Beautiful Day!

Not only do we have finger print entry but... we also have a video display when someones at the door (who needs a peep hole)

These are some of my friends/teachers I work with at TNE....a few from the Friday night crew! :)

The week has been busy but exiting! I have one class at the moment and I have been busy preparing them for their big end of the month test. Next week we have tests on Monday and Tuesday and starting Wednesday (September) we all have new classes/levels to teach. I have 2 Giza 1 classes (these are like having 5th graders), a Tiger 1 class (these are like having 4th graders), a Babylon 2 class (this is what I told you about last week... Matt, who is 12 but does middle and high school level work- smartest kid at TNE, he has a class to himself and i'm the teacher) and lastly, on Tuesday and Thursday evening I tutor Max who is 7 years old- still struggles to read. I am looking forward to my new schedule. For the majority of the time, I do not even start work till 1:30 or 2:50 but, I end at 8:35.

Friday night, went out and had a blast... let me just tell u, on the way to the bar the cab driver asked if I was a movie star (soooo flattering, don't worry, I won't let it get to my head). I met some nice Korean guys and since I do not have my cell phone yet- dammit, I gave them my email address instead hahaha!

After a great night out, I woke up at 12 and went to work. I know, your probably wondering why I was working on a Saturday. We are working on doing our lesson plans all online so that the parents can access them via our website. We all had to learn how to do this new format so I said I would come in Saturday (today) to learn... thanks Alicia for sticking around to help all of us! Let me digress for a minute.. whoever knows me well enough, knows that I love watching infomercials.. can I just say that they are even more fun to watch in Korean (like right now, that is usually my background noise)- hahaha! Anyway, today was a beautiful day because... after all the beer last night I thought I should run some off. After 4 hours of work, I ventured out alone, in the rain to do some wogging (walking/jogging). I made sure to put some wons in my pocket because god knows I get lost everywhere I go.. if I did, which I didn't, I could have at least taken a cab back home. I went on a really nice brick path, lined by pretty trees. Along the way I passed some nice apartment buildings, some little parks, a huge driving range and then I finally ran into some work out equipment (remember how I told you that you will find random workout equipment placed around the city... usually at or near a park). I used all of it... some of it was really interesting, I will take pictures soon to post. As I was spinning around on a weird piece of Ab equipment I heard some yelling. I turned around and headed up a hill to find a really nice soccer stadium where a game was being played. The stadium had a track right around the field and up on the hill that I was on, was another track.. a rubber one. I took a few laps around the track and in the middle of watching this soccer game and admiring the beautiful park I saw the most perfect,beautiful, arched rainbow! It made my day!!! :) Anytime I see a rainbow, I assume its one of my grandparents... all of them or another friend/family member who has passed away.. just shinin through to say hey!! it was indeed a beautiful day!

I think i'll take it easy tonight.. get some dinner with friends and maybe see a movie! Have a loveeeely day/night
xo- Em

Korean Facts/Randomness:

- Did you know... Gwangju (where I live) hosted the world cup 4 or 5 years ago!
- The students here call ankles your leg neck.. wrists- arm neck, butt hole- bottom belly button
- Fan Death: people here believe that if you sleep with a fan on and the doors and windows closed.. the fan will suck all the oxygen out of the room and you will die

Birthday FUN! :)

This is where we went for part of my Birthday (private Karaoke bar downtown)- picture on left (paragraph 1)

This is the Abalone (Korean delicacy)- shell fish- picture to the right (paragraph 2)

