Second two weeks+

I know  I should write in this more but it's easier to talk than to type. This two weeks has been a bit better. Meeting new people is difficult. Despite all the expat events and what not. I'm not brave enough to attend those on my own. The people who I've met so far, already have a clique. What I've learned, from back home and a lot from here, is that when a girl has a clique she rarely wants to share. So that's been a little frustrating. Now that I realize so has writing anything lately. I have to be sure my grammar is correct because I'm a teacher now and I feel it would be bad form. As you can tell by that lat run on sentence I have given up. Food is good here. It's just the process of making sure you buy what you think you're buying. All the packaging is in Korean so a bit frustrating. At work my boss has food for us so that's nice. Yogurt, peanut butter, ramen, coffee, tea ect. Although the saltines and pretzels you buy anywhere (except maybe costco which I have yet to visit) are not salty. They have a couple speckles but they're not salty. Which I guess is healthier, but it does not help when I'm craving a salty snack food. They do have bars for expats, not exclusively of course, which serve popcorn and other salty snacks. Which I would love to find out where they get them. But usually ordering anything takes forever, even though you have to pay before you receive whatever you order( I heard that's on the weekend only but who knows) . So I would gather that even asking a question would take, longer than I want to spend. The friends I have made are mostly Korean girls and foreign guys. It seems that Korean girls, at least the girls I am friends with, are very accepting and enthusiastic about my western culture. The culture over here is a lot different than that of any group I studied in during college. They had few if any Asian cultural classes. Which would've been quite useful here. I've notice that it is acceptable for older gentleman in particular to stare and clap as I walk by. I assume it's because of my very light blonde hair. But honestly it could be because I look similar to the Russian females who reside in Busan. From what I've been told there are a lot of Russian lady's of the evening residing in the area. If you think I'm exaggerating, in regards to being mistaken as Russian, let me tell you that I was approached by a Korean woman last night. She came up to me and started speaking Russian, by her body language I could tell she was very embarrassed when I revealed myself to be American. In contrast, if I were to walk up to a stranger and be friendly that would be considered in appropriate. Yes even if I walked up to the men who stare at me. If I open my mouth and ask questions, which would seem common in the states, to most in the street, subway, bus or store I would be stared at, mocked and even ignored by the majority of people. At least in my experience. Not being rude, just saying "how are you" or "wow it's freezing". Anything close to that would be considered "being to forward" having heard that from many people living here (Korean and foreign). This is going to take a lot of getting used to since, I am a kind, outgoing and independent girl. So here goes, dinner and a movie tonight! Hopefully I will be able to find some Korea postcards tonight to send the family! ^^ 

The past two weeks

The past two weeks has been really interesting. My first week in South Korea, was in Seoul, was training week for work. They made that so confusing and stressful. I haven't been through a more stressful orientation in my entire life. My first week of teaching isn't technically over. I only taught three days yesterday. The first two were observation days. My observations were really unlike the training in almost it's entirety. Teaching was fine, I think the kids know and understand, that I'm strict. Not too strict just stricter than their previous teacher. The week was fine, one of my fellow teachers is really kind, nice enough to take me to the store. Her boyfriend drove us and I was able to get groceries. The previous teacher was also nice, I took over her cable and internet package. It is only $36 a month because it is under my boss's name. If a foreigner, like me, tried to sign up for the same thing it would be over $70. All was well and good until, I went out with one of my coworkers friends, who had a couple of things to say the next night. Well we went downtown, which is only at max a 15 minute walk, to a foreigners bar and hung out for an hour or so. Then we took the subway across town to this warehouse party. It was interesting, we went outside and there was a bonfire with marshmallows. I met another American, he was pretty cool. By this time there is 5 of us, and I thought we were having fun, we were almost about ready to leave. I took of my heels and rode the skate board; I was also showing how to roast marshmallow the way everyone does it back home. Then we left and there was all of a sudden another girl with us. This girl I'm almost certain was one of the guy's we were hanging out withs girlfriend. I wanted to get some of these peoples numbers. But, the next day when I said I had fun, the friend of a friend said that she was glad I had fun,. She messaged me that she was glad I had fun, but she was sorry that we hung out with all koreans their culture can be different than ours. This made me really upset, since well I know that, I mean I am an anthropologist. We got in this long discussion about how she's been here longer and I pretty much need to adapt to Korean culture. One of her friends didn't even want me to have his number. The awkward part is I ran into him a few days later. The fact of the matter is, there are certain concepts which one needs to adapt to; but I'm still who I am. When people from other cultures and countries come to the states, I don't expect them to act American or like anyone else other than themselves. So why, according to some people, must I act Korean? People already assume I'm not from here. People here ask me if I'm from Russia, which here doesn't have the same meaning, as it would in the states. The other encounters I've had with a girl from the states was a foreigner bar for Thanksgiving. It was awful, everything I said she had to comment back. Even when it was about things I know about, such as history and accredited colleges. My coworker felt so bad about the whole situation, and she would because she is kindhearted, and her friends haven't been. Oh well, at least there was something positive about last week, I went to this store called the Artbox and it was fantastic! Also I got a brand new washing machine. Which is something I forgot to mention. I tried to wash my clothes at the beginning of the week, and opened the washing machine, to a flood of water. After the plumber came it didn't work still, so my landlord got me a brand new one. I have labeled it, my heater, and my security system with all the english words; just makes it easier. I miss having a dryer so much, my bed too, the stuff the Arrival Store sent me turned out to be below par, also pretzels and I miss food where I can read the labels very very much!

That is all for now.