Aimee Arrives!

Monday, December 9^th, 2012 – Friday, December 14^th, 2012

I was on to my third week in Korea.  I had my own two weeks to settle and then I had this week to look forward to my friend Aimee arriving so I could help her settle!  My workweek was good; I had a combination of mostly good classes but some that were a little bit harder to manage.  On Tuesday I was a bit frustrated to find out my classes at the second school were still unorganized the kids in my classes were still changing around.  I think all of the kids were a little bit extra tired too that day, all of their final exams from the week before were probably catching up with them.  The rest of the week was fine!

Wednesday, Aimee and I met up for the first time!  The school I work at Monday’s and Wednesday’s is on the same street as her school!  She lives a few metro stops in the other direction from the school and she lives only one block from the beach!  We are about a 35-minute commute by metro away from each other.

The first thing we did together was walk to the Kyungsung University area to explore.  Seeing this University, nightlife area in the day, it seemed so much smaller and easier to navigate.  We wanted to find somewhere to eat lunch.  Everything seemed closed so we decided to ask the next foreigners we saw where to eat.  Once we stopped some foreigners, we asked them where to have lunch.  They recommended a pasta and pizza restaurant and showed us how to get there.  It turned out one of them was from Argentina, and the other one from Brazil!  The Brazilian was a Portuguese professor and the Argentine was a taekwondo instructor.  

After lunch, we went back to Aimee’s apartment so she could meet with her foreign co-teacher.  Her co-teacher, Clinton, helped Aimee buy a metro pass and let us explore the beach for a couple of minutes before we walked the two subway stops back to where we work.  It was nice that we were both working at the same location and going to the same place. 

That night, we met at Kyungsung again to have dinner with Casey and her friend Amanda at a Mexican restaurant and then we went to Open Mike at a bar called ol’55.  I ran into Scott there!  We stayed to watch a few people sing.  Aimee was starting to feel the jet leg so we left early and took the metro home.  At the Open Mike, there were probably the most foreigners I have seen since I have been here.  It was one of the places Scott took me to my first weekend and I recognized some of his friends in the crowd. 

Thursday morning, I had to meet Clara, my director outside my apartment at 10:30am to go to immigration.  She drove me there; we filled out the form and waited for our number to be called.  I think we got lucky because we didn’t have to wait in line for a long time.  After I patiently waited again while she discussed something with the immigration officer, I found out that yes, I did have to go back to the hospital once again to get a drug test.  The good thing was they still started my immigration process by accepting my form, taking my fingerprints etc. 

Friday, my co-teacher Amy and I returned to the hospital.  I had to get a urine and blood test done again!  We also had to wait this time and Amy missed her first class.  It was a bit of a waste of time for both Amy and I because the hospital warned us we would need to come back.  I am also not a big fan of getting my blood taken. 

Aimee wanted to try Korean BBQ, so we went out for dinner Friday night.  We went to Kyungsung University area to find a Korean BBQ place.  We found one and with a little help from a Korean man who could speak English we ordered some pork and rice.  He let us try a bit of his Soju too.  After dinner we were on our way home when we ran into some of Aimee’s Korean co-workers.  We were invited to have a drink with them so we accepted the invitation.  We tried Korean rice wine.  We also learned a few Soju games from one of Aimee’s foreign co-teachers.  Soju is a liquor made from rice that tastes a bit like vodka.  It is just under 20% alcohol normally and is drunk mostly with meals. Alcohol is a big part of Korean culture and from seeing Aimee’s co-teachers I got a sense of that.  It is great having the opportunity to spend some time with Korean’s to get a better idea of their culture.  I am grateful I have already had many opportunities since I have been here!

Aimee's first Korean BBQ!

Soju and Rice Wine

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