Hello all! last time we chatted I was stuck in my dress and preparing for a Birthday celebration. I must say... it was a LOVVVEELY B-day weekend! All the American teachers took me out for a wonderful Birthday evening. We ate dinner at nice place where we had shabu shabu (a delicious soup for the table to share filled with a variety of vegetables- mushrooms, onions, grass-like something.. etc. once the veggies marinate the broth, thinly sliced pork is added)- it sounds boring but it was very tasty! After dinner we went to a Nori (karaoke) bar. We went into this neat building downtown where we were then taken to a private room over looking all the pretty lights/scandalousness of city. This room was very cool... there was a big screen T.V. where we sang karaoke, a big round table where we drank soju (Korean liquor) and mikjew (beer) and our own private bathroom. They brought us complimentary snacks which consisted of some random Korean goodies- cold noodles, shrimp, fish rolls, Korean meatballs, and some delicious fruits. After a couple hours we left and went to "Bubble" bar.. "Bubble" is one of the foreign bars where lots of people go- very fun! The music is great and the company is even better! I met some very nice people in my drunken state and made sure to do a lot of dancing! Not only are there a good amount of Americans at "Bubble" but there are a lot of Canadians, Australians, Hawaiians, and of course, Koreans. I actually met a very nice guy from Hawaii named Pico.. too bad he's leaving this week! For some odd reason he had this strange obsession with my teeth (hmmm... never heard this before, maybe its good that hes leaving haha)! The night went on and I finally made it home around 4:30 A.M. (this was early compared to what time all my friends got home... remember, bars stay open until 7 A.M.).

Saturday night.... with some friends, went to dinner at this really neat Pirate ship restaurant. The restaurant is near a giant pond/park where there is a really pretty light show on the water every night at 8- we watched before we went into the restaurant. So, at dinner we ordered one of Korea's delicacies- Abalone (a large shell fish). The abalone came to the table alive and was placed on the grill. As picky as i'm NOT, this weirded me out only because I sat there watching the shell fish reaching out of their shells, squirming all around. Once the grill was turned on they really started reaching but then finally started shriveling up to die. The waiter came and cut them up and I tried them. They really didn't have much flavor and honestly I could not get past the fact that I just watched them moving all around. I had a couple bites but just continued to eat the Kim Chee and the seaweed soup... we left there, splitting this very expensive meal. That night we went to a few foreign bars and had a really good time. I made it home around 5 and then got up at 9 for the most intense hike of my like.. Ohhhh my GOD!

So, Laura, Michael and I took a subway to a town about 45 min away where we attempted to climb Muend Mt. (a famous mountain in Korea where many wealthy people are buried in beautiful tombs). Once we got there, we checked out the maps and decided to take the easiest trail (it was our first time, we were running of a few hours of sleep and we had been drinking all weekend, we didn't need anything too exciting). Finally, an hour passed and we found what we thought was the simple trail. We began this intense hike ... 45 min later after Laura and I were about dead and our legs were eaten up by mosquitos, we decided we HAD to turn back! On our way back down the mountain we ran into some locals who told Michael that we were most definitely not on the easy trail.. in fact, we were on the most difficult trail in the town... so difficult, it is not even marked on any maps--- WOW, thanks Michael haha! Good workout! Let me tell you this before I move on... did you know, Koreans DO NOT sweat!!! SERIOUSLY! Here Laura and I are just dripping sweat, shirts are wet, smelly... you get the point, while Michael and every other local on the trail is just chillin, not sweatin a drop! Koreans do not even wear deodorant, they don't need it because they really don't sweat! I can not get over this.. I made sure to bring a lot of deodorant over here- I don't want to be the smelly girl!

This weekend is still going and I am exhausted at this point.... So, it's Sunday now- we got free tickets to the KIA Tigers baseball game (this is like MLB baseball)! It was really fun seeing the Gwangju Tigers play and just seeing what it's like to be at a baseball game in Korea. I love that you can take all your own food and beverages into the game... can you imagine taking a case of beer and a couple of pizzas into an American baseball game -pretty cool!

This week has been pretty crazy and its only Tuesday... almost Wednesday! Like I have said before, the business aspect of this job is very different and new to me. I started teaching my first class (4th grade girls- Erica, Alice and Crystal)... it is surprising that most of the Korean kids at this school don't have Korean names.. maybe i'm missing something, hmm? Anyway, I love my class of girls, they are so sweet and extremely smart. Come September, I have 2 more classes.. one of my classes consists of Matt (the smartest kid at TN English)- he's a 5th/6th grader who is a genius.. it's beyond me why they are letting me be his teacher. I will definitely be brushing up on my facts, my grammar, my writing... everrrrrrything- I will let you know how it goes! My sister's good friend Amanda gave me a ton of packages of "silly bandz" to bring to Korea for the kids. I assumed they would already be very popular over here considering they are made in China but I was VERY wrong. GO Amanda for helping me start a new trend in Korea... my kids loveeeeee the silly bandz and thanks to you I have a ton to hand out!

