Settling In

My co-teacher Young-min is probably one of the nicest Koreans I've met here thus far. Since the first day I met her she, along with her co-worker Mr. Beck, have helped me find an apartment and buy all the essentials (pots, plates, bed, sheets, TV, etc). They even put me up in a motel when my apartment wasn't available the first night (well, actually, it was a love motel, but hey I got to sleep on a circular bed!). I'd be pretty screwed without their help. A big thanks to Young-min and Mr. Beck!

Fortunately all the essential expenses were covered under the school's EPIK (English Program in Korea) budget, so I'm not out any money. Everything minus the bed was bought at Lotte Mart. Lotte Mart is Korea's version of Kmart or Walmart. So naturally the place is HUGE. I pretty much do all my shopping there, from groceries to clothes, because it's so close to where I live.

I feel I lucked out on my living situation. My apartment, though small, is nicely furnished and in a great location. It's a 5 minute walk to my school and a 3 minute walk to the subway and Lotte Mart. Not many other ESLers have that convenience; some have a much longer commute to work or are too far away from the subway to walk.

Convenience. I have to chalk it up to this country for taking that word and running with it. It always bothered me that, in the States, gas stations or grocery stores or banks or what-have-you were always clustered together. Why is that? To compete with one another? It isn't very convienent for the consumer.

Within a five-minute walking distance of my apartment, I can find: my bank, a PC-bang (internet cafe), a hospital, the subway, Lotte Mart, a gym, a dry cleaner, a hardware store, a dentist, a barbar shop, a motel...the list goes on. Maybe it has to do with my location; as I said it's pretty good. But everywhere I go, at least here in Busan, the business area is always diverse. You'll always find the thing you need within a few blocks of where you are.

School has been a trip. I'll probably save all the nitty gritty details for another post but it's quite different. During today's lesson I kept getting interrupted by these really loud WHACKS outside my class. Can you guess what those whacks were?

I haven't mentioned this yet, but there's a man who walks around the school with a beating stick in hand.

Oh Korea.

An-nyeong-hi-gye-se-yo for now.