We're here!

hey guys! you're probably wondering why the author of this blog is katie and/or brian. well...from time to time one or both of us will be writing in this thing. right now, you've caught us at a good time - we're both here! lucky you. i guess we should start from the beginning and catch all you newbies up on what's been going on.


we caught a flight from dulles international airport on thursday (feb 19) at 8:28 in the morning. we still have no idea how brian got up that early...scientists are busy investigating as we speak (i was up before you, actually :P - brian). we switched planes in san francisco and proceeded to fly over the entire pacific ocean for about 11 hours. although we did get bumped up to business class which was awwwesome. those seats are so comfortable and the flight attendants cater to you like you're royalty. we got to incheon, south korea at about 8pm their time (about 6am VA time), took a van to seoul, then proceeded to take a bus to tongyeong. phew.

as of now we're living in a studio apartment right on the harbor...we have a teeny kitchen and a bathroom that doubles as a shower. that's right - there is no separate shower stall. ahh korea. it seems we got super lucky because apparently our apartment is 100 times better than the ones the other american teachers got. bwahaha. it is nice though...and it's only about 20 minutes walking distance from our school. i'll post some pictures as soon as i take them :)

we're actually almost done with our first week and only week of orientation at maple college, the school where we're both teaching. there are two other american teachers for now (they're both leaving in april) and two korean teachers. we're basically going to be teaching kindergarteners with some first graders thrown in once in a while. and we're also going to be teaching art...and science...and cooking. yes, cooking. for those of you who know me (katie) even just a little, go ahead and laugh. i got a good chuckle out of it myself.

we do stick out like sore thumbs here, of course. it's funny because after a few days of seeing nothing but asian faces, i look in the mirror and am surprised because my hair's not black. i know that sounds weird, but it's true. another funny thing - we get just as excited about seeing the rare "white person" as the tongyeong residents do. yesterday we were wandering around town looking for a place to eat when we spotted two obviously-not-korean folks...and we were like :0! we only followed them for a few blocks though. haha.

the food we've had here so far has honestly been amazing. granted, we haven't eaten anything too scary...nothing that is still waving its tentacles or anything. we found a place right around the corner from our school that serves a little something like this: a huge piece of breaded pork, rice, fruit, several kinds of kimchi (spicy pickled stuff, basically), eggs, egg drop soup, seaweed-ish dishes, and something rubbery that vaguely looks like squid (we don't have the guts to try that yet). all of this for the equivalent of $3.50 a person. it's so much food that one time we split the meal and paid a measly $1.75 a person. it's insane. i think the owner of the restaurant likes us, which always helps things :)

we're also mastering the art of eating with chopsticks. brian is hoping to secure a spot on the 2012 olympic team.