Excitedly tired!

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Hello all,

We have finally, after a long couple days of traveling, arrived to our new home in Yangsan, South Korea and so far we love it!!
Our flights were good for the most part, except that one our suitcases got lost, and we missed a connecting flight while dealing with that...no word yet on where the suitcase is, but we are hoping to find out soon!!
Once we finally arrived in Busan, we met our co-teachers, Mike's is Jung Hoon, and I have 2, Sun Hee, and I can't remember the other one's name. We each went to our schools, got shown around, then we brought to our apartment. I had lunch at my school's cafeteria, and the other teachers laughed when I tried to use the chopsticks and told me to just use my fork or it would take me forever to eat! Guess that's something I can practice at home! Mike had his first meal in Korea and he went to a ...Chinese restaurant!! Go figure!
So now for our apartment: it's a 1 bedroom, 2nd floor apartment, overtop of a restaurant, which is quite common here. It's in a new area and there are tons of restaurants and stores around us! It seems to be a new high-class (ish) suburb, and of course, we have a view of the enormous mountains from our large balcony! In fact, in Yangsan, everywhere you look is mountains!
After a 12 hour sleep last night, we braved the grocery store this morning, which was quite the adventure! We saw a few things we recognized, among them, a tiny jar of peanut butter that cost about 7$..guess we won't be eating any pb&j sandwiches! Lucky for us, our schools had given us some starter supplies, like laundry soap, dishes, shampoo, pans and pots...that sure came in handy!
Oh, and one final note about our "Swine Flu Quarantine"....all it means is that we can't teach until we have been in the country for 7 days and we have to get our temperature checked...because of course if you are running a fever, you could have swine flu...riiight...or about a million other illnesses! Anyways, the way I see it, we have a week to explore the city, get settled in and try to learn some of this language!
We hope you are all doing well back home and would love to hear your news as well!! Miss you very much!
Danielle and Smeeth (as his co-teacher calls him!)

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Photos

Our building
That long balcony on the second floor is us! Loving the mountains in the background!

View from our balcony
This is in the morning, kinda hazy, but still a beaut!

Kitchen
There are red cupboards under the counter top as well

Bathroom
Notice the shower is does not have it's own area...the whole bathroom is the shower! Different, but interesting!

Our bedroom
They must have thought a girl was living here, because everything is flowery!

Comments

[Aunt Karen]

+waited patiently
I am so glad to her you guys made it, and that everything is working out good so far. Heard you are in quarantine...what kind of diseases did you bring with you????hahaha just kidding. Nice pic's and LOVE the mountains!!! Can't wait for more updates and if I have anything interesting (probably not) I will share. Amy and I are going on our own adventure, as exciting as we are allowed to be...we are going to Cancun for a week In October. Anyway, that's it, take care.

[Catherine]

WOW! I'm so jealous :) You have a nice setup (more room than I had @ my flat in England) - much better than the idea I had from others' stories. Beautiful place, helps its kinda new eh ;) LOL Why didn't you pack me in your suitcase?

[Dawn and Jeff]

Hey guys! So glad you got there OK. Very cute apartment! Is the bed long enough? The shower would definitely take some getting used to. Enjoy your week off, and keep sending pictures! Love Aunt Dawn and Uncle Jeff

[Brett]

looking good
well the place looks good, that's hilarious... smeeth, have fun mike, well 7 days is good, good enough to explore and what not, you know, go to some korean speech classes, anyways have fun, the barbecue for jerilyn was good, went well.

[Brayden and Trace]

You went to South Korea!!??
Thanks for the heads up jerks. Great to hear that everything is going well thus far. The apartment looks great and everything sounds awesome. Make sure that you guys keep us up to date and get skype, it was a lifeline for me because it's cheap as hell aka free. I know I have said this numerous times but it's absolutely incredible you're doing this. Hope all is well and you actually read these comments since I am being lame.

[mike dano]

Bed & Shower
Well, the bed IS long enough, but it is also hard as heck! We might as well be sleeping on the floor, it would feel the same. And it seems to be the norm here, so I have been using my hiking mat to give me a little cushion when I sleep, but it's still not great! Luckily so far, we have been keeping super busy and walking everywhere so by bedtime, we are exhausted and just fall right to sleep! As for the bathroom, yes, it is taking some getting used to...everything gets soaked so we have to be careful! Good luck Aunt Dawn with the start of a new school year! I start teaching tomorrow! Yay! I've been told the English level of my students is below par...not quite sure what to expect, but the few times I have been to school, they seem quite interested in talking to me, so that's a good start!