Flying on Korean Air

I thought I would post some pictures from my flight on Korean Air. Korean Air was sooo nice! The flight attendants were incredibly pretty, always had a smile on their face, and super helpful. The food on the plane was pretty decent, and everyone also got a little eye mask to help you sleep, teal socks incase you got cold, a little toothbrush and tooth paste, a pillow and blanket, and all the soda and juice you could drink:) I guess they figure if you are going to be in the air for 14 hours, they might as well make you comfortable.



Korean Air.... Gotta love the teal color scheme and what a big plane!

I had a great view of the wings outside of my window.

We are up high enough that you can see the arc of the earth in the background. Amazing!

The clouds and blue water were so incredibly beautiful.

My Apartment

I love my new apartment!

A view of my apartment building from out front. I think these buildings look a bit European.

A view of the high rise apartments behind my house.

The super convenient corner store right next to my apartment.

Here is my super comfie queen sized bed. Sooo Ikea style, don't you think?

My TV, desk, and clothing shelves. I am thankful I brought the colorful fabric, as seen in the background. Always makes me feel at home!

My clean, white bathroom

My cute stuff always makes me feel at home, and I feel right at home here in Korea with all of the pink and cute stuff.

Here is what $20 worth of stuff at Daiso looks like. Gotta love that place!!!

The view of my apartment as I enter into the front door. I really like my rabbit trash can.


My tiny kitchen gets the job done, as if I would actually cook anything in it! Eating out is the way to save money here.

Stumbling Upon Good Luck

As one might be able to guess, my lack of knowledge of the Korean language has been a bit of a barrier here thus far. Well, hopefully this problem will be no more! Last night, I was lucky twice. First, when I was walking home, there were two English teachers sitting on the front steps of the apartment right cross the street from mine so I was able to meet a few more Westerners in my neighborhood. A few of their friends walked by and stopped to chat. We had just got done talking about how Koreans tend to simply ignore us Westerners rather than stare or whatever, when a friendly Korean woman stopped to chat with us as well! She asked if any of us would like to learn Korean with her, no charge, because she was hoping to make some Western friends just for the knowledge and experience of it. She seemed very nice and sincere and I am hoping to start hanging out with her soon so that I can get the learning on its way. Fantastic luck, right?





I started teaching classes on Tuesday and things have been going fairly well, with the exception of my wild and crazy first class of the day. There are 12 first graders in that class, with about 5 of them trying their hardest to be troublemakers. The ringleader is an unassuming little girl who likes to egg on the boys, and one of the boys is by far the most dominant and disruptive chatterbox in the class! They had a talking to yesterday so I am sooo sure they will be better today..... 12 kids is a fairly large group to handle but I think we will get better. Sometimes they are just too smart for their own good, which often times leads to trouble!





All of my other classes have been a great joy to teach- they are very smart and hardworking, not to mention extremely funny! I have gotten a good feel for the teaching style that works for each age group and class. We have a lot of fun during the day making learning a game and challenging each other to do well. I especially like my higher level 5th graders, as they have all lived in America at one time or another and are all super amazing kids.





Well, I wish for my good luck here will continue. Hopefully, I will be learning Korean in no time, making even more friends in my neighborhood, and learning how to become an even better teacher. After only one week here, it is just amazing to me how much I have already learned and how well I have adapted to a place that is so completely new to me, yet so comfortably familiar. While time can only tell how well I will do, I am confident that I will excel at all I do here. What a good feeling!

A Little Blood Never Hurt No One

Bright and early this morning, Lindsey and I went to the doctor to get our health exam for school. Korean hospitals are kinda weird! We had to do the usual eye exam, hearing test, weight and height check, but also we had to have a chest X-Ray!!!! Crazy, huh? We also had to pee in a cup to test for drugs and they wern't too particular on the whole thing like in the states. They sent us both to the public toilet to fill up a Dixie cup with our name on it. Uh, excuse me? In the states, they are huge Nazis about the urine sample, as people here are total cheaters. Guess its not a big deal here? And most notable was the way that the blood was handled. I am not even sure the nurse used a clean needle and she wasn't wearing gloves or anything. After, she gave me a tiny piece of cotton to stop the blood. It bled threw immediately and she grabbed the bloody cotton with her bare hand and gave me another piece. Afterwords, we were talking with the doctor and I went to throw away the bloody cotton in the public garbage and he said "No, no, I will take it. Of course, he took the bloody cotton with his bare hand to properly dispose of it and there was no washing of hands involved in any of this! My god!

