1st Night in New Home...

First night in my new apartment over....finished....done. Was it everything I ever dreamed of....NO!!

Recap of yesterday. Checked out of Hyundai Learning Center, had closing ceremony where they served us an AMAZING lunch!!! Then we got on our busses by district and drove about an hour to Nambu, which is my district. We were then dropped off at a school where we were to meet our co-teachers. Mine were a few minutes late, but not too late. Two ladies came. Kim Eun joo is my co-teacher and Jung Hyo soon (Wendy) who I believe is another co-teacher but I won't be teaching with her. I know it's weird.

After we shoved all of my luggage into Ms. Kim's car I found out that Wendy lived in Oklahoma for two years! Small world!!! She attended Oklahoma City University getting a TEFOL certification. I also found out she used to work at B-Won. lol So, they then took me to my new home. It's two subway stops from the school. So, after I paid 100,000 Won for my utilities for this month not including cable and internet, my co-teacher left and Wendy and I went off to find the grocery store. She was just going to make me do it by myself, but she asked once more to see if I wanted to go ahead and go, I jumped at the chance so we went in and got a couple of items which took almost all the rest of my cash. As far as food I got cereal, two apples, milk, and some rolls. Tomorrow hopefully once I open my bank account I can go and get some real food. But, right now it's pretty much all I can stomach anyway.

This is my lovely bed! They provided some bedding but it is under my black sheet and blanket from home. It's pretty hard, but it will do. I had a taste of the hard beds here when I was at orientation.

These are the only two storage units I have. The white one has clothes, the other well...you can see. The two things hanging from the handle are my name tag from orientation and my GIANT chop sticks from my friend Thanh! haha He surprised me with them the day before I left along with some regular size ones.
My bathroom/shower. Yes my bathroom is the shower. It's very weird as is trying to get hot water...or luke warm water, really.
Here is my kitchenette/laundry room. Yes, that is a washing machine in between the counter and the tiny fridge. No dryer for me.
The door of the bathroom/shower.
My desk area. I do have a TV and a VCR but I haven't decided if I'm going to get cable or not. I'll see how much it is going to be with the internet.

So after we brought my stuff back to my apartment, we took the subway to the school. I met the vice-principal, Steve, haha. Who seemed pretty nice. I then was left to find my way back to my apartment by myself. Let me just tell you I had one heck of a time. haha It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I did have to make sure I was getting on the right one and had to ask a guy for directions that didn't speak English, but we communicated well enough. He even helped me buy a ticket even though I knew how to do that. lol So I got on the subway, missed my stop, and had to get off and then get back on. haha I eventually made it back and was completely distraught! After a skype call to the parentals at 2:30 A.M. their time, I felt a bit better.

I'm not going to go into real detail on how the rest of my night went but let's just say I took a quick shower before the water turned back to scalding hot, I didn't have a towel to dry off with after my shower, I woke up in a sweat to a 86 degree F room.

Today, I decided to venture out. I put a note on the guy's door across the hall to see if he would be able to go with me to find the Coex Mall because he is a fellow teacher and we were at orientation together, but I didn't really ever meet him except that we sat beside each other on the bus. But, we both slept all the way here. lol But, he had left when we first got here and I didn't see him again. So, I just decided to go out by myself. Lucky for me I've had my fair share of tips on subways, so it wasn't too bad. The Coex Mall is 18 stops away from where I live. haha But, I made it there and didn't end up at the Coex Mall at first. I was somewhere else, but found a place that sold Apple stuff and got my computer cord!!! Now when I go back to the states, I'll have to get an adapter. haha Anyways, the lady at PixDix which is the store I found the cord at spoke some English so she told me where to go to find the Coex Mall. She was really nice and helpful! So I found my way to the Coex Mall which is pretty much high end stuff and I wasn't able to find the Apple Store anyways. So the computer cord was the only thing I purchased before I trekked back home. But, I can now talk to my parents and work on my TESOL, and update my blog until I get found out that I'm mooching off someone else's internet and until I get my own internet installed.

First day of school tomorrow. I will be making a short speech apparently and hopefully just observing, but one never knows. I will try to post about my first day as soon as I can.

I've heard there are quite a few people reading this I would love to hear comments, questions, etc. So feel free to leave a comment if you're a follower or shoot me an e-mail! Hearing from home would really perk up my mood!