I know I said there was no cheese here but Laura and I found some at the Lotte Mart (like a Walmart buy way better) yesterday. We got velveeta cheese slices (like 8 bucks for 30 slices...kinda pricy but worth it) came home and made the most amazing grille cheeses of all time! Maybe they are only amazing because they are like home to me... that's ok :) !!!

Korean Facts... Korean Randomness...

-All the apartments at TN English have fingerprint entrances, this is so wonderful! Not only this but I can see who is at the door on a video screen when they ring the bell.
- NO tipping.. NO tax! This is even more wonderful, although I do feel extremely weird when I leave a restaurant and I don't tip... it's considered rude to tip!
- Korea has McDonalds, (they deliver with no charge.. it's delicious, I've already tried a big mac) Baskin Robins, Dominoes and Dunkin Donuts.
- Ramon noodles are all the rage here. People eat them like they are going out of style. In the stores, there are whole isles and more filled with different kinds of Raman (they are kind of expensive too, not like in America where you pay 10 cents for a bag).
- NO trash cans.. this drives me crazy!!!!!! Anywhere you go.. on the street, you will never find a trash can. People just throw trash on the ground and it is swept up every day.
- You could have guessed this but Korean women, especially between the ages of 16 and 45 (random guess) wear crazzzzy high, high heels. My friends told me they even wear them when there is a foot of snow on the ground. At the baseball game there was women in raggedy jean shorts and T-shirts and they even had on the dressiest, tallest high heels. More power to them but it's just crazy to me!
- In the middle of a park or even walking through the middle of downtown there will be a tree or two and some work out equipment... I think it's great! I need to take advantage of this!!!!
- In some women's bathroom, be sure to grab your toilet paper before you head into the stall... in a lot of public stalls, there is only one roll of toilet paper and its outside the stalls! I have finally gotten used to this haha!
- On an average, there are only 8 murders a year in the whole country of South Korea but there are a ton (don't have an exact number) of suicides. The reason there are so many suicides is because the Koreans keep to themselves.. they keep all their feelings bottled in (stress, anxiety, pain, fear)- causing them to eventually kill themselves. In the Korean culture people hardly ever complain, they don't get angry or start fights/arguments in public like they do in America. It's no wonder why there are so many suicides.. sad!
Once again, a novel.. until next time.. all my love :)

p.s... as you can see I figured out how to get my pictures up- check out the last 2 blogs, I added pictures :)

This Damn Zipper!!!!!

A delicious assortment of fruits and veggies from the Friday market (the grapes are what I was eating)- YUM!

So.. it's almost 8 p.m. here and I am getting ready to go out for my Birthday!! I am watching a movie and eating some grapes (the grapes here taste nothing like the grapes in America..they are better- they have more of a wine taste, have tiny crunchy seeds inside and have a bitter skin). I am pretty exited about tonight. All the TN teachers are taking me out to dinner around 9 then we are going to a few bars down town.. including a Karaoke bar, haha.. I am going to have to be pretty shnockered for that! I will blog at the end of the weekend and let you know how everything goes!!

Let me just vent for a minute.. so it sometimes sucks to live alone. I just spent a good 20 minutes trying to get out of my dress. All my friends are either at work or resting up for the evening. I never realized how extremely flexible I was till just now. I am surprised I didn't break the zipper.. godddd!! All is well.. i'm out of the dress.. on to bigger and better things! Have a great weekend.. I know I will! :)

Korean facts:
- it is pretty common for couples to not be monogamous in Korea... everyone does it and everyone knows it goes on its just that people don't openly talk about it. For example a woman might go to a bar, find a good looking man, take him to a sex motel (this is really what a lot of motels are called.. cause everyone does this), screw him then call it a day.. and go home. Now there are some faithful marriages but its not common

They Have OUTBACK.. haha!

