The Adventure Slows Down...Day 4 in Korea

I woke up early (yet again) on Sunday morning (around 6:30). I tried reading in hopes that that would get me back to sleep but my hopes were fruitless. I rolled out of bed and into the kitchen (this isn't an exaggeration, since they're in the same place) and cooked up some dumplings and stick coffee for breakfast. I ate the dumplings and drank my stick coffee while sitting at my little Korean breakfast table, listening to Korean lessons on my laptop. 

Awwwwww...

After finishing my breakfast, I decided that it might be a bad day to go out adventuring, since it was the day before I started work and my director was bound to call me it some point. But I wanted to adventure... I decided to save my adventuring for after her phone call and/or any meetings we might have. So I did some laundry with my new detergent pushed onto me by the sweet old lady. I also Skyped with my parents and talked to various people on the Internet, making sure I was caught up on everyone else's social life. (Hey, when you've got no one to talk to in a foreign country, that's what you do. Shut up.) I spent most of my day organizing my apartment until I was completely satisfied and taking care of little projects that I'd made for myself. One project was to get the TV working, which didn't take long at all. I even got the Xbox hooked up, but was not able to get it to connect to XboxLive. Without XboxLive, I would have to resort watching NetFlix movies on my small computer screen. (#firstworldproblems) Unfortunately, I never did find a way to get it to connect. Maybe I'll be able to find a friend who knows a thing or two about Korean modems and is willing to help me with my first world problem.

One thing that had really been bothering me is that I didn't know my address. Korean addresses are different, so it's not something I could figure out very easily, even if I could read Korean! I realized that I wasn't even sure that I was living in Seongnam, as I'd seen several road signs the previous day with Seongnam printed on them...only pointing away from my apartment complex. I remembered that we'd driven for quite a while from the school before getting to the apartment, so it was very likely that I didn't live in Seongnam. All I really knew about where I lived was that it was in a city that looked like this:

Hmmmmmm...

 I looked around the Seongnam area on Google Maps, but was unable to find any landmarks that looked like they were anything close to me. Then a thought occurred to me...I'd seen a bill of some sort with an address on it in Korean that was in the mailbox for my apartment downstairs. I rushed downstairs, grabbed it, and ran back up the stairs. Using my terrible Korean reading skills, I was able to sound out some bastardized forms of the characters until I was able to type in something that Google maps would recognize: Gwangju.

Bingo.

I lived in Gwangju. I immediately looked it up on Wikipedia and found out that Gwangju was a large metropolitan city with a lot to offer. People came there for all sorts of stuff! It was a cultural hotspot in Korea with a lot of significant history. There were even tons of western bars! Hooray. It wasn't until I glanced at the map and saw that that Gwangju was in a completely different province, very far from Seongnam that I began to have my doubts. I tried Gwangju-si, Gyeongghi-do and then came up with another Wikipedia page about a smaller city called Gwangju (not to be confused with Gwanju metropolitan city!) that had much less to offer. Damn. Oh well. At least I knew where I lived!

I sounded out some more of the characters and was able to narrow down the address to my apartment complex. Yippee! Using an address given to me by my recruiter, I was able to find the school that I was teaching at in Seongnam. Hooray. Now I could find a way to work! 

The map showed me that I'd have to hop on 2 different buses (and walk some) but that it would be possible to make it to the school that way in about 45 minutes. I was stoked. I wanted to go right then and there, but also wanted to wait for my director to call. (She'd seemed worried that she was unable to reach me several times during the previous 2 days so I wanted to make sure that she wouldn't have that problem on this day.) I showered, got dressed, washed dishes, ate more food, read other peoples' Facebooks, and waited. Somewhere in there I decided to start a blog about my adventures in Korea.

The director called around 7 pm to tell me when we would meet the next day and tell me that she regretted that she could not take me out for dinner that night. (Seriously, these people are that hospitable. I'm very fortunate.) I spent the rest of the night chatting with people, Skyping, blogging, and drinking stick coffee to try to stay up. I finally got to sleep around 12:30 am, excited to start my first day of teaching!

