Day 8

• This morning I had a dr. appointment scheduled so I can get my E2 visa physical to I can have legal status here. I went to work, had some coffee, and was halfway through my meal when I realized I was suppose to be fasting for 12 hours before the blood test. Ooops! I have to re-schedule it.
• I was so excited, Hye Jeung invited me to go hiking next weekend with her husband and friends. We are going to a “small mountain for climbing” somewhere near her house. I am so glad I have her as a friend, so many other co-workers are afraid to talk to me because they are embarrassed about their English not being perfect.
• Lucas, I am watching a move in English about a bus that had to keep its speed. And if it didn’t keep its speed it would blow up. I think it’s called ‘the bus that couldn’t slow down.’
• Korean’s don’t use large bath towels. They take too long to dry so they use sham-wows the size of dish cloths to dry off with. I’m not a big fan but they do take up a lot less space in the washing machine.
• I still have a bag full of crab apples! I can’t eat them all!!!!

Day 7

• This morning I got to teach the weather lesson to 17 Korean kindergartners. It was so much fun! The students were so excited to see me. I was playing peek-a-boo with the class. I would wait in the hall way and then peek around the corner and they would all get so excited!!! The students loved the lesson. My favorite part of the lesson was when I acted out the weather using different clothing and accessory props. Then I let the kids act it out using the props while we sung “What’s the weather like today? Like today? Like today? What’s the weather like today? It is _______.” (to the tune of London Bridges). Then a student would pick a prop like an umbrella for rainy or sunglass for sunny etc. One of the little girls put Angela’s black sunglasses on, you know, the ones that make Angela look like she is a senior citizen who just got their eyes dilated, well the little girl looked so absolutely adorable with the oversized glasses on!
• At the Korean pre-school / kindergarten they have little tooth brushing centers and UV light storage containers to kill the germs. If only we did this in the U.S I would have had a lot less first graders with silver teeth.
• After I finished teaching the staff treated me to lunch. After the meal we drank cups of what is my new favorite fruit drink called “may-seal” I don’t know how to spell it and I don’t know the fruits equivalent in English I just know it is damn good! Take a hike guanabana juice hello may-seal.

Day 6

• Today I sat down next to a girl at breakfast and we became friends right away. She found me on the company email site and asked me to lunch. We went to a great place called Tofu Town. How perfect is that? They say too-boo instead of tofu but otherwise it’s the same stuff. My new friends name is Hye Jung.
• I finished my first arts and crafts project. It’s a super cute elephant. The kit cost 1$ from my new favorite dollar store. So if anyone wants me to make them one put your order in now.
• So today Chin lets me know that “Oh by the way, you will be teaching a demo lesson to kindergartners tomorrow. I don’t know what the lesson is about but I’m sure someone will come by and explain it to you. Oh, and it is a promotion for our company so they will be filming it too.” So yeah, not a big weight on my shoulders of anything. By about 4pm a team of people came in and went over the lesson with me much to my relief. It should be a piece of cake. The lesson is all about weather and Allie and I taught that unit in ELD/SLD so I am well prepared.

Day 5

• Guess what? McDonalds delivers! They have people who drive Vespas and bring your burgers to you.
• Everyone is getting such cool and crazy x-mas gifts this year! I found my local dollar store!!!! In a word, (like Shannon) is awesome!
• Hulu sucks! They only stream video in the U.S. It can’t be accessed here! How am I going to keep up with my shows? Good thing Lucas packed me some of his Simpsons DVDs and season one of Dexter.
• As Melissa already knows, Koreans don’t have clothes dryers. My options are to dry clean or air dry my clothes on a rack. I think it is going to take a few days for my clothes to dry. And good thing I bought an iron because they are going to be wrinkly.
• So apparently the popular high school graduation gift to give a girl is an eye widening surgery. So a lot of girls get their eyes done so that they look more Caucasian before they go off to college. Crazy huh? What ever happened to good old fashioned boob jobs?

