Meet me at Emart

The past couple days have basically passed in a blur. I will sum them up for you all...
Thursday morning we had a field trip. All of the kindergarten classes went to an indoor playground called I Love Strawberries. The kids jumped around and played and rode a train for a few hours....it was extremely exhausting but soooo fun watching all of them play!! After we went back to school I observed more classes....it was a lot less overwhelming than the first day luckily. Still a little confusing about what classes I will be teaching and what material, but on Monday I will get my schedule so that will make things much easier.

Friday was another day of observations, and then Friday evening we had a work Christmas party. All of the teachers and employees and the director of the school went to a restaurant called Shaboo Shaboo (sp?) We had this amazing dinner where you sit on the ground and cook your own soup at the table. We added mushrooms, different kinds of greens, and an amazing beef. Our table got the spicy version which was sooo good but pretty hot. The mild version was tasty too and reminded me a lot of a soup that my dad cooks at home with ramen noodles and mushrooms and greens. Then, after we finished that they added these really tasty noodles to the broth. After that was finished, the cooked a sort of stir fry rice in the dish, which was probably the best part of the meal. We just scooped it out of the pot and it was the tastiest thing ever! After the dinner we went to a local bar called Wabar. It apparently is a popular bar for the foreigners in our neighboorhood. Several Korean teachers came out as well, and I met a few other foreign teachers who will be around over winter break. We stayed there until around 2:30, then I walked home, basically just over a bridge and I was back at my apartment. I am finally starting to learn my way around!

After I got home last night I talked to Joe for almost an hour on skype, that is such a cool program because you can actually see who you are talking to, it is much more personal! I also called my friend Mariana from Mexico, and talked to my cousin DJ for a few minutes too before going to bed.

Today I was finally able to sleep in past 5:30! I have been waking up super early each morning because of jet lag. I was up around noon today, and then I met up with my co-teacher Lydia. She is sooo sweet. She is also new to SLP, and to Dongbaek, which is nice because we were able to walk around for a bit and see the area. She lived in Kansas for a few years up until this past May. We went out to lunch (where I drank my new favorite beverage, pomegranate juice), then we went to Emart, which is basically the Korean Wal-Mart. She was able to help me buy some things for my apartment, cleaning things (yes Mom I will be cleaning my apartment) and etc. She wanted to buy me toilet paper, which, I guess, is a very polite thing to bring when you visit someones house here in Korea? Different, but I was grateful to her! I have an extra large supply now.

Tonight there is a party for one of the Korean co-teachers mothers. It is her 70th birthday, and they are having the party at a ski resort nearby. I am still undecided if I will go or not....aside from not having any sort of ski attire I am extremely tired! I should finish organizing my apartment and buy some food to have here also, and just relax after an extremely busy week, but I do want to go to the party, so who knows.

Tomorrow I am going to see the Nutcracker with some teachers, and then Monday I start my trial teaching at school. Hope it goes well!

I'll post more within the next few days....love you all!