Thanksgiving...

This Thanksgiving was not the same....being so far from family, friends and loved ones was the hardest part! Of course I did miss stuffing my face in traditional American Thanksgiving food...sigh! I have been able to accept the sacrifice that I made to come all the way to Korea but I know this time of year will be the hardest for me!! Skyping my family on Thanksgiving evening and then having to go to work after made me MISS everything all over again!!! On Thanksgiving day here I did have to work as they dont observe American Holidays...and working at a Hagwon we dont even get most Korean Holidays off. But my branch is always closed on Wednesday's sooooo me and my fellow coworkers decided to celebrate a day early and have a potluck. The hardest part of trying to come up with the menu was that in Korea we dont have ovens. We all know the best food for Thanksgiving comes out of the oven....so we improvised and made due with our lil toaster ovens. Needless to say we spent all day cooking!! But we had quite the spread....it consisted of: Mac n Cheese, Salad, Broccoli/Cauliflower, stuffed mushroom caps, Pumpkin soup, Candied Korean Sweet Potatoes, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Chicken Pot Pie, Korean Beef Galbi, Rice, small Roasted Chicken, Apple Crisp, and Pumpkin Pie!! ohhhhh and of course lots of alcoholic beverages to drink!! We ate all evening and stuffed our fat lil bellies with all the food we could! The night ended with playing Apples to Apples, Uno and watching youtube videos...LoL!! It definitely wasn't family or traditional but I have been very thankful for the FAMILY/FRIENDS that I have made out here!! I am also thankful for, the opportunity to be in Korea working, the constant support from everyone back home, all the people that I have met so far and accepted me for who I am, and that Im here today to share with you my adventures!!
감사합니다 그리고 당신을 사랑!! (Thanks and I love you all!!)

The Spread!!

Playing Apples to Apples!!

My Apologies Life in Korea

Dear Blog & Blog Followers:
My apologies for neglecting you on my updates. I am truly working on dedicating more time to you and everyone following. I know everyone is not connected to me via FB....but I promise from this day forward that I will be better about updating my post...STARTING NOW!!

SOKO Baseball Game and Much More!!

Sept. 18th a few coworkers of mine their friends and some friends from training met up in Seoul to attend the Doosan Bears vs the Lotte Giants Baseball Game. Lots of fun, Cheers and Beers!!

Writing Wednesday's

So sorry for taking so long to update my blog. I have decided to dedicate my day off, Wednesday's to write everyone back, update the blog and stay in touch with you all back in the States. Well I have officially been here in Korea for a month now! Im adjusting well to my work, daily living, and keeping a social life!

Work: My schedule is pretty sweet, I get Wed. off and work the rest of the days from 4p-10p. It was hard to adjust to working so late, when my body was naturally waking up at 9am. By the last couple of hrs of work I was probably downing my third sometimes fourth cup of coffee. By then my body had a hard time eating late and staying up way too late due to a caffeine high. (and the cycle continues) A couple of my students actually commented on the dark circles under my eyes. LoL...guess I need to get more shut eye!! I have two classes a day, class #1 from 4-7 and class #2 from 7-10. My first classes are usually my younger students ages 8-11, and my evening classes I have my older students ages 11-13. In my first class its a lot of attention span control and in my eve classes Im pulling teeth just to get them to participate. And even though they are learning lots about the English Language, I am learning lots as well!! Never too late to learn something new! In Korea they are used to calling the teacher, "TEACHER"...I made it a point to make them call me either "Teacher Megan" or "Ms. Megan" But for some odd reason they can never get it right...Im usually called "Megan Teacher" LoL!! What ever works for them, works for me. I am now settled in with the rapport with most of my students, and definitely have my good ones and my not so good ones!

Daily Living: I am still struggling on getting around Korea not knowing how to read or speak the language...but Im making it! I attempted to sign up to take Korean Language classes in Sept but missed the sign up date, so I plan on taking it starting in October. I think that will take away half of the frustration/confusion!! I have explored my city with some coworkers, intentionally got lost by myself, and have wondered on foot within the five block radius of my school/apt. Suwon is sooo much larger than I thought and there is a whole other side to the city that I have yet to discover! I have eaten and tried lots of new food and am Lovin' it all! I only got sick once and I think it was from food at Cosco! (yes they have them here!!) They drink like fishes out here and partying is unlimited especially on the weekends!! I feel like a light weight and an old lady...I just cant hang!! LoL The weather has been hot/humid up until last Sunday and it started to drop and get real windy! Im not sure how Im going to like the winters here! Im still settling into my apt. It definitely still needs decorations and some sprucing up to make it feel more like home. Times away from Family and Friends can get lonely, so I decided to adopt a cat from another teacher in the area that couldnt take him home with her. His name is Gizmo and is about 7yrs old, so he's fully grown and house trained. He is taking his time to warm up to me, but Im sure he will come around!

