Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Tomorrow morning, Ned and I are going to Busan, South Korea!! It's about one and a half hours from Daegu, by train! We are leaving at the butt-crack of dawn! At least we'll be ready for breakfast when we get there! We're staying in this super sweet hotel with an awesome olympic sized swimming pool!!! We can't wait to dive in..since Daegu has been soooo hott! We will be laying on the beach while you guys are working! lol suckers! Anywho, I need to get going to finish washing clothes and packing! I'm sure I'll have lots to tell you once I return!! Peace, love, and chicken grease!!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Last night I stayed up really late, decorating my apt with all my mavs memorabilia! It looks like roxie lives here now! I’ll take some pics of it now that it’s decorated! Here’s something that will make you laugh… while I was decorating, the chair I was standing on was on top of one of my shoes and I didn’t realize it…well I leaned to one side and in slow motion, I fell! I bruised the inside of my foot! lol. After I was done decorating, I was hanging up some clothes. I was sitting on the edge of my bed and all of a sudden I was on the floor. Ugh. I just love love love falling and hurting myself! I swear it’s a curse! Lol I don’t know what’s wrong with me! Lol anyways, I finally went to bed really late! Woke up this morning pretty late! Luckily, I had remembered that I was suppose to go to this language exchange thing at 2pm. What is this language exchange thing I am talking about? Well, it’s a group of people that meet other people that speak another language! So I was placed with Korean speaking girls and one American guy from Virginia (really handsome!). Their names are Sue (her American name), Yvette (her American name), and Robbie, an ESL teacher from Virginia! We had so much fun talking about things here and things in America, things about teaching ESL, where cool places were to visit here…etc. The program really only lasted till 4, but there was still a bunch of us there, so our groups kind of merged. There was about 10 of us still talking til about 530. After our groups merged, I met some other fun people: Byeong (Korean guy with an irish accent-taught English by irish teachers), James (ESL teacher from London), Betty (a student from Vietnam), Kyle (ESL teacher from Maine), and Alpha (ESL teacher from L.A.) So after a while we decided to go see a movie, the strangers! It was stupid, but it scared me a couple times! Lol I think I scared the girl next to me more than the movie because I screamed a couple times! Lol cheap thrills… lol Then we went to eat at a Korean restaurant (the kind where you sit on the floor! Good times) Then we sang karaoke for an hour, after changing our minds a hundred times about what we wanted to do… Then we went to club Frog! This was a REALLY small club with tons of people in it, a bar, and a DJ. Some people really knew how to dance, but then others (like me) sucked! Lol We went to the balcony first and chilled for a while watching every one dance and sing the songs, then we moved to the bottom where all the people were! Lol it was soooo loud! Some old guy asked me my name and how old I was, I told him Roxie and that I was 16. Lol So he left me alone! By this time of the night, it was just me, alpha, james, and byeong… 1 girl, 3 boys! We were all dancing with each other and laughing and goofing off. It was really close quarters. Anywho, while we were dancing this army boy came up to the bar and grabbed a drink and started talking to me. So my male friends left me all alone “to go outside and get some air” yea right. Lol Anywho, Matt and I started talking. He asked me if I always came out AFTER all the GI’s curfew. Lol I laughed and told him I had only been here for 2 wks. Anywho, I won’t tell you EVERYTHING we talked about cuz that would be a 15 min conversation, but we were screaming into each others’ ears! Lol his name was Matt, 21 yrs old, from Boston, REALLY thick accent, cute smile, my height, and really handsome! But anyway, we were all gonna meet up at another place, but it was almost curfew time and they had to go. So the four of us went to another club, Bubble, and danced to techno music! THAT was fun! It was way less crowded and better music, but then we went back to Frog cuz it had more people. After a while we left and went back to Suseong-gu. We ate at Kimpasa and then I went home. (yes alone! I can’t believe some of you ACTUALLY think that I would bring a guy home. Shame shame) I was suppose to get directions from Byeong (the korean one with the irish accent) but he fell asleep before I got home, so I am not going to church Sunday morning. I really want to go to DFIC- Daegu Faith International Church. I’ll try again next week. Tomorrow night im just gonna hangout with Ned and chill!!!