For those of you who requested our address, it is more likely that we will receive mail at our school. Apartment landlords tend to slack when it comes to delivering mail to tenants. Here is our address at school:
Annie and Ryan Cross (Annie comes first)
YBM Si-sa Language Institute Yeoksam ELS
826-1 Yeoksam-dong, Kangnam-gu
Seoul 135-080, Korea
Friday, September 28, 2007
Safest Place in the World
Since we arrived in Seoul, everyone has been telling us this is the safest place in the world. I now officially agree. There's absolutely zero crime. Koreans tell horror stories of walking into convenience stores in the U.S. where they are able to purchase weapons from mace to what they refer to as Pirate Knives. The right to carry law in the States is also horrifying to them. In the month that we have been here, I do not think a single crime has been committed in this city of 15 million people. There are more attempted bank robberies in a day in the U.S. than South Korea has seen this decade.
In the subway, it is common to see people sleeping next to a pile of new purchases, all laid out for anyone to swipe. Usually a purse lays a few feet from the unsuspecting sleeper. Yet, everyone is left to themselves. The real crime is the old ladies here. In the U.S., I think of older women as kind and fun. My warning to you is that if you ever visit Seoul, do not cross the path of a lady over 60. They are mean, fiesty and know how to get physical. My biggest complaint is when I have to stand next to an old lady on the subway because she has a way of sticking her hip so far into your leg that you want to scream for mercy. It doesn't matter if these women are the last ones in line to enter an overcrowded subway train . . . they can and they will get on the train, taking out unsuspecting bystanders.
In the subway, it is common to see people sleeping next to a pile of new purchases, all laid out for anyone to swipe. Usually a purse lays a few feet from the unsuspecting sleeper. Yet, everyone is left to themselves. The real crime is the old ladies here. In the U.S., I think of older women as kind and fun. My warning to you is that if you ever visit Seoul, do not cross the path of a lady over 60. They are mean, fiesty and know how to get physical. My biggest complaint is when I have to stand next to an old lady on the subway because she has a way of sticking her hip so far into your leg that you want to scream for mercy. It doesn't matter if these women are the last ones in line to enter an overcrowded subway train . . . they can and they will get on the train, taking out unsuspecting bystanders.
September 20th
Day 21
We have safely arrived in Seoul. We appear to be a small minority here. Everywhere we go in the city and on the subway, we are met by wide eyes and open mouths. White people in Korea appear to be as common as elephants in Missouri.
The last American we saw before stepping out of the airport was Lance Armstrong. When we first walked out of customs, I naturally assumed all of the flowers, fans and photographers were for us. However, to my dismay, Ryan soon mentioned to me that Lance was about ten feet in front of us.
We stepped off the airport bus into the streets of Seoul carrying loads of luggage. We were let off on the busiest street in the 3rd most populated city in the world. It was a bitch. As we maneuvered our bags through the crowds, we took out people left and right. Luckily, most people are much shorter than us so we still had a good view of where we were headed.
We arrived 3 days before our first class. We received a two hour training session that consisted of talking about banking in Korea and dressing appropriately. For the whole teaching thing, we were kind of on our own. I think our own English has immensely approved in the first three weeks due to learning grammar as we teach. The only requirements to teach are to have a college degree, speak English and be white. Although, we seem to be very lucky in that we are teaching adult and college students instead of children.
We spent our first week living in a hotel. The room was so small that we could stand in the middle of the room and reach all 4 walls. Our bathroom consisted of a toilet and a showerhead that sprayed the toilet as we showered. I figured it would be the smallest bathroom I would ever shower in . . . until we moved into our apartment. Our apartment is 6 subway stops from work. We have a nice open room with a big window. We sleep on traditional Korean mats on the floor. It's not quite our mattress at home, but it gets the job done. We work from 6:30am until 10pm so we never have trouble sleeping. We would probably be able to sleep fine on the hardware floors.
In our second week of work, we had to work 6 days in a row. It made for an exhausting week and a short weekend. However, the Chuseok holiday starts tomorrow and we will have five days off. Chuseok is the equivalent of Thanksgiving in the U.S.
