In Busan...

The last few days have been a whirlwind of things going on, I don't even know where to begin. I was weird leaving Jeonju and going out, realizing that now we were going to actually work for our money rather than getting paid to go out every night and take classes. So, we take the five hour bus ride from Jeonju to Busan and finally arrive in the city. It is hard to put into words how big this city is. It is unlike any city i've ever been to. Mountains really do divide the city into pieces, which makes the subway an ordeal. My school is in Yeonjegu, which is actually a great area to be at, directly in the middle of the city. So I am not far from pretty much any place in the city. Some people who live in the western part of the city have to take an hour subway ride to go to the beach, or take a 30,000 won cab ride. Also, my apartment is amazing. I am on the tenth floor, so I have a great view of the city and mountains that are very close to me. Also, I have somewhat of a western style bathroom with a divider in between the shower and toilet, which seems pretty rare. I have a bidet as well. High class right there. I think it's kinda crazy how some people got amazing situations while other got horrible stuff. Like one girl I know is still living in a hotel until the school gets her a place and she heard that it has a history of roaches. I don't know why some schools would want to put teachers in conditions like that. Thank God my school like westerners.
So I met my co-teacher a couple days ago as well. As far as I know, she is really good. She isn't fluent in English, but she is definitely conversational, and that's all I need. It was actually awkward meeting her. They took us to a main school in Busan and made us sit in the line until teachers looked at our name tags and said hello. I felt like cattle waiting for someone to pick off the juicy ones for the slaughter. It was awkward. With that said, she didn't really say anything to me as she brought another person to drive us because she doesn't have a car. The spoke in Korean the entire way as I tried to understand anything that they were saying. Once we got to my apartment the guy at the door of my building came up and showed how things worked, but he only did it in Korean to my co-teacher, and I think she forgot that I only speak English so I have no idea how to do things like work my washing machine. Then, my co-teacher, who I call Ms. Tong or Ms. Dong, i'm really not sure how to spell it and the head administrator at the school took me out to dinner. They asked me if I liked Korean and where I wanted to go, so I said surprise me; so they took me to a Japanese restaurant. Strange, but it was amazing. The adminstrator only spoke Korean, so at the restaurant they pretty much only spoke Korean, as I tried to pace myself eating at the same rate that they did. The problem was that if I finished my rice or my greens they would automatically refill it, so I guess the key is to not finish all of your food if you don't want more. Anyway, they dropped me off and my co-teacher told me to meet her the next day so she could show me how to walk to the school i'm teaching at. She told me it is easier to walk to, but I have to remember so I can make sure to get to the school. So on this 25 minute walk there are so many turns and different streets to go down it was overwhelming. And every time that I looked around to find a landmark or something to make sure I don't get lost she would ask me if everything was okay. So I then felt really awkward just trying to get my bearings. Once we arrived at the school I realized this was going to be good. The school is beautiful and big. It has its own English only wing that was just built this summer, and I have my own classroom. Most English teachers go to other classrooms, but I actually have my own. Also, all the admins and teachers that were there were so excited to meet me, it really is almost like Americans are rock stars here. Everyone atleast stares at you, while sometimes people will come up and try to talk to you. Little kids will slowly walk up to you and if you look at them they will run away behind their mothers and then peek back out at you. It's so funny. But I digress, and I found out that I will be teaching 20 hours of 5th and 6th grade and 2 hours of 3rd and 4th grade. The cool thing about 3rd and 4th is that I don't have curriculum, I can just teach about American culture and stuff like that because i'm not really supposed to teach that but my co-teacher told me that he students really wanted to meet me. Another cool thing is that my co-teacher has been teaching me a lot of Korean while I have been teaching her English, it is a good balance. Oh and sidenote, when I first met my co-teacher I thought she was probably 25 or something like that but I just found out that she is 35. My jaw almost hit the floor. Koreans really are timeless, or ageless, or less aged. I mean she even does that Asian girl giggle with her hand over her mouth, so I thought she was young. I mean I realize that Koreans count the time in the womb so you are born at one years old, and depending on the Lunar calendar you can be two years older than you would be in the west, but still she doesn't even look 33 or 34.
My co-teacher also told me something about their culture that is so interesting. She said since she was the youngest one in the family so her older siblings would always make her do stuff and she couldn't say no because they were her senior. And she said she wished she had a younger sibling so she wouldn't have to do everything. Once I told her that I was the youngest she asked me if I had to do the same, and I told her that I would just say no, and she was shocked. She was like I could never say no to them. Cultures. Actually one of the coolest things about this culture right now atleast is how impressed the get over the littlest things. For example, my co-teacher speaks with an accent in Korean that I have never heard. Like in Korean, Na means yes. But she pronounces it Da. This is definitely going to throw me for a loop trying to learn from her. But anyway, I asked her where she is from and she said Ulsan, which is right next to Busan. Then I told her that I though so because of her southern accent. This floored her. She was like "How would you know that?!!?" It's awesome, definitely makes you feel like the man. Even littler things like she was impressed that I knew how to use chopsticks. It's kinda funny.
Well my first day is tomorrow and I start teaching Tuesday officially so I should probably start a lesson plan.

Oh and I learned my name in Korean.

Its this: 닐
And it actually makes sense
ㄴ has a "na" sound
ㅣ has an "e"
ㄹ has an "ul" sound
crazy!