Teaching has been great!!

My walk to work only takes me about 10 minutes. I usually carry an umbrella ever day. I use it during the day too! It keeps the harsh Asian sun off my sensitive white skin.

Gwangju has a population of about 1.5 million. That is a big number, but it never seems crowded in Bongsundong (my section of town). I will show some pictures of Downtown and then you will see some real bustle!!



Here is my school, Avalon (below). One floor above me is a smaller private school for young elementary students. It is owned by the same company, so we will occasionally mingle for lunch.

Lunch! For 40k won a month (around 35 dollars) I get meals. A lunch and a dinner. There is a little smaller building built on to the roof. This has been great! It has allowed me to try more knew Korean foods than ever possible on my own. This will surprise people who know me. I realize I am famous for staying away from "busy foods." But the Koreans have been impressed by my love for squid, and willingness to consume whatever is put in front of me (unbearably spicy food aside). I have also been able to avoid anything resembling food poisoning!




You get used to seeing a lot of signs in Korea. No space is wasted! If there is a wall, there is a sign or ad on it. I enjoy this, because so many of them have cartoons! I knew I would like this country, when I saw a sign for the police, It there was this little weird police/person cartoon character.












Here are my fellow Korean and English speaking foreigners hard at work! They are very good to us...they keep the air on all day. This means that a few of them use blankets while they work.

The air is ALWAYS on in my class rooms. every day a skinny 80 pound student will raise their hand and say "teacher, cold, turn air off." I just stare and shake my head. "Teacher will never turn the air off. If the air is off, will become cranky and give more detentions." If I want to get their attention, I make it one degree colder. They hear the beep, look up and gasp!

First Week in Gwangju Korea!

Greetings friends and family!
Every day since my arrival has been fantastic. In order to buffer the effects of jet-lag I avoided sleep before my 6:30 am flight from Fargo (I was also doing some last minute packing...).

My flight from Fargo led me to Denver, then San Francisco, and the direct to Seoul ( Incheon National Airport). The flights went well, much to my disgust however, were the in flight movies. It seemed that the Eastbound flights hoarded
all of the good movies ( Up, Coraline, etc ). I was stuck with Wolverine, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Adventureland. I did make some great friends on the flight, which was good!

After the 11 hour flight to Korea, was my 4 hour bus ride to Gwangju. The bus proved to be my first introduction to Korean telivision and pop-culture, as there was an HD TV mounted to the front. I was subjected to the most...interesting commercials I have ever seen. Some involved dancing, others involved robot rhinoserouses and giraffes. I only understood what two were trying to sell. One was KFC, and the other was for a feminine product.

At the bus station I was immediately flagged down and greeted by Joseph, a smiling and very friendly staff member at my school. It was midnight by now, and I had only roughly 4 hours of sleep after being awake for over 40 hours, so I was more than happy to be led to my apartment (after a pit stop at the 7/11 for some OJ and bottled water).



Here is the outside of my building!


The accommodations are ideal, one room, a bathroom (no shower stall, just a hose with a sprinkler, and you try not to get the whole room wet!)
I was especially ecstatic to see that there was an air conditioner!!!

More tomorrow ( or before I go to bed!)