Gunsan Time! Apartment Edition

Let me start this blog by saying I have the best friends around! I already knew that, but as the days and weeks go by, I just keep realizing it even more. Kelsey made me the most amazing going away package full of things I didn't even think about needing. During orientation, the laundry detergent came in handy (and also made me pretty popular among the other scholars who didn't have any! haha) and today when I couldn't buy any cleaning supplies because I couldn't read the labels, I remembered that Kelsey also gave me packs of Clorox wipes! I used those things like there was no tomorrow! So Kelsey, thank you again..you've helped me so much the last few weeks and you didn't even know you were! My friends here in Korea are also amazing, keeping me from freaking out about all of the new things going on. I couldn't have come here without them.

This blog is actually about my new apartment though, I just wanted to give them a little shout out first! Yesterday I moved to Gunsan, which means I got my apartment! In Korea, my house is called a 'one room'. When you watch the video tour, you'll see that the name is very fitting. I met with my mentor teachers and co-teacher yesterday morning at the university in Jeonju and had delicious cafeteria food with them. Luckily, it was my last cafeteria meal!!! After finishing lunch and talking with them for a while, we crammed into my mentor teachers car and headed for Gunsan. I have a really bad habit of over packing. Example: If I go to Elgin for 1 day, it's likely that I'll bring 4 outfits and at least 4 pairs of shoes. It's stupid, I know, but it happens..every.single.time. So imagine me packing for 6 months. Yeah, it was bad. Now that you've pictured that, imagine me and three tiny Korean ladies trying to get two HUGE suitcases, a duffle bag and other miscellaneous things I've accumulated into this little 4 door Hyundai Sonata. Yes, it went just about as badly as you're picturing it! Anyway, after we finished playing Tetris with the suitcases, we were finally on the road to get my Alien Registration Card (ARC). This card is crucial to getting paid and getting my cell phone and internet set up. I applied yesterday, but it'll take 3 weeks to get. From there, we went to my apartment. This is where things got really bad, and I felt like the worst person on the planet for packing enough clothes for 5 girls to move away for life. Not only is it me and my three new tiny Korean friends/co-workers, my landlord is this elderly, sweet as can be, Korean man. He can't be more than five feet tall! He runs out as soon as we pull up and immediately grabs the heaviest suitcase I have. I kept trying to tell him I would get it, but he insisted he would do it (and also probably didn't know what I was saying). Everyone is struggling to get all of my crap out of the car when I find out that I live on the third floor. Yes..the third floor...and no elevators. And since Koreans have proved to be the nicest people on the planet, none of them will let me carry my suitcases. I felt so awful! They were all struggling so bad, and grunting and sweating and breathing heavy. It was the worst. So we finally make it upstairs and get into my humble abode (surprisingly everyone made it up in one piece!), and it's as small as it looked in the pictures I saw before I got here, so I wasn't that surprised. Now that I've put all of my things up and gotten situated, I like it a lot more! I've even hung up a few pictures that I accidentally brought with me! Score! So after all of that mess, I was left alone and wanted to meet up with all of my friends placed in Gunsan as well. Brittney is the only one of us from UCO that isn't in Gunsan. We miss her already but we can't wait to go visit her! She's about 40 minutes east of us, so it's not bad! Plus, her city rocks and it gives us a good excuse to go shopping and do fun things in Jeonju!

Some of us met up at Lotte Mart (It's like a giant Wal-Mart basically!) Side story: When I was on
my way to Gunsan with my mentor teachers, I asked if Gunsan was big. They all three laughed at me and said, "Oh no, no!! So small, so small!" Tell me if this looks like a store that would be in a small town:

hahaha no!! It's huge here! But I guess Korea is just so overpopulated that this is a "small town". I tried to explain Elgin to them but they didn't understand! The population is roughly 278 thousand. That's not the small town I had in mind! haha I want to bring them all to my "small town" and see what they think. lol 

Anyway, I digress, so we went shopping a little bit and had more pizza for dinner. It's really scary going into a Korean restaurant and not knowing how to order or what you'll get when you attempt to read the words. We need to learn how to get over that, but yesterday wasn't the day. If it makes it any better though, our pizza dough was seaweed based and had sweet potato in the crust? And we didn't go to a pizza place we have in America! Whoa..we're getting crazy! I got to see Kiyana and Laura's apartments. They live in the newer part of town with all of the coffee shops and shopping areas, so I'll be visiting often. I'm hoping I learn how to walk there but as of now, I just have to hail my own taxi (which I rock at) and tell them in Korean where I want to go (which I do not rock at, at all.) but somehow, it keeps working out for me! God is good, and with me everywhere I go in Korea! Kiyana and I decided a sleepover was in order, and made our way back to my house to get my stuff! 