Work has been getting a little more real... keep in mind, this is my first real job so it's all very new to me. I really like it but I am starting to feel the pressure and the stress. So far I have been observing different teachers (there are 7 english teachers all around my age.. 23- 28). They are absolutely wonderful at what they do. I feel pretty lucky to be working with them and having them as my friends (well we are getting there). Everyone who works for TNE is really kind and helpful. One of my bosses Alicia (love her) gave me a task to start working on... currently and for the next couple of weeks I will be writing the curriculum for one of the English textbooks. It's pretty cool but it's mostly just entails a lot of tedious, busy work. Today I taught my first class which was only 2 students. The students are not put into a grades but more so into levels for how they are split up (way better than the American ways). The two girls I am teaching are 9 years old which is like having 4th graders. You wouldn't believe how smart all these kids are... not just the 4th graders but all the levels/grades. I mean, the "Peachicks" (Kindergarten class) that I observed has students raging from ages 3 to 5 and they are way smarter than any of the American students I taught during my Internship. I am so impressed by these kids, this school... everything... i'm even a little intimidated! I must say... the Korean kids are sooooo adorable. They call you by your first name which is not what i'm used to. Basically all the staff goes by first name-teacher (Emilie teacher). It's funny to hear my first name in a work/teaching environment... i'm so used to being called"Ms. Smith".

After work the other night, Alicia, Laura and I (work friends) went to Outback... how funny is that. It cracked me up that there is a giant Outback in the middle of the city. It was really good, I was surprised. Ya know how at Outback the waiter bends down next to your table and gets real close and personal when asking you questions, and taking your order? (well, I guess they do this at a lot of American restaurants).. anyway, it was so funny when I saw all of the wait staff doing this. I will give them this.. they did a great job at mimicking the Outback etiquette.. haha!!
I discovered one of my favorite dishes here... I don't know if I am spelling this right but this is at least how it sounds.. nang myun (cold, spicy noodles)- dammit, I thought I was going to break away from carbs but not yet! I also really LOVVVEE the Korean BBQ (sam geyup sul) and the kim chee (pickled/spicy cabbage).
So tonight after work.. which was at 9 p.m., my hall mate/friend Laura went and got dinner down the street. We got the nang myun... one of our bosses raved about how good it was at this particular restaurant... it was rather delicious! So far I haven't really gotten a whole lot of stares but I don't know what was different about us tonight. Koreans came into the restaurant and pointed and started at us all night. At one point during dinner, a Korean man looked over at my and starting laughing because apparently I was not holding my chop sticks correctly (I thought I was doing a great job actually). He said something to his family and then they all looked over and laughed at me. You know me... I just held my chop sticks in the air, shrugged my shoulders and smiled haha!
So, I am loving it here... it hasn't even been a week.. I can't wait for more! :)

Korean Facts:
-Smoking: Korean women either don't smoke (cigarettes) or they do it in private and still continue to hide it. If your a women, seen smoking... Koreans pretty much think your a "floozy" (sp)..
-Korean ages: when you are born here, you are already one year. All Koreans are 1 year ahead in age. My friend Jin who is Korean says she is 25 but in American years she is really 24.

*I miss everyone :) xoxo

Korean Hospitals... TIME WARP!

Room that I had a majority of my physical in...

So today I went to the Korean Hospital to get a physical for my work. I pulled up to this place and thought.. Ohh myyyy GOD- this can't be a hospital.. it looked like some random, old building built in the 70's... then I walked in and that was another story. Everything from the smell, floors, drapes, chairs, nurses, doctors, patients, rooms, etc. looked like something from the late 70's to early 80's. When it came time to pee in a cup (I hate doing this.. I'd rather get a shot) the nurse handed me a dixie cup with my name written in pen on the side of it.... no plastic container? When she drew blood, she didn't even wear gloves... no bandaid, nothing afterwards! I bet they will find my x-ray pretty interesting though, haha.. terminator ;) !!!

