A Typical Day

So Kayleigh and I set out to accomplish three things on Saturday. We wanted to get bikes, cell phones and make extra keys. However, within minutes of leaving my apt, we noticed something going on at the park right in my backyard. It's called Gongsanseong park and it sits on a small mountain that you can hike and tour. We saw lots of people going in and there were soldiers all around the fortress gate so we decided to check it out. Basically we walked around exploring what the park had to offer and found that we could make our own soap. And by make our own soap, I mean we could pick the color, stir it and then pour into a mold. So we paid the $2 and we were very proud of our accomplishment. Since that took a majority of our afternoon, we decided to continue walking around in search of our other tasks. By the end of the day, we got nothing done, however, the day wasn't a total waste. We made soap so now we smell better :) and Kayleigh found a pet. This is about how every single day goes here. There's always tomorrow, that's our motto!

Weather

 

 
The weather has been absolutely beautiful. Lately, the mornings have been cool (chilly for me!) And usually the mountains have a mist of fog over them that then creep over the city. The nights also become cooler. Recently, Michelle and I took a lovely walk in the cities garden / walking path. There was a long, long path along small rivers of water. On either side of paths are lovely plants, trees, and arrays of beautiful and unique flowers. We strolled along after a long day of teaching, talking about relationships, life, and a good half-hour of Harry Potter. :)

  Here are some pictures of a famous fortress called Gongsanseong. Our city used to be the capitol of South Korea (ended in 538 AD).

  I hope to go hiking in a mountain I accidentally stumbled upon when trying to get to church the first time (see The Amazing Race entry). On Friday's I don't have class and so I think I will try to get to this national park and hike. The only thing is I would like to have a cell phone by that time to be safe. However, obtaining a cell phone is quite difficult. First of all, phone companies do not let foreigners have the same kind of cell phone plan as Koreans (this is the same in America, some of our international students had to put down a $ 500.00 deposit before getting a phone!). The prices are about doubled of that of a Korean cell phone plan price. On top of that, Michelle and I spent about 45 mins in one of the shops trying to communicate. We filled up many pages in my planner by going back and forth writing down various numbers, prices, and minutes. By the end, I think we understood but we thought it best to wait and ask our co-workers for help. So the goal of this week: GET A CELL PHONE!

  love,
  Kayleigh

The Amazing Race.....to church

Lets just say that having flexibility, preparation, and a pocket dictionary in a foreign country is a MUST. Throughout the week, I had been researching to try and find an English-speaking international church. It was really exciting to find one in the nearby city of Taejon. My co-teachers and a Korean friend all helped me as they explained how to use the bus system (something we had not yet done), which station to get off at, and how to then walk the last 30 mins to the church. My co-teacher even offered to come meet us in the morning to help us get on the right bus for the first time, an offer which I mistakenly did not accept. I was certain it wouldn't be that difficult and we had maps and it was explained to us several times.

Now Sunday morning comes. We gave ample time for ourselves in the morning to get there. After our 15 minute walk to the bus station, I realized I had left everything at home or at the school, the maps, the Korean translations for the taxi drivers, the bus number, everything. But, hey no problem, I remember it was some bus with 21 in it (which I later realized was bus #190). Ok, so we somehow pay using broken English by asking the people around us for help, get on the bus, and start heading in the right direction. Until... we get off the highway and start driving further and further into the mountains. our bus is packed with people in hiking gear and we soon enough discovered that we were in a national park and everyone got off the bus to go hike this mountain. What next? We asked our bus driver what bus to get to Taejon, and he pointed to another bus. We are trying to get on this bus but have NO idea how much to pay. Soon enough we just gave them about 5,000 won (a little under 5.00USD) and he shot back a handful of coins at us. Now, we were off again, on the main road to Taejon.

In approaching Taejon (I was feeling good at this point!) we start looking for the station we had to get off. We had remembered certain landmarks and were trying to recall that. Well, all the stations were looking quite the same. We just decided to get off at one (which ended up being at least one stop too soon). At that point, we realized that this was not the right stop, so we flag down a taxi and say to him "Christian International School" which is the school in Taejon that is affiliated with the church. He continually spoke some words to us in Korean and as we didn't understand anything, I just responded "I don't know" after every question he asked us in Korean. About a 7,000won taxi-drive later, we end up at this RANDOM school in which we have never seen before. We said "aniyo, aniyo" which means NO, NO! He called someone who could speak a little English and Michelle worked through it trying to communicate with her. He then started driving off to another place. The person Michelle had been talking with called back and said that she thought she knew what place we were talking about and said it was 1 hour away! WHAT! no way was it 1 hour away nor were we going to rack up the taxi miles and money, so we just asked him immediately to let us out of the taxi.

Once we got out of the taxi, we walked a short distance to a shopping store, maybe similar to a large Walmart or Target. Once we got there, we went to a worker behind this desk and asked if anyone spoke English. They all just kind of smiled and looked at us. We continued to ask where the bus station was, because at this point, we were just going to head back to Gongju (our city). Somehow we managed to ask them if we could come behind the desk to use their computer. They kindly let us and I looked up the church and printed out the Korean translation of the name.