Today (Thursday) Kiyana and I did a little exploring and ate Subway!!! For the record, Korea doesn't do the 'Februany' like America, but that didn't stop us from getting a footlong and saving the other half for dinner. hahaha I've been craving Subway since I left and yesterday I found one in between our houses! It can be our weekly (or biweekly if we ever learn how to eat Korean food) meet up spot for dinner! It tastes EXACTLY like home and it's possibly greater than Chicken Soda or heated floors. And to make everything better, the girls that worked there were so incredibly nice, and knew what we were saying when we ordered in English! It was magical! After that, we booked it home to meet my mentor teacher. She was coming to take me to get a cell phone and a bank account. Her English is limited and my Korean is non-existant (unless you want me to say hello, nice to meet you, goodbye, or I'm an American), so it was a little tricky at times, but she was SO sweet and we figured everything out! I wasn't supposed to be able to get a phone until my ARC card came in, but she made me a cell phone plan under her name and I'll just pay it! I am so excited! I feel connected to the world again. If anyone wants to text me, download an app called Kakao and look me up by my phone number. Message me on Facebook at I will message you my Korean number! It's free international texting. It seems unreal, but technology is amazing and allows me to stay connected. I love it! I finally made it home and cleaned my house and unpacked. I'm not living out of suitcases for the first time in a month and it feels great! I feel like I'm finally home! It's taking some getting used to, but I love it here! I have a roof over my head, an awesome floor heater that I think I've finally figured out, five amazing friends in my city and another one just 40 mins East and I get to start teaching on Monday I think! I couldn't be happier and I a appreciate all of the messages and comments I keep getting! I love you all and am thankful for everyone with me on this journey! 

Here is a reward of pictures for you if you've made it through that novel up there. Sorry it's so long, I'll try to not have such eventful days in the future! haha 

Kiyana is one of the most friendly people I've ever met, but today really proved it. She went with me to the bank and while I was doing my paper work, she made a new friend. Old Korean's are so tiny! Look at this little lady! I turn around to check on Kiyana and I see her showing this little lady pictures of babies on her phone! There was obviously a huge language barrier, so the lady probably though Kiyana had 10 kids because she kept showing her pictures of babies, but it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. So cute, in fact, I risked being that creepy girl to get this photo: 

The lady loved Kiyana and kept speaking to her in Korean and Kiyana just kept saying 'nay', which means yes in Korean. haha It was the greatest thing I've ever seen. So Kiyana left and got two waters from the 7 11 across the street and brought one back to the lady. Her tiny little face lit up and she came and sat beside Kiyana when she took care of all her banking business and talked to us for about 20 mins. Unfortunately it was all in Korean, but it was a great and awkward twenty mins! 

Kiyana and her new friend!

Pizza! I know you're probably sick of seeing pizza on this blog, but that is cheese filled crust bites with sweet potato (yellow stuff). 

This little beauty is the mural on my kitchen wall. Just what I was praying for!!! 

Last Day in Jeonju!

It's been a quick five days here in Jeonju. I've been a little stuffy and had a sore throat so I didn't do as many fun things as I wanted, but it was still a good time. This orientation flew by and wasn't near as brutal as the last one. We had a lot more free time and a lot less strenuous lectures. Today we took a field trip to a famous traditional Hanok Village in Jeonju. It was really neat! These are the houses you think of when you think Asia, I'm sure. They're beautiful and I was really excited to go walk around in the village. There were a lot of little shops and street food vendors to look at, which I'm always down for!

Outside the tea shop

When we first arrived at the Hanok Village, we went to a pottery shop and made our own clay pottery! That was fun and something I had never done before.

Emilee and her coffee cup!

Makin' pottery! 

After pottery, we went to a traditional hanok house and had a traditional Korean meal made up of all kinds of different sides, soup and rice. I'm still trying to get used to that type of food. I get a little bit more brave every time...but I'm still a big ole' wimp when it comes to most of it. After the meal we went to a tea shop and made herb scent bags and had a foot  massage bath! Heaven!

Lizzie, Jonathan and Virginia at our traditional lunch! 

Sides..sides..sides...sides...sides...and more sides! 

Ehhh...some little tiny tiny tiny shrimp things...that still have eyes. No thanks! 

Sides..sides..sides! 