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Today I was suppose to meet one of my co-workers at our office at 1pm so that we could go together to the immigration office, but we both got there late and didn’t leave till 1:30pm. So we had to pay extra money getting a cab which costs us 7 bucks to go about 20 mins away. It’s not much, but it’s a lot when you don’t have any money! So we headed to the immigration office… We took a number and then realized we didn’t need to wait in line. Lol well, the lady told the Korean girl that was with me something about HIV… I was like, what?!?! I have HIV? How?! Lol I was kind of freaking out. How would I have gotten HIV? Lol but it turned out that the hospital left off the results from my HIV test! Lol So we had to go all the way back to our side of the town and get the correct paper work from the hospital. By that time, it was almost time for my first class at 3:40. So I had to head back to ILE on a bus, which only costs a buck fifty. It only took about 12 min to get there from the hospital, but there were tons of lights. I have noticed by the way that if you clocked your wait at a stop light, im sure you’ll find that most of the lights take about 3 min. it’s pretty ridiculous. That was a side note. After work tonight, Ned and I went to this restaurant that had the meal I had been waiting to have…Sam gyup sal. Mmmmmm…it’s very tasty! Its now my favorite meal, but I can’t have it everyday like I can have the bulgogi, cuz it’s twice as much. It cost 6 bucks instead of 3 ½ …lol after dinner we treated ourselves to baskin robbins (first time to go there since I’ve been here). mmm. Tastes just like back home! I forgot to mention that earlier this morning while I was ironing my skirt for work, I burnt the bottom of my foot on it. So it hurts to walk on my foot right now. And since I had been allllllll around town, literally today, my toes and feet have blisters on them from sweating and walking in flip flops…sad day. So my feet aren’t the cutest thing right now…but what’s new. Im always hurting myself in some way or another! Well, tomorrow’s a new day and it’s FRIDAY!!!! We only have two days of work next week because our company takes a half week vaca August 1st thru the august 4th!! I think Ned and I are gonna go somewhere and wander around. She offered to pay for me and then me pay her back when I get paid. I just might take her up on that offer…although if you know me I HATE asking or receiving money from people! I think we’re planning a trip to seoul for my birthday weekend! August 23rd…yay! That’s gonna be sooo much fun! Hopefully my DBU friends will be here already since they will be living in that area! Ok, well, im off! Talk to ya later!!!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Well, today went by too fast. I think I’m living in the twilight zone or something. It’s like I wake up just in time to get ready for work, then head to work, then get off and come home, only to get ready for the next day. Lol I think this is going to be one loooong year! So I finally think im going to record my apt. lol I probly should do it like right this second so I don’t forget…ok. Hold please! Ok done! You’ll have to check out facebook to see the video! Well, I feel that I must tell you a little something that happened last night. I was on my way home from Ned’s house and I was crossing a main street. This main street would be comparable to Cooper Street for those of you that know where that is. Anywho, at this particular time, my hands were full with a tall, new, fan (from cost-co…they have those here too!!) Keep in mind that I live about 12 min walking distance from my school. So I was on my way across the street when all of a sudden, for whatever reason, my feet gave out underneath my body!! I totally bit the dust and my new fan broke…so I was just sitting there, hoping no one saw me (cuz it was dark, but there were lots of cars still out). I’m not sure on how long I sat there, but I was for quite a while. Sweat beading down my face from the heat, embarrassment, and from trying to fix the fan. Anywho, so I kind of rigged it and went straight home as fast as I could! When I woke up this morning, I realized my knee was hurting… Trying to remember why it would hurt, it came to me! Lol I was a klutz and fell. That’s why it’s hurting! So today it’s been really sore. But nothing I can’t suck up! After work tonight I walked home with one of the Korean teachers from my academy (he lives just around the corner from me). He went to the little grocery store with me trying to help me find what I was looking for. Korean guys are extremely nice! They know how to treat women and are very courteous (when they know you). Sung U (you’d have to hear me say his name to get it right) carried all my bags from the grocery store tonight and helped me figure out what my washing machine said in Korean. Lol I totally washed clothes Sunday, but I’m sure I did it wrong cuz it took over an hour to wash them. So I tried to get some help from Sung U. He isn’t fluent in English, so he had a hard time telling me what everything meant, but I think I know what’s up now with it. I even put stickie notes over the buttons in English so I knew what I was doing! Good times! I just found out that on Thursday I am going to go to the Immigration Offie and pay probly more money that I don’t have. I have to get my alien registration stuff and an id. Then I have to go by a bank and open an account with practically no money, just so I can pay bills. Geez. Oh well, t already know that I’m gonna be pooped tomorrow, cuz it’s 2:31am and I need to be up around 10… until next time…

