Some pictures from the past year.
My youngest students.
...Haha...
Korean girl scouts.
Spring in Ansan.
Cherry Blossoms
Friday 6 July 2012
Tuesday 3 July 2012
New City
My first year of living and teaching in Korea was successful despite my initial fears of being exploited by the company or being left stranded and alone in a place where I could not communicate. However, I did fail at posting more than one blog entry. Much of the credit for the year's success as well as the blame for my blog failure was meeting this wonderful guy named Daniel Farrell. We have now returned to Korea together as EFL teachers, and this time around, I'll lower the bar and not make any promises of posting much more than before. That way, by writing this entry, I will have already exceeded expectations.
Finally arriving in Daejeon, late Sunday night, was a great relief. Our very long journey started Friday morning. We were faced with obstacles such as United Airlines' terrible customer service, trying to avoid ridiculously high overweight luggage charges for four suitcases with too little time, missing our flight, considering abandoning our contracts, re-evaluating our commitment and paying rerouting fees, switching airports, driving to Baltimore airport through what seemed like a hurricane as we passed several cars smooshed by fallen trees, and then once again almost missing our flights because United Airlines put us on standby. Finally, after about 30 hours of traveling, three airplanes and a bus from Incheon airport to our new city, Daejoen, we could sigh with relief and say, "This better be worth it."
Daejeon is located in the middle of Korea and home to about 1.5 million people. From what I can tell, it doesn't seem much different from my previous Korean city, Ansan. There are plenty of busy neighbourhoods with lots of businesses and restaurants decorating the streets with neon lights and interesting smells. Our first experience searching for food after a long jetlagged day only motivated us to learn more Korean. We sat down at a Korean restaurant and ordered what looked like a delicious place of chicken only to receive a plate of segments of fatty pig legs with the skin still on. Oh and with a side of silkworm larvea. My stomach turned a bit and we felt rather dumb but didn't want to be rude, so we both ate some pig fat with skin, asked for it "To Go", and then dumped it in the garbage outside. Lesson learned...learn more Korean.
Finally arriving in Daejeon, late Sunday night, was a great relief. Our very long journey started Friday morning. We were faced with obstacles such as United Airlines' terrible customer service, trying to avoid ridiculously high overweight luggage charges for four suitcases with too little time, missing our flight, considering abandoning our contracts, re-evaluating our commitment and paying rerouting fees, switching airports, driving to Baltimore airport through what seemed like a hurricane as we passed several cars smooshed by fallen trees, and then once again almost missing our flights because United Airlines put us on standby. Finally, after about 30 hours of traveling, three airplanes and a bus from Incheon airport to our new city, Daejoen, we could sigh with relief and say, "This better be worth it."
Daejeon is located in the middle of Korea and home to about 1.5 million people. From what I can tell, it doesn't seem much different from my previous Korean city, Ansan. There are plenty of busy neighbourhoods with lots of businesses and restaurants decorating the streets with neon lights and interesting smells. Our first experience searching for food after a long jetlagged day only motivated us to learn more Korean. We sat down at a Korean restaurant and ordered what looked like a delicious place of chicken only to receive a plate of segments of fatty pig legs with the skin still on. Oh and with a side of silkworm larvea. My stomach turned a bit and we felt rather dumb but didn't want to be rude, so we both ate some pig fat with skin, asked for it "To Go", and then dumped it in the garbage outside. Lesson learned...learn more Korean.
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