One Month!

I have officially been living in Suji, South Korea for one month....exciting! I can HARDLY believe I've been here that long. Everything is finally starting to become very natural now...my schedule, teaching, food, etc. My week consists of a 7am work out, off to school by 9:30am, teach from10-6:30pm, make dinner, and RELAX (read, internet, or TV)! I'm in bed by 11:30pm or earlier every night, which is unheard of for me. Wednesday nights is when I get groceries and do school work that I bring home. I usually have essays and spelling tests to correct for two classes and weekly kindergarten reports to write on each student for the parents. Otherwise, I've honestly never had so much FREE TIME in my life, and I love it! I really do miss the wonderful community of people at Gustavus, but I'm loving life without homework. After 17 years (K-college) of education, it feels SO GOOD to have time to do anything my heart desires!

This weekend, Britney and London went hiking out of town, so Shauna and I decided to venture into Seoul alone for our first time. We made it there just fine and visited Namdaemun Market, one of the two largest markets in Seoul. It has many skinny streets filled with everything you could images: clothes, shoes, kitchen supplies, bedding, glasses, nic nacs of every sort, etc. We visited Itaewon again and stopped for the best food I've tasted since I arrived...COLD STONE ICE CREAM! It tasted just like home. Don't get me wrong, I love the Korean food, but nothing can replace American ice cream for me. It HIT THE SPOT on a warm afternoon! We successfully made our way around Seoul through the Subway on our own, and feeling quite accomplished we headed to the bus station to head back to Suji. Too bad we couldn't remember if it was the 5500 or the 5500-1 that took us back to Suji. We jumped on the first bus to come (5500-1) and asked the driver if it went to Suji. He smiled and nodded, so we got on. Two hours later we ended up in the mountains on a beautiful college campus with the bus driver laughing and helplessly trying to figure out how to get us home. He wrote a note in Korean to give to the next 5500-1 drive going back towards Seoul. We had called a friend who told us to get off in Jukjeon (where we had only been to once) and take the 11 bus back to Suji. The next bus driver again nodded when we showed him the note and asked, "Jukjeon?" Fourty-five minutes later I looked back and said, "Shauna, I think we just passed Jukneon" as the driver turned around and laughed at us. He clearly knew we needed to get off there and conveniently forgot to tell us...thanks buddy! Needless to say, we got off at the next stop, which happened to be the Suwon bus station where we grabbed the 11 bus and made it home....3 hours later! Although a 45 minute trip took a bit longer than expected, we had our first "lost Korean adventure" and we'll never forget that the 5500 and the 5500-1 are COMPLETELY different!

Today, we went back to the church in Suwon and saw the people who walked us there last weekend. They invited us to a church service on Wednesday nights that we will likely join them to in the near future. There is also a Christian band from the US performing this Saturday night, that we hope to go to. Otherwise, I took another three hour nap today, did some laundry, and finished my first book since arriving! In college, I always used to tell my roommates, "I can't wait until I don't dread Sundays filled with homework and finally get to enjoy the Day of Rest." Well, I FINALLY know what it's like to enjoy the DAY OF REST, and I love it!

Finally, I got exciting news last week that I will be moving to my new (hopefully bigger and cleaner) apartment on Thursday after school. That's just in time for uncle Bob who's coming to visit on Friday to see my school and my new place. I look forward to his visit this week!