The Adventure Gets Much More Comfortable...Day 3 in Korea

I woke up on Saturday morning around 6:30. After wallowing in my bed for a while I came to the conclusion that sleep would no longer find me and I got up. My breakfast of toast and milk reminded me of my objectives for the day: find I-Mart and E-Mart (I wonder if there are Marts for the other vowels...)


I showered, got dressed, put on my sunglasses (I wanted to watch the people staring at me) and decided to set out for I-Mart first, since it was closer and I had more of an idea of where it was. I walked back along the highway, past the gas station with the old men, back towards the school. Turns out that I-Mart was RIGHT BESIDE IT. It was literally on the other side of the street and I missed it somehow! Oh well, I'd found it! I was overjoyed! I ran in to find fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, along with all the junk food and freeze-dried noodles that I could ever want. Score! 


Here are a few of the things that I bought:

Makgeolli (rice wine)

Various noodles (They beat the crap out of anything in the US)

Stick Coffee (yes, the name of that brand is Maxim. It's the kind that I got, too. You have no idea how much I enjoyed searching for Maxim on Google Images)

Cheese

Butter (didn't have any before this day...makes toast so much more enjoyable)

Crap

More crap

Crap Combatant (it was a good thing, too...I was down to the spare roll...thank you Korean food)

It is difficult to describe the joy of being able to go somewhere in a foreign country (where you can't speak the language) and buy food and toilet paper. Knowing that you can do this puts to rest a lot of worry and fear. (You don't want to worry about starving, or being dependent on someone else to get food for you). Loaded down with groceries, I began my proud trek back to my apartment. 

Before I'd even returned to the apartment, I began to wonder about my second objective for the day: E-Mart. It could turn out to be much more difficult, as I only vaguely knew the direction that it  was in and that it had a yellow sign. As I was walking along, I looked at the city in the far distance and what did I see poking up above the rooftops?

It wasn't much more than a blip on the horizon, but there it stood, proud and tall. I smiled, despite how much my arms were aching from all of the crap I was carrying. Today was going to be a good day.

I got back to the apartment and unloaded all of my stuff. After putting everything away, I set out for destination number 2. When I reached the highway, I could see that one of the closer buildings was blocking the sign, so I walked in the direction of the sign until I could see it. From that point, I just followed roads that looked like they might be going in that general direction. It wasn't long before I could see the store itself. I had the option of following a road that led to it, or cutting through a nifty little park that came out behind it. Of course, I chose the park. 

Here's a picture of the park that I filched from someone else's blog:

As I was cutting through the park, I looked up ahead and saw what appeared to be a bearded man on a bicycle. "Hooray!" I thought, "Another Westerner!" As he rode closer I raised my hand to wave at him, only to realize he was just a Korean guy with a cycling mask on. I immediately pretended like I was scratching my back...

From a distance, this could be mistaken for a beard.

After escaping from my faux paux with the biker, I found the entrance into E-Mart and went inside...

Holy God, I don't know how I've lived this long without going inside such a place. I walked in, and all around me was this giant food court. Everything looked awesome. I walked around the food court for a good 15 minutes before finding the area where you actually went into E-Mart itself. 

How can one describe E-Mart...imagine a department store...with the selection of Wal-Mart, a setup similar to Target, and employees who are NICE TO YOU and WORKING HARD. Holy crap. That's E-Mart. I was able to find something like this:

This allows me to plug in my computer, without frying it! Hooray! I'm connected to the rest of the world again!

I also found cables that would allow me to charge my phone (kept on airplane mode) and some detergent. When I was buying the detergent, I sweet old lady who worked at the store came up and encouraged me to try a different kind. After watching me nod, she finally asked me in Korean if I spoke Korean. "A little," I replied in a form that I later found out was not the most polite. I hope she didn't mind my social faux paux. There were a few on this day...