Today was my first day of class so I spent all day learning my schedule and observing. What a long day! Thankfully, tomorrow I will be on my normal schedule, which is shorter because today I was out doing school related things from 9 a.m. to almost 8 p.m.!!!!! Whew!

I feel very confident about everything here. I have mastered my neighborhood, shopping, and ordering food. I have always been quite independent but being in a foreign place and not speaking the language gives but succeeding none-the-less gives me a confidence above and beyond anything I have ever done before. If I had to compare it to anything, it would be moving away from home for the first time and mastering Iowa City all on my own by beating a worn path down the streets alone. Fantastic!

Tomorrow, I teach classes alone for the first time but feel I can handle it, beleive it or not! One of the teachers, John, showed me how to read my schedule and what books to use and what lessons to teach and what folders to use and how to mark the students papers along with about a million other things I need to know. I have everything carefully laid out for the day on my new desk and will arrive early tomorrow so I can be certain everything will go smoothly.

Today I tried a wonderful pork dish for lunch with two of the other teachers. The pork was fried with cheese layered inside, and the meal included soup, kimchi, a little salad, and rice all for $6.50!!!! Tax is included in the prices here and you don't have to tip here. How cool is that?! Surprisingly, I liked the kimchi- very spicy but a nice flavor as well. Mmmmm, rotten, pickled cabbage:)

I was very thankful that I slept like a champ last night for the first time since my arrival here on Thursday afternoon. I forced myself to stay up all day on Sunday regardless of the fact that I only had about 4 hours of sleep the night before. I had myself go to sleep around 10 p.m. and woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off at 7:55 a.m. I felt like a million bucks! I attrubute a great deal of that awesome sleeping power to the fact that I covered the windows with tin foil in typical Sara fashion. Light can eat my dust, I need total darkness when I sleep!

Sunday is Cleaning Day!

Today has been all about cleaning and making my apartment perfect! After waking up soo early today, I decided today would be the day to get things done. I cursed at the stupid washing machine all morning long, as all it would do is beep at me! Thank goodness for Katie, who lives right across the street- she was nice enough to come over and show me how it worked. Quite simple really once you know which button to push:) I washed all of my rugs and the new one must not have been that great of quality, because it literally turned into a mess of pink fuzz in the wash!

I explored some of the not so nice neighborhoods for cheap apartment stuff and found a discount home furnishings store kind of like Daiso- but also carries higher priced items such as blankets and electronics. I was on the search for an alarm clock. Apparently most Koreans like the old fashioned kind with the bells on the top! I ended up settling for one of the few digital alarm clocks I could find at Lotte Mart. Now if I can actually sleep well tonight, I will have something to wake me up for my first day of teaching at Poly School!!!

I scrubbed the apartment from head to toe today, which was not very fun but needed to be done. The kitchen sink and stove are now sparkling and I scrubbed the mold off of the wall in the laundry room. I also got on my hands and knees and scrubbed and wiped all of the floors so they would be perfect. It seems the swiffer I got never gets all of the dirt and it drives me nuts! Everyone takes their shoes off as you enter the house and the floors still seem to get sooo dirty! I am looking forward to winter in a way- the floors are heated and I bet that has to feel amazing on your feet!

After all the scrubbing was done, I went back downtown and got some Korean Dumplings. I think the lady at the dumpling place knows me now- today she taught me the Korean word for my new favorite food- Mandu. Mandu is minced pork with chopped veggies wrapped in a thin piece of dough and then steamed. How delicious!!! They are very gentle to the stomach so I have been eating them quite often. I have also been living off of: Gatorade, Diet Coke, Orange Juice, Pringles, and these little Korean cookies that have creamy chocolate in the center. Yum! Don't worry, to counteract all of the horrid eating habits, I am walking everywhere! And I like walking here, as my path to downtown is right next to the river. How relaxing to hear the trickle of the stream, have dragon flies buzz over the trail, and feel the tall grass tickle my legs. Sigh!

In my search to find an extra blanket, I have been pretty surprised on the lack of selection in the bedding department here. There are lots of bedding stores but they all have the same things- thin quilts in horrid feeling polyesters and terrible floral patterns. And how overpriced they are!!! Most of these aweful blankets are $40 to $140!!!!! Koreans don't know the comfort of a nice snuggly microplush blanket and so I don't get that comfort either. Darn it!

I am learning a few key Korean words now such as "Thank you" and "Hello". Going to the store is sometimes difficult because Koreans like to be helpful and often end up puzzled and esasperated in their efforts. I will try to learn some new words everyday but I know the process of learning a new language definitely does not come overnight.

