Finally!

Hey everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to post ... well ... anything on the blog site ... I've been over here in Daejeon for about a week and I just now got into my new villa tonight literally a couple of hours ago as I write this! It's got basically everything I need, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, small living room with TV ... I still have to get my phone hooked up ... I'm actually "borrowing" this wireless signal off someone in the building. So for those of you who really want to talk to me, have some patience and hopefully I'll be getting a phone number by the end of this week, possibly sooner.

As I said before it has been officially one week. Although I will be honest and tell you it's felt more like 2 months already ... so much has happened in that little short time of seven days ... I've gone through ever emotion there is to have in the midst of culture shock ... love, hate, confusion (lots of that), joy, happiness, sadness, loneliness, closeness ... the list can go on and on I'm sure. I truly do not know where to begin to tell you all that has happened, there are so many things and my thougts on the each are equally diverse. From culture to food to the people to my co-workers to the new people I've been meeting randomly through simply being a foriegner.

Where to begin ... where to begin ...

Let's first talk about the food ... although I'm still getting used to most of it, it's all rather healthy. I do believe the Koreans eat anything that comes out of the ocean, well everything except the sand and water of course. There are octopus, squid, jellyfish, seaweed, the list goes on. I did find that when I ate Korean food and then came back to Western food, my stomach was wrecked from the oils and overall greasiness of it all. Much of the food here is very cheap, you can get a large meal for about 4 or 5 dollars and it's considered rude to tip.

Now on to Daejeon itself ... the city here is great. It's a very modern and advanced city to be living in and another upside of that is that my villa and school where I work are very close to the stores that I will need to get me through the year, like E-mart, which is like Super-Target. Oh yes, I don't want to forget the fact that there are tons of opportunities for "American food" should I feel that I'm missing out. There are pizza places everywhere, I saw a TGI Fridays yesterday, of course there is McDonalds, KFC, Popeys, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Subway, and I think I saw someone eating Burger King food today at work. So in that respect I'm sure I'll be ok. Another that's rather nice about living over here is the technology is a little more advanced than what we have in America. The digital cameras are a bit cheaper too, which is nice and the cell phones are pretty much right out of the factory being so close to Japan.

I've learned only how to say a few things like the area where I live so as to catch a taxi home and 'hello' and 'thank you.' So I would say I've got just enough to get by, although I still do use my hands to make gestures like telephone or bag or something like that. The people here are nice enough and they can tell I'm clearly American. Most people over here like Americans, though they may not like our governmental leaders ... suprise, suprise. I work with lots of Canadians which has been pretty fun. As you may have guessed, they say "Aaa" alot and they are all great and loving people, willing to help me out whenever they can. I've also met some folks from the States and also from Africa and Europe who are working here.

As for the teaching situation ... it gets better daily. Everyday I learn something more about my teaching abilities and about the kids I am teaching, what works, what doesn't work. In the morning I teach kindergarten and in the afternoon older kids in elementary and up into middle school age. Somedays I love them all and somedays the little ones are so, so much easier than the older ones. All my classes are taught in English and for the most part they do well, althought it is basically a lesson in frustration to try and have a conversation with any of them. But it's ok, there are also English speaking Korean teachers here too, they are fun to chat with and are all very nice.

When I get some pictures of my kids I'll post them on the blog ... other than that, it's about all I can think to write. I will be writing more soon I think. I miss you all my friends and family! I will let you know a number you can phone me at soon enough, just a little more patience. Buy those calilng cards! Grace and peace to all of you!

John