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Day 1
New Years Eve day was our first full day in Wonju. We woke up at a reasonable hour, desperate for food and a shower. We quickly threw on our long johns, hats and gloves for a very cold trek to the bank to exchange money. By trek, I mean two blocks up the street, a long way in the ruthless Korean winter! We exchanged money easily enough and proceeded to sit down at the first restaurant that had pictures of beef in the windows. We ended up having a nice meal of bulgogi, rice and the usual Korean side dishes. It was fun watching Jacob explore the food, but I'm happy to report he tried most everything. After lunch we went to the Lotte Mart down the street from our apartment where we bought all the essentials; utensils, bowls, towels, toilet paper, and cereal. We realized halfway through our shopping trip that we had to carry everything home with us, severely dampening our fun. We ended up putting stuff back and making two trips. By the time we finished with our errands it was around 2:30pm and we decided to watch Jurrasic Park and relax for the remainder of the day. We ended up going to sleep at 5:30pm and slept for the following 12+ hours; I guess we weren't immune to jet lag! Although we had an uneventful New Years Eve, we were showered, fed, and rested, a great way to ring in the New Year!
Day 2
New Year's Day was relatively uneventful too. We spent a few hours in Starbucks using the free wifi and eating lunch. When we walked into Starbucks, the first thing Jacob noticed was a white girl! We weren't alone! We were sitting at a table a few feet away from her trying to decide if we should start a conversation when she sneezed! The perfect meet-cute! Ok, just kidding, but Jacob did use it as an opportunity. He said, "bless you" and she immediately whipped her head around looking very confused to hear English. We spent the next hour or so chatting with her and getting some good advice for settling in here. She actually lives in a foreigner hotspot, Itaewon in Seoul, lucky her! The fruits of our conversation with her lead me to join a Facebook group of English teachers in Wonju. I posted a quick blurb in the group explaining that we were new to the city and looking for some homeware for our barren apartment. Three or four people responded and one guy said he could come pick us up and deliver furniture for free! Score! He picked us up later that afternoon. We ended up buying all sorts of goodies from him and getting all sorts of good advice. One of the goodies that I bought was a French press so Jacob could make coffee. I was unpacking the bag and set the French press on the floor while I was putting everything away. As my luck would have it, I slipped on the floor almost tearing my ACL (haha, but seriously) and knocking the French press over and shattering it into pieces. Guess what?! We didn't have a broom, vacuum, or anything to clean it up with. What did I do? I, very intelligently, started to clean up the broken GLASS with my hands, getting little shards of glass stuck in my palms. Jacob wasn't at the apartment for all of this, so I sat on the floor laughing at myself wishing David was with me to laugh at my stupidity.
Day 3
It's Game Day! We woke up at 6am to watch Oregon crush the stupid Seminoles. Unfortunately, we could only watch half of the game, and ESPN kept popping up error messages. How could they not be prepared for a large volume of online streamers?! Absolutely befuddles me. At 9am, Nika picked us up so we could get our health checks at the local hospital. In order to receive our foreigner ID cards, we have to submit official health checks. It was quite the experience. We arrived at the hospital at 10am and were shuffled around for the next hour getting various tests done. In total, we had our eyes, ears, and teeth checked along with X-rays, blood tests, urine samples, and heart checks! That is a pretty impressive list to accomplish in one hour and $70/person, kudos to the Korean healthcare system! In preparation for the health checks, we weren't allowed to eat past 9pm the night before, so Nika took us out to a very large lunch when we were finished at the hospital. We finally had shabu shabu!! It was pretty hilarious watching Jacob try to eat with chopsticks. Nika ended up helping him, the same way she helps her own children :). After lunch we treated Nika to coffee where we sat and chatted about our transition to life in Korea. Afterward, we drove up to Hoengseung to visit our school for the first time! We were introduced to the principal, vice principal, and various administrators. Everyone was extremely nice and welcoming! Nika gave us a tour of the school first and then the English center, where we would be teaching. We spent an hour and a half in the Teachers room in the English Center where Angela gave us our teaching schedule. Jacob gets to teach the Gryffindor group (advanced students) and I get to teach the Hufflepuff students (beginner level). We only teach two classes from 2-4pm M-F for the next three weeks. We have a two week break in February and then regular classes start in March. Angela informed us that there was no curriculum for the three weeks of classes so we can teach whatever we want. Yay? We were definitely thrown into the deep end! Since we don't start teaching until January 12th, we have some prep time to figure everything out! When regular classes start in March we will hopefully have a curriculum to teach from. When we finished at the school, Nika drove us to Homeplus where we stocked up on American food and more home necessities. We went all out since we had a car to load everything into! Following Homeplus was a home cooked dinner of pasta with spaghetti sauce and an early bedtime. Life in Korea was starting to settle in very nicely!
Now for your viewing pleasure...
We have added a "Follow By Email" entry so you can receive notifications when a new blog is posted.