Since the lady was so sweet, I bought some of the detergent she was pushing on me. 

Sympathy Detergent

This wasn't the only thing I bought due to a sweet old employee urging me to. I also got a plastic container (one that was environmentally friendly!) that was pushed onto me by an old lady who was convinced that it would be great to store the batteries that I was buying. I didn't care. I was happy as a clown knowing that I'd be able to power my computer and access my Korean lessons, as well as the Internet.

The trip back to the apartment was uneventful. When I returned, I immediately resumed studying my Korean lessons and learned about how I may have offended the lady selling detergent. Whoops! I also spent a lot of time practicing the phrase "Do you speak English?"

The phone rang, and I answered by saying hello in Korean. My director seemed to get a big kick out of this. After asking me about my day, she invited me out to eat at a Chinese restaurant with her family and some friends and business associates. I joined her, Mr. Lee, and Jake in the car. When they asked me what I'd been doing, I told them about my day and admitted that I'd been studying more Korean. When they asked me what I'd learned, I tried my new phrase on them. The director looked over at her husband, who furrowed his brow and took a guess at what I was trying to say. Guess I need to keep working on my Korean...damn "monkey apple carburetor..."

We arrived at the restaurant, where I tried to practice as much traditional Korean etiquette as possible, despite variations from it by the present company. I met several very nice people. One guy, who sat next to me, had a very similar haircut and someone made the comment that we looked like brothers. I was glad to be in the company of such friendly people, although I felt that I didn't have much to contribute to the conversation.

Dinner!

I had spicy seafood soup similar to this dish. (Try saying that 5 times fast) Although my mouth was able to handle the spiciness of the dish, it caused me to sweat profusely. When I was finished, it was time for Jake and I to leave because the director had important business to conduct with the group. As we were heading to the car, Mr. Lee reminded me to say goodbye to everyone. I turned and proclaimed "Annyeonghi gyeseyo!" (Goodbye/Stay in peace) This prompted a squeal of delight from one of the Korean ladies. "You speak Korean well!" she said. "A little," I replied, this time in a polite fashion. I was doing a happy dance on the inside. 

Mr. Lee dropped me off at the apartment. I thanked him for the meal and then tried to say "Annyeonghi gaseyo!" (Goodbye/Go in peace) He smiled and said goodbye. Jake told me to have a good evening.

Once I removed my shoes, I took a moment to look in all the cabinets and cupboards at all the food and toilet paper that I'd purchased. I felt a sense of accomplishment...a sense of pride that I would be able to eat and poop all on my own. I went to bed with these thoughts, resolving to work harder on my Korean.

The Adventure Continues...Day 2 in Korea

I woke up on Friday morning around 8:30. The night before, I asked Mr. Lee what time I should be awake the next day for work. He told me to rest Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I was very grateful, as working on Friday would have been very hard for me. I had toast and milk for breakfast and spent most of Friday morning unpacking and organizing my belongings. I also had the chance to Skype with my parents using the little amount of battery power I had left. (They have different plugs in Korea, so I couldn't just plug my laptop in.) They seemed pleased.


 I also tried out the shower in the bathroom. If you didn't see the pictures in the previous post, the shower is just kind of an added on nozzle above the bathroom sink. There's a drain in the floor for all of the water. One of the great things about this is that it is very easy to keep your bathroom clean. All you have to do is take a shower and you've practically done all the work!

Pretty cool stuff.

After unpacking, I was hanging out in the apartment, reading when the doorbell rang. I opened it, expecting to see Mr. Lee at the door. Instead, there was some guy dressed in coveralls. "Hello," he said in Korean, and came right in. He slipped off his shoes, marched over to the telephone and began inspecting it. I realized that he was there to hook up my phone. Because my apartment is so small, there are no chairs, and I didn't want to sit next to him on the bed to watch him work, I went into the bathroom and hung out there for a while. After a while I peeked out at him. He called me over, turned the phone over, and showed me that it needed batteries. Because I didn't know how to say "I don't have any batteries" in Korean, I kind of shrugged and did my best to pantomime the fact. He eventually caught on. He went to the door, put on his shoes, and left. He returned about 1 minute later with some batteries and put them into the phone. He then made a phone call on it. I couldn't tell what he was saying, but it didn't sound like it was work related. He must have talked on it for a good 10 minutes before he got a call on his cell phone. He had another, somewhat exciting conversation on his cell for about 10 more minutes. After hanging up, he looked at me and said "Thank you" in Korean and left as abruptly as he came. 