Day 4

• Ah Korean TV. I’m watching “Real World” zoo edition I believe. Its footage of a baby tiger, desert tortoise, baby pig, and a puppy all living together in a house. Right now the pig is attacking the tiger, and the puppy wakes up and joins in while the tortoise sits and watches the mayhem. They are playing the dramatic music from platoon in the background so you know it is a serious fight. Oh crap! The tortoise just bit the tiger’s tail. Why did someone think it was a good idea to give these animals a house to live together in?
• Today at the Korean version of Target, known as E Mart, I found they sell guinea pigs and bunnies!!! I hope they were pets and not dinner.
• So I may be missing project runway but I just found “Tim Gunn’s guide to style” on TV. At least I can get my Tim Gunn fix.
• I was walking down the street and saw what I thought were sea cucumbers without spikes. Turns out it is a creature the Koreans call “dog penis.”
• I was walking near work and there was a man trimming trees. I asked Chin what kind of tree it was but she didn’t know. The man trimming the tree noticed that I was looking in his direction and beckoned me to come over. He showed me that I could get the fruit off the tree. Turns out they are crab apples the size of cherries. He left a bunch of branches in the office lobby for me to take home. Now I have like 5lbs of them!
• I learned today that seat belts in the back seats of cars here are optional. That is after I saw a father simply open the back door of the car for his 2 year old son and then drove off. Apparently car seats for babies are optional too. Yikes!!!!

Day 3

• Utoh! My fake wedding ring is turning my finger green!!!! Since I’m the only American in the office maybe I can say American wedding rings do that; just incase I try to take it off and pretend I’m not married you will know by the green stain that I really am.
• Today I got asked to lunch by 3 girls in my office, they were really nice and their English was really good. Their names are Seong Yeon, Hui Kyung, and Dasom. Its going to take me a while before I remember how to say their names. We ate some kind of muscles, tofu, and squid soup.
• On my way home from work their was a young, trendy looking Korean girl who walked by some trash, knelt down to pick it up, and took it a few steps back to throw it away. I had to fight every urge I had to shout at her “Good citizen!!!!!!”
• Melissa, Chin was ripping on Ruby-Anne at dinner tonight. She told the story that everywhere Ruby-Anne goes she has to visit a Costco. She demanded that Chin find and take her to the Seoul Costco. Probably to get her some popcorn, “Where is my popcorn?” – tapping her red nails together in a menacing way.

Day 2

• Its 5am and I am up like a tweaker cleaning and moving furniture; I’m sure my new neighbors love me!
• The floors are heated in my apartment which is nice for my feet, but bad for the chocolate Luna Bar in my luggage sitting on the floor all night. Mmmmmmm melty, squishy, goodness.
• For breakfast I am drinking a bottle of what I can only guess from the pictures is some kind of sunflower, peanut, hazelnut milk…. “Try a little something new; try a little something different!”
• I came home from my first day of work today and someone had broken into my apartment. They brought a TV, dresser, dishwashing soap, a vacuum cleaner, and a pair of sandals. It was such an awesome surprise! I can only hope they come back tomorrow and bring hangers, an adapter, rug, and some Q-Tips would be nice too.
• Dear Angela, jealous much? I’ve got Beatrix Potter shower shoes- booya!
• Now when I come home my teeth will be even whiter than before! Everyone at work brings a toothbrush and toothpaste in small toiletry bags and leaves them in the restrooms. After we eat breakfast or lunch we all go to the restroom and brush our teeth together hahahaha! (Lucas- “tope teeth, white teeth, tope teeth, white teeth.”)
• Ummmm, Melissa? Why is my toilet seat broken? Did you have something to do with that?
• Hey!!! There is a puffer fish in my fish oil pills!!! How did you do that? Lucas, Angela, Mom, I’m looking in your direction and shaking my fist vigorously.
• Lucas, I have cable TV, even 3 English channels to watch. I’m watching that terrible movie, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and thinking of you! Ooooooo, agutiiiiii!!!!
• One of the hardest things for me to try to get use to is not drinking water during a meal. Koreans drink either before or after but no one has a glass of anything at their tables when they are eating their meals at the work cafeteria.