Hi Korea, I'm Here!

Ok so they didn't really clamp me down.. but they stuck clamps on my wrists and ankles and a bunch of suctions on my chest during the health checkup. After that they measured height, weight, bust size, vision, hearing, blood pressure, andddd blood! So Ashley, they do draw a tube of your blood lol. Start preparing for that now.. like maybe get loud rock music on your ipod or something. If you need to and you go when I don't have school (weekend or something?) I'll volunteer pinching your other arm over and over or slapping you somewhere to distract you :D I have to go back on Thursday to pick up my results.. I wasn't supposed to eat anything for breakfast and lunch but in the 5th grade teacher break room there were these rice fluffs with sweet stuff so my coteacher let me eat one :p She took pity on me... After the check up she also bought me ice cream lol.

Oh goodness, today I got to observe the rest of the 5th graders and then a class of 4th graders. The last 5th grade class was pretty unresponsive and only answered if prompted. There was one kid that was chewing gum and he was supposedly found smoking one day. As for the 4th graders.. they're wild lol. The teacher for the 4th grade classes is really good at controlling them and getting them to respond but she speaks mostly in Korean with them. She's going to be doing a whole lot of translating when I teach :x I'm a little scared of the 6th graders.. my coteacher said they're really bad..... oh well, guess I'll see tomorrow!

My students refuse to give up on figuring out how to sign me up for cyworld.. since I teach 4th graders all day on Wednesdays, I take my breaks in my office. They come in every break lol. Oh well, I don't have much else to do anyway. Since they promised to come back even during lunch I sped ate my lunch @_@ It was sooo good~ I wish school lunches were like this back at home. Zha Jiang Mian, kimchi, pickled radishes, and the tofu skin/wrap type thing with rice stuffed inside plus apple juice. Ok that's weird, instead of students, theres a teacher in my room now talking on her cell phone lol. My office is multipurpose....


Yesterday after the testing, I went ahead and bought my rice cooker!! My coteacher said 52000 won for a small rice cooker was a good price (the one I saw at the LG electronics store) so I went ahead and bought it. And guess what?? The cool dude gave it to me for 50,000 without asking! I was contemplating taking out my useful phrase book to ask for a lower price but I was like screw it. My rice cooker is so cool. You can see the ugly smelly old rice cooker behind the beautiful redness infront.

Anyway, after bringing that home, I went out to get a much

needed haircut!! My bangs were yet again an inch or 2 below my chin. I went to Park Seung Chol Hair Studio (http://www.pschair.co.kr). My stylist's name was Soon Mi Yang. If you're in the Guri area and need a good haircut, then go there. It's definitely not cheap there (cheaper than back home) but my stylist could speak English and did a really good job. She cut my hair, super layered it, washed it, blew dry, cut bangs, did more trimming, blew away bits of hair, and then used a straightener to straighten it. All for just 20,000 won :D Btw my hair no longer looks like that in the picture. Without it straightened, it's a puffy mess from the humidity. She also mentioned a magic perm but that would cost 130,000 won, while in Taiwan it cost me 2000 NT (divide by 32 for US conversion). In Taiwan, he charged me less than normal I believe but still.. that's a big difference. I think I'm just going to look for a straightener here. I should've brought mine from back home but it would probably have made me go over weight limit lol. I did get a large can of Mise en something hairspray for 4000 won from a nearby beauty shop though. Hopefully that'll help some. Since I didn't get to eat all day, I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner for once :D I kept passing by a place called Teriyaki really close to my apartment on the main street that looked good and cheap. I was able to get 10 pc sushi + Maki + Udong + side dishes all for 8000 won. The sushi was a little strange.. the rice tasted kinda powdery? Maybe they add something different to it in Korea. But it was filling and good nonetheless!!

My last task ended with buying rice. Ok I thought that since rice is from Asia (the kind I eat anyhow) it would be cheaper here. No, definitely not. So I bought a 10kg bag for 29,000 won yesterday. The large 20kg bag was 43,000 but how does anyone buy that without a car or something to carry it in?? 10kg bag was already making me sweat before I reached the stairs to my 5th floor apartment. (a side note: a police siren just went off nearby.. students in the hallway are now mimicking the sound.. like my dog does). Anyway, hopefully that bag is going to last me all year. If not, I'll go back to buying ramen or eating frozen dumplings :p

Tomorrow is a full day with 6th graders. I wonder if they really are bad.. I can be mean if I need to, but I'd rather not.