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Well, I can’t believe how fast my first week has flown by! I can’t believe I survived my first week in a foreign country! Lol I realized today that I don’t have much money to spend until I get my first paycheck. Why must everything be so expensive? Why can’t we just live off of a couple bucks a week. Why do our bodies HAVE to eat? Lol I would save so much money and time if I didn’t have to eat. Well, last night Neridia (Ned) and I went out to a couple of clubs so we could try to meet new people. (no cover charge so we went to about four different ones lol) The reason why we went to clubs is because that’s where all the westerners go on the weekends to meet other westerners. And I really want to meet some! I’m getting tired of not having anyone (besides Ned) to hang out with that I can relate with! I have to wake up early and get to work at 1230pm so I can plan for all my classes tomorrow. For the rest of the month of july and a week or so in august, the kids are out of public school. Which only changes the fact that we have kids at our school taking extra classes. The classes aren’t about structuring sentences or whatnot. They’re classes on science things…lol which I really have no idea about. So this month will be very interesting cuz of that. Oh. I met a young man last night from Toronto, Ontario. He was really nice. We just talked for about ten min cuz me and ned were ready to go! I didn’t catch his age, but he wasn’t far behind or ahead me. He had been here for 5 months and was only gonna stay 6mo. So his time is almost up before he leaves. I asked him if he was on facebook, but I couldn’t find him when I got home. Anywho, he was really nice. Ned met a Korean man and hit it off straight away. I think we’re gonna try to hang out with him soon and I think he might show us around a bit. Oh this is good…while I was chillin, watching others dance…this Mexican guy is standing beside me being silly and we started talked. I found out that he was here (from Houston) visiting a friend that was a teacher. We were talking about our last names and of course he knew I was Mexican. So just as this conversation was taking place, they started playing a Hispanic tune. So he was like, let’s go dance. So we did and I sucked it up, just like I knew I would. I told him I would, but that didn’t stop him! Lol we had fun. Omg and I feel the need to tell you that all four clubs we went to had unisex bathrooms. So guys AND girls were in there at the same time! Crazy! It was kind of awkward, but they had stalls just like any normal bathroom. Mostly squatty potty’s but I managed. Anywho. I have to get up early, so g’night! (it’s 3:26am here, Monday morning). I swear I’m gonna get some pics on here. It’s on my to-do list, just as decorating my apt is there too! Kbye

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Well today, as I was walking to work, I went and explored some of the shops. I went to the dollar store and bought a couple things I could use. I went into the little convenient store and got some water. When I got to work I had to meet one of the Korean teachers so she could take me to get my physical. So we took a taxi, which cost five bucks to get us there. At the small, small hospital, I gave blood, gave up some urine, did an eye/hearing test, proved that I was American by a scale and height machine, and last but not least, I had my breasts examined! Lol they had to do an xray of them! Yippee! So, that was pretty much my day. Oh yea!... it was my first day of teaching the kids alone! I didn’t have much time to plan since I was at the hospital, but oh well. I just winged it.. it was fun! I got through my first day! Yay! Tomorrow I’ll have more time to plan since I don’t have anything to do! I walked around some more with Ned (Neridia) and sweat to death.. lol but anywho… until tomorrow.. peace love and joy!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Man, last night was fun! My director and his wife took me out for a welcome dinner, another person out for a goodbye dinner, and another person out for a birthday dinner, and then the rest of the staff at ILE went as well. It was so much fun! We went to this Korean restaurant where they serve tons of stuff family style. We had about 3 tables full of food! We had pork and beef, noodles, fish eggs (which I didn’t eat…yuck), kimchi, soups, etc… it was fun! After that we went and sang karaoke…which was good times… Neridia, the other English speaking person, had a REALLY good time! Lol it was her birthday and she knew how to have a good time, if you know what I mean! Lol I think she might have had a little too much to drink! Lol other than that, today, Wednesday was nothing special. It was Felix’s last day at ILE. It was my last day of observing! Yay! Tomorrow I have to go to the Doctor for a check up. Yippee.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Well, this morning I woke up around 630am (by the traffic outside my window). I have been doing little things around the house. I finally got my computer recharged (thanks Felix!). He left me several things: computer speakers, an iron, and an American outlet converter. It’s this huge box that converts the wattage. Lol it’s huge! I promise I will get pictures online soon. I have really been too busy to take the pictures! It’s now 740am and im thinking im gonna go back to bed! If you want a somewhat overview of this coming week: I’ll be going to get my physical, blood tested, chest exam, immigration trip, and observation of more classes!