2nd Week: Things are getting easier

What to say? Well, a summary of the second week would go like this.  I drank a good amount on Friday (after completing our first week of teaching), and went around the areas and found other foreigners bars and a club called Purple Haze.  Don't remember what any of them looked like but I know it was a pretty good time.  Saturday, we went to the beach and walked around a tourists/local attraction.  It was a forest with hills and rocks right by the ocean (pictures will be posted on facebook later).  Then we went out that night to eat dinner with other teachers and did the whole bar crawl again.  It was great, it reminded me of a weekend in Minnesota or Wisconsin.  Luckily, Soju goes down much easier than vodka.  Sunday, was a lay-around day for me.  I didn't feel good and so I decided to watch the whole season of Californiacation.  A great show!  

I've been here for 2.5 weeks and after completely today, I have a 6 day vacation already!  It is Korean's version of Thanksgiving.  So now, while I am running very low on money, have a 6 day vacation to do whatever!  I will go exploring around Ulsan, drink a lot, and eat a lot.  I think other than that, I have nothing to do really.  Teachers are around to plan on going out whenever we can since we are all kind of in the same situation with our money.  Waiting to get paid and getting reimbursed for airfares and whatnot.  When I do something different from what we are doing now, I will be sure to let you know.  But for now, life here is very similar to the States: Work, Eat, Drink, and then occasional "special" events on the weekends.  

Exciting news: I got my internet, cable (with american channels), and cell phone yesterday.  I am now re-connected with the world again.  It was a painful 2 weeks of PC cafes (with second-hand smoke) and waiting at meeting points for 30minutes or more for other teachers to show up, knowing that they got lost or missed the stop.

First Weekend and First School Experience

So I went out for the first weekend. The english teachers all got together and had dinner. Soju, is like a weaker version of vodka became my best friend at dinner. I got to meet a bunch of the other teachers. Afterwards, we went to the WaBar which is a popular "foreigners bar" somewhere downtown I think? There, "Hite" which is the Korean common beer, became my new best friend. I, of course, drank like a normal Wisconsin or Minnesota student and quickly frightened some people. 3 or 4 big glasses, 3 or 4 shots, and I was pretty buzzed. It was a teacher's birthday at midnight so I celebrated with him like we were his best friends from home. That gave me the excuse to consume ridiculous amounts of alcohol without people judging me. But they still probably did. I met a Korean-American who knew his way around. Obviously, all the teachers went home after the WaBar, we proceeded to the night clubs near by. 70 bucks and 3 hours later, I realized a few things. 1. I should learn korean before going back. 2. Korean girls are no where near as attractive as Chinese girls. 3. I drank too much. So 4:00am, I called it a night.

Now on to the school experience. It was much different than what I expected. I am teaching 3rd-6th graders. Many of them know very little english so there will be a lot of exercises that i can do with them. But the whole day is very very relaxed. At least it seems like that so far. I start at 9:10am. Lunch at 12:20pm for an hour. And then I am done with classes at 2pm. Certain days, I am done at 11:30am and I would sit on the computer and wait for lunch. After lunch, I would sit on the computer gain to wait to leave. I must stay till 5. So I don't really get this system but whatever, I don't have to do much. The kids are super energetic and so far, its been going great with each class. So, I guess I will see after a week or so worth of classes before I can confirm that my day is extremely chill.

Ok, I must add, the first day of school, the school treated me out to lunch and I tried canine. Yes, I didn't want to be rude and I am glad, cuz it was delicious. There, you heard it. Another teachers dinner this weekend and I am hoping for another good one. No more clubs, I can't afford that on a teacher's salary.