I looked at pets today at Lotte Mart and they have some weird ones that we don't have in the U.S. such as hedgehogs and larve you can grow in to your very own beatle! They are sooo gross! The larve are about 1 inch wide and 4 or 5 inches long and kind of just wiggle in the dirt a little in a plastic cup. The cool thing about them is that you get to watch them transform into a beatle so educational, but super gross and ugly! Can you imagine if your pet larve or giant beatle got loose? Ew!

Oh Korea, How are you?

My goodness, do I ever have lots to write about!



What is this now, Korea day 4?!?! Wow, 4 days here and it has been a whirlwind, let me tell ya. It has been a busy week, to say the least.



My last week before I left for Korea was quite chaotic. Will and I took a trip to Chicago to visit the Korean Consulate for my passport stamp. We drove to his parent's house in Johnsburg, Illinois and went by train for something like an hour to get to Chicago and then took a taxi from there to the NBC Building. Talk about fancy! Everything was marble and there were no trashcans or bathrooms in site. The actual visit to the consulate was something like 5 -10 minutes long and entailed a Korean man in a suit asking questions such as "What will you be doing in Korea?" and "How was your experience in high school and middle school?" Easy stuff, right?



The real fun of visiting the consulate was shopping and hanging out in Chicago's shopping district, the "Magnificent Mile." Sephora always rocks my socks right off, we saw a ditzy blonde in heels biff out, and best of all, Will and I went to the AMERICAN GIRL store!!!! This is like a childhood dream of mine fullfilled. There were 3 stories of adorable American girl dolls to obsess over. Also included: a doll hair salon, restaurant, movie theatre, doll hospital, and doll portrait studio! If I end up having kids, they are totally going to have like every American Girl doll item! Fun, fun, fun!!!!



My last days in Iowa were spent with the people I love the most- My friends and family. One day, I went home to visit my mom and dad. We made some excellent BLT's with fresh tomatoes from the garden and talked all afternoon long. Later, my mom and I went to Fun City in Burlington to have some fun!!!!! Mom and I rode on the Go-Carts, saw a movie virtual theatre, and gambled a bit in the casino. We brought home some egg rolls and whatnot from the terrible Asian restaurant there and had one last dinner together at home with our take-out. My dad tried to be a really strong guy and just give me my hugs goodbye but my mom totally cried. I did too!!!!! Leaving my mommy was sooo hard:( She said "Its like when you leave the door, you are gone to me." So I invited her to come up to Iowa City the next day so we could hang out some more, just the two of us girls. Mom and I went to the mall and shopped around a little bit but found nothing really that great. But more notable, we ate at Red Lobster!!! Yum!



Will and I spent the last of our night together in disbelief that I was actually boarding a plane in a few hours! What a strange feeling! He took me up to the Cedar Rapids airport at about 3 a.m. and we were very early. When it finally came time to hug one last time and part, we both totally lost it. I wanted sooo badly to put him into my suitcase and take him with!!!!



The flight was long and kind of aweful. I flew with Northwest Airlines the first 2 connecting flights on a small, bumpy, hot, and crowded plane. Even though the first 2 flights were only for about an hour each, they were the worst!!!! I was sooo nauseous, not to mention nervous and every other feeling you could ever feel all at once. I flew from: Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis and then from Minneapolis to Chicago. I landed at Chicago Midway and had to take a shuttle to O'Hare International, which wasn't as bad as it might have seemed.



Korean Air is by far the nicest way to fly! The flight attendants were gorgeous and sooo very nice, the seats were roomy, and we were each given a pillow, blanket, eye mask, warm socks, a bottled water, and a little tooth brush and tooth paste. Given the flight was something like 14 hours, I was quite comfie in my window seat and I had the entire isle to myself to stretch out! Lucky me!!!!! The flight flew over all of Canada, over Alaska, and then over Siberia. Siberia was quite interesting to look at and quite expansive!!!!! On board the plane, we were served water, soda, orange juice and whatnot quite often, as well as 2 meals that wern't too bad actually. And snacks. I just tryed to sleep as much as I could, which was not much because I was nervous from flying.



I was a very lucky girl, as none of my luggage was excessively checked and I had no problems with security, as I have heard others have. When entering into Korea, I got my passport stamped and was on my way to look for a stranger holding a sign with my name on it!!! Together, the woman from my school and I boarded a bus to take the hour long trek to Suji. The teacher almost made me miss the bus!!!!!! She went in to grab a drink and when she came back, the man was yelling at her in Korean and I was standing there clueless as to what to do!!! Yikes!



