iheartcbc

Well, it's been 5 days since I arrived in Seoul on Sunday night. The night before, I hung out with the Ch and her whole family which, although I didn't know it until I got there, was exactly what I wanted/needed. It was like a little family gathering that I felt so comfortable to be a part of. Anyways, the next day, Merlin drove me off to the Vancouver airport and I headed out at 2:00pm. The plane ride was pretty uneventful other than confirming that "What Happens in Vegas" was a huge piece of trash. 

I arrived at 5:00pm (Seoul time) and Jamie, my agent guy, met me and took me to my new apartment where Phil (the teacher I've replaced) was cleaning up, etc. They took me shopping at E-Mart, a combination of Wal-Mart and the Bay and a grocery store, and then I basically crashed.

The next day, we all went out for lunch and the boys ordered a dish for me that definitely wasn't "mashisoyo" as a veggie. It was a cold noodle soup with two medium-sized slabs of beef floating around, which I think I could have handled rather well, except that the broth was also beef. And it had a cold hard-boiled egg hanging out in it too. P.S. The boys knew I was veggie and ordered that dish for me...... Hmmm.......

Anyways, I think I faked things okay, and then Phil and I were off to English Planner. I met Q, the director, and as the day progressed I realized who he reminds me of: a hot Jackie Chan. He's a bit of a BILF. Then, I followed Phil around to all his classes and watched him perform. It made me feel pretty nervous cause you always have to be remembering so many different little things, but on Tuesday I was on my own, and I survived. Most of the students are pretty fun - there are specifically two classes that have no energy, but I'm just going to do my best with them and take nothing personally.

I teach reading and listening and basically, we just review the homework and quickly work through mistakes. My favourite classroom moment this week was listening to one of the listening hw conversations (they're the same voices as the ones on the ELPI cassette, and their conversation went something like this:

Man: Mary, what do you do for a living?
Woman: I'm a high school math teacher.
Man: Wow, isn't that a difficult job?
Woman: It can be sometimes, but it's also very rewarding.
Man: How do you find time to do housework?

I adored how blatantly sexist the man was, but I think it kind of went over the students' heads. There's one class that I REALLY like - it's only four little boys (maybe 9 or 10 years old?) and they always shout all the answers and imitate me. They're very cute. Most of the classes are pretty sweet though. 

My co-workers are great too. There are only six of us (including the director and me) who work at the school - the others are Sophie, Chloe, Brian, and Jenny the secretary. I really like all of them and am looking forward to not feeling so pressured for time during my prep so that we can talk more. 

The apartment's lovely. It has air conditioning, a (grey) view of the city, and even a washer-dryer combo. (I tried to use it today and while I got the clothes washed, I didn't quite figure out the drying aspect... I think I just ended up steaming them for almost two hours.)

Anyways, I think that it'll be okay here. The worst parts right now are not really knowing where I am in the city and therefore wary to head out and explore, and then just feeling generally lonely. But I know that the loneliness won't be around forever and soon I'll (maybe) know the name of my neighbourhood. 

Actually, the thing that I'm most worried about here is the fact that I don't think Jake wants to be my friend anymore. He "unfriended" me on Facebook, which I know sounds really dumb, but that's actually a pretty big cutoff for us... And it keeps making me feel really sad. And then I feel like saying, "Fine then, fuck you", but I know that if I have that attitude we will never ever get better. Breaking up with friends is so much sadder than the usual form.

Oh yes, and it's so embarrassing not being able to understand ANYTHING! Not signs, not questions, barely even greetings. Today I studied the Hangul characters and then I watched  "Ice Age" in Korean, and I'm feeling like this is something I need to get on top of now. I'll keep you posted:P

Okay, it might be time for some bibimbap (my new staple).

Anyong haseyo~!

:)