Scented bag of herbs 

After all that pampering, we had free time for a few hours and we walked around and had some delicious ice cream. I also tried popular Korean treat and it was great! I didn't know what it was before I bought it, but I saw so many people walking around with it so I knew it had to be good. Turns out, it basically tastes like a thin-peanutless-peanut brittle! It was so good! You also get to pick the shape you want in the middle of your candy (I chose a star) and the game is to try and break off the whole outside without breaking the star. Mine broke before I had the chance to try, so I just devoured it. Emilee tried the world's greatest invention I mentioned last blog....CHICKEN SODA! That's right people, Emilee Delk tried chicken soda! She's so cool! And if you're wondering, it really is as great as it sounds. Dibs on patenting the idea when I get back to America. I'm going to be famous!

Chicken Soda!!!!! 

Delicious peanut brittle star thing! So good! 

After all that nonsense, we came back to the dorm, had dinner, talked with our TaLK coordinator for a while, and finished packing. I'm about to head to bed for my last nights sleep in a dorm room, thank goodness! I'm so ready to not be living out of suitcases and bags anymore! Tomorrow I meet my mentor teacher and get to move into my new apartment! I am so excited, I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep tonight!!! The following pictures don't really have anything to do with this post, I just felt like they were worthy of my blog. haha Enjoy and Happy Tuesday, America!

We accidentally ran upon this little romantic garden thing! 

Traditional Hanok houses! It would be better if there weren't cars in the picture! haha 

Pretty house I found! 

That's right...pizza and chicken! We caved, yet again! 

Foot spa time! 

Kiyana and Laura foot spa-ing it up! 

-Kyla

What's Better Than Floor Heaters?

I'm going to do a quick recap of what's been going on and then jump to now. First off, we finally finished our three week orientation in Jochiwon. That orientation was for all 211 scholars in the program. I met a lot of really awesome new people, but unfortunately they all like far from my province. I still have all my UCO girls and some of my friends here with me in Jeollabuk-do, but some of my other favorites are placed all the way in Jeju. This has it's positives though. Jeju is a beautiful island off the southern tip of South Korea. Although it'll take me a plane or ferry ride to get there, it was already a predetermined vacation destination before we even moved here. It's just even cooler that we have a lot of friends on the island so they can be our tour guides when we get there! The end of orientation was sad, but we had a really great last meal for dinner the night before the buses came to pick us up. Check it out:

Yes..your eyes are seeing clearly. I've said it before, Korea serves the goofiest food combinations. Here's a perfect example. Starting with the sushi, I'll go clockwise around the plate. Sushi, traditional buffalo wings, broccoli, potato wedges, fried mandu (dumplings), some kinds of fried rice stuff, alfredo pasta and the middle is sashimi with shrimp on top. So crazy! and it's not like a huge buffet that they expect you to only get one type of thing...it's very normal to mix pasta and sushi and wings. There were also several options I didn't even want to try, but this meal was so good! They also usually have pasta or fresh fries for breakfast at the university I was staying at, and those awesome waffles for dessert. I think someone got their translations mixed up along the way. haha

Anyway, after we said our goodbyes, it was time to hop on the bus and head to Jeollabuk-do province. This will be my home until the end of July. We're staying in Jeonju for a week long orientation and then being taken to our cities and apartments on Wednesday. We arrived to our new dorms with just enough time to drop off our suitcases and head to dinner to meet with our mentor teachers at an upscale restaurant. We were all really nervous and wanted to make a good first impression. It was so nerve-racking waiting for them! It was set up in interview style at several different tables. At my table there were five TaLK scholars on one side and five empty chairs on the other side. One by one, the mentor teachers started coming in. I waited and waited...and waited for mine to show up and finally my POE coordinator came up to me and said that my mentor teacher couldn't make it. I was relieved, but at the same time I was a little disappointed because I was ready to meet her and find out some more definite plans for my time teaching in Korea. Luckily, she'll be here Wednesday because she's my ride to my new city! Looks like I'll have to save all my questions until then. Prayers for me meeting her. Apparently this is the person that will make or break your time in Korea. If they like you and you both work well together, it'll be the best time of your life, but if things don't go so hot, you're likely to have some trouble in paradise. I am not too worried about it, but prayers never hurt anyone! :) 

My new home until Wednesday. Jeonju University: The Place for Superstars

Windy day here in Jeonju! I'm still a superstar though! 

Please pause here and prepare yourself for a mid-story-worlds-greatest-invention update. Coming straight to you from Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea....I present to you....the Chicken Soda. I'm not sure of it's real name, but I personally named it the Chicken Soda. Clever, I know. I know I've mentioned before about how awesome the floor heaters are here in Korea, but I'm sad to say that I think this little cup of heaven possibly passed the floor heaters in the race for the best crazy invention in Korea. (I know, you're thinking to yourself, "How's that even possible? Floor heaters sound so amazing and practical.") Well, ladies and gents, here it is...presenting the chicken soda combo. GENIUS! So it's a cup of soda in the bottom half and chicken on the top half. The straw goes to the bottom half and allows you to drink. Oh.my.gosh. I'm dying. I didn't try it, but you bet your bottom I will. And on top of all that, the entire combo is only about $3. What a steal! 