I hung out in the apartment until about 2, since school started at 2 and Mr. Lee or the director might have dropped by to check on me. After not hearing from them until then, I decided to go out and explore my surroundings. I went downstairs and looked around outside. It was dark when Mr. Lee drove me to the apartment and so I wasn't exactly sure how to get out of the complex. A man drove by in a truck that had a recording playing. He was either buying, selling, or repairing electronic devices. I couldn't really tell. I walked around the complex for a bit, running into only dead ends. I saw that there were men working to repave the street a ways down and figured that that was the only way to get out of the complex. It started to get really hot and so after some confusion, I found my building and went back to my cozy, air conditioned apartment. Satisfied that I could find my way back to my place, I spent about 15 minutes in the apartment before my stomach started growling. I decided to go on a quest for some sort of food and drink. 

I found an alternate, roundabout way to get around the men repaving the street and walked out to the main highway. It looked kind of like this, except a little more like an interstate. You couldn't cross the street because of the traffic, and there was a divider in the middle of the road. You could, however, walk on the sides of the highway.

Most of the shops were in Korean. I passed by a gas station with some old men sitting out in front of it. Across the highway I could see a 7-11, but did not see any easy way to get to it. I walked along the street past several shops and sit-down restaurants. I was initially searching for some sort of grocery store, but I was starting to think about possibly going to a restaurant. Knowing that Korean restaurants are mostly designed to accommodate families, I decided to look for some kind of street food, perhaps a hole-in-the wall shop with a menu that had pictures so that I could point at them. I hiked along the road for a while, until I found a shop that looked like exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, it was closed. 

I eventually reached a dead end next to a school, so I decided to go back towards the complex. By the time I got to the gas station with the old men, I was really thirsty so I decided to stop there to get something to drink. As I got closer to the building, I could see that it was not the kind of gas station that carried that had food and drink...it just had stuff for automobiles. The old man that was sitting outside got up from his chair and approached me. He asked me what I was looking for. I tried to explain that I was just looking for junk food or soda or something like that. (At that point, I was hungry for just about anything). He couldn't understand me very well, but told me to wait there and ran to get his son, who he said had "good English." He insisted that I sit in his chair while I waited. His son (another old man) came out and asked me if he could help me. I told him what I was looking for and he said "We don't have that here. Would you like some water?" I told him yes. He ran inside and brought back a bottle of water. When I asked him how much it would cost, he insisted that it was free and wouldn't take any money for it. I thanked him and continued on. 

I saw a restaurant that looked like it had the kind of food that I was looking for. I saw someone go inside and decided to try my luck there. Inside, people were sitting around watching TV and eating. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to wait for someone, if I was supposed to seat myself, or what so I just stood there for a while. When I saw no apparent waiters or waitresses, no menus, and no apparent place to order food, I went back outside. I hiked back to the apartment and decided I'd settle for more toast and milk. Fortunately, the milk is really good. It's actually some of the best that I've ever had!

