Thursday, August 14, 2008

I got paid for the first time in Korea yesterday! That feeling is wonderful…to know that you have money and don’t have to be broke! Ugh. I can’t tell you have great it feels. I am working on a budget so this doesn’t happen again. It was just so hard to come here with barely anything and then it all be gone the first 2 ½ wks.
Today is the last day before another holiday! Man, I love how Korea has so many holidays! Tomorrow is Korea’s Independence Day (from who, I don’t know, but I’ll find out!). Mostly all the teachers are off, but there are a few schools who like to keep their teachers working ALL the time…like my friend Alpha. They’re school only gives them off for Thanksgiving and Christmas (on the American holidays) and makes them work pretty much all the other days of the year, except for Sundays… I can’t believe how God blessed me here with awesome things! I’m still realizing little things that have fallen into place when I came here! Teachers from here keep asking me why I chose the school that I’m at now, and I just tell them because I liked how the Director spoke to me on the phone and how easy-going he seemed to be! I liked the things he had to say about the school and the current teachers! It felt so good to be thought of as continuing to better the school!! So, since I’ve been here a month, I have heard MANY stories about how foreign teachers hate their job or just little stories about their bosses and whatnot. But all I can say is that I love my: director, his wife, the other teachers at ILE, my apartment they provided, the pay, the location of my apt and school and where we are in south Korea, the new friends I’ve made, and the food! Can you see why I love it here! I have been thinking about whether or not I will stay here for another year… the cons are somehow not that much…so, if you think of a con that I don’t already have then I’ll add it to my list…
PROs for staying in South Korea:
No apt fees (except gas, electricity, and internet)
Walk to work everyday
Traveling countries I haven’t seen
Learning/Using a new language
Having a secured job
Meeting different people
I love what I do
The people here are mostly sweet and caring
Paying on my school loans on time
Paying off my credit cards and still have money

CONs for staying in South Korea:
Won’t get to see my family
Won’t get to see my friends
Won't get to babysit the 2nd best kids in the world, Newberry's
Won’t get to see the Garners on my way back to TX
Taking the Taxi places can get expensive
I have to eat out most of the time, since it’s so expensive to cook your own food
Have to wire money home which costs a lot

Well, I need to get ready for work seeing that I have to be there in an hour and a half…
Tonight, my friend, James (from London), and I are gonna go out and meet some new people. We’ll see how well we do! Then tomorrow him and I are going to downtown to look around at all the great places to shop and dream about. Then at 3 I am meeting a friend from work, Carrie. She wanted to take me shopping when I got paid! I won’t spend too much, seeing as I don’t really need anything…but it’ll be good to see what people have and where I can go if I DO need something! After Carrie and I are done, I am going to meet back up with all my friends and we’re going to take stuff to our friend who is under house arrest (not really but I can’t explain right now because I’ll be late for work so I’ll tell you about it next time…just know she’s not really in trouble with the law…just with her parents! Lol). After that I think we’re going out to downtown to see my asian crush (a guard at one of the clubs…he’s so hott!!) lol and then just chillin somewhere. Saturday will be a day of relaxation and then when Alpha gets off work I think we’ll be going out of town to Suncheon (spelling?)…maybe. We might wait till Sunday to go, so we don’t have to pay for a hotel. Which I’m sure we’ll do instead! So that’s what I have planned…we’ll see if it goes as well as I wrote it! Talk to ya soon peeps!