After my physical I went and had some more pictures made (these will go on different documents of mine for the company). This also looked like a scene out of the 70's or 80's.. i've noticed that things are either reallllly updated like my apt. and school or they are extremely old! HAHAHA.. now that I think about it.. it was definitely a scene out of "Napoleon Dynamite" ... remember Deb's little glamour shots studio.. thats how this was. The dude taking the pictures had the personality of Deb but the physical appearance of Pedro.. ahhh ahhaha, I wish I got a picture!

More Korean Facts:
-Gas Prices: in the form of liters .. 3 to 4 liters in a gallon I think. Each liter is around 1500 won ($1.50). If you do the math.. i'm sure you don't want to, this makes gas double the price of our gas (5 to 6 bucks).
-Money: in the form of wons. A won is equal to about 80 cents American money... the dollar is worth more, yay!! (1000 won is like having a dollar, 10000 won is like having 10 bucks.. you get it!
-Traffic Lights: they don't mean SHIT around here. If you get in a cab, be sure to buckle up because, (as my friends as told me) it is very likely you will get in an accident. NOONE pays attention to the lights.. if its red and you think no one is coming then by all means just keep going... sometimes they just hope for the best and drive right through the red lights without even thinking twice. Dad.. I have to call you out.. you might like it here, noone.. expect for foreigners wears seat belts. Everyone has a death wish around here. Try to buckle up!!
-AC: Mom, you will never want to visit here in the summer!!! People are very cautious about using the air conditioning... not that you aren't but it's just different here. I have it in my apt. and it's great but they ask us to turn it off when we leave. Any where else you go around town does not have AC and it is blistering hotttttt here (humidity, as I have said before is horrendous). On the plus side.. it is a great thing how the Koreans conserve.
-Clothing: my Korean Etiquette books were really not that helpful.. yes, very interesting but a lot of things were way off. In my books I read that Korean women dress very conservative so short shorts, skirts, and dresses or not worn.. HAAA! You should see how sexy the Korean women dress.. I mean, they have every right to because they have such beautiful figures. I have never seen so many short shorts as short as I have seen them then in Korea. All the women have really nice legs so why not show them off. I didn't pack any of my short shorts but i'm thinking I might buy a pair here haha ;)

by the way.. my chop stick skills are slowwwwwly improving :)

A little More Like Home...

Check out "Clarence".. my new roommate.. the one with green hair! ;)
TN English Building. TN teachers live on the 6th and 7th floor. School is on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor. 1st floor is an American Cafe called "Emma's Cafe". The owner's sister, Emma runs this cafe. Mom's of the students sit here and watch a large screen to see how their child is being taught (all the English teachers are displayed throughout the entire day of teaching).


Im feeling less and less homesick as each day.. well as each hour passes! It's GREAT! On Sunday night I ventured out with 2 of of my friends (TN English teachers)... oh by the way, I was told by one of my bosses that "TN" stands for "Top Notch"... hmmm? I don't know how serious this is but whatever. Anyway.. sorry to digress, we went to one of our boss's houses to hang out then got some dinner. Such nice people, I love it. Since the group of TN teachers all lives in the TN building, we are like a big family. It's like living in the dorms again but WAY better. There are single apartments like mine and two bedroom apartments. I will say it is very nice living alone expect for the fact that I don't have a huge flat screen in my kitchen and a normal, large refrigerator (this is what you get if you have a 2 bedroom). So.. my apartment is feeling more and more like home. One of my boss's took me to the E-Mart (like a Costco/Walmart) this morning to get some more necessities. Since I don't have a roommate I thought it was totally necessary to purchase a plant.. Clarence is his name... I hope he survives this year with me! I bought a lot of Korean food so it will be interesting to see what concoctions I can come up with.

