Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
All,
It's mid-afternoon on Thursday here in Cheonan and my meal was three hot dogs with a few sips of coke zero...nothing quite like you guys will be waking up to. I am certainly jealous of all of you that will be digging in to turkey, sweet potatoes, casseroles, and whatever else you have in your respective households. When you think you are too full to take another bite of pumpkin pie, just remember how I'll be eating some dish I cannot pronounce tonight and force another piece down for me!
This is now day 4 of instructing for me. Yesterday was nice because I only had one class, so I was only here from 1 until 7:30. I've been coming in early to check e-mail and the like as I do not yet have internet at home. I did get my computer fixed after blowing it out when I stupidly tried to hook it up into the outlets here without a transformer. Now, I have a Korean power system in it and will need a transformer in the US. That isn't a big deal, though, as I probably will have bought a laptop by that time. I will hopefully have internet at home soon as now the only thing I need is a password of some sort to connect to the local provider. I should get that today if the staff here can find the previous guy's password or gets in touch with him soon. I'd definitely like to have it going by the weekend since I'd rather not go to an internet cafe and pay (though only ~ $1 an hour) to surf the net while being surrounded by a room full of pre-pubescent boys playing video games online with each other. I caught a couple of strange looks there on Sunday.
I have had some ups and downs with my classes so far. I have on really good Tera level (highest level) Memory English class that I have on Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 and I have a good Mega Level (the lowest level) Memory English class on Monday and Wednesday. I also have a two tera level classes that are not so good, one on Monday/Friday and the other I luckily only have once a week. I'm hoping they will improve as they get more used to me and comfortable at this level. Today I have my first Interactive Listening class at 7:30 (Bridge, the lowest level) and tomorrow will have another (Par, the 2nd level). I wasn't trained quite as well in listening as in memory so I'm glad that I only have two of those classes a week. In the memory level courses, I'm currently teaching Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (mega) and Hamlet by Mr. Shake-a-speare. I have taught first day Hamlet for four of the past five classes so I'm ready to get to second day materials.
My co-workers are going to Seoul this weekend and it's tempting to go, but I think I'm going to wait at least until I have my signing bonus in hand. It's about $25 for a round trip train ticket and I do want to see the city, but I also will not get my first paycheck until the first week of January so I need to make the bonus last. I'm eating a steady diet of hot dogs, noodles/sauce, and what I think is ham sandwiches when I do not eat out. It is pretty cheap to eat out here, however...I almost never spend more than 6,000 (just under $6) on a meal and you get a very generous portion of food and all you can eat kimchi and select other sides. Last night I hate some really spicy meat/rice meal with two bowls of brothy soup, kimchi, radish, squid, and broccoli all for 4,000. Another thing that is different over here that will surely be one of the reasons why I continue to lose weight is there really is no option to have a soda, beer, or anything other than water with your meal. You get a small cup with unlimited refills of water everywhere and that's just fine by me. I will usually drink a glass of soda or maybe a liter of Cass (beer) at home if I feel so inclined.
While I haven't had internet at home, I've been reading a few books. I went through Bleachers by John Grisham in about two days and it wasn't too bad. For any fan of football, it's a nice and easy read. I'm working on Playing for Pizza (also by Grisham) right now and will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. It is also a nice read for a football fan. I am looking forward to getting back into his usual lawyer-related books however. I'm also open to suggestions from anyone now that I seem to be taking up reading as a hobby again after 5 or 6 years away from it.
I'm becoming more familiar with the area as well. I now know how to get into the busier city district, San Yeong-dong where there are more restaurants (kimbop = korean fast food, where I ate last night) and the lotte-mart (basically the Korean Wal-Mart). On Sunday, I got lost coming back from the internet cafe that I found. I was only given the instructions that it was right up the road so I eventually wandered into it, but then forgot how I got there on the way back and had to flag a cab. I believe I mentioned before that CDI gave me a card with my address written in Korean that I can keep in my wallet and hand to a cab-driver. If I do not go to Seoul this weekend, I'll be going to downtown Cheonan-city for my first real night out on the town and may catch the new James Bond movie with a co-worker. We'll see, though.
In the meantime, again, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!
