Settling In

We are really getting settled into our life in Korea.  Suji is a great city to live in. We have met a lot of good friends and eaten some amazing food.  We have tried a lot of great dishes such as Omurice, Galbi, Mandu, Kimbap or Gimbap, Porridge, and different kinds of kimchi.  I've tried almost everything except for the little tiny fishes that are dried.  It's popular with Koreans, but I'm going to avoid it.  I'm not really a big fan of fish anyway. Our school serves us free lunch everyday, but if we're not in the mood, we can go across the street and find something cheap.  There's a place called "Pizza School" that's really popular. It's only $5 for a pizza there.  There's a grocery store next to our school called Kim's Club. We haven't been in yet, but that's where a lot of teachers go to get groceries.  We also frequent Home Plus or Family Mart which is like a 7-11. We also go to the actual 7-11 stores they have here too.  If we need more items, we go to E-Mart or Lotte Mart which is like going to Target.  The only difference is there are a lot of floors and it's vertically spread out.  So you take your grocery cart up the escalator that is more like a conveyer belt instead of stairs.  Everything is within a 15-20 minute walking distance.  Here are some pictures of the food we've eaten:






Our breakfast sometimes



Gimbap



Gimbap - similar to sushi



Chicken Porridge - like soup, rice, chicken, and veggies

Mandu - dumplings. This one has meat and veggies but there are many other kinds

Omurice - hard to see, but it's an omlet filled with rice

Little tiny dried fish.  I didn't try this one.

Here's what we haven't eaten, but a sample of what we've seen:

Squid at the grocery store

Dried fish at the grocery store

Pre-packaged fish meal


The Dayelin School has been giving us our observation assignment each day. We mostly spend our time observing kindergarten in the morning and then the LangCon classes (older kids) in the afternoon. This week we will observe the same way but now we start watching more classes and sometimes staying until 6pm.  This weekend we are supposed to have a training, but it conflicts with an even the teachers have going on so we'll see if it's postponed.  Here are some pics of the school:

Outside of our school

Outside of our school



Inside of the school



The floor we spend the most time on

  

The teacher's room at school

The kids also recently did an end of the term concert. It was very adorable! They showed of their English skills by performing shorter versions of plays like the Wizard of Oz, Ali Baba, and some other ones I can't think of right now.  Here are some cute pics of the kids (there are more on Facebook):

Here are a few more random pics:



Our footwear for the day - slippers





What our money looks like.  It takes only a day or two to figure it out.

This week is more observing at school, but soon we'll be teaching (March 2nd). I think we'll have some practice classes before March as well.  Today, one of the teachers let me teach a science lesson which was just showing the students that water and oil don't mix.  Very easy.  This position is going to be very easy overall which is great.  I can't wait to get internet at our apartment so we can stay home and communicate better, but soon we will! 

More later!