Life in Seoul

I think I must hate writing. I never write! Right now I am desk warming, all my lesson plans are caught up for next week and almost the week after. I honestly have no clue as to when I am supposed to turn in lesson plans. As it is, I will wind up changing or rewriting these lesson plans next week, as the teacher will have some other idea--which is fine.

I am all settled into my apartment. I have the necessities: toliet paper, towels, pots, pans, cups, plates, chopsticks, electric kettle, a microwave I never use, coffee, salt, and pepper. I am in desperate need of spices--but that will just have to wait until I can't take it any more or I get a paycheck.

My school furnished me with a douvet and pillow coverings for my bed. But I had to go buy the pillows. I was told that Lotte Mart would be the cheapest place to buy things. LIE! I spent $14 on a freaking pillow--only to find that at HOME PLUS (an affliate of Costco) I can get the same pillow for $5. Lotte Mart has things in English and Hongul, I think that is what you pay for. Home Plus is all in Hongul, but it is easier to find things and cheaper too. I am still desperately looking for black flats to wear to work since mine got destroyed in the Korean monsoon. But shoes are expensive and ugly here.

Any way, back to apt! I live on the 5th floor--above a convient store, two restuarants, and a pharmacy, and a dentist's office. I have a lovely view of the mountains and the city. My apt is located close to everything, it take like 15 minutes to get to Itaewon, probaly 20-25 minutes to get to Gangnam (big foreign districts in Seoul)--this is all by subway of course. My apt is also located just a ten minute walk away from school. My school is very nice. It is an old school  and the students are mostly children of trade workers. Still, they are very smart and eager to learn English--until they get to 6th grade. I will take pictures of my classroom soon. I am lucky and have a desk in the best part of the school--the English room. We have a smart board, the window shades have English phrases on them, there is a mini library, it is amazing. The other classrooms I teach in are not so nice, but still they have projectors and tv screens, so that is a plus! My co-teachers are amazing. They are young still and we are grouped in with the music and art teachers, who are also young. We go out to lunch once a month and have coffee every day together. They all speak basic English. We are going out for a girls' night to TGI Fridays on Tuesday night!

hmm what else? My neighborhood is nice. I have markets, bus stop, subway, Home Plus, and a river running by my apartment. Next to the river is an outdoor gym. There are even bathrooms for this outside gym--one especially for little kids--but the doors to it are glass. Weird. I do have a lot of homeless people around. My teacher told me today (after a week of living here), "Carmen-Teacher, I should tell you, please, do not go outside at night by self. Very dangerous, I tink." I tend to agree on this statement. So far I haven't been hurt but this morning walking to work, some crazy homeless dude whips out a knife... he kept walking but I nearly peed myself.  Who whips out a knife when they are walking towards some one any way--and not a small pocket knife, a freaking butterfly knife! I am glad I smuggled my pepperspray here.

I am very excited for the weekend. M is coming in from rural S. Korea. I am going to show him Seoul and make him super jealous of my apartment. Hahaha. I am evil. Well, pictures to come soon, I promise. I don't have any pictures on this computer, as it is my work computer.