One Month, finally a tourist

Ah! First month in Seoul is complete. I’ve had many laughs, getting lost, loving and hating my job, and the kids. It’s nice to live in a big city and be able to enjoy all the modern conviences, and finally have a cell phone! And take the subway everywhere, I’m making my lil studio apartment (ok it’s the size of a dorm room!) my own room, since the previous tenant left a bit of decoration pieces, which were nice, so I didn’t have to look at bare walls.

For the past five days Mark came and visited me, its kind of fun to be able to say that I’m the first teacher of the new teachers to have a visitor and I’m definitely enjoying having someone here from back home, talk about things from the past. I finally got a chance to do the touristy stuff in Seoul, as I didn’t want to do it alone. This weekend Mark and I’ve seen COEX, the largest shopping mall in Korea (complete with an aquarium, conference center, huge foot court, doctors offices, and a bank, and its own subway stop.) The Myeoun-dong Fashion District, Cheonggyecheon (the river walk around Han River), Insa-dong traditional Culture Street (complete with every type of touristy vendor waiting to rip off unexpecting tourist. Its better to shop in the subways for good deals) Gyeongbor Palace (impressive and soo peaceful), Korean National Folk Museum, Changdeokgong Palace (Have to go back to the gardens in the spring/summer), and Techno Mark (a 3 story building full of electronics from cell phones, mp3, small appliances, computers).

This past weekend showed me I really need work on my Korean! It’s embarrassing to not be able to answer back in Korea, or figure out how much I owe someone. At least 20 minutes at day is my goal!

On Saturday I found myself wanting to buy shoes, but my normal size 8 American shoes is size 250 in Korean. As always, I’m too large for the Korean stores, they stop making shoe at size 245! Most stores have shoes to 240.. I went to three very high-end stores in Myeoun-dong thinking they would have many size available: nope! I finally bought some shinny plastic shoes for 19,000 W (like $14) that will last me maybe 3 months. It’s a bit depressing to be so ‘large’ at a 5’8, size 8 in Korea. I’d lost weight when I moved home, but now I have gained it all back. Mmm need to hit the gym more and no snacking!

Yesterday I went to the gym at 7:20am and it was empty, awesome! It felt great to work out, be able to use any machine I want, and shower in peace. (I still get my best showers at my gym. My apartment water has two temperatures: Ice cold and burning hot! I’m gradually getting use to it, or maybe my showers are getting shorter and shorter!)

Pictures

I've uploaded some pictures on Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36424084@N02/

And Photobucket: http://s591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/ktfacet/

I'll write descriptions and a story behind them soon :)