It's been interesting moving into an apartment that had no prior resident for over a year. Other than the fact that it had a layer of dust over everything, the apartment was also lacking in everything that you would need to make anything associated with food. While it's been nice, because I've been able to chose everything that goes in my apartment, from glasses, to dinnerware, etc, its also been a little frustrating, because you never have any idea what you're missing until the actual act of needing it. You don't realize how much you take for granted living at home, or moving into a place where there already was something there. Take my lunch for instance. I made a simple meal of pasta sauce, elbow macaroni, and sausage, and made a little extra because I was extra hungry. However, with no bowl, I tried first to pour the noodles into a small cereal style bowl, and split the noodles up, but that didn't work so well after a few ideas; I ended up eating from the same pot that I cooked the noodles in; note to self, I need a bowl of some sort.
Other than that, its been nice living in a single apartment. Having lived with room mates at my prior institute, Having a place all to ones self is sometimes nice. There are still times however where it would be nice to have a room mate, but I'm sure that I'll end up enjoying the privacy more.
Another interesting adventure has been life without a phone. One doesn't realize how much you need a phone until you don't have one. Trying to arrange help when you need a quick translation, to arranging meeting times, to just about any other time you might need communication, life without the device is nearly impossible. At home, I didn't like the phone; dreaded it. Here? Life's nearly impossible without it. On Monday, I'm hoping to be able to get my phone setup, so that will clear up the communication lines a lot easier than just by merely sending e-mails all the time, and waiting patiently for a response.
As of tomorrow, I officially start teaching at my school. They've been so patient with all my questions, and everyone has been so nice to me, its somewhat of a pleasant change form my old institute compared to my new school. They're excited to see how the students will progress under my teaching; I'm just hoping that the students actually show progress, with me only seeing them a few times a month...Everyone is excited, so I'm sure it will be quite the adventure. My vice principal, who speaks about five words in English, wants to take me on a tour through Seoul; its been explained to her more than once that I used to live in Seoul, for almost two years; she seems to think that her tour would be different. It would be different alright - pretty silent...However, she is super sweet, and she only wants me to be excited about my job, so I'm thinking I will have to oblige her, and take her up sometime...my only worry is that my poor co-teacher, whose my liaison between the administration and myself with travel with for translation - I hope for her sake she doesn't have to, but its Korea, so her boss will make her.
Otherwise, I hope that all is going well with all of you. God bless, and I'll try to post more often.
me