Today I started training for my job. I realized that my school is more like an after school program.. especially this summer. Students come in for one or two hour to two hour long English classes. From what I observed today, the main focus is on reading and phonics.. although, other subject areas are integrated into the lessons. The teachers use an array of workbooks and story books to teach their lessons. Not only this but the teachers have a smart board right in front of them to refer to if need be (google a word or picture, etc.). The best thing about these classes are that there isn't more than 5 or 6 students in each class. If your a teacher than I am sure you can see the plus side in this. Each TN teacher does a daily analysis for each students at the end of the period. This gives the staff as well as the parents a chance to see students work/progress each day (1 to 2 sentences about each child's day). I love the TN program and all the staff and students. I am really anxious/apprehensive to get started and to see what else it entails.

This evening all my boss's took me out to a delicious dinner (Korean BBQ- amazing). It was a bit intimidating to have dinner with all my superiors for several reasons.. I can barely use chop sticks (the waitress ending up giving me a fork halfway through the meal because she couldn't stand to see me suffer any longer... this won't happen anymore- I bought chop sticks today and I will be practicing at home) they expect SOOO much out of me because I have a teaching degree, and they are obsessed with my look (not a bad thing and not to gloat but I feel like I always need to be done up, ugh). I am very marketable for their company because I am what they call skinny (HAH), "BB" (blonde hair, blue eyes) and I have a teaching degree. This is all very flattering and exciting.. I just hope I can meet their expectations. I told them that I would work hard and try my very best.

So, tomorrow I get my physical. I have heard some interesting things about the Korean health system... I am really looking forward to this weekend.. not only is it my 23rd Birthday on Friday but some friends and I plan to go hiking up a famous mountain in Gwangju. I will let you know how it all goes!

P.S. - for those of you curious, like my Dad. Here are some Korean facts
-Gwangju population size.. about 1.25 million. The city is separated into 6 or 7 districts. The area that I live in is just one of those districts.
-It is very rude to spilt the price of a meal with friends.. typically one person pays and if you do split you never want to do it in the restaurant, always wait till you get outside or there will be drama (keep in mind that all meals are for a group.. it is rare for you to order a single meal for yourself)
-Always take off your shoes at the entrance of someones home or at a traditional restaurant.. and at our school. I was all worried about finding some good work shoes before I left but turns out I will be barefoot everyday. it's kinda gross and weird but whatever. Men have to wear a slipper or socks but women and children can be barefoot. The guys look so silly running around school in their socks and slippers (English teachers- I work with 6 guys and 2 other girls).
-A lot of buildings, especially hospitals do not have a 4th floor.. if they do, the floor is just called "F". The work 4 means death and Koreans are very superstitious.
-Fire escapes entail this.. a large box in the boxed-in window which contains directions for how to scale the wall.. I haven't looked in the box but I am sure there are some types of ropes or pulleys, who knows? There are also no fire extinguishers or smoke alarms (it's a good thing I turned off my hair dryer before it really made trouble for my whole building)- it's trash now!
-NO CHEESE.... yes there is pizza, ice and other great American things but NO CHEESE. I will be missing that the most. I mean, there is some cheese but according to the Koreans and some Americans, it is awwwwfullllll!!!!!
-More facts to come, you will see.. :)

Hello Korea!!

Interesting way of cleansing but it works! :)... Read about in 3rd paragraph
So, as most of you saw via Facebook... I made it to South Korea safe and sound. The trip over here was a little overwhelming and exhausting but overall it went really well! After my 13 and a half hour flight from Chicago to Seoul I got my 100 plus pounds of luggage and got a bus ticket to Gwangju and headed out. This 4 hour ride was interesting.... the driver made a stop about halfway through for people to get out, go to the bathroom, get food, etc. I had been sleeping the entire time so I was a little out of it. When the driver stopped I grabbed all my things, got off the bus and stood in the middle of this Korean shopping center confused as hell.... all I kept thinking was, "where the F am I and OMG no one speaks English, how do I get help?, Where do I go?" Finally a light bulb turned on.. DUH.. the bus ride is not over, WOW EMILIE! Got on the bus, continued sleeping and finally made it to the Gwangju bus station where my boss Michael Kim picked me up. Poor Michael, he dragged my heavy ass bags through the bus station and into a cab. I think his arms are still sore today!!