Hunger, heat, and jet lag all worked together to create fatigue, and after I ate my toast and milk, I decided to take a nap. The phone rang around 10:30. It was the director. She told me that she'd tried to call earlier that morning (presumably before the phone was hooked up) and received no answer. She said that they'd had such a busy day at school that they didn't have time to call, but she asked if I was hungry and if they could take me out to eat. I agreed. She told me that Mr. Lee would be by to get me in about 10 minutes. I got ready to go out and after Mr. Lee called me saying that he was almost there, I went down to meet him. Mr. Lee was in the car with Jake and his daughter. Jake asked how I was and told me that we were going to eat golbi. I asked him what it was and he said "I don't know," but then changed his mind and thought for a minute and finally came up with "sweet meat." His sister later told me that it was pork. On the way to the restaurant, Mr. Lee asked if I'd been able to use the Internet. I told him yes, but that the battery on my laptop had died and that I needed a transformer to plug it into so that it wouldn't fry my computer. He told me that I could find one of those at E-Mart and pointed to a large yellow sign out in the city. It looked like it was a good ways from the apartment, but I made a mental note to find a way to E-Mart the next day.

The restaurant had an area with smaller tables where you sat on the floor and it also had booths. We sat in a booth that had a hole in the middle of the table. The server brought an open metal container filled with hot coals which he placed in the hole in the middle of the table. He then brought a grill that was placed over the hole and 2 very large pieces of meat. Mr. Lee used cooking shears to cut the meat into small pieces and cook them. It all looked a lot like this picture. 

He would cook the pieces and then place them in front of each person when he was finished. The server also brought out a lot of bowls with different sauces, ingredients, etc. Mr. Lee's daughter asked me if I like onion. I told her that I liked it okay. She poured some sort of broth over some onions in a bowl, handed it to me, and said "Try it later." I assumed that it was to be mixed with the golbi and probably rice. When the server brought rice out, I took the portion that was mine and dumped it in the broth. Everyone shouted "NOOOOOO!" right before it went in, but then shrugged and laughed. (They seemed sad that I'd done that and wouldn't let me eat the broth)

I tried the different sauces and ingredients, some incorrectly I think judging by the fact that they all burst out laughing several times when I would eat certain things. Oh well, at least it all tasted good. Golbi is awesome.

We left the restaurant and got in the car to head back. We talked about some movies and I entertained them with my impersonation of a New Zealand dialect (they used to live in New Zealand, so they'd had some experience with that...I thought it was even funnier when Mr. Lee started to tease his daughter about the way she'd acquired it while they'd lived there). On the way back, Mr. Lee stopped by a store called I-Mart and pointed it out to me. He said that I could buy everything I needed there. He then showed me how I could get there easily from the apartment. It was night time and I was a bit turned around, but I began to suspect that it was very close to where I'd walked earlier that day...

They dropped me off at the apartment and I thanked them for the meal. Jake told me to have a good weekend. I spent the rest of the night reading. As I drifted off to sleep, I decided that the next day my objective would be to visit both I-Mart and E-Mart... 

The Adventure Begins...Day 1 in Korea

Hello from Korea!

I haven't been able to use my computer much for the past few days so please allow me to bring you up to date on the recent events of my life.

So after getting no sleep on Tuesday night, I flew out of Atlanta at 6:50 am EST on Wednesday morning. (see above picture) Yes, I got a haircut.

My flight to Chicago left a little late but still arrived at O'Hare International Airport in plenty of time for my connecting flight to Korea. American Airlines failed to tell me that my checked luggage would automatically be transferred over to my connecting flight so I spent my first hour in the airport waiting at the baggage claim before figuring out that it wasn't going to come out. I decided that my first priority after that should be checking in with my next flight on Asiana Airlines, that way I would know what gate I would be leaving from and I could get some sort of answer as to where my baggage was.

After going up the the Ticketing/Check-In area and pacing up and down the terminal, I was unable to find any sign of Asiana Airlines. Eventually I was able to find a map of the airport. 

I was busy wondering around Terminal 3, when I needed to be at Terminal 5. Luckily, O'Hare Airport has a train that goes to all of the terminals so I was able to get there quite easily. (Where's Terminal 4? If there is no Terminal 4, shouldn't Terminal 5 be Terminal 4? These are important questions that need to be answered!)

