A day in the life...

Let me give you a glimpse into my new, crazy, grown-up life.

In the morning I get myself ready, eat a very large breakfast, and then run to the bus stop and hope I haven't missed it. It does not always come when it's supposed to.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning I go to Sun-am elementary. Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday I go to Jangsaengpo elementary. I teach a total of 22 classes per week, but some days I only teach 3 classes and some days I teach 7. I teach all the kiddos - kindergarten through 6th grade. The younger ones understand about 10% of what I say, the older ones probably understand 80%. I spend my days speaking very slowly and clearly, simplifying words, using my hands excessively...

I usually eat a semi-disgusting school lunch and starve the rest of the day. There is always rice, some kind of soup (that usually has fish floating in it) kimchi, another kind of kimchi, and another side dish that is usually fish. There are no forks, so sometimes I don't eat things because I don't want to and other times I don't eat them because I can't get them into my mouth. 

After school I take the bus home and pray the driver won't get into an accident. Traffic laws in Korea are basically suggestions, and no one really follows them. If you can fit your car into a space you can drive it there, stopping at red lights only slows you down, and if there is a pedestrian in your way they better move before they get hit. Taxi drivers and bus drivers all think they're in some kind of nascar race. One day my bus driver was still going 7 mph as people were getting on and off the bus.

I come home and cook a ginormous dinner because I've been starving since I pretended to eat lunch. Koreans don't bake, so hardly anyone has an oven. I spend a lot of time with my friend Katie, and we run errands together or explore, or watch tv. We get 75 channels, and about 6 of them sometimes have English programs. There's one channel that's always action movies, some episodes of CSI and NCIS, and really random other stuff. On the weekends we like to go downtown and see our other teacher friends. There are about 18 of us in the city and we all have a good time together. It's really great to hang out with people who are experiencing the exact same thing I am - they get what I'm going through and we all help each other out.

So this is my life! It's not what I expected, and somehow it doesn't feel as different as I thought it would. I'm super excited for all the adventures this year will bring :)