Love, peace, and tong-dak
It's mid-afternoon on Thursday here in Cheonan and my meal was three hot dogs with a few sips of coke zero...nothing quite like you guys will be waking up to. I am certainly jealous of all of you that will be digging in to turkey, sweet potatoes, casseroles, and whatever else you have in your respective households. When you think you are too full to take another bite of pumpkin pie, just remember how I'll be eating some dish I cannot pronounce tonight and force another piece down for me!
This is now day 4 of instructing for me. Yesterday was nice because I only had one class, so I was only here from 1 until 7:30. I've been coming in early to check e-mail and the like as I do not yet have internet at home. I did get my computer fixed after blowing it out when I stupidly tried to hook it up into the outlets here without a transformer. Now, I have a Korean power system in it and will need a transformer in the US. That isn't a big deal, though, as I probably will have bought a laptop by that time. I will hopefully have internet at home soon as now the only thing I need is a password of some sort to connect to the local provider. I should get that today if the staff here can find the previous guy's password or gets in touch with him soon. I'd definitely like to have it going by the weekend since I'd rather not go to an internet cafe and pay (though only ~ $1 an hour) to surf the net while being surrounded by a room full of pre-pubescent boys playing video games online with each other. I caught a couple of strange looks there on Sunday.
I have had some ups and downs with my classes so far. I have on really good Tera level (highest level) Memory English class that I have on Tuesday and Thursday at 4:30 and I have a good Mega Level (the lowest level) Memory English class on Monday and Wednesday. I also have a two tera level classes that are not so good, one on Monday/Friday and the other I luckily only have once a week. I'm hoping they will improve as they get more used to me and comfortable at this level. Today I have my first Interactive Listening class at 7:30 (Bridge, the lowest level) and tomorrow will have another (Par, the 2nd level). I wasn't trained quite as well in listening as in memory so I'm glad that I only have two of those classes a week. In the memory level courses, I'm currently teaching Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (mega) and Hamlet by Mr. Shake-a-speare. I have taught first day Hamlet for four of the past five classes so I'm ready to get to second day materials.
My co-workers are going to Seoul this weekend and it's tempting to go, but I think I'm going to wait at least until I have my signing bonus in hand. It's about $25 for a round trip train ticket and I do want to see the city, but I also will not get my first paycheck until the first week of January so I need to make the bonus last. I'm eating a steady diet of hot dogs, noodles/sauce, and what I think is ham sandwiches when I do not eat out. It is pretty cheap to eat out here, however...I almost never spend more than 6,000 (just under $6) on a meal and you get a very generous portion of food and all you can eat kimchi and select other sides. Last night I hate some really spicy meat/rice meal with two bowls of brothy soup, kimchi, radish, squid, and broccoli all for 4,000. Another thing that is different over here that will surely be one of the reasons why I continue to lose weight is there really is no option to have a soda, beer, or anything other than water with your meal. You get a small cup with unlimited refills of water everywhere and that's just fine by me. I will usually drink a glass of soda or maybe a liter of Cass (beer) at home if I feel so inclined.
While I haven't had internet at home, I've been reading a few books. I went through Bleachers by John Grisham in about two days and it wasn't too bad. For any fan of football, it's a nice and easy read. I'm working on Playing for Pizza (also by Grisham) right now and will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. It is also a nice read for a football fan. I am looking forward to getting back into his usual lawyer-related books however. I'm also open to suggestions from anyone now that I seem to be taking up reading as a hobby again after 5 or 6 years away from it.
I'm becoming more familiar with the area as well. I now know how to get into the busier city district, San Yeong-dong where there are more restaurants (kimbop = korean fast food, where I ate last night) and the lotte-mart (basically the Korean Wal-Mart). On Sunday, I got lost coming back from the internet cafe that I found. I was only given the instructions that it was right up the road so I eventually wandered into it, but then forgot how I got there on the way back and had to flag a cab. I believe I mentioned before that CDI gave me a card with my address written in Korean that I can keep in my wallet and hand to a cab-driver. If I do not go to Seoul this weekend, I'll be going to downtown Cheonan-city for my first real night out on the town and may catch the new James Bond movie with a co-worker. We'll see, though.
In the meantime, again, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!
Love, peace, and tong-dak
posted by JayD at 1:20 AM
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