LBkorea: well hello korea

We have officially made it! After traveling for over 24 hours straight we are in our new home for a year. I'm not sure if I've ever been so tired in my life. Korea is so different from home but also pretty awesome. It is Christmas Eve here, at 5:45pm. It totally doesn't feel like Christmas is tomorrow, but thats ok, we'll make due and spend it with brand new friends.

To give you a quick blow by blow, our town is awesome. It is a mid size place, not as big as a big city like Seoul, but not as small as many rural areas. Our apartment is AWESOME (will post pictures) and apparently VERY large compared to our co-teachers. Oh and..it is brand spanking new. Also, we have an electronic keypad to get into our building as well as our apartment door. We know, we know we can hear your jealous thoughts.

"Downtown" Pohang is 15 minutes by taxi and 30 minutes by bus. The bus costs $1 and a taxi around $7. Bus it is. The city is full of Christmas lights, stores, restaurants, bars, a movie theatre, even a Starbucks.

There are some things we will definitely need to get used to, like not having a stationary shower head. Koreans use "wet room" for showers, the whole bathroom gets wet and you have to hold a handheld wand while showering. Microwaves are uncommon, we also do not have an oven, just a stove top type thing.

When we arrived yesterday, we went to our apartment, then to a doctors appointment so we can obtain our alien card, then Jenn and Heather - who are our American co-teachers) took us out to dinner and to show us around town. They have been so awesome and helpful. They also took us to Home Plus (which is like Costco at home) so we could get some apartment essentials.

The school we are at is pretty small, we'll only have about 6-12 kids in each class, which is great. I will also have my last class of the day with only one kid who is a 13 year old girl and is very advanced in English. Score.

We went to the school today for lunch and to do a bit of shadowing, but because it is Christmas Eve, it was pretty much a fun day.

Little Korean kids are soooo cute and fun, they listen pretty well too. They were really really excited to meet us and made us Christmas cards.

I have some photos I'll post now, but will add more soon of our specific area and our school and the kids. I also want to add some of downtown Pohang. The ones We are posting today we took yesterday on our bus ride from the airport to our city.

Some fun things we've learned so far:

1. You know how we say "cheeeeese" in our photos? Well, the Korean kids at school throw up peace signs and say "Kimchiiiii" (Kimchi is cold fermented cabbage served with every meal here)

2. Squatting toilets are very common here, but they also have traditional western toilets

3.When in doubt, bow to say hello, goodbye, or thank you

4. Tipping is unheard of here

5. When you are drinking alcohol, it is considered rude to fill up your own glass

Really funny Korean fact of the day: If you tell a taxi driver to go to "Home Plus," he will not understand what the hell you are talking about . However, if you tell him to go to "Home Plus-UH" he's got it. I know, I know. Jenn told us about this yesterday and we thought she was trying to josh us. Until we got in the cab to go to Home Plus-UH. Same goes for cheese (chees-UH) and many other words. Now I tell Brendan I'm hungry-UH and cold-UH or call him Brendan-UH.

p.s. - to our moms- Jenn and Heather's mom's send them packages through USPS, never UPS. It is way cheaper, Heather got 4 shirts from her mom today and it only cost like $20 to send. So you may be receiving a care package wishlist soon, which will include a brita filter :)

We love you and hope you have a great Christmas. Skype us from Christmas!! We are on break until Jan 3.

Skype: liapoltorak

b_mckernan

Google voice phone # we can call from (248) 906-8189 or you can text to (we'll get it when we are home) or leave us voicemails