First weekend in Korea

Adam left :-(  Now I'm the only English teacher at my school. Friday night was really mellow, I think I was tired after work. Saturday morning my bosses and their kid drove me to Adam's (now unoccupied) apartment where I was able to pick up some of his old things (little water heater, floor desk, plant, cheesecake, kitchen supplies, trash can, throw rug, vacuum cleaner). Got back, unpacked (still haven't washed all of the plates and utensils), then went to meet up with another expat who is leaving in ~6 weeks to buy a blender and electric heater from her. She and some other expats in Miryang were planning to go to Daegu that night and she invited me to go with them. I said sure, went home, unpacked more, and a few hour later zipped down to the train station to get up to Daegu. There were about 15 maybe 20 people there from the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand all having a wonderful time. Caught a late train back to Miryang and have spent much of Sunday relaxing, cleaning, and organizing all of the new stuff I acquired.

I am enjoying life here and missing everyone back home, it's an odd feeling.

Finally some pictures! Authentic Korean food:
Bibimbab for lunch

 Korean BBQ for dinner

Life underway

Exchanged some money and went to Top Mart this morning. Finally have some food in the fridge, nail clippers, and a trash can now. Adam was out today so I taught my first classes, we're still on some weird testing week, so the kids and I played games (scrabble, hangman, verb-go-fish, etc.) through most of it. After class went to check out the place down the street, turns out its a kendo (Japanese), kδmdo (Korean) class. Had a huge language barrier with the teacher, thankfully he had a translator on his cell phone. Watched their 1 hour workout and was asked to come back tomorrow. I left my phone at home, so still no pictures but they will be here soon. The weekend is just around the corner, and I am planning on visiting a nation-famous site this weekend, definetely taking pictures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeongnamnu_(Miryang)

Early considerations

Alright Thursday morning, Adam's second to last day. He's become a good friend despite that I met him just this week, I'll be sad to see him go. I spent the last of the Korean money I exchanged at the airport yesterday, so this morning I'm living off the bread rolls that my boss gave me (with water, milk, and soda) as a welcome package. Hopefully we'll stop in at the bank when he gets here at 11.

Thankfully I got to borrow a new friend's power adapter so my laptop and cell phone are now charging for the first time. I'll take some pictures with my phone today, post them when I can. I'll also be getting Adam's phone when we takes off.

Two nights in a row now I've walked from my apartment to the semi-main road and on the way heard thumps and kiais coming from the second floor of the place 2 or 3 buildings down. Hoon said that it's a taekwondo place, I'll have to check it out after work tonight. He also said there a few hapkido schools in town, most costing ~100,000 won ($100) per month.

If you type in "Sammun-dong, Miryang-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea" into a map site you will see the neighborhood I live in. I am still not sure which street is mine on the map, but I like it :-)

First post in Korea!

11:30 and I am tired. I will go to sleep, but let me start this first.

I got in yesterday morning, spent the whole day sleeping and then got to know some new friends last night. Today I observed Adam, the guy I will be replacing, at work and then met some more friends after work. So far so good, just need a few things to live comfortably still, and sleep. Goodnight.