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Published: October 23rd 2006
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Kimchi
Learning to make kimchi..anything not to teach, I think I had more fun than the kids! Hello,
I am a but slow at getting going with these things, I apologize! You know, me and technology, we are not exactly friends! So how is life in Ilsan, South Korea, you might ask? Well, it is interesting to say the least! And different of course. Here are a few adventures or misadventures shall I say?
Everything looked the same when I first got here, neon, neon and more neon, oh and people and cars everywhere! So my first morning in town, I decide it would be a good idea to walk to work. Not that smart! I end up lost, of course, and I had to call Taryn (the other foreign teacher at my school) for help. Luckily she met up with me but we were both late. It's always nice to make a good first impression. I survived the day, even though I had to jump straight into teaching. The kids were scared of me at first, and the younger ones still are! The older ones called me fat, great for one's ego. After work, Taryn and her boyfriend Sean took me out for dinner at "La Festa" (an area full of stores and restaurants
Sight seeing
Exercise machines in the park, common sights in Korea and people in our town). We had something delicious but I could never order it by myself or tell you what it was! Taryn dropped me off at the bus stop afterwards and told me the way to go. So I did...I get to my building, go up the elevator to the 10th floor, uhm, I could have sworn there was no windows here this morning, oh well. Get to my door, punch in my code (yeah, you punch in a code to get in the apartment, pretty cool, except when you forget it or mix the numbers up!)...it doesn't work! Ok, back down the elevator, back around the building, pretty sure I live here, go up, still windows, code still doesn't work! Argh! Down the elevator, cross the street, no, not here, cross other street...wow, this building is exactly the same! Go up to the 10th floor, no windows! Punch in my code, it works! I am home, over an hour later.
Most of my adventures happened in the first few days I was here. Like when I checked out the gym. The first time, not a soul who spoke English, ok, my sign language is decent, I
Sight seeing
A door on the grounds of a palace, close to city hall checked out the gym, got an idea of prices... come back the next day, this one girl speaks decent English, awsome. So I confirm what I thought I had learned. There's some kind of deal on if you get pool access, classes and gym so I wanna consider it and ask about the classes. She gives me a card written in hangul (Korean characters) and no details, I'm like can you explain this to me and she stares at me blankly..."you can't read!". Uhm, no, I've been here for 3 days and this is Korean!!! But that's not it, there's a massage clinic in the gym too so I ask about it the next day and she doesn't know, I have to speak to them directly, ok. She says "they don't speak English, do you need help?" and I feel adventurous, "no thanks, I'll use my sign language" and she says "ok, but the guy is blind" and doesn't offer anymore help. Somehow I managed to get my point across and find out prices. This girl always looks at me like I'm a retard, wonder why!
But now I have the gym figured out, it's pretty cool. They
provide everything too, like water (can't drink tap water here, gotta buy bottles), towels, soap, q-tips, even clothes (I was wondering why everyone was dressed the same! Different colors for men and women), ...everything but they only have one toilet and no sink and the place is huge, doesn't make much sense. I have joined a spinning/dance class twice a week and it is hilarious! I'm learning great moves! I also took up yoga and my competitive spirit was murdered when I realized how flexible all skinny Korean people are compared to me. I can't do the basic sitting position yet but I am learning, as much as one can when you don't understand anything that is.
There is much more to say of course but I better go to bed, it's getting late here. But I will be back. I realize I should have a theme and stick to it when I write, but maybe next time, I am done icing my knees.
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Hilary
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Hey Marie-Eve!! Sounds wicked... hahahaha.. I love the part about doing sign language to the blind guy! Can't wait till I get over there!