Social Life: I have kept in contact with a lot of people I met during my training week. Even though we are all in different areas now, we all try and meet up in Seoul from time to time to eat, drink and party! I have made new friends with some of my coworkers at my school as well as some that are teachers around my area. They are a great help with being here before me, they are able to show me the ropes. Networking is the name of the game out here...and "its not what you know, but who you know". Having Korean friends are the best because they can speak and translate when you are stuck in a jam. Im trying my best to keep in contact with friends in DC, as well as Denver. Time has just not been on my side, but am turning a new leaf and deciding to MAKE TIME!! (especially because you all are important to me!)

Im going to end this long drawn out blog and try to keep you all updated on a weekly basis! Thanks for being patient with me...I will leave you all with a picture of me on my last day of training 8/26/2011. I was so excited that I passed and was heading to my assigned school in Suwon!!

TTFN!

Another Day....Another Dollar!

Since I have been here I have been extremely busy....even on my days off!! So much to do and so little time! So I am posting my last round of pics from my first week here when I was in training!  So far so good with school, the kiddos and trying to adjust to life out here!  Im not sure how my students feel about me yet but I can definitely tell my good ones from the not so good ones....but thats life!  Kids will push the limits and try to get away with it, even more by trying to act like they dont understand you. LoL  Hope everyone in the Sates are well...Miss yall'!!


* you can run your mouse over the pic to see the caption or stop the slideshow or click on full view all images to see it larger! * ENJOY!!

Training Week in Seoul pt. 2

Everything is delayed but here are some more pictures of my first week during training.  Most of the pics are of the beautiful architecture here in Korea...Lots of big buildings....everywhere you turn!  Also pics of me in the subway learning how to navigate and not get ran over by the mob of korean's heading to work.  Personal space is NOT a factor here and of course the stares are endless and non discreet. A older gentleman was about 5in from my face looking mean and hard...I felt like I did something wrong, so I then turned around and said "annyeong haseyo" 안녕하세요! (hello), smiled and waved at him and he stopped starring.  My motto is you stare, I speak! Yes the little korean I do know I will speak! LOL....enjoy more to come!

What an AdVeNTuRe!!!

The week is almost over for me...it has been intense, overwhelming, exciting, nerve wrecking, and amusing to say the least!!! I started training on Monday 22nd and jumped right in...no time to get your feet wet!  We start training at 8:30am everyday and have been getting out around 3:30 and back to the hotel around 4:30-5 everyday.  I have two sessions, which include training in a lower level of students in the am and a training for the much higher ESL students in the pm.  So my am and pm sessions are two extremes!

The first day of training the company was nice enough to have a bus take us over to the training center and to the medical center for our health exams. Orientation was in the am till about noon and around one we had to take our health exams.  At the health center I experienced my first encounter with Koreans that dont speak much English...and it was extremely hard to understand them when it came time to pee in a cup!  Lets just say I screwed it up and had to chug water in 15min in order to pee again.  After our exams we all were relieved to be released and go eat since we couldn't eat all day. But nobody was prepared for them to throw us in the deep end and take the subway back to our hotel.  Lets just say their subway map looks like ten of New York's subways all in one...really confusing but once navigated with the other trainees we figured it out! That was a test in its own!!

The last three days have been a blur and to say the least, Im ready to stop living out of my suitcases and get into my apartment.  I passed all my written test, YEA!!! Took only three tries on the grammar but that is under my belt now.  I have 'finals' tomorrow so one more written test in both sessions and our final Mock Teachings.  I have been getting lots of good feedback and criticism...so just putting my best foot forward! After our finals tomorrow everyone will be distributed to their perspective schools/branches around 2:45p.  A van is supposed to be delivering me to my school or apartment, Im not sure which one but heard my school is only 5 min walk from the apartment, so either way good news!  I will be sane once I get acclimated to my own environment and settled in!... SO please forgive me if I have not responded to your emails or calls...dont take it personal its just been really busy since I stepped off the plane!  Next blog will be an update of my New, new adventure...lol...I was just getting used to using the subway system and the area here in Seoul.  But I am really EXCITED to move into my apartment and see my school!

I hope everyone is well in the states! I miss EVERYONE!! Please KIT with me and I promise I will eventually get back to you at my earliest. I also have a local SKYPE number for everyone in the states so you dont have to run up your bill on long distant charges.  If you want the number leave me a comment and I will drop it in a email! More pictures to come...stay tuned!! Bye for now!!

*oh check out my video: Some random street entertainment on the way to dinner...