This is of my trip to Everland with the 9th grade girls. it is an amusement park like Disneyland.
Everland
Soyosan, my first trip out of Pocheon with one of my co teacahers.
Soyo Mountain
Herb Island in Pocheon (my city)
Herb Island 20 May 2012
13 June 2012
Road trippin'
This past weekend I decided that it was about time I tried going somewhere. I have spent almost every weekend at home on my computer talking with friends or watching movies. Things can be daunting in a foreign country especially when one does not know the language as you can all imagine. After a lot of planning and getting help from my fellow co-teachers who showed me which buses I needed to take, I set off early Saturday morning for the city of Gunsan.
Gunsan is on the west coast near the Yellow Sea. The bus ride there consisted of taking a bus from my town of Pocheon to Seoul which was about a 1 hour ride. Firstly I had to walk to the Pocheon bus terminal which is about a 45 minute walk from my house. I set out at around 5:20 am because the first bus to Seoul was due at 6:20. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to get there. As I was walking down the quite morning streets of Pocheon I decided that the cobblestone sidewalk needed some company, I decided to gracefully fall and give it a hug. My knees were quite thankful for this as was my right foot who suffered a bit of a sprain that has kept the taxis busy taking me to and from school this week.
I successfully got to the East Seoul bus terminal and with the aid of my handwritten notes and the kind help of a couple of men asking if I needed help, was able to get a ticket and onto the bus to Gunsan. This trip was about 3 1/2 hours. We made a couple of pit stops along the way, one of which was at a rest area. The rest areas here are crazy. They have stores, restaurants, food stands.. Dunkin Donuts! Of course I didn't dare get off the bus for fear of being left behind, I don't care that I had to use the restroom and it would be another hour and a half at the least... I.. was.. NOT... getting... off... the ... bus!!! I can see it now, American woman abandon at bus stop, tries walking home and wanders into the DMZ where she is being held by the North Koreans. I am sure that is exactly what my mother is thinking anyway! :)
Rest assured, I arrived at the Gunsan bus station and not the North Korean border. In fact Gunsan is at least 5 hours in the opposite direction so I was safe! It is also located close to a military base.. SCORE! I was able to find a hotel and get a taxi to take me there. I will not let this language barrier stop me! Or will I??? Ok so it may have some affects on what I do, but I am slowly learning to deal with it. It really does help having this cell phone. I can look up hotels, GPS, translate from English to Korean, and check my email. Every once in a while I can even use it to make a phone call! Go figure!!! :)
Seeing as I had decided to injure myself the weekend was spent in a nicely air conditioned room, laying on a moderately comfortable bed watching the only American tv channel I could find which was playing movies. Oh and I got to have room service. I was pretty much in heaven. The shower was one of those rainfall types and a huge bathtub which is not usual here.
The trip home was uneventful, no falling or missing the bus. Overall it was a nice mini vacation. It was good for me to do something on my own and to experience going somewhere not many people even where I live have gone.
Gunsan is on the west coast near the Yellow Sea. The bus ride there consisted of taking a bus from my town of Pocheon to Seoul which was about a 1 hour ride. Firstly I had to walk to the Pocheon bus terminal which is about a 45 minute walk from my house. I set out at around 5:20 am because the first bus to Seoul was due at 6:20. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of time to get there. As I was walking down the quite morning streets of Pocheon I decided that the cobblestone sidewalk needed some company, I decided to gracefully fall and give it a hug. My knees were quite thankful for this as was my right foot who suffered a bit of a sprain that has kept the taxis busy taking me to and from school this week.
I successfully got to the East Seoul bus terminal and with the aid of my handwritten notes and the kind help of a couple of men asking if I needed help, was able to get a ticket and onto the bus to Gunsan. This trip was about 3 1/2 hours. We made a couple of pit stops along the way, one of which was at a rest area. The rest areas here are crazy. They have stores, restaurants, food stands.. Dunkin Donuts! Of course I didn't dare get off the bus for fear of being left behind, I don't care that I had to use the restroom and it would be another hour and a half at the least... I.. was.. NOT... getting... off... the ... bus!!! I can see it now, American woman abandon at bus stop, tries walking home and wanders into the DMZ where she is being held by the North Koreans. I am sure that is exactly what my mother is thinking anyway! :)
Rest assured, I arrived at the Gunsan bus station and not the North Korean border. In fact Gunsan is at least 5 hours in the opposite direction so I was safe! It is also located close to a military base.. SCORE! I was able to find a hotel and get a taxi to take me there. I will not let this language barrier stop me! Or will I??? Ok so it may have some affects on what I do, but I am slowly learning to deal with it. It really does help having this cell phone. I can look up hotels, GPS, translate from English to Korean, and check my email. Every once in a while I can even use it to make a phone call! Go figure!!! :)
Seeing as I had decided to injure myself the weekend was spent in a nicely air conditioned room, laying on a moderately comfortable bed watching the only American tv channel I could find which was playing movies. Oh and I got to have room service. I was pretty much in heaven. The shower was one of those rainfall types and a huge bathtub which is not usual here.
The trip home was uneventful, no falling or missing the bus. Overall it was a nice mini vacation. It was good for me to do something on my own and to experience going somewhere not many people even where I live have gone.
06 June 2012
I did it!
