First couple of days in Korea

(Written on my first day)
Well, where do I start? I mean really, where? How about the fact that it's 7am here and I've probably had about 5 hours sleep in the last 48. I really wasn't expecting jetlag but there you go.
My plane journey wasn't too bad, aside from getting on the plane which (at the time) I thought was one of the hardest things I've ever done. From that point, I was entirely on my own. So, naturally, when I saw a friendly looking man holding a card with 'Ms Jenny Hogg' on, I was incredibly relieved! But, then he put me in a cab and sent me to the school. The taxi journey was odd. The car was quite big and new looking but the seatbelts in the back looked like they were from the 80's. I fell asleep briefly and the taxi driver woke me up and told me to move to the other side. He mimiked a sleeping action and said something like 'run over'. What?

The first thing I did at the school was eat birthday cake out of a paper cup with chopsticks. I was very glad that my iffy chopsticks skills didn't fail me!

I finally got a few hours sleep in the morning and woe up at about 10.30. I guess that's when my body clock thought it was time to sleep.

The first day and a half have been  really hard, and also really good.  I'm staying in a temporary room until another teacher, Mekale, leaves on Dec 24th. It's not a really nice room, especially as there are no windows in the main bit, but apparently the place I'm moving too is nicer.

Today (17th) I watched a couple of Mekale's classes.  He went over the lesson plans for the next month with me and it seems so complicated! Everyone says I'll get the hang of it though. On mondays, wednesdays and fridays I have 7 classes per day, and on tuesdays and thursdays I have 2. They should be more spread out!

For lunch we went to a place in our building that serves savoury porridge. I had vegetables and cheese in it which was surprisingly good. Very warming for a cold day. Oh! The cold! I didn't think it was too bad when I got here but it feels like it's dropping a few degrees every day! After work, the other foreign teachers and I went to a place called Beer Hunter.  I asked everyone what the beer here is like and the general consensus was 'piss!' It was alright though, not the best but I was just happy to have a beer at all! There we had chicken wings, nachos and fries - Made me feel less like I'm in an alien country!


Friday evening was Mekales leaving-do. The buildings in Suwon are very strange. Huge blocks which flashy lights all over, advertising what's inside. We started at this lovely wine bar - You wouldn't expect to see such a place from looking at the outside! I had my first experience of Noraebang - Kareoke rooms that you 'hire' for your friends. It was loads of fun, but my memory was a little hazy the next day =p