Now, at this point, we are 25mins late for church. We go outside of the shopping center and flag down another taxi, show him the Korean translation of the church name, and he gives us a nod indicating "yes, I know where this is..." and we are off! Finally we get there....at least 25,000 won later, 2 buses, about 7 different people through broken English and 2 hours later.

Once we got to the church, we went in. There were many people from all around the world, Koreans, America, we heard some British accents, and a couple people from our city. We went out to eat afterwards with some other teachers who live nearby and were directed (in English) as to how to get home, a straighshot and much less expensive.

It was a busy day! I enjoyed the adventure of it all, but learned that I have to be prepared because everything takes longer in a foreign country due to all of the different barriers. Whew!

Elevators: A Mind of Their Own

So this story is a little out of order but I wanted to share cause I think it's so funny. When Kayleigh and I first arrived, like literally got off the plane and found our recruiter, we headed straight to a hotel for the night. Mind you, we hadn't slept in about 30 hours at this point and we had to carry all our stuff around. I'm talking 150lbs of luggage each. Not an easy task. So we manage to clip our bags together and several of us new teachers are waiting at the elevator to go up to the 2nd floor. We can't all fit because there are about 6 teachers who all have multiple bags. So a few get on and Kayleigh and I wait with Alistair, (recruiter)for the next round.

Well, when the elevator comes back down, just getting all our luggage on the elevator requires a system. Apparently in Korea, they don't value safety quite as much and if you are standing in the doorway, you will be crushed. There is no sensor that says, Hey, don't close right now, there's a person there. So we awkwardly load up the elevator and take turns holding the doors open. Then we go up to level two and before we can even unload one bag, the door shuts in our faces. Alistair is the only thing that made it off and was the last friendly face we would see. So Kayleigh and I desparately try to open the door again but we're stuck behind our bags. So it takes off and we head to level 6. A couple Korean guys get on and look at us strangely, as do most people, and they go up to level 8. And so do we. We think surely this is our chance, we'll just hit 2 again and be in the clear. No, instead the elevator develops a mind of its own and we bypass level 2 and head back to the basement, where we just had come from.

The doors open wide and there are the other teachers we just left, who are trying to get on the elevator. The coordinator for the hotel that is helping all of us looks at us and says very kindly (but you know she's irritated) and motions, "Please, go. Please go up!". We smile and nod and under our breath say, we're trying! At this point, there is no stopping the hossy laughing that comes out of our beings. We hit 2 again and this time, Alistair is still waiting for us. We had devised a plan and managed to get all our stuff out before it closed in our faces. At one point, I had to push the doors open and felt a little like Samson. The very next day, same situation happens to me at the conference center and from there on out, I decided to take the steps. Did I mention that the next day we had to haul our luggage from the airport out to the bus, then off the bus up a giant hill and up 6 floors? And for those who saw my luggage before I left, you know it wasn't gonna make it. Wheels bending, insides cracking and it only managed to make it on a cloud of grace to my final destination. Now it's in a happy burial place, the local garbage dump. :)

My New Boyfriend, Dwight Shrute

So yesterday when Kayleigh and I explored our city, which we do every evening after school, we happened to walk past a furniture store. I wanted to go in and look for something to put in my kitchen to store dishes and other random things. I found one little stand that I thought was probably for CD's but it also looked like it would fit just fine in my tiny kitchen. The store owner came over and I asked in Korean, how much? He told me but we haven't learned numbers yet so I shrugged and then spotted a calculator sitting nearby. I grabbed it and motioned for him to type in the number. But then I soon realized it wasn't for sale. Only for display. He showed me a catalogue where I could purchase this same item and after a few minutes of charades, he told me that it would cost about $50.

I was definitely not willing to pay that much so we started to walk out of the store. He then motioned and I finally understood that he would sell me the display for a discounted price. He typed in 25,000won which is like $25 bucks. I grabbed the calculator and typed 20,000 and said the one word I know that means cheaper. He smiled and sort of shook his head but then he ended up agreeing. So my next dilemma is "How am I gonna get this thing home?" It was about a 20 min walk to my apt and this thing was awkward.

So I asked if he did delivery, he of course had no idea what I meant, but then I gestured towards my home and asked about a taxi. He caught on and then looked at Kayleigh and I and motioned, Come on!" We didn't exactly know what was happening but soon caught on that he would take us and my stand to my apt. He left his wife in charge of the shop and we loaded it up in his truck and squished ourselves into the front seat with him. It was hilarious! Where else in the world would I just hop in the car with a perfect stranger? But it all worked out.

