Settling in...

안녕하세요!  

A view of Seoul

Last weekend was my last weekend with my training group in the eastern part of Seoul.  On Friday, we were celebrating a birthday in the training group so we all went to North Seoul Tower and out to dinner together.  It was a great time.  One of the traditions of the Tower that was really cool is that couples will take a lock up to the top and lock it on the fence (or anywhere for that matter) to symbolize their love being locked forever.  There's even a place to dispose of the key to make sure you really mean forever, haha.

Michelle and Micah locking it up

 Cathal and Debra claimed their spot

 Thousands and thousands of locks

 Some long-lasting love

We stayed up at the Tower enjoying the views until after sunset before we all went into Myeong-dong for dinner.  For me it was a great way to spend the day with my new friends. I was surprised that we had such a great group of people in our training group.  People from all over: Oregon, Idaho, New Jersey, New York, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand.  I had a awesome time getting to know them all and I look forward to being able to visit them all over Korea.

 City view at sunset

 Making our way back down

A view of the tower

I've made my way to Bucheon, my new home for the foreseeable future, and I've just finished my first week of teaching.  Honestly, everything has been great so far.  My apartment is really nice and much more spacious than I was expecting.  Don't get my wrong, this is still small by American standards, but I have a loft area which I'm using for my bed currently and it really helps make the whole space seem bigger.  Although, the loft is about 4 feet tall at best which requires some ducking just to make my way to the bed! The bathroom is the biggest adjustment, because the bathroom is essentially in the shower.  There's no dedicated "shower" just a drain in the middle of the bathroom!  The shower head is above the sink so I can shower and brush my teeth at the same time if I need to.

The apartment is really close to the school, which is a great advantage.  It's probably a two minute walk.  The longest part of the commute is waiting for the elevator at my building. The other teachers all seem to be cool enough, and they all get along which is always nice. I've been out to dinner/lunch with them already 3-4 times this week, and they seem to be willing to help me adjust to my new home.  My schedule is pretty favorable, for the first term anyways.  I work with adults from 10a-noon, elementary/middle school students from 4p-7p and then one more adult class at 8:30p.  It does make for long days but I'll be able to take advantage of the breaks to get a lot done.  And, I'm done at noon on Fridays!  Huge bonus.

I really haven't had much free time since I got here last Sunday night, but this weekend I'll take plenty of pictures of my neighborhood and apartment and get them up here soon.

지금은 안녕

Myeok-dong at night