A little bit more about Busan: Busan has a few really nice beaches, but my favorites are Gwangali and Hae-undae beach. It's huge and every year during October Hae-undae beach hosts an Internation Film Festival. I will be sure to attend that one and hopefully I'll spot some celebs!! I hope so :) Apparently Busan also has the biggest fountain in the world. I haven't seen it yet, but it surely is on my to-do list. Yesterday I went on this huge shopping mission. Everyone told me to go to Centum City and as I got of the subway and walked up the stairs, I literally walked into Louis Vuitton and Prada!!! I wish you could've seen it. I wanted to get out my camera and start snapping, but instead I decided to act the part. Obviously I didn't buy anything I just walked around looking rich. It was fun, just wish I could afford something. Even Gap was too expensive and it was the only 'cheap' shop I could find. Ok well that's not what I wanted to tell you. What I eventually found out was that this wasn't a shopping mall, it was one big shop!!!!!!!!! In fact the biggest store in the world..insane!
About my flat: It's rediculously small, but liveable. Feels like I'm living in a dormitory, but it's all I need so it's ok! The coolest thing about the flat is that it is extremely central and is surrounded by about a million bars :) (evil laugh) it is also 2 blocks down from starbucks, my new best friend! We also live about right next to the university so the whole place is full of students and the nigths are insane!
Today was my first school day. I haven't started teaching yet, just had to meet everyone at the school today. Was very nerve wrecking but it went down allright. I had to stand up infront of everyone and introduce myself. Nobody can understand english so I introduced myself in Korean and I think I impressed them a lot. Now I just need to learn to actually speak the language. I think if you really put your mind to it it won't be tooo difficult!! I think I'm only starting to teach on wednesday so I still have a little bit of time to prepare my lesson. I have to walk to school everyday and it takes me 30 minutes. Hopefully I'll be skinny within the next few weeks..haha! I finally found a cellphone, but I'm not connected yet. I have to get my alien registration card first and then I can connect and get a number. Will let you know as soon as I'm connected.
antoinette netta antie nus
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Beautiful Busan
After a very long bus ride we finally arrived in Busan. The place is buzzing and unbelievably awesome!! We were extremely nervous on the bus because we had to meet our co-teachers in Busan. My co-teacher found me as soon as I got off the bus. Her name is Annie and she is very nice. I’m very glad that she has an English name, because these Korean names are very hard to remember.
Our flats weren’t ready yet, so (Salome and my co-teachers) they booked us into a motel. At first the area of the motel looked kind of dodgy, but we soon found out that it was pretty central. They immediately took us to the Mega Mart to buy bedding for our flats. This was quite a tiring mission, because we’ve been dragging our luggage around the whole day and then we still had to walk to the Mega Mart and back with our shopping and as you know it’s VERY hot in Korea at the moment.
Our first night in Busan was very successful. We decided we are going to find a burger place for a ‘lekker’ western burger. We came across Kraze Burgers which was right across the road from Starbucks!! Yes, we found the Starbucks! YAY!
Luckily we survived our first night in the motel. On the second day we managed to get Metro cards (for the bus and subway) and we had quite a few successful bus and subway rides. El Natural!!
Our flats are VERY central and everything is around us. We are two blocks down from the Starbucks and I can walk to school. There are probably 25 bars around our apartment block which is awesome! At night this place really lights up. We are staying in the Ocean Sun Towers; I’m on the fourth flour and Salome on the third. The flats are TINY but liveable. Luckily we’ve already bought our bedding so we could settle in quickly and start living in Busan.
Tomorrow school starts…AAH! It’s nerve wrecking, because tomorrow we get to meet our colleagues, vice-principle and principle.
Wish me luck!! x
Our flats weren’t ready yet, so (Salome and my co-teachers) they booked us into a motel. At first the area of the motel looked kind of dodgy, but we soon found out that it was pretty central. They immediately took us to the Mega Mart to buy bedding for our flats. This was quite a tiring mission, because we’ve been dragging our luggage around the whole day and then we still had to walk to the Mega Mart and back with our shopping and as you know it’s VERY hot in Korea at the moment.
Our first night in Busan was very successful. We decided we are going to find a burger place for a ‘lekker’ western burger. We came across Kraze Burgers which was right across the road from Starbucks!! Yes, we found the Starbucks! YAY!
Luckily we survived our first night in the motel. On the second day we managed to get Metro cards (for the bus and subway) and we had quite a few successful bus and subway rides. El Natural!!
Our flats are VERY central and everything is around us. We are two blocks down from the Starbucks and I can walk to school. There are probably 25 bars around our apartment block which is awesome! At night this place really lights up. We are staying in the Ocean Sun Towers; I’m on the fourth flour and Salome on the third. The flats are TINY but liveable. Luckily we’ve already bought our bedding so we could settle in quickly and start living in Busan.
Tomorrow school starts…AAH! It’s nerve wrecking, because tomorrow we get to meet our colleagues, vice-principle and principle.
Wish me luck!! x
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Closing ceremony and Farewell dinner
So tonight was the closing ceremony for our orientation and our farewell dinner. Once again the Koreans went all out and paid off to be an amazing evening with delicious food.
Today we learned that both Salome and I will be teaching Elementary School, we are very excited about this because it was our first choice all along. We are teaching and living in neigbouring districts, which is cool. Tomorrow is the BIG MOVE so then we'll find out if we are actually living close to each other. It's going to be a big adventure, cause neither of us have cellphones so we're not completely sure how we are going to get hold of each other once we've gone our seperate ways with our co-teachers.
We are very lucky with our placements!! We are close to the two main beaches in Busan and pretty much in the hub of things. One of the beaches (where we live) hosts an international Film Festival in October and that's very exciting and something to look forward to.
