I made it to S.Korea......

the date is Monday 9/10/07

Just created this Blog and this is going to be sweet! This will be a great way to share with family and friends my experiences and photography of my next adventure in life. 1 yr. in SOUTH KOREA! Yahoo!

Well, I made it. It's been a bit over a week since I stepped foot on Korea soil. After a loooonnnng flight, being jet legged, quick orientation & training, completed my first week of teaching English, I am finally getting settled in and sleeping well at night. The first half of last week was rough. All-in-all everything has been smooth and is working out as I imagined. And somethings are going to be better than I have expected. I will keep you updated as much as possible. So....boomkmark this page if you want to stay tuned into my adventures, experiences, and life in S.Korea.

I will try and keep the text rather brief, so feel free to email me if you want more details or have any questions. And I will add photos as much as possible.

So here we go.......

I drove from Colorado to Ellicottville NY to store my VW, visited my parents for almost 2 days and started the Journey to Asia. Here my Mom, Dad, and I are at the Buffalo Airport....last few minutes before taking off. My flight was Buffalo-Chicago-Tokyo-S.Korea. I departed 950am Thurs. morning and arrived in S.Korea at 8:30pm Friday night. The time difference is I am ahead of NY 13hrs. and Colorado 15hrs.



So arrived in Korea, got on a bus to Bundang (my new home) And the school picked me up at 11pm at the Seohyeon Station (Samsung Plaza) and we headed to my new studio apartment.


I finally got to my place about midnight, i was wired from the journey here, the excitement, being a bit nervous, a little stressed, kind of delirious from the lack of sleep over the last month.
BUT the time has come and I am finally here.....my home. I took this shot the 1st day. My place is the top left window (3rd floor).



The entrance to my crib.....looking into the bathroom. if you notice there is now shower or bathtub.....the shower head is on the wall and the room is made of tile with a drain in the floor, kinda cool and easy to keep clean, just hose it down.


Looking into the main living area, office, and kitchen...two windows which are nice, so plenty of sunshine.....

Tiny kitchen, with clothes washer on the other side.....

And looking out from the kitchen and back to the front door. my walls are bare so keeping my out for art, pictures, etc....

over all is is small, not like the 7000 sq.ft. ranch i was house-sitting in Boulder for the last year.
he....he......

Yes they have Starbucks....i stumbled across it my 1st day walking around Bundang. i bought my usual summer drink from there Grande Iced Americano and it was around 4.20 US$ which is about 3,850WON. kinda expensive, you'll find western food more expensive, but the local Korean stuff is still very reasonable. so 1000WON is about 1.10 US$.

Bundang is a mix of Denver and Boulder. You have some walking mall parts like boulder with small shops, lots of cafe's and many cool looking restaurants that i'll have to explore. and then tal buildings....mostly apartment buildings with offices mixed in the bottom sections.

something like 48 million people in S.Korea, which about 10.5 mil live in Seoul. I am about 30 minute bus ride to Seoul. Lots of tall housing buildings. which is kinda nice because Bundang is surrounded by small mountains, which there is plenty of single track mtn. biking that takes about a 5 minutes ride to get to from my door. YeeHaaawwww!


the Mtn. Bike shop in which My neighbor Erin introduced me to. cool local shop, good vibes and will eventually build up a mtn. bike and hit the trails....hopefully sooner than later...

All you roadies out there, the tour de Korea is here.....they invited me but had to turn them down due to my sweet BMC is at my parents house..,..... :) i probably would have kicked some ass!

Downtown Bundang. Apartment/studios/lofts..... nice area to walk thru....clean for the most part.....


My walk to work.....half way through the week i found the 'walk thru the park route'
it's about a 20 minute walk one way. nice way to start the day and finish the day...took a taxi one evening with a co-worker, but for the most part i'll stroll to work listening to my iPod! thanks Patrick for all the tunes!

my Haegwon (another name for academy)....Morning Spirit Academy is the 2nd building in from the right with all the banners. one of the rainy days. so far in the first week it's been about 1/2 rainy 1/2 sunny. the rainy season is just ending....

I teach elementary and middle school students. M-F 3pm to 1040pm. so far only 4 classes MWF and 5 classes T/TH. and classes are 40min. each.

completed my first week teaching english.

my first friday night after work with some of my co-workers. we had a traditional meal and soju...Koreans cheap booze. Clear potato liquor. Strong, cheap and sold in bottles.

the ladies are poking at the main dish.....cow organs......yes...for real....heart, intestine, and what ever else..kinda gross but i tried it, it got better with more soju and the longer it cooked.
after the meal we walked around Sunae station (in walking distance from my place and stop on the subway/bus etc. and then went into a Kar-e-okee bar...fun stuff. there i am singing it up....i don't i ever did this in the U.S. but we all agreed it would be fun....one girl Jun had a beautiful voice and sang some Korean songs....


And afterwards to a few shots of the city lights.......late night, got home around 330am and went to bed around 4am. Surprisingly I did not feel bad the next day....only felt a bit weird from the organs we ate............ :)

Until next time, hope you enjoyed........