First of Many

Since I have been here for almost two weeks, I've got plenty of stories to tell. However, it'd take me approximately 52 hours of typing to tell you all of the things that I've found interesting since I've been here. So, I plan to break up my random stories amongst my other blogs as to not overwhelm you with so much randomness at one time. However, to start out, I'll give you a bit of an overview of my time here thus far with a few random facts and stories thrown in for good measure.
So, it took about a 14 hour flight to take me across the world to Korea. I couldn't sleep the entire plane ride (maybe because of anxiousness, maybe because the guy next to me was hogging the arm rest), so instead I watched 5 movies. This plane was legit, with a personal screen in front of you where you could pick movies or games whenever you pleased. After our flight, I met up with another girl that was on my flight, coming to the same program. Her and I got led to a coffee shop downstairs in the airport where we were told to wait for the rest to arrive. This place, however, was not the place we were told in our email. Because of the language barrier, we are not sure if this guy had anything to do with KNU or not. Luckily all he told us to do was drink coffee. Once the last of the 5 arrived, they paged us and we met up with everyone else. That night was a big blur, but when we arrived at the university, I was mildly attacked by Becky and Amanda...also, Julie (a girl that was new with me) and I found out that they didn't have rooms ready for us yet. So, we had one room (twin bed) to share for a few days. Needless to say, we got to know each other well quickly. The next morning, we both woke up super early (part of jetlag I'm assuming) and decided to go explore. We then found out that the lock on our door was a bit finicky and we couldn't get out of our room. After debating the options of shimmying down a pole (5 stories) or climbing across to Amanda's balcony (and possibly scaring her to death), we opted for sticking a note outside the door. I believe it said "We're locked in our room...please knock to help us!!" :) So, after our saviors of the morning (Kendall and Amanda) unlocked us from the outside, we made our way through the town, and down what is now affectionately known as "The Strip." This is the main street of businesses nearest KNU's campus and the place where most everyday needs can be met-there's a grocery store, some clothing stores, some places to eat (including the McDonalds, haha), etc. So, we made our way into a shop called Rotiboy which is kind of now our little Seinfield Cafe...you know, it's the place we always go. Rotiboy is owned by a guy whose [English] name is Jason. He's one of the coolest people we've met here, and he speaks English really well. I don't know anyone who couldn't have their day brightened by Jason! I've now worked out a deal with him that whenever I come in to buy breakfast or coffee, he teaches me a Korean word or phrase. When we made the deal, he said "When you come again, if you remember the phrase, I will give you praise. If you don't remember the phrase, I will give you pain." One of the few times I've had a Korean joke in English with me!
So, in the first day, I think we figured out that we (Julie and I, Ryan part of the time) walked about 9 hours around the town. And we walked in a very small area of our city. Ryan and Julie are two that came at the same time as me, and we just kind of hit it off from the start. We were all music majors in college, so we had something in common right off the bat. So normally when I say we, it can be assumed that it was probably Julie, Ryan and me. Just FYI.

So about where I'm at. I live in Cheonan City (said Cho-nan) which is a "small city" in Korea...about 500,000 people. I live on the campus of KNU (Korea Nazarene University) but not in the dorm. I live in a building that has classrooms and then 2 floors of dorm/apartments. Most of the other English teachers in the program live there as well, but some who have been here longer have moved off campus to make room for us newbies. Julie and I now share a double room, which has one bedroom, a living room (where our desks and couch are) a bathroom and a kitchen. It's like a small apartment, and we have two balconies which is nice.

Ok, this is kind of abrupt, but I need to read over this (for obvious spelling errors) and then I am teaching a conversational class after school. So, enjoy reading, and more from me later...peace.