Saturday, March 9, 2013

The World as We Know it

We've finally settled into our new apartment on Jeju Island in Jeju city. Jeju is a really beautiful little Island off the Southwest coast of South Korea. It's a volcanic island and at the very center of the island is Halla-san. It rises 1,950 meters above sea level and is the tallest point in South Korea. We haven't been yet, but it's on our to-do list.

Our first week of teaching was both rocky and exciting! We met all our students on Monday and I now realize the importance of being able to remember everyone's name. It's amazing any of my teachers was able to do it. Lance and I teach kids that age from 5-6 all the way up to 13 and 14 year olds. We also teach adult classes in the morning. We both have an adult class at 7 a.m. then another class at 10 a.m. Lance also has a 8 a.m. class.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays we teach one set of junior classes and we teach another set of classes on Monday and Wednesday. We have Friday afternoons off.  My junior classes are from 2:30 to 6:30 (I have 4) on Monday and Wednesday and from 3:30 to 7:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. Lance's classes are always from 3:30 to 6:30. It's really not a bad day at all and we can spend the time between classes as a planning period for our classes.

Some of the English names our students have chosen are pretty surprising. Lance has a little boy named Police and another named Ghandi and I have boys named Lion and Green. It makes me wonder if they picked their names or if their first English teacher named them, like Lance had to do with his lowest level class. 

So far we've figured out the bus system, we've managed to grocery shop and eat out successfully. We eaten both whole fish (scales, head and tail), baby octopus, raw tuna, fried pork and some pretty strange "western" food. For Koreans, western food can be a combination of spaghetti and steak and it's something special to eat with forks and knives. We have mastered chop sticks. Lance's first time eating with chop sticks was on our first date back in Gainesville at a local sushi restaurant. He's come a long way since then.

We're settling in Jeju nicely, and I can honestly say the only real thing I'm struggling with (other than the language) is "yellow dust" season. Dust from the Gobi desert is pushed over China and picks up pollution and just sits on our Island. In the distance is always looks like it's on the cusp of raining and for the first few days Lance and I were struggling with a cough. Luckily that seems to be clearing up now. I miss Florida's bright blue skies and fluffy clouds. Other than that, the weather is perfect. Today it was 25 degree's Celsius,  which is about 77 degrees Fahrenheit. It was accompanied by Jeju's famous wind which can feel hurricane strength at times. It was really beautiful today.

So our apartment is nothing short of amazing. We live all of 3 minutes for our school, which takes a little stress off from having to wake up super early for our 7 am class. We made a little series of videos for you guys to see everything:



I had some technical difficulties with the video, I thought the sound was off, it wasn't. We continued with the video below.

The entire apartment has laminate wood floors so that the heated flooring can work. Our T.V. has a few stations on it and occasionally we find some English. We like to watch the National Geographic channel especially, be it doesn't really matter what language it's in we can still get what's going on.


It's considered extremely rude to not take off your shoes in a Korean living space, it can be cumbersome at times, but it really does keep your living space cleaner. We have a rule that only one pair of shoes can be at the door at a time. There's a cabinet next to the door to put extra shoes. So far we're doing pretty good at not letting them accumulate. 


One of our favorite parts of living in this apartment is the fact that we have a spare bedroom. Lance has a desk in there to work at, but we look forward to hosting our friends and family when you guys come to visit.


Our apartment has abundant storage, everywhere but in the bath. We have a small series of selves and that's it. It's hard for me, as a lady, because there's no place to keep a hair dryer (not that there's a plug) or makeup or other things ladies use. Regardless, I consider us really lucky, because a lot of apartments don't even have a tub, they just have drains in the floor and a shower head in the corner and the whole bathroom becomes the shower. Our Bathroom is also super girly and covered in pink flowers. Even the toilet has pink flowers on it.


Our kitchen is a great size and came fully equipped with pots and pans and dishes. We have a nice large sink, plenty of cabinets, a full sized fridge and a gas stove top. We also have a microwave, a mini oven and a water cooler to get cold and hot water from. Koreans don't drink their water, so the water cooler is really nice. We were worried we'd be using bottled water for the next year.


Another nice feature in our apartment is a dinning room. In the room we have a table with chairs, an ironing board and the vacuum.


Our bedroom is pretty fantastic. We have a full sized dresser, wardrobe, desk, bookshelf and bed. Out the window you can see our utility/sun room where we did our laundry and it's now drying.  The bedding is soft and warm, but the mattress is rock hard. It's a cultural thing. Remember, in Asian countries many people used to sleep on the floor and some still do. I think that carried onto their mattresses.





No comments:

Post a Comment