant cake!

Anyway…lets get back to that list.

FIRST DAY IN MY APARTMENT:

• Thought bubble: “HOLY SHITBALLS WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO!!?!>!>!!>!?!?”
• My area is very rural. I live by the mountains, but not too far from downtown and even small towns here in Korea have a lot of people and are pretty busy. My school is pretty small but everyone was very welcoming.

GETTING TO KNOW HOGYE:

• The part of town I live in is called Hogye-dong. When I finally got around to actually walking around and checking everything out I realized it really wasn’t as bad as I first thought. Just around the corner there was a pretty busy street with a few restaurants, a bar, grocery store, and other shops. Also the train station and Ulsan Airport are both about 15 minutes away. 
• Until a week after I moved in I didn’t realize there were other foreigners that lived in the area. There is actually a good handful of us that lives in Hogye and I know pretty much everyone thats new from orientation.
• I LOVE my walk to school. It takes 15 minutes and its one of my favorite new routines. I walk through a couple small farms, always see the same people pass me every morning, and always nod to the toothless old farmer that drives by on his 4 wheeler waving at me. If one of the things I just mentioned does not happen….it is the end of the world.

BUSAN for CHUSEOK:

• Chuseok: Korean Thanksgiving (in a small nutshell)
• Did not get to see the beach area but I enjoyed the booze action.
• Was awesome to see some writing I know how to read since there is a community of Russians that live in the Busan downtown area…except for one small detail: everyone thought I was a Russian prostitute…fantastic.
• First time I “broke in” my feet to prepare them for the Korean female custom of wearing high heels EVERYwhere. I walked for about 6 hours in some really heavy high heels…Next day I had bruises on my feet. I wear heels every day now, no pain!

SEOUL:

• Most Koreans hate you there….yes because you’re not Korean.
• Did some touristy things as well as crazy drunken nights staying up til 6 in the morning with the boys.
• Got shushed by a middle aged (possibly drunk) Korean man for speaking English on an escalator. His excuse: “Go Korea!!!!”. In his defense there are a lot of foreign asswipes in Seoul that think they can do whatever they want wherever they want.
• Overall: Success!

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY:

• Now of course other things happened in the 2 months…buttt….writing this post is starting to bore me, so I’m skipping to what interests me.
• As of this Monday I have started Tae Kwon Do class. It is soooo much fun and definitely something I will be sticking with while here. I’m gonna be pretty badass so everyone should probably watch out. Quote from my Tae Kwon Do instructor: “You have nice body…………for Tae Kwon do…yes…good.”
• Friday’s I have started taking Korean Language classes. I do not know any dirty words yet. That will be fixed soon.
• On Sunday I’m going para-gliding!!!! I am scared shitless….but it will be amazing.

Tomorrow is sports day, which is super exciting for my students because in Korea they dont have competitive sports in Middle Schools so the students get to play a little basketball and soccer during PE but never really get to compete.

On sports day the entire school gets divided into four teams and compete against one another in various events. I actually don’t exactly know what they are…but I will take pictures and report back later.

I actually wrote quite a bit here. I might put in a few more pictures tomorrow when I’m hella bored at my desk.