Day 1
New Years Eve day was our first full day in Wonju. We woke up at a reasonable hour, desperate for food and a shower. We quickly threw on our long johns, hats and gloves for a very cold trek to the bank to exchange money. By trek, I mean two blocks up the street, a long way in the ruthless Korean winter! We exchanged money easily enough and proceeded to sit down at the first restaurant that had pictures of beef in the windows. We ended up having a nice meal of bulgogi, rice and the usual Korean side dishes. It was fun watching Jacob explore the food, but I'm happy to report he tried most everything. After lunch we went to the Lotte Mart down the street from our apartment where we bought all the essentials; utensils, bowls, towels, toilet paper, and cereal. We realized halfway through our shopping trip that we had to carry everything home with us, severely dampening our fun. We ended up putting stuff back and making two trips. By the time we finished with our errands it was around 2:30pm and we decided to watch Jurrasic Park and relax for the remainder of the day. We ended up going to sleep at 5:30pm and slept for the following 12+ hours; I guess we weren't immune to jet lag! Although we had an uneventful New Years Eve, we were showered, fed, and rested, a great way to ring in the New Year!
Day 2
New Year's Day was relatively uneventful too. We spent a few hours in Starbucks using the free wifi and eating lunch. When we walked into Starbucks, the first thing Jacob noticed was a white girl! We weren't alone! We were sitting at a table a few feet away from her trying to decide if we should start a conversation when she sneezed! The perfect meet-cute! Ok, just kidding, but Jacob did use it as an opportunity. He said, "bless you" and she immediately whipped her head around looking very confused to hear English. We spent the next hour or so chatting with her and getting some good advice for settling in here. She actually lives in a foreigner hotspot, Itaewon in Seoul, lucky her! The fruits of our conversation with her lead me to join a Facebook group of English teachers in Wonju. I posted a quick blurb in the group explaining that we were new to the city and looking for some homeware for our barren apartment. Three or four people responded and one guy said he could come pick us up and deliver furniture for free! Score! He picked us up later that afternoon. We ended up buying all sorts of goodies from him and getting all sorts of good advice. One of the goodies that I bought was a French press so Jacob could make coffee. I was unpacking the bag and set the French press on the floor while I was putting everything away. As my luck would have it, I slipped on the floor almost tearing my ACL (haha, but seriously) and knocking the French press over and shattering it into pieces. Guess what?! We didn't have a broom, vacuum, or anything to clean it up with. What did I do? I, very intelligently, started to clean up the broken GLASS with my hands, getting little shards of glass stuck in my palms. Jacob wasn't at the apartment for all of this, so I sat on the floor laughing at myself wishing David was with me to laugh at my stupidity.
Day 3
It's Game Day! We woke up at 6am to watch Oregon crush the stupid Seminoles. Unfortunately, we could only watch half of the game, and ESPN kept popping up error messages. How could they not be prepared for a large volume of online streamers?! Absolutely befuddles me. At 9am, Nika picked us up so we could get our health checks at the local hospital. In order to receive our foreigner ID cards, we have to submit official health checks. It was quite the experience. We arrived at the hospital at 10am and were shuffled around for the next hour getting various tests done. In total, we had our eyes, ears, and teeth checked along with X-rays, blood tests, urine samples, and heart checks! That is a pretty impressive list to accomplish in one hour and $70/person, kudos to the Korean healthcare system! In preparation for the health checks, we weren't allowed to eat past 9pm the night before, so Nika took us out to a very large lunch when we were finished at the hospital. We finally had shabu shabu!! It was pretty hilarious watching Jacob try to eat with chopsticks. Nika ended up helping him, the same way she helps her own children :). After lunch we treated Nika to coffee where we sat and chatted about our transition to life in Korea. Afterward, we drove up to Hoengseung to visit our school for the first time! We were introduced to the principal, vice principal, and various administrators. Everyone was extremely nice and welcoming! Nika gave us a tour of the school first and then the English center, where we would be teaching. We spent an hour and a half in the Teachers room in the English Center where Angela gave us our teaching schedule. Jacob gets to teach the Gryffindor group (advanced students) and I get to teach the Hufflepuff students (beginner level). We only teach two classes from 2-4pm M-F for the next three weeks. We have a two week break in February and then regular classes start in March. Angela informed us that there was no curriculum for the three weeks of classes so we can teach whatever we want. Yay? We were definitely thrown into the deep end! Since we don't start teaching until January 12th, we have some prep time to figure everything out! When regular classes start in March we will hopefully have a curriculum to teach from. When we finished at the school, Nika drove us to Homeplus where we stocked up on American food and more home necessities. We went all out since we had a car to load everything into! Following Homeplus was a home cooked dinner of pasta with spaghetti sauce and an early bedtime. Life in Korea was starting to settle in very nicely!
Now for your viewing pleasure...
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| Koreans take their rice-cooking very seriously. |
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| Eating our second shabu shabu meal |
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| Our neighborhood in the evening |
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| Some more of our hood |
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