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Well, last night I got in and I was one of the last people off the plane and one of the last to meet Elizabeth and Jake from ILE! I fell sleep on the plane cuz I was EXTREMELY tired! I hadn’t been asleep since the night before when I really only got a couple of hours anyway. I couldn’t really sleep because I was too anxious!! So for some strange reason I remember kind of waking up when one of the flight attendants runs to my seat and asks for my boarding pass and when I gave it to him, he ran back to the front. I never asked why cuz they woke me up lol. Oh well, everything must have been fine cuz I had all my stuff when I got there! So as I met Jake and Eliz, I could tell that they thought I had brought too much from America! Lol Jake is American and Elizabeth is Korean. They are soooo cute together! But they argue all the time! It’s funny. They pick on each other a little bit, but they have only been married since 2000. They took me to a place called New York New York. It was a mix of American food and Korean food. I had dagalbi (spelling?) which was in the form of a steak, some cream soup that was DELICIOUS, a baked potato with some kind of sweet sour cream or topping, and mountain dew, and bread! Mmm, it was soooooo good! I ate almost, literally everything on my plate since I hadn’t eaten since 1pm and it was them 9pm. So after that I went back home and unpacked half a bag then crashed on a sheet-less bed with my pillow and my blanket. The AC was on only in my room and I had a little fan next to my bed. I woke up refreshed around 730 am. So I got on with the day. My shower isn’t bad at all. There are no curtains, but I could put one up if I wanted, but it’s not necessary. Mine doesn’t hit anything else except the wall and my body! You have to hold it while rinsing though, cuz it’s too short to lean back! Lol my bathroom was really cleaned and I can tell, so that’s good. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some cleaner and keep it clean. My apt is actually pretty cute. I was very thankful and impressed! It’s WAY better than the one I was gonna get. The one that was newer and nicer and more expensive…I can definitely say that I got the better end of the stick on that one too! Well, today was my first day of work! All I really did was observe Felix and Neridia’s classes. Felix is the one from Arizona and I’m taking over all his classes. I’m so excited! All the kids are adorable and fun, but the little ones are sooo cute! We had fun yesterday! They didn’t really show too much emotion when they found out that it was Felix’s last day! Lol oh well. I won’t get my hopes up for when they don’t care about me leaving! Lol I ate lunch again with Jake and his wife, Elizabeth, at a Korean little place! I need to find out what I ate so I can write it down. It was really good. A little spicy, but I could handle it and it was only 5 bucks, even... no change. After work I was REALLY tired! I had already been out before work walking around town, which I have come to find out takes a lot out of you! Lol so I was ready for bed after grabbing some milk, butter, and eggs. I think I fell asleep around 11

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Today was the day that I left DFW and came to Korea! Things were so much more different than I expected. Lol once I got on the plane from DFW, I realized that there were only a couple Americans. Lol as soon as I deplaned and walked to customs, I saw this guy that had been in the same row, but the opposite side of the plane. I asked if he knew where he was going and he said yes and for me to follow him! Lol so I did and we hung out till I had to board my next plane to Daegu. His name is Jay and he travels for his work, selling things, I think... He was so nice and didn’t mind me sweating lol and walking a goofy girl around. While he took a smoke break, I tried to cool off. We then went to Bennigans and had some drinks and talked for a good long time. I was finally able to quit sweating and look presentable lol. I must admit, this was the first time I felt light-headed, in my ENTIRE life! I had a strawberry margarita and a long island ice tea. (did I mention that when I walked, it felt like I was walking on a conveyor belt…kinda like the ones in the airport. Lol) Jay paid for my stuff like a nice guy usually does! But non-the-less, I had to get my stuff and walk a lil bit to my next plane. Which by the way, when I checked my bags for this second flight, I walked off and the lady chased me down and said “bag opened”. So I thought it had busted and things went everywhere cuz I DID pack almost every bag to the brim! Lol so I went back and she showed me to a room. As I walked in, I saw my bags on the floor, unopened. I was confused. Lol I guess she meant they needed to be opened to be checked. So she checked them and I was on my way. Weird. However, it was nice being spoiled a little bit by Jay! So, here I am waiting for my next flight to board. It will be a short flight, but I wish I was already there! I can’t wait to see what my new apt looks like!!!! Yay!