I was on the plane for roughly nine hours by the time I allowed myself to look at the map of where we were and how much longer I would have to wait. The flight path showed that we were over Russia. Russia?! I think this is when it hit me... that I was actually flying to South Korea. I looked over the window and we were close to a city at night where lights were sparkling below...

A friend of mine visiting Italy told me before I left: "Prepare to fall in love with this world." And I think it was Thanksgiving day on the plane to South Korea is when I realized what a beautiful world we live in.

I landed at Icheon airport in Seoul around 4:30am November 27th (South Korean time of course) and spent a few hours in the airport waiting for my next flight to take off at 8:15am for Daegu, another hour flight after getting off the fourteen and a half hour flight. I spoke with a girl who had been visiting Vietnam for a few months... we found each other easily in the sea of shiny black-haired people and being the only blondes :-) She was waiting for her brother to meet her there since he has been at some University in Seoul for a while. Most of the time we just kept each other company for a bit until I had to check in.

I got to Daegu at 10am, and someone was at the airport waiting for me. I was taken to what they call a "love hotel".. and despite the name it was very clean. I was told I would be picked up at 4pm for training, and then I was left there. I cried... no, I wept... It was like over-dramatic soap opera crying. Then I fell asleep until 3, got ready for training and was brought to the school. After meeting some of the teachers in Daegu and watching them teach (and how adorable the students were) I felt a lot better. But I won't lie, the first 24 hours were rough just knowing that I had already made a commitment to stay here for a year. The only time I ate was when I was with someone for the first 4 days in Daegu... but I'm pretty sure my first Saturday night made up for the four days I was there. We went out for three dinners, which I learned is typical in Korea. First I went for Korean barbecue and failed miserably with chopsticks (and burned my finger... which blistered instantly... ow) Second was boiled beef, and last was chicken. To work it all off we went to a Noribong (a singing room... or rather karaoke room you rent with friends to use for singing and drinking... a wonderful combo)

Sunday I was taken out for Sushi (which was amazing, AND cheap compared to home) and dessert was a waffle with chocolate and whipped cream on top, quite filling. Monday through Wednesday I observed teaching more and went through a little training. Wednesday night I moved into my apartment here in Busan. My apartment is one big room with a kitchen, table, bed, a couple closets and a separate bathroom. The heat comes from the floor and it's been a little cool lately, but I rather be a little cool than too hot in the summer.

As for the teaching: I've been in the classroom for a little over a week now, and am really loving it. I'm still getting used to all the classes and what level they're at, but we're getting better at charades :-) A lot of the kids I teach already have quite a bit of vocabulary down and all the students have already learned how to read and write English from their Korean school. The school I teach at is a separate academy that is in session from 3:30pm-9:05pm... so some of these kids are in school from 8am-9 or 10pm. They go to a Korean school, then maybe a flute/piano academy, then some sports related academy, maybe another language academy, and last, English Academy. I don't know what these kids eat for breakfast... but I think I need some.

Busan continues to be beautiful, and I'm exploring it one block at a time. With roughly 3.6 million people I'm still taking baby steps... You can't expect much more from a girl from Temple, Maine... or can you? :-)