So Michael informed me of a few things that I was not aware of... I thought I was only going to be living in Gwangju for 2 weeks where I would do my training but the company wants me to live in Gwangju permanently.. hmm? The school/company that I work for (TN English) is run out of Gwangju and because of my qualifications the school wants to keep me here full time. I don't really have a say, so whatever.. it's just something new and different than what I had thought. It's really funny because my boss, as well as some of the other English teachers have gone on and on about how great it is to have a blonde haired, blue eyed, slim white girl with a teaching degree finally working for them. If they like me this much well damn.. all my teaching friends back in America would be treated like celebrities!!

So my apartment is SO cute and perfect. The building is in a great location near some shops and what not and the school that I will be teaching in is on the bottom level of my place.. Crazy huh!? I won't have to worry about transportation because all I need to do is hop on the elevator and head down a couple of floors. The weirdest thing about my apartment is the fact that there isn't a separate shower (the picture above kinda shows this).. let me explain.. in the bathroom, right above the sink is a show head that comes off if need be. The sink turns on the shower and you just shower openly next to the sink and toilet... no shower curtain. Lets just say, you should move the toilet paper and anything else you don't want to get wet if your taking a shower.

Being that last night was Friday, I figured I should go out. I went to a bar called "Bubble" with some people in my building. This was a really neat bar... great American music and lots of foreigners. I met some nice people from all over the world including some girls from Charlotte and Greensboro- small world! The Koreans are extremely friendly and helpful.. thank god because things don't always click right away. I wonder if the Koreans know about the whole blonde/slow thing. I doubt it, guess I can't use that as an excuse here. Here's the awesome part about going out here... no drinking age (unlike America, I heard that the younger people do not even care to drink) you can take drinks from bar to bar as well as in cabs, you can be as drunk as you want in public (not my style though) and the bars don't close till 7 a.m. I didn't even go out til 1:30 a.m. and we got home around 5... new and different! We went to an American style Korean restaurant after the bar called "Fish Grille". In Korean Culture, everyone is family.. so you share your meals. The table shared a deep fried hamburger roll and french fries. OMG, this was sooo good.

Today I slept till 5 p.m., showered and got ready (I caught my hairdryer on fire.. so much for that, dammit- its incredibly humid so I think fixing my hair is just pointless) and Michael took me to a store like a Costco/Walmart. I got the essentials and then he took me out for a nice traditional Korean meal. So.. me and chopsticks don't do well! I felt like a complete retard trying to eat but i'm learning. Dinner was very yummy but i'm thinking I will loose a lot of weight here. The portions are smaller, better for you, more filling and the chop sticks make it more difficult.

I start work/training on Monday. I am very excited to get back on a strict schedule. My ADHD is driving me crazy.. I need something to do! I can't wait to meet my students. I miss teaching and kids!! Sorry this post was like reading a novel but I am so excited and as you can see I have a lot to say. I will be in touch soon and let you know how work goes. :)

Good Bye America

I just got back from Atlanta where I had an interview to confirm my visa. What a pain driving 6 hours early on Tuesday morning, getting to ATL just in time for a 30 minute interview then driving back on Wednesday. I will say the plus to it all was spending time with my two wonderful cousins Laura and Jeff. Thanks again LaLa for letting us stay with you.
So tonight is my last night in America. I will be getting a little more packing done (you should see the GIANT bags I have packed.. WOW) hanging with friends and family and getting to bed early. I fly out of RDU at 8:45 into Chicago. I have a layover there for a few hours then i'm off to S.Korea.
I am VERY nervous and sooo anxious/exited. I will be in touch when I arrive in Seoul or when I get to my temporary apartment in Gwangju (living there for 2 weeks to train for my job).

Emilie's Asian Porn... WHATT?

Sooo... hmmm... i've been told that "Emilie's Asian Adventures" sounds like a porn.. dammit! i'm NOT changing it. Think what you want haha!

The packing has begun and it's awful... I have too many things and I cant even take half of them. It SUCKS!