Welcome to Korea!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this started! And this first post is really long cause i have a lot of catching up to do.. But anyway, if you didn't know, I am currently living in Suwon (a suburb of Seoul), South Korea teaching english for the year! I've been here for about 3 weeks now and am really starting to enjoy myself.

Fist arriving here was SO CRAZY! I came with a group of about 50 other kids from wisconsin and we all flew over together after a brief orientation at a hotel in Chicago the day before.. so we are all excited together in Chicago and on the plane.. and then we arrive in Korea and get picked up by our co teacher (the person who we teach class with/ is pretty much responsible for us while we are here) and separated from anything that we have ever known or is familiar to us. My co teacher's name is Dai-Hyun (like hyundai but switched) or his english name which I also call him is Joseph. Joseph is the fucking man! Hes kinda quiet and doesnt really like to go out or drink like some other co teachers do.. but as far as helping me with things that i need and teaching, i could not have asked for a better guy. Any time i need ANYTHING he is so on top of it which a lot of co teachers arent. And he is great to teach with.. a lot of other co teachers just sit in the classroom and let the native speaker do all the teaching, but Joseph likes to be involved and so me and him pretty much split the teaching load 50/50.. which is real nice so I only have to teach half the time and the other half i can just chill at my desk and relax while Joseph handles the class. The teaching here is REAL easy anyway.. having experience working with kids at camp definitely has made it easier to be patient with the Korean students. And i only have 4 classes a day with 3 off periods and an hour for lunch which is way more then enough time to prepare my 1 lesson plan that i need to each week. Plus, i've found/people have told me about a ton of resources for teaching english that make lesson planning so much easier. When i am not teaching i can pretty much do whatever i want on my computer which is pretty sweet. So yah.. teaching is not bad and Joseph is great. And everyone at the school treats me like a celebrity!! All of the kids love me and tell me how i am so handsome and sexy (both the guys and girls).. its a pretty nice ego boost. And everyone bows to me which i am kinda enjoying. And all of the teachers tell me how they like me which is nice.. but honestly kinda annoying at times when they keep trying to talk to me and they dont understand anything i am saying and i dont understand anything that they are saying.. but i guess better then them not liking me. But its funny I can not walk anywhere around the school without some kid trying to say hello or yelling my name! I am mostly called 'Nate teacha' or 'teacha nate' which i think is kinda funny.

Anyway, i get picked up by Joseph and he brings me to my apt. My place is pretty small.. just a room with a bed, small table, small closet, shelves.. a porch like room where i have my washing machine.. a small kitchen and a bathroom. The place is small but i like it. I really dont need much space and my place is cozy. The first few days here were really overwhelming.. my apt really have internet.. i could pick up on some random wireless sometimes.. but that shotty signal was almost as frustrating as not being able to get any internet at all.. i had no phone.. no way of contacting my friends i came over with.. i was in this reallllyyyyyyy strange place where no one understands me and it was kinda hard.. the first few days there were moments that i was pretty homesick missing my life back in madison, my family and Dori.. but as i got settled things have really started to get better.

I am happy to say that i think i have about as good of a situation that i could ask for in Korea.. my city, Suwon is great! There are some cool restaurants and bars and some pretty lively areas to chill around at night. I live around the corner from my school and a short walk to a train station that can take me all over the region.. there is a crew of about 7 people from wisconsin that live within like 15 min of me which is great! A lot of people that i came with are not close to anyone that they know.. and i am close to a group which is really nice and has made adjusting to life here so much easier. The Suwon crew gets dinner/drinks a few nights a week and it is always a good time. Food/drinks here are SO cheap.. we can usually get a huge delicious korean meal (korean food is pretty great by the way) and a few drinks for around 10 dollars.. and sometimes even cheaper. The weekdays here are usually really nice.. school is easy.. then after school ill work out on some days (i joined a gym here which is always a funny experience to go to), then meet up for dinner/drinks on most nights with some of the people that also live with in suwon.. enjoy the meal with friends, have a few drinks.. and then come home around 10 and go to sleep for school the next day. Its a pretty nice life.. VERY low stress.. very easy AND we are getting paid!!

The first weekend here me and like 30+ of the other wisco kids that i came over with all stayed at a hostel in seoul together. That was a pretty good time.. it was great to be around english speaking people. We stayed in a pretty cool area of seoul and explored the city a bit and went out at night. Last weekend was fun too.. friday night we just chilled around in Suwon and went to a few bars. And then Saturday we went into seoul for dinner (tacos!) and went to this reallllllyyyy cool hookah bar that had a live band. The hookah bar also had a handful of drums that they said any of the guests can use!! I CANT WAIT to go back to that place and play with the drums! I really miss the drum circles we used to do in madison.. after the hookah bar we went and drank on the street for a while (which is perfectly legal and VERY cheap). Soju, the korean alcohol, costs like 1 dollar for a small bottle and the korean beer, which is not good but is tolerable, is cheap too. So we were trying to find a place to chill and drink before we went to a bar or club and we met these american guys who were playing guitar for money. One thing that is really cool about being here is that i feel like i have an instant connection with any other non-korean that i meet.. its cool cause pretty much  every non-korean here is either teaching english or in the army. Its really easy to get along with other teachers cause everyone here is doing pretty much the same stuff.. for similar reasons.. and having similar experiences so its really easy to start conversations and you can relate to people easily. So after meeting up with some more friends and chilling drinking for a little bit we went to this hysterical club with koreans dressed up in chef costumes.. but they kept feeding  us free drinks so we stayed! It was a pretty fun night and at the end we just took a cab back to suwon (took like half hour and was only like 10 a person) and passed out. The next day i went to cotsco! Yes, they have costcos here and my american membership works! Thanks mom!! Costco was pretty funny too.. it was PACKED! All the koreans were there stocking up on stuff for chousouk (korean thanksgiving) that is happening next week. I got a ton of food and it was nice to be in a somewhat familiar feeling place. And because of chousouk, i only have school monday next week and so me and kimbal are going to the island of Jeju (Korean Hawaii)! Im pretty pumped.. and then i found out that the week that i get back i have an orientation from wed-friday which i miss school for! I also heard the orientation is just a way to meet and get drunk with the other foreign teachers in your areas.. im definitely looking forward to it. So i only have to teach 4 days over the next almost 3 weeks!! See, i told you this job was pretty easy!! Another note on that, today the kids all have national testing so no class.. so ive been sitting on my computer for the entire day and havent had to teach anything! Not too bad..

So yah.. overall Korea is pretty fun.. and i havent even gotten my cellphone yet (which i will hopefully get right when i get back from chousouk)! I am getting settled and starting to really enjoy my time here. I do miss Madison and my life there.. but this is getting pretty cool.. i am kinda enjoying being a 'real' person with normal person hours..  And I really miss Dori, but weve been e-mailing and videochatting a good amount which has made it a little easier.. she is so great! and Kimbal who i chill with almost ever day is in a similar situation as me with having a girl at home so its really good to have him to talk to and relate to about that stuff. And ive been able to skype with my family pretty regularly which has been REALLY nice.. and ive been able to text through gmail for free which is pretty sweet too. Give me your numbers so i can text you/skype call you!!! Aight i guess thats about it for now from korea. Im glad that i got all of that out of the way so i can now more focus on the hysterical shit that happens pretty much every day here. More to come soon.. THANKS FOR READING!!!