Eating has made for an interesting time. Luckily, we have many comforts of American restaurants such as Dunkin' Donuts, Pizza Hut, Outback, Bennigans, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Baskin Robins, Cold Stone Creamery, you get the picture, all in walking distance. The grocery stores are a bit difficult because everything is in Korean. But we have been able to indentify Skippy Peanut Butter, Frosted Flakes, Skim Milk, Bread, Eggs and Cheese. We plan to visit the International Grocery Store this weekend where we have high hopes of finding granola bars, tortillas and deli meat.
We have also been fortunate enough to spend weekends with my brother, Kevin, and his girlfriend, Monica. They have helped us adapt to some of the Korean culture and introduced us to kimchi and bulgolgi. We have yet to come across the notorious puppy meat and I hope we never do. We also visited the batting cages here with Kevin and Monica but unfortunately I was unable to participate because the cages are only set up for right handers. Until recently, all children were forced to be right-handed, so left handers are only beginning to be seen in the area. In other words, I'm a freak here. I did kick Kevin's but on the hit the mole game next to the batting cages. My little payback for all of those Scrabble games. The weather has been pleasant aside from the occassional thick smog and the week of typhoons we experienced. Our first month is coming to its end. So far, so good.
We have safely arrived in Seoul. We appear to be a small minority here. Everywhere we go in the city and on the subway, we are met by wide eyes and open mouths. White people in Korea appear to be as common as elephants in Missouri.
The last American we saw before stepping out of the airport was Lance Armstrong. When we first walked out of customs, I naturally assumed all of the flowers, fans and photographers were for us. However, to my dismay, Ryan soon mentioned to me that Lance was about ten feet in front of us.
We stepped off the airport bus into the streets of Seoul carrying loads of luggage. We were let off on the busiest street in the 3rd most populated city in the world. It was a bitch. As we maneuvered our bags through the crowds, we took out people left and right. Luckily, most people are much shorter than us so we still had a good view of where we were headed.
We arrived 3 days before our first class. We received a two hour training session that consisted of talking about banking in Korea and dressing appropriately. For the whole teaching thing, we were kind of on our own. I think our own English has immensely approved in the first three weeks due to learning grammar as we teach. The only requirements to teach are to have a college degree, speak English and be white. Although, we seem to be very lucky in that we are teaching adult and college students instead of children.
We spent our first week living in a hotel. The room was so small that we could stand in the middle of the room and reach all 4 walls. Our bathroom consisted of a toilet and a showerhead that sprayed the toilet as we showered. I figured it would be the smallest bathroom I would ever shower in . . . until we moved into our apartment. Our apartment is 6 subway stops from work. We have a nice open room with a big window. We sleep on traditional Korean mats on the floor. It's not quite our mattress at home, but it gets the job done. We work from 6:30am until 10pm so we never have trouble sleeping. We would probably be able to sleep fine on the hardware floors.
In our second week of work, we had to work 6 days in a row. It made for an exhausting week and a short weekend. However, the Chuseok holiday starts tomorrow and we will have five days off. Chuseok is the equivalent of Thanksgiving in the U.S.
Eating has made for an interesting time. Luckily, we have many comforts of American restaurants such as Dunkin' Donuts, Pizza Hut, Outback, Bennigans, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Baskin Robins, Cold Stone Creamery, you get the picture, all in walking distance. The grocery stores are a bit difficult because everything is in Korean. But we have been able to indentify Skippy Peanut Butter, Frosted Flakes, Skim Milk, Bread, Eggs and Cheese. We plan to visit the International Grocery Store this weekend where we have high hopes of finding granola bars, tortillas and deli meat.
We have also been fortunate enough to spend weekends with my brother, Kevin, and his girlfriend, Monica. They have helped us adapt to some of the Korean culture and introduced us to kimchi and bulgolgi. We have yet to come across the notorious puppy meat and I hope we never do. We also visited the batting cages here with Kevin and Monica but unfortunately I was unable to participate because the cages are only set up for right handers. Until recently, all children were forced to be right-handed, so left handers are only beginning to be seen in the area. In other words, I'm a freak here. I did kick Kevin's but on the hit the mole game next to the batting cages. My little payback for all of those Scrabble games. The weather has been pleasant aside from the occassional thick smog and the week of typhoons we experienced. Our first month is coming to its end. So far, so good.
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