I have finally gone to the grocery store all on my own! Yes, I know, again this doesn't seem like such a big deal... let me tell you what... IT IS!!! So much of my grocery store experience has become a game of guess what's in the package. I lucked out one night with some spicy raman noodles that had no hint of fish or seaweed in them. I am slowly going out of my comfort zone of pb&j and grilled cheese. Although I always pick up any jam & pb that is at the store when I go. One never knows when it will not be there.
One of my favorite finds was some Hillshire Farms smoked brats that i paid about $9 for and yes they are worth it!. Now at home I woudln't be quite so thrilled about this, but OMG!!!!!! Not to mention that I have actual Heinz ketchup and mustard! WIN!!! Yeah, it's the little things that have to keep a girl going. So after filling my hand cart with some very much needed items... (I had spent the previous 3 day weekend eating nothing but rice and oranges.) I headed to the check out. All I can say is that bless the checker's heart. What an understanding person she was! I used my debit card for the first time and that of course was no easy feat. After several tries and her trying to show me when to sign, I made it out of the store. Oh another interesting note, they give you the first grocery bag free, after that it is about 56 won, so less 6 cents. Of course I had to repay using my debit card... practice makes perfect right? haha
Then I got to try using the atm for the first time. Things are a bit different with the banking system here. Their ATMs do not have a daily limit of how much you can w/ draw. Instead a person sets the daily limit with the bank on how much can be taken from their account. One must be careful when doing this because if you go shopping for a high priced item you may not be able to get it depending on what you have set up... very odd if ya ask me! Then again.... lol Without any problems I took out the cash that I needed then attempted to get a hold of one of my English teaching friends to call a cab for me. I was unsuccessful in this and began my walk home.
I would say that the walk is about 2.5 -3 miles. Of course it happened to be about 85 that day and humidity around 78%... I melted!!! Having jeans on did not help either! haha On the way home I passed three older women who were out for a walk. They looked somewhat familiar but I didn't really pay too much attention to them until I stopped to drink some water. They came up to me and tried to help me carry my bags, and gestured that I should call a taxi. I thought that was awful nice but how do I say, "would you please call a taxi for me? I do not speak Korean.". hahaha I continued walking as did the women, all the way up the hill towards my place, they just laughed at me. I am sure they are thinking, "Crazy American!!!". I know that half the time that is what I am thinking when I look at myself and think.. What the heck am I doing here?!?!
On the work front I am loving my job. It is very different than I was preparing myself for. I am basically here to speak English (for the students to listen to). I have yet to teach a full 5 days of class. Last week on Memorial Day in the US it was Budah's birthday so no school. Then this week Weds was Memorial Day in SK (commemorating the Korean war). Then today (Thursday) there was testing for the 8th graders (2nd years) which is all that I teach on Thursday, so no teaching. I do however have a group of 4 girls who have started coming in during my lunch hour for English conversation. They are really fun and ask if they can come in even on days that they don't technically need to. :)
This weekend I am going to go on a big adventure all by myself so stay tuned! :) Cheers!
One of my favorite finds was some Hillshire Farms smoked brats that i paid about $9 for and yes they are worth it!. Now at home I woudln't be quite so thrilled about this, but OMG!!!!!! Not to mention that I have actual Heinz ketchup and mustard! WIN!!! Yeah, it's the little things that have to keep a girl going. So after filling my hand cart with some very much needed items... (I had spent the previous 3 day weekend eating nothing but rice and oranges.) I headed to the check out. All I can say is that bless the checker's heart. What an understanding person she was! I used my debit card for the first time and that of course was no easy feat. After several tries and her trying to show me when to sign, I made it out of the store. Oh another interesting note, they give you the first grocery bag free, after that it is about 56 won, so less 6 cents. Of course I had to repay using my debit card... practice makes perfect right? haha
Then I got to try using the atm for the first time. Things are a bit different with the banking system here. Their ATMs do not have a daily limit of how much you can w/ draw. Instead a person sets the daily limit with the bank on how much can be taken from their account. One must be careful when doing this because if you go shopping for a high priced item you may not be able to get it depending on what you have set up... very odd if ya ask me! Then again.... lol Without any problems I took out the cash that I needed then attempted to get a hold of one of my English teaching friends to call a cab for me. I was unsuccessful in this and began my walk home.
I would say that the walk is about 2.5 -3 miles. Of course it happened to be about 85 that day and humidity around 78%... I melted!!! Having jeans on did not help either! haha On the way home I passed three older women who were out for a walk. They looked somewhat familiar but I didn't really pay too much attention to them until I stopped to drink some water. They came up to me and tried to help me carry my bags, and gestured that I should call a taxi. I thought that was awful nice but how do I say, "would you please call a taxi for me? I do not speak Korean.". hahaha I continued walking as did the women, all the way up the hill towards my place, they just laughed at me. I am sure they are thinking, "Crazy American!!!". I know that half the time that is what I am thinking when I look at myself and think.. What the heck am I doing here?!?!
On the work front I am loving my job. It is very different than I was preparing myself for. I am basically here to speak English (for the students to listen to). I have yet to teach a full 5 days of class. Last week on Memorial Day in the US it was Budah's birthday so no school. Then this week Weds was Memorial Day in SK (commemorating the Korean war). Then today (Thursday) there was testing for the 8th graders (2nd years) which is all that I teach on Thursday, so no teaching. I do however have a group of 4 girls who have started coming in during my lunch hour for English conversation. They are really fun and ask if they can come in even on days that they don't technically need to. :)
This weekend I am going to go on a big adventure all by myself so stay tuned! :) Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)