The view from my dorm room. It still amazes me that the cities are surrounded by beautiful mountains! 

Outside the restaurant with Brittney and Emilee

This is the restaurant we had dinner at when meeting our mentor teachers. So pretty! 

So we came home and eventually went to bed so we could wake up today and start exploring. Throughout the night, I started sneezing and got a runny nose. When I woke up, I had a full blown allergy attack. At least that's what I'm praying it is. My throat is hurting and I don't feel very good. Hopefully I didn't catch a cold! That's not how I want to spend my time in my new province. We went exploring all day and found some cool stuff. After that, we came back for dinner and decided to go out. I opted out and decided that if I wanted to explore tomorrow, I better stay home tonight and get some rest and start feeling better. Luckily for me, I have six awesome friends to take care of me and who keep checking on me and offering me medicine and tea to sooth my throat. Have a good Saturday everyone! I just found out that our coordinator wants to take us to church tomorrow if we want to go, so I'm praying I feel better by 3pm so I can make it to my first church service here in Korea! 

Here's one last picture for the road. It's McDonlad's delivery mopeds. They're everywhere. Yes, McDonalds delivers in Korea. So cool! I may take advantage of that someday just to say I did. haha It's the little things in life. 

-Kyla

Korean Quirks Vol. 1

Since today was a pretty typical day at orientation, I thought I would whip out my notes that I've been taking and just talk about some of the funny things that I've seen or that have happened. And yes, I've really been documenting all of these strange things in my phone so I wouldn't forget them. There are so many, it's impossible to keep up! This is mostly going to be a huge list of the reasons I love Korea and some cultural things I've picked up on. It's so interesting to me! Enjoy!

• In my previous post, I mentioned that Seoul is the city that never sleeps. It's still true, but some things that I learned last weekend helped me to understand why. In the States most bars and clubs close at 2am. In Seoul, most don't close until 8am. Subways on the other hand close at midnight and open up again about 7am. That means one of two things: either you go out and party, and plan to be home by midnight OR you stay out until 7am and take the first subway home. With what I witnessed this weekend at 4am in the morning, I'm going to say most people choose option number two. Partying doesn't even really start until around midnight or later. So crazy! This also explains why 99% of the people on subways and buses are sleeping between stops. haha

• Most doors in Korea are sliding doors that you would think would be automatic doors, but you have to push a button to make them open. It doesn't sound that weird, but it is! And it gets a little strange when you are walking towards one and it doesn't stop closing when it should be sensing your motion. It gets even more awkward when you don't realize the button to open the door is in fact a button and that you have to push it to get through the glass door. It's disguise really well. Here is a picture, but you can't really tell. lol Look closely to the left there is a rectangular box thing and that's what you push to get in the door! 

This picture sucks, I apologize. I'll get a better one eventually! 

• Wearing shoes inside homes, schools and even most restaurants is forbidden. This isn't all that crazy, and I'm sure most of you already know that, but what I found odd was in the Subway station. There were bums with cardboard box houses along the sides of the walls and they all took off their shoes before getting into their "home". It is just neat to me that that cultural aspect is still so strong, that even though they don't have a real home, they still take off their shoes.

That's all for now. I'm sleepy and have another day of orientation lectures and lesson planning to do tomorrow. Only 3 more days in Jochi and then it's off to my real home in Jeonbuk! I can't wait to get there and see what it's like. 

-Kyla

The City That Never Sleeps

I don't think my weekend in Seoul could have been anymore fun! It's by far the craziest, coolest place I've ever been. I'm in love! Seoul is so huge and there are so many people it's unreal. Seoul is home to over half of South Korea's population. There are literally people everywhere you go. I'll try my best to write a decent blog post about this, but right now my mind is so full of things I want to say that it may come out as a jumbled mess!

We left Jochiwon Saturday morning about 9am and arrived in Seoul a little before 11. From there, they gave each TaLK Scholar 10W (about $10) for lunch and set us free. After filming a mini flashmob dance in front of entirely too many people, Hoa and I had to find a place to exchange money. After that we treated ourselves to some of the best fried rice I've ever had. Such a great change from the white sticky rice we have every day in the caf. I was in heaven. We walked around for a little bit after lunch before heading back to the meeting area to get back on the busses and head to the beginning of our TaLK scavenger hunt. We had a map of our destinations and started at a really cool palace. We had to make 8 stops along the way and take 5 pictures of our group in front of the landmark. It was a really cool way to see a lot of different places, but we rushed through because when we were finished we knew that we were free for the rest of the night! 