So we brought it home and he took it inside for me. As he glanced at my magnets on my refrigerator, he asked, Oh, your boyfriend? I started cracking up, cause I had brought over my Office magnets from home and had four little pictures of yes, you guessed it, Dwight Shrute. I told him no, no, tv star in America. I'm not totally sure he understood but doesn't really matter does it? He drove us back to his shop and we were on our merry way once again. I love when things like that happen. :)

New Faces, New Places and New People to Meet

Annyeong Haseyo!
We have arrived! Saturday, Aug. 22nd after a LONG plane ride, Kayleigh and I were taken to a hotel nearby the airport after being met by our recruiter. We stayed in Incheon one night and then met the rest of the teachers working in our province. We traveled to Cheonan, which is the capital city of our province (2 hours by bus). In Cheonan, we spent the week going through orientation and training. It was very organized and helpful. Much of the information was similar to what I experienced in Japan but for the brand new teachers, I thought it was extremely well done. They treated us very kindly and spoiled us with great Korean food.

On Friday after lunch, we split up and were introduced to our co-teachers from our individual schools. Mr. Kim, my co-teacher drove me to Gongju. He is a very kind man but our communication is limited which can be frustrating at times. Since Kayleigh and I had no clue where we were living or how to get a hold of each other, we practically forced our co-teachers to exchange numbers. After finally getting into my apt, I asked Mr. Kim to call Kayleigh's teacher and we were able to meet up later that night. Despite a rough start because of communication breakdowns, Kayleigh and I managed to have a nice weekend exploring our surroundings and even got to visit a Methodist church on Sunday. Didn't understand a word but it was comforting to know that God knew exactly what they were saying :) These 2 kind girls from the local university took us to church and then to Mr. Pizza for lunch. Think Pizza Hut with a twist. The slogan in and of itself cracks me up. "Made for Women" I guess we were in the right place! So after enjoying some shrimp, sweet potato, bbq flavored pizza, we went home and relaxed Sunday night.

Kayleigh started school on Monday but I didn't have to begin until Tuesday. On my day off, I got 2 things accomplished, found a bank and exchanged some money and went grocery shopping. I know it doesn't seem like much but things take about twice as long as normal :) Yesterday was my first day at school and I was introduced to many teachers and students. Halfway through the day, my co-teacher took me to my apt to get internet hooked up. This was a happy day! You realize how addicted you really are once it's taken away for a few days! After school my co-teachers took me out to eat for traditional Korean bulgogi! Yum! Then we visited the grand opening of a coffee shop that one of my teacher's wives opened up. I had a good time getting to know the staff and they were extremely kind to me. I begin teaching on Monday and look forward to being with the students. I work at an all-girls high school located about 15 min from my apt. It's a nice walk to school, ...hope I can still say that in the winter! I have decided that because I have no idea how to receive mail at my apt, nor do I have a mail box, slot, landlord to my knowledge etc, I will use my school address so here it is for anyone that wants to write me a note or send me something fun from home! Hint, hint :)

Michelle Hixson
Woongjindong 277
Gongju city
Chungchungnamdo Province
South Korea
314-020

Please keep us in your prayers, that we would abide in Christ daily when hard times and frustrations arise. We miss you all!

Gongju, South Korea

Well, (at last!) we finally have our arrival date and city. We are well underway in obtaining working visas, signing contracts, and booking airline tickets. Our arrival date is August 21st to Incheon, South Korea. Incheon is said to be the "San Francisco" of S. Korea. We will meet up with our liaison and fellow teaching-co workers and proceed to orientation for several days at a hotel. Most of the day I assume will be spent in training, obtaining bank accounts, phone services, legal working documentation, etc. However, we are hoping to explore a bit of the city on our free time.

The city we will be living in a small city (pop 130,000) called Gongju. This city is kind of like a suburb right outside a metropolitan called Daejeon. The city is well-known for it's education and research, so I will be researching the two universities there to get involved in some outdoor and/or hiking clubs. I have been told that hiking clubs are popular in Korea since 70% is mountain terrain! We are also looking forward to taking trips to the bigger city, Daejeon, during the weekends or evenings since it is only a 30-min bus ride from our city. Which by the way, the public transportation in South Korea has an amazing reputation and looks ,from what I have seen thus far, utterly amazing! It literally goes EVERYWHERE in the country (which is really not that big). Actually the entire country of South Korea has an area of about 38,000 square miles, compared to just the state of Arizona at roughly 114,000 square miles!

Check out the city website at http://gongju.go.kr/html/en/index.html

Michelle and I will be at different schools, which we are looking forward to so that we have different experiences to talk about at the end of the day. Also, it is very rare that the organization/government that we are going through sets up friends with 2-bedroom apartments. Usually, it is always a studio or 1-bedroom apt. The only ones that usually share an apartment are married couples that come to teach. However, our liaison is trying to get us in a 2-bedroom, but we were just informed that is is likely we will have a single apartment/studio but in the same apartment building.

So far, we are working on lots of final preparations. Forms to fill out, people to see, cancelling services, and I am in desperate need of a haircut!

More updates as we prepare.

Love,

Kayleigh and Michelle