We are departing early tomorrow morning, so will be out of touch with the world for a few days. Chat soon x
Today we learned that both Salome and I will be teaching Elementary School, we are very excited about this because it was our first choice all along. We are teaching and living in neigbouring districts, which is cool. Tomorrow is the BIG MOVE so then we'll find out if we are actually living close to each other. It's going to be a big adventure, cause neither of us have cellphones so we're not completely sure how we are going to get hold of each other once we've gone our seperate ways with our co-teachers.
We are very lucky with our placements!! We are close to the two main beaches in Busan and pretty much in the hub of things. One of the beaches (where we live) hosts an international Film Festival in October and that's very exciting and something to look forward to.
We are departing early tomorrow morning, so will be out of touch with the world for a few days. Chat soon x
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Orientation
So far so good, we are still alive and well.
We have started with orientation and learning of the Korean language is well on its way.
We're not used to the food just yet, but getting there slowly but surely. I think they are easing us into the asian way of life, which is pretty cool. It makes the culture shock gap a little smaller.
We've met quite a few people from across the world during orientation and something that was very surprizing is the fact that there are only a hand full of South Africans. It's so nice to hear afrikaans, or someone with a crappy accent - makes you feel close to home.
The first few days of orientation was very laid back, al we did was exploring and learning a little more about Korean culture. The last few days we've been attending lectures on teaching, co-teaching, methodology and ways to keep kids busy. haha!! We've also attended Korean classes at night to brush up on those language skills.
Things that we are desperately missing at this stage are: cheese, salt and I really miss liqui fruit juice. O and niknaks. Apart from that, we've found really nice bread and other stuff to keep our tummies full.
Today we visited Hanok Village in Jeonju. (Jeonju is where we are staying at the moment.) After walking around in the village, which felt like hours, we walked to a 600 year old school for lunch, where all 700 of us met. We had bibibap (or something) for lunch. This is made in a big bowl thing, a little bigger that a bath tub - roughly the size of a jacuzzi. The ingredients are...well basically everything you can think of! Seafood, beef, vegetables and other weird multi coloured asian stuff with a really spicy chilli sauce.
It is still seriously hot in this place and I think we are slowly but surely overheating. Our orientation is slowly coming to an end, will be meeting our co-teachers on Thursday and on Friday they are taking us to our flats in Busan. Can't wait for that...I hear there's an Irish pub close by x
We have started with orientation and learning of the Korean language is well on its way.
We're not used to the food just yet, but getting there slowly but surely. I think they are easing us into the asian way of life, which is pretty cool. It makes the culture shock gap a little smaller.
We've met quite a few people from across the world during orientation and something that was very surprizing is the fact that there are only a hand full of South Africans. It's so nice to hear afrikaans, or someone with a crappy accent - makes you feel close to home.
The first few days of orientation was very laid back, al we did was exploring and learning a little more about Korean culture. The last few days we've been attending lectures on teaching, co-teaching, methodology and ways to keep kids busy. haha!! We've also attended Korean classes at night to brush up on those language skills.
Things that we are desperately missing at this stage are: cheese, salt and I really miss liqui fruit juice. O and niknaks. Apart from that, we've found really nice bread and other stuff to keep our tummies full.
Today we visited Hanok Village in Jeonju. (Jeonju is where we are staying at the moment.) After walking around in the village, which felt like hours, we walked to a 600 year old school for lunch, where all 700 of us met. We had bibibap (or something) for lunch. This is made in a big bowl thing, a little bigger that a bath tub - roughly the size of a jacuzzi. The ingredients are...well basically everything you can think of! Seafood, beef, vegetables and other weird multi coloured asian stuff with a really spicy chilli sauce.
It is still seriously hot in this place and I think we are slowly but surely overheating. Our orientation is slowly coming to an end, will be meeting our co-teachers on Thursday and on Friday they are taking us to our flats in Busan. Can't wait for that...I hear there's an Irish pub close by x
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
We have arrived
After 2 very long flights we have arrived in Korea. It is extremely hot here, but extremely awesome. We are like naturals!! For our first night we went to a little corner restaurant for dinner. We sat on the street at a round table with a huge hole in it. As soon as you sit down the waitress brings you a 'rooster' and coles to put in the hole. We ordered beef that you have to braai yourself. At first we thought you only get the beef, but then she bought us millions of little bowls with different kinds of spicy stuff. Some of it was pretty nice. We also found our favorite beer, called Cass. It's very similar to Castle.
We invented a show called: That Korean show. We will post all the episodes for you to follow us live in Korea. haha
On our first Korean morning we were woken up by a very loud alarm. At first we thought it might be the city burning down..but after phoning reception to find out they informed us that it was a military alarm signaling all the military people for their everyday training session.
Breakfast was quite a fun mission. We found a little french bakery where we bought a french loaf. We bought butter, cheese, strawberry jam and ham at the local supermarket called Power Mart, was amazing!! We had breakfast, at lunch time, in some park - or atleast it looked like a park!
For now we are back in the hotel, enjoying the aircon.
Laters x
We invented a show called: That Korean show. We will post all the episodes for you to follow us live in Korea. haha
On our first Korean morning we were woken up by a very loud alarm. At first we thought it might be the city burning down..but after phoning reception to find out they informed us that it was a military alarm signaling all the military people for their everyday training session.
Breakfast was quite a fun mission. We found a little french bakery where we bought a french loaf. We bought butter, cheese, strawberry jam and ham at the local supermarket called Power Mart, was amazing!! We had breakfast, at lunch time, in some park - or atleast it looked like a park!
For now we are back in the hotel, enjoying the aircon.
Laters x
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