Fried rice..so good! 

Hoa and I in Seoul!

Awesome palace. 

Scavenger hunt group

Josh and Natasha downtown!

FINALLY! We were free until 9pm on Sunday night. It's basically the first time we've been free and had enough time to do anything since we arrived. Last weekend we were allowed to go places, but we had lecture all day on Saturday so we stayed in Jochiwon. It was so awesome knowing that we didn't have curfew like we do at the dorms. We went to Seoul with no real plans, except the obvious...mexican food. Mission accomplished! With a bit of a struggle, we found a Mexican food place called Dos Tacos. We finally satisfied our craving for Mexican food. It was the best! While Brittney was up refilling her water, a Korean guy walked by and saw her TaLK nametag and asked if she was a scholar. She obviously said yes, and he told us that he lives in Gunsan (the same place we will be living) and that he's been friends with the TaLK scholars that come to Gunsan for the last 3 years. What a small world! He was a Korean who had only traveled to America a few times, but his friend was  in the military and was from Michigan. So crazy! 

The worlds tiniest yummiest quesadillas! 

Strawberry marg, my favorite!

I've missed nachos so much! 

After dinner we accidentally ran into two TaLK scholars and hung out with them for the rest of the night. Luckily, Andrew is Korean and speaks it fluently, so that was a huge help. We found our hostel that we would be staying at, put our stuff in our rooms and left for a night out on the town. 

I love these people!

There are huge TV screens everywhere. Ex 1.

When I say there are people everywhere, it's such an understatement. It is so much more busy than New York. It's mind blowing. There were people EVERYWHERE! We went to a little restaurant bar and had some kimchi pancakes and a couple of drinks, then headed off to norebong. I've talked about this in previous blogs, but for those of you who don't know, it's a just a karaoke room for you and your friends. Literally the best invention on the planet. Give me a mic and an almost limitless amount of songs and I'm one happy girl. I sang so much last night that my voice started going away. It was such a blast. Not to mention, I have some of the best friends in the world. Such fun people! 

It still hasn't really hit me that I'm really here, but one of the craziest things I've noticed so far is that if you see/hear someone who speaks English or isn't Asian, you automatically say hi. It's so strange, but it just happens. It's like you're instant best friends just because you speak the same language. It's so awesome! So there we are, walking down the croweded streets of Seoul wondering what our next move would be and this group of people from the states run up and ask us if we want to go to a club with them. We didn't really want to go to a club, so that's how we ended up at the hooka bar. I've never been to one before but I tried it. It was okay, but I'll also be okay if I never do it again. haha It was cool to hear why everyone was in Korea and see where everyone was from. The majority of foreigners you meet here are English teachers so it was really cool to be able to say, "So are we!!!" 

We eventually left our new friends and tried to decide what to do next. Another really crazy thing is that Seoul never closes. I know that we say that NYC is the city that never sleeps but we're wrong. It's definitely Seoul. I don't know how these people survive on such little sleep! When we left hooka it was about 3:50am and there was still lines of people waiting to get into clubs, bumper to bumper traffic and restaurants that were completely full. I don't understand! We were exhausted because of the long day we had, but we were ready for more. It's Korean culture to do "rounds". This just means that you go somewhere for a little bit and have a few drinks, leave, and go to another place maybe for norebong this time. Times that by about 5 or 6 more rounds and that's how Koreans do it. And when I say Koreans, I don't mean mid-twenties Koreans. It's all ages. They tell me that my faculty at the school I'm going to will do this very often. Cultural differences are so amazing to me. After a couple of minutes and walking around aimlessly, we decided we should just go back to the hostel. We were tired and had a really long day. We finally made it back to our hostel and fell asleep! 

Today was fun and involved even more walking. My legs and butt are going to be so toned when I get back. Watch out America! There are more stairs and hills here than anything I've ever seen before. We did a lot of window shopping since our bags were pretty full and our wallets were pretty empty, but we can't wait to get settled into our homes and make a shopping trip weekend to Seoul soon! The shopping is so amazing there, I can't wait!!! 

Amazing shoes on every corner in Seoul. Dangerous! 

Such awesome buildings!

View of the Han River on the way into Seoul.

Thanks for reading, and if you haven't noticed yet, this is my new blog. The other one would do crazy things when I added pictures so I just switched over to blogspot. Have a good Sunday, America. This girl needs some rest! 

-Kyla