After arriving at the International Terminal (Terminal 5), I checked in with Asiana and was told by the Indian lady behind the counter that my bags would automatically be transferred over to Asiana. Hooray! She then asked me a lot of questions about why I was going to Korea. We discussed my job, Korean culture, adventure, and all kinds of stuff like that. She seemed awfully interested in what I was doing. Maybe I should have asked her for her number...

I checked in, then immediately went to the booth to the exchange booth to get some Korean money, in case there was any trouble acquiring it in Korea. For $525 I got something like 550,000 Won. Nice. I was already halfway to being a millionaire. 

I swaggered through security, feeling awfully wealthy and found my gate. There were already a lot of Koreans, Japanese, and Philipinos...Philippeanos...people from the Philippines waiting at the gate. I strolled around the airport, bought some stuff for the flight, and hung out until it was time to board the plane.  At last, they called for the plane to board and it was time for my 14 hour journey to Korea.

I'd never heard of Asiana Airlines before now. I expected to fly KoreanAir to Korea and was actually a little disappointed when I saw that I would be flying Asiana. I expected the trip to be long and cramped, and according to my ticket I didn't get any meals on the trip. I was ready for 14 hours of hell. 

What I got instead was the best flight I've ever been on in my life. That's right, the best flight of my life was one that lasted 14 hours. The chairs were very comfortable, the service was fantastic, and I was fed not once, not twice, but 3 times (not counting snacks). The food was great and served to us by some of the most beautiful Korean women that I've ever seen. (I was later told that women working for Asiana have to be tall, beautiful, happy, and must speak good Korean, English, and some Japanese. Wow.) We had a choice of Western meals or Korean meals. I chose Korean for my meals (except breakfast, which I slept through. A flight attendant saw me wake up and brought me a sandwich. Yeah. That's what I call service.) I had bibimbap, which was awesome, and it came with fruit and kimchi. I'd never had kimchi before the flight...now I don't know how I ever lived without it. I also had spicy octopus for my second meal, which I expected to be gross but turned out to be quite tasty. In addition to the good food and service, we had TV screens that came with a little controller that could be used to access movies, radio, games, and other stuff that I never even explored. It was awesome. I played some of the games, did crossword puzzles, read from "The Korean Tribune", and listened to a lot of K-Pop on the way there. I'd planned to study Korean on my computer but decided not to waste the battery. I did spend a lot of time practicing "Nice to meet you" in Korean so that I could impress my director and/or coworkers at the airport. At some point, the little Phillipino...Philipino...child from the Phillipines that was sitting next to me fell asleep on my shoulder. I was too pumped about Korea to really care. 

After 14 hours our plane landed at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, Korea. 

This is probably the coolest airport that I've ever been to. There's all kinds of stuff going on there! It also looks really cool, sleek, and clean! 

After going through immigration and waiting forever to collect my bags, I walked out into the receiving area. I was told that there would be someone there with a sign that had my name on it. When I walked out, none of the signs had my name on them! Before the sinking feeling could set in, a well-dressed man with a smile on his face walked forward and asked, "Are you Patrick coming from Chicago?" I said yes and asked him what his name was. He told me it was Lee. At last, the moment of truth had arrived; I could finally use the phrase I'd been practicing throughout the duration of the flight! I shook his hand, bowed and tried to say "Nice to meet you" in Korean, but immediately forgot how to say it and said something along the lines of "Monkey apple carburetor." He smiled and laughed and directed me to his car. It was a very sporty Kia. We drove for about an hour along the coast. There were lots of mountains, bridges, and beautiful scenery along the way. Along the way, I chattered like a monkey in a tree, asking Mr. Lee lots of questions about Korea, the cities we drove through, sports, family, and whatever I could think of. Mr. Lee informed me that he was the husband of the director, that he worked at the school, and that he had 2 kids. We also talked about baseball, UFC, and soccer. He'd spent some time in New Zealand and was familiar with their rugby team, and even knew the Haka. (this awesome dance that the team does before their matches; you know what I'm talking about, Will.) At the end of about an hour, we arrived in Seongnam.