My first impression of Korea: Absolutely beautiful! The mountains are very lush and green and everywhere you look. On that bus ride to my new home, all I could think of was climbing up one of those lush hills and rolling around in the moist soil and grass at the top. Must of been the jet lag talking!!!



In Suji, my school's director John met us with his van to take me to my new apartment. Um, kinda dirty!!!! The previous tenant lived there for a grand total of about a week with his humongous dog before moving to a larger apartment. All I had time to do was drop my bags off before going to dinner. Jay, my recruiter who did so much work to bring me over in one piece was there to welcome me as well. I met his girlfriend Grace, who will also be working at my school. We went to an all you can eat seafood buffet where everything looked sooooo amazing but I was unable to eat due to the horrid jetlag. I felt like an aweful zombie!!!! The feeling is almost undescribable- like the world is moving one direction and your body is moving the other. Your stomach feels terrible, your arms and legs ache, and you are sooo tired you could just curl up and die but you can't sleep because your body is too confused! Horrible!!!

One of the teachers, Arom, picked me up from the restaurant to walk home with me. He helped me out alot!!!!! He took me to Lotte Mart, the big department store here. I picked up sheets and a pillow there so I could settle in. Bedding is insanely expensive here in Korea!!!! A sheet was something like $20 and a pillow case was $9 dollars (or Won, if you will.) Arom showed me how stuff in my apartment worked and showed me the places I might need in my neighborhood, such as the internet cafe I am in as we speak!!!!

When I went into my apartment, I wanted nothing more than to get a good, hot shower and fall asleep. I undressed and was having a terrible time trying to figure out the crazy showers here when I had a knock on my door! Oh no!!!! So I threw some clothes back on and was greeted by 4 of the girls from my school/ neighborhood! How nice! They asked if I would like to go out for a drink and I declined, as I felt TERRIBLE. I got undressed to try the shower part 2 and more people came to my door!!!!!! This time, it was some of the guys who had worked at my school. They would not take no for an answer so I WAS FORCED TO GO OUT!!!!! Ahhhh! I made the best of it and changed clothes and pulled my aweful, dirty hair up and went out for my first drink in Korea.

The guys and I went to this little bar downtown that had plenty of the local drink, Soju. We got a pitcher of yummy green mixer, a bottle of Soju, and a pitcher of beer to boot. If you have had no sleep, hardly any food, and are terribly jetlagged, you get drunk VERY QUICKLY! The bar was cool too because we got a pot of noodles and broth in the center of the table heated by a little gas burner underneath. Very yum!

From there, we went to the Westerner bar, Exit, where it just so happened that pretty much all of my coworkers were at!!! I had a great time doing shots of Soju, dancing to the music, and chatting with all of the great people there. Best of all, we all got together and played tippy cups!!!! Thanks University of Iowa for teaching me well- Tippy Cups was practically a Major at Iowa. So my first night, I ended up staying out until somethin like 5 a.m.!!!! Crazy!!!!!!

Needless to say, I felt terrible the next day. I don't think I left my bed or my apartment until about 4 p.m. and that was only to go to the little bodega next door for Pringles and some orange juice!!!!!! I unpacked a bit and then fell into a deep sleep for a few hours. I woke up and it was 8:30 and I was an hour late for Lindsey's wine and cheese party!!!! No worries, she is only about a block away and so I was able to spend the evening getting to know the girls at my school and whatnot a little bit better. What a great group of girls!!!!

Saturday orning, I was able to spend time at the internet cafe talking to Will for the first time. We both teared up a bit I think. Its hard not having him and wishing he were here to have a great time with me. I know Will would LOVE Korea!!!!!!!!!! The internet cafe is only $1 dollar per hour and full of gamers and little boys. Ha ha! I will be very grateful to have internet hooked up in my room later this week.

Saturday, I also went to Lotte Mart and got lots of great stuff for my apartment. Everything is sooo cute here! I got a bunny trashcan, Hello Kitty mug and jewelry box, and heart washcloths! What is better than Lotte? Daiso!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, I was in heaven!!!! Daiso is like a general store that has a bit of everything but at the same time, everything is only a dollar or two!!!!!!! I got more Hello Kitty, 2 pillows, a tray, snacks, soda, bathroom stuff, a panda bear mug, and little washcloths with toast and eggs and octopus on them:) How cute!

