I was so happy to get moved into the apartment.  The dorms were nice in that they allowed all the new teachers to bond, however, I do like having my own space and not having to live out of a suitcase.

The apartment is a bit small, but it's more than enough room for me...and certainly bigger than my guest room that I had been living in for the month and a half before I left.  It's a studio apartment with a bathroom and a laundry area.  In the main area, I have a full sized bed (woohoo), small table, desk and a dresser.  Along the kitchen wall, there is a refrigerator, microwave, stove and sink.  There is no oven.  There are more than enough dishes and such...as we all know that I don't cook.

The bathroom is typical of those in korea as it does not have a seperate shower.  Instead, the shower head is connected to the sink and the water sprays onto the floor.  Different than what I'm used to, but works just fine.

I have a little enclosed patio area that houses a washing maching and my closet.  The washer buttons are all in Korean, so I just take a guess everytime I need to use it.  So far, so good.  There are no dryers so the laundry is dried on the rack that's in my room.  The clothes dry pretty quickly with the AC running as it sucks the moisture out.  In the winter, I hear that the fastest way to dry the clothes is by putting them on the floor because the floor is heated.  We'll see.

If there's anything else you'd like to know about the place, drop me a line.

Training has officially ended.  They did an excellent job of planning everything for the 8 days.  We covered everything from culture, to lesson plans, to how to survive in Korea.  I feel like living here will be a challenge, but certainly manageagable.

I will be a teacher trainer at the Ulsan Institute of Foreign Language Education.  I'm not totally sure what this will entail, but it sounds like I will be helping Korean teachers learn English, helping prepare workshops for the native English speaking teachers, and teaching English classes to gifted elementary and middle school students.  I will not have a class of my own to work with throughout the year, but rather a series of short classes/workshops.  There are 5 other native English teachers at this location who I will be working with.  After talking with one of the gals, it sounds like this placement is one of the best and should be awesome.

I FINALLY got to move into my apartment.  It's about a 5-10 minute walk from the Institute and also 5 minutes from Ulsan University.  Being close to the University gives me easy access to lots of stores, restaurants, coffee shops etc.  The apartment is a small studio, but it's plenty of room for me...especially after living in dorms during the training.  I'll do another post later with apartment pictures and such.

I'll be updating the picture section soon with pictures from the week of training.

There are 7 days of training before we head to our schools...

DAY 1: 

This day included some information about the school culture in Korea, some Korean history, & culture in general.  Additionally, we went over the expectations for teachers. 

Some of the most interesting pieces of information regarding school...corporal punshment is allowed in Korea and is often seen at the middle and high school levels (no, I will not be doing this!),  you should always bow to your principal, lunch is provided by the school and I must eat with the children, & the teachers move from class to class while the students stay put.

As for Korean history and culture in general... we all got to wear traditional Korean costumes while we observed a re-enactment of the Korean New Year Ceremony.  We also learned about the Korean alphabet (Hangul) and how/why it was created...fascinating!!  We got to try a variety of homemade Korean desserts too...loved the rice cakes.

DAY 2:

Today we took a tour of Ulsan.   I am very excited as this city has beautiful beaches, parks, and mountains to hike...AND AN IN-LINE ROLLERBLADING RINK!  Woohoo!!  It's a large enough city to have everything that I might need, but not so large that it's overwhelming.  Also nice, there are 2 Costco's that are about an hour away.

Next week we will learn some "survival Korean" and will spend lots of time on lesson planning and teaching techniques.  I also have an interview/lesson demo with the school district to determine whether I will be a classroom teacher, or a teacher of teachers.  I'll let you know how it goes.

I'll post more pictures later...it's difficult to post right now since I am using a public school computer and not my own.

Today I ventured to northern Seoul to take a bus tour of the city.  On this particular tour, you can exit the bus at any stop then get back on the next bus when it comes.  The weather wasn't ideal and prevented me from seeing several of the sites.  Also, the jet lag set in so I didn't finish the entire tour...oh well,  some thing to look forward to.

Here are a couple of the sites I really enjoyed
    Deoksugung Palace: Built in the Choseon dynasty and symbolizes modern Korean history.  There are guards outside and they re-enact the changing of the guard several times throughout the day.
    National Museum of Korea:  To truely appreciate all the information at this museum, I would have had to spend the entire day here.  It has galleries describing 5,000 years of Korean history as well as a gallery on Asia in general.  I browsed through each of the galleries, but didn't spend too much time.
    Yongsan Park:  This is a large family park located right next to the National Museum of Korea.  The grounds are absolutely beautiful!!  Lush, green gardens; amazing statues; lots of places for kids to play.  They also had a fitness area that I found particulary interesting...which they had these in the states.
    Itaewon Street:  This section of Seoul is where you'll find all the foreigners.  There are tons of shops, lots of ethnic foods, and language interpreters available to help you out.  It's a very busy area with lots to see.
Here are a few pictures.  I have more in the photo section.

So I made it to Seoul and the pre-flight butterflies are gone.  I got to my hotel with only a couple issues, was able to get settled in, then started to check out the city.  I hopped on the subway and headed to the Gangnam area.  There were lots of shops to explore here.  Here are my first impressionss of Seoul...

1. Apparently the motorcyclists don't have to follow any type of traffic rules as they are even allowed to ride down the sidewalks...watch out!

2. The city is AMAZINGLY clean and the subway is very easy to navigate.

3. Older men walking down the street do not seem friendly as I have received a lot of "stink eyes".  However, men working in retail or other services have been very kind.  For example, I asked the guy at the desk of my hotel for a restaurant recommendation.  Rather than just telling me, he grabbed an umbrella, walked me in the rain to a Korean restaurant, helped me order, and made sure the price was within my range.  WOW, that's service.

4. There is no shortage of coffee shops in Seoul.  I thought that OC had lots of coffee shops, but they pale in comparison to Seoul. 

5. The humidity sucks...looking forward to the fall.

6. Speaking English has not been an issue.  Lot's of places have signs written in both Korean and English.  I was especially happy about this when I wandered into Starbucks and was able to order a black sesame green tea frappuccino.  Different flavor from the states but still good.

7.  Make sure you go to the bathroom before you head out to the subway...save those public restrooms for emergencies only.  You'll know what I mean when you see the picture. 

Below are a few pictures from the day.  For more pictures, click on the picture link above.

It's for real now.  I'm sitting in the Star lounge at the airport with butterflies in the stomach.  There are still many unknowns at this point...what will my apartment be like?; how long will it take me to figure out how to use the washer?; will I be teaching adults or children?; if I teach children what grade level will it be?; how far will I live from work?; will I take a bus, a bike, the subway or walk?; how difficult will it be to communicate?;  how much kimchee will I eat each week?...  The list goes on and on.

I know that everything will be fine as soon as I get there, but the anticipation is killing me.  For now I need to just sit back, enjoy the lounge and then the flight.  Everything will fall into place as I know it should.