Day 1

Wake up to my alarm at 9 ( it works perfectly) temperature is perfect (keep at 40), take a shower, get ready and at 10 my phone rings I look into the display and see a lady downstairs she says her name is Lisa and asks me to come down. Hang up the phone, put on coat, scarf, gloves and grab my bag and open the doo..... Crap quickly backtrack and grab the codes to get back in. Shut the door which automatically locks. I head on down stairs. Lisa a Korean lady in her 30s greets me and explains she is a teacher at the school and the only one that can speak English. She leads me into a mini van and we ride to School. This is my first view of the city in day light and I am gobsmacked! It’s huge, its busy it’s fast.

We are at the school in 5 minutes and we run inside to avoid the cold.

Due to privacy I will not be discussing my workplace in detail on this blog. I will say though that I teach 3-5 year olds (2-4 in English years, Koreans are born at the age of 1) and have 2-5 child

ren in each class. I teach across the curriculum emphasising on speaking, reading and listening. The school is fantastically resourced, anything and everything is available to me. The staff are amazing and seem to like me ( comments like u are beautiful, so sexy, lovely almond eyes, nice size face, beautiful, are your eye lashes fake? What mascara do u use? I love your clothes etc. I’ll try not to blow my own trumpet! Classrooms are amazing and the kids are so cute. Most children have never seen a Westerner and when introduced to me some stare, some look like they have seen a ghost, some cry, scream, screw up their face, some touch. It’s a surreal experience. I have a good feeling about the job and am looking forward to get stuck in.

At 12 I am told to put my coat on and come out for lunch. There are four of us, Lisa, myself and two other teachers Rachel and Betty. We go to a Korean Restaurant the girls are all really nice and tell me what the menu says we order and the food and it is brought to the table within minutes so fast. It was absolutely delicious.

The large dish in the middle is Kimchi Soup which had an assortment of vegetables, pork and squid. The smaller dish to the right is a beef dish, which was delicious and very mild compared to the Kimchi soup. I tried all of the side dishes and I liked the seafood pancake the best.

This is the name of the restaurant.

After school Lisa and the School Manager take me to Daiso which is like a $2 shop to get essentials, and buy a travel card. They insist on carrying my purchases I do try to carry them but am secretly relieved as I’m in a heavy coat and all the get up as its freezing but we are walking so fast that I have built up a sweat and am exhausted from lack of sleep.

The travel card I buy is called a T card and it is used for the bus, subway, train and taxi. I am shown how to load credit onto it in a machine down by the subway. I load 10 000W and I guess I’ll see how long it lasts

I am shown where the bus stop is and which bus to take and as I stand on the side of the road I feel like a celebrity or maybe an alien? Everyone who walks past me (and that’s a lot of people) stare at me, they seem very curious and apparently they don’t see many foreigners especially not blonde blue ones. One girl around my age pushes her nose flat and laughs with her friend, I know that they are mocking me but I actually don’t feel self conscious at all and I always smile when they look at me. The majority smile back but look very curiously up and down at me. I can just imagine what they will tell their families when they get home (u will never guess what I saw today! A white person! She was...... Haha) right now it doesn't bother me in the slightest, I wonder how long this will last.

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Walking down the street I notice it is completely mono culture only Korean people. I have not seen anyone under the age of say 16 and have not seen any disabled or homeless. It’s just so different to anywhere I have ever been. I am led to my apartment and am happy to be home and out of the cold. I put my essentials where they should be. Toilet paper, washing powder, water, coffee, chocolate etc.
I put a load of washing on and guess which buttons to push because of course it is not in English! Early night tonight I am soooo tired but not before I check facebook!