Last night, the girls and I went into Seoul to party a bit at this Irish Pub they have there in Iteawon- The Wolfhound. I had fish and chips, which were sooo yummy and beer galore. We shared the table with some army guys (and girl) and I joined some of them for an Irish Car Bomb!!!!! The ladies and I sang and danced to all of the great American music they played there and just generally had a great time.

Monday I go with Lindsey to get bloodwork done to ensure I am healthy and then off to my first day of school!!!! I am sooo excited! All of the little kids around here study soooo hard and are soo cute and I know I will have a great time and be thouroughly challenged teaching them all I know. I am ready for the challenge and quite happy to be in Korea!!!!!

Moving Outta Aber/Self-Portraits in Black and White

Will and I moved out of our apartment together on Aber Avenue in Iowa City. The last few days there were gritty, hot, and exhausting. Boxes were packed and hauled and the place had to be scrubbed clean from head to toe. In the grand tradition of moving out, we made the best of the last night by drinking the remaining beer and champagne from the refrigerator. Will's new place was not ready to move into for a day or two so our stuff had to be hauled and stored in a friend's garage. We were homeless for a few days! Luckily, we were only displaced for one night and were able to stay at Will's friend's house. The new place is a very nice, newer duplex in Coralville. After helping Will move in, we celebrated a little on Friday night by joining a few friends on their porch and kicking back a few beers. Perfect summer night.

Today, I was very excited to receive an email from my recruiter with my visa number. Will and I will be taking a trip to Chicago in a few days to visit the Korean Consulate and getting my passport stamped. Everything is finally coming all together! Just think, one week from now I will more than likely be in South Korea!!!

(The self portraits I included here were taken on our last night in the Aber Avenue apartment. Moving is such a transitional time in one's life and I felt a few honest black and white photos were in due order to commemorate the occasion.)

Having a Few Drinks with Michelle and Pam

Yesterday was hellish. It was hot, hot, hot and Will and I had tons of gross, gritty work to do in regards to moving out of our apartment. We got down on our hands and knees and scrubbed the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen, and moved a bunch of heavy furniture around. We weighed and re-weighed my luggage until we got it right. Packing is a pain in the ass! Needless to say, I was more than happy to go get a drink at the end of the day. Pam was in town and Michelle called us down to the Picador for a Monday night drink. It was sooo hot that two beers got me a bit drunk, due to the fact that all of the water in my body turned to sweat and was replaced with booze.

It was good to see Pam for the first time in ages and very nice to get out for the night. Oh, and Michelle's cleavage looked fantastic! What a doll! I am going to miss that girl.

My Going Away Party at the Parent's House

I have been patiently waiting for my Visa number to come up so I can leave for South Korea. I am supposed to be there by August 1st! Ha! Lets see if they can really make that happen. Being unsure about exactly when I will be leaving is kind of bizarre and anxiety creating, so I am trying not to think about that so much. Sure, I am excited to leave, but having my suitcase ready so I can leave at the drop of a hat is kind of nuts, to say the least! I have been jobless and getting ready to leave for a few weeks now and it has been great! Being jobless is a sweet mixture of visiting people, waking up super late, and doing whatever the hell I want to. By golly, I could do this for a living!!!

In the mean time, my parents and I thought it would be best to go ahead and have my big "GOING AWAY" party. All the women we know are amaaaaaazing cooks, so a big part of any party with my family is having a nice spread of food.

Our menu included:
BBQ Pork Sandwiches
Sloppy Joe Sandwiches
Spinach Dip
Shrimp Salad
Brocoli Slaw
Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake
Ammmmazing Beans
Funfetti Cake (I made this, ha ha!)
Tarts, Eclairs, and Cream Puffs

I am pretty sure I gained like 10 pounds after Sunday afternoon, but it was worth it cause everything was soo damn good! And alcohol galore! Everyone brought over lots of beer, wine, and alcohol for maximum party enjoyment. Gotta love that!

It was awesome to see everyone- I tried to be a good party hostess and visit a little with everybody that came, which made me feel a bit like a kid with ADD since everyone we invited showed up! The weather stayed nice all day, the little kids were surpisingly well behaved (and having a blast, I might add), and no one drank too much. It was especially funny watching all of the kids follow my brother around as if he were the pied piper or something. My brother hiked through the woods with the kids, shot a BB Gun with them, played video games, and I don't know what else. All of the kids LOVE HARLEY!!!!!

So, the party was great, I feel ready to go, and now I just have to get my Visa Number so that I can leave. Lets hope they don't take too long issuing it, or else I am going to feel lame having a going away party and then being here forever afterwards!