Yeah, approximately 1 million people live in Seongnam. And more people commute there for work every day. Pretty cool!

We reached the school. Mr. Lee let me out of the car and showed me up the stairs to the second floor of a building. We walked through a glass door, where Mr. Lee instructed me to kick off my shoes and gave me some indoor slippers to wear. He went into the school and got the director, who was teaching a class. She came out to greet me and told me that they were very excited about my arrival. She asked if I was tired and Mr. Lee said something to her in Korean as he left to teach class. She laughed and told me that he said that I was very energetic. She offered to let me use the internet while she taught. I expected her to show me to an office, an empty classroom, or perhaps the computer lab but instead she led me to a class that was filled with children. At the front of the classroom was a desk with a laptop on it. She told me that I could use it and got some of the children to help me access websites in English . After getting me set up, she started talking to the children in Korean. I heard my name in there somewhere along with "seunsing nim" (teacher) and at one point, they all looked at me and said "Hello!" "Hello," I replied, which sent them all into giggles. "Annyeoung haseyo!" I added, (Hello in Korean) and they all gasped. The director began teaching the class in English. She got as far as "Okay class,  today we are studying Lesson 2, Part 1. Open your books to page..." before one of the kids shouted "Teach us in Korean!" (in Korean, of course). She then took the children to another classroom so that I could use the Internet in privacy. That's the sort of hospitality that I have experienced so far. 

While I surfed the Internet, some of the children stopped by to say hello. One of them was named "Jake." (his English name, not his real name) I later found out that Jake was the son of the director and Mr. Lee. After about 30 minutes, the director summoned me to her office to eat with her, Jake, and one other teacher. (Her English name was "Jane.") We ate 3 different kinds of street food, and after that the director gave me "stick coffee."

Stick coffee is a little packet of coffee that has instant coffee, sugar, and powdered cream. You just pour it in your cup, add hot water, and stir. You can buy these big bags of 100 sticks at supermarkets for about $10-15 (or 45 billion won). I've been drinking a lot of it to stay up and get acclimated to Korean time.

After dinner, I got to go back to the classroom to surf the internet some more. This time the class stayed in there. They mainly worked on a worksheet in their workbooks. One of the kids was eating a big bag of chips. When she was finished, she turned the bag up to eat the rest of the crumbs. She caught me looking at her and turned pink. "Is that good?" I said, in Korean. Well, at least that's what I think I said. It probably came out as "Monkey apple carburetor." Either way, she nodded. The class worked for about 40 minutes and then went home for the day. Jake came in after a while and we talked about video games and K-Pop. Jake's a really smart kid with a good attitude and very good manners. He's 13 in Korean years but probably only 11 or 12 by our ages. He's very friendly and seems to be very intrigued by my Western-ness. 

When the last class was finished, Mr. Lee took me to his house to get the key to my apartment. I noticed that it was quite a drive to their house. I hoped that we would be turning around to go back closer to the school, but after retrieving the key, Mr. Lee drove about 5 minutes further and showed me to my new apartment.

Here are some photos of the apartment. It's small by American standards, but very well-equipped. It was much better than I expected. Not only did it come with a washing machine, bathroom, and a kitchen, but it also came with a TV, land line, AND  air conditioning! The air conditioning is great right now because it's really hot out here. Notice the picture of the door: there's a little area where you leave your shoes. Most places have this little area. I love it.

When we walked in, Mr. Lee showed me everything in the apartment. When he looked in the bathroom, he exclaimed "Oh no! You don't have any soup!" I thought maybe he was referring to water in the toilet, but upon closer inspection I saw that the toilet was working just fine. I finally realized that he was saying "soap." He told me that he'd be right back. After about 15 minutes he returned with not only soap, but shampoo, conditioner, bread, and milk. (For toast in the morning, he said). After putting the milk in the refrigerator and making the bed, I immediately passed out as soon as I lay down. Day 1 in Korea = Awesome. Stay tuned for Day 2!