Fry. Day.

Just got back from lunch break.  A long roll of sushi, like 10 pieces, for $2.50! Awesome.  It's really a shame though that I'm not loving the food... I see hot dogs so often I feel sick just looking at them now.  I mean seriously, do they need to wrap them in a pastry? Gross!  I finally bought groceries and will have fun cooking them, but I'm afraid all I feel like I can tolerate eating is pasta of some sort and normal bread products, like pastries and PB&J sandwhiches.  (Both of which were like $7 for tiny jars... American imported products.)  A high-carb diet sounds sickening to me though.  I really do like to eat healthily, and that is not happening here so far.  Oh, I've been drinking lots of coffees, too... and I only ever like mine extra sweet, so my diet is definitely not good yet.  Fruit is so expensive! And vegetables I don't recognize, or I can only find Korean-style lettuce in 20 different varieties, and nothing else.  All they eat here is meat meat meat and ramen, Korean-style sushi (not as good) and kimchee... fermented cabbage.  Ohhh I feel sick just talking about this.  Let's move on.

Class today went so well!!! I feel like a real teacher! :)  I taught a really basic-level English class today, using a book about body parts, so I made the class really interactive and taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and played charades acting out their favorite activities.  I demanded more respect today than I got last class by first writing the rules on the board, using stern tones, and actually taking away phones during class.   Seriously, what does a first-grader need a cell phone for anyway?  I also started an incentives plan.  If a student gave an exceptional answer, in a complete sentence, or won at Simon-says or one of the other games we played, they got points.  If they talked out of turn, they lost points, and at the end of class the kid with the most points won the best-imaginable prize, which is obviously candy.  It worked!  Teaching so far is proving to be fun and tiring, and definitely a trial-and-error process.

Population of Bundang: 3.7 million!! In this city alone!! It's outrageous.  I've never even been to such a big city.  I feel like this must be what Vegas looks like... neon signs all over the buildings, which are all incredibly tall skyscrapers, and I live right in the middle of it.  It feels like the city that never sleeps.  I'm on the seventh floor of one building and see nothing but flashing or spinning signs when I look out my window.  It's funny to me that I've finally become a city girl, for a period of time anyway... in Korea.   Everything is within walking distance because not only are there tons of businesses crammed one right after another as I walk along the streets, but many of the floors in these "apartment" buildings are full of businesses too!  Like yesterday, Katelyn, our Korean friend Dan (met him where we all went to school at Trinity) and I  went to the 10th floor or so of some building right across the street to a frozen yogurt place.  It's really nice having a Korean friend who hapens to only lives 10 minutes away.  I never would have thought to go floor-to-floor to discover new places to go.  Get this: the whole place was full of rocking chairs or benches swinging from the ceiling!  The swinging benches were on either side of a table.  It was so cute, and decorated with flowers covering the whole ceiling... why don't we take such creative license back home??  I think artsy people would thrive here.  Like Jamie, you should come live here.  I think you would love it, seriously. 

I've finally figured out where to buy groceries, can take the bus by myself, and am feeling good at my school.  The school I'm teaching at is called Avalon, and they have several different campuses in the same city.  The specific campus where I'm teaching is brand-new, just opening this week, so our entire staff is new--7 English teachers and 7 Korean teachers.  I think there will be about 300 students enrolled by next week when we open to the public.  This week has been some other sort of program they're offering, a book club, which are the classes I've taught so far.  The curriculum will be different by next week.  The school is so cute.  Stark white all around, with brightly-colored trim and doors.  And the numbers and labels are all so cute and cartoony-looking.  I feel like I'm living in a cartoon.  The other day I ate at a Hello Kitty cafe... needless to say, the entire shop was a living cartoon.