One week down, in Daegu at least. Its been a pretty stress free week of moving in (which did not take too long), meeting my new co teachers and exploring the city (and by city I mean downtown). 
This is my apartment. The view of the whole apartment is pretty much seen while sitting in the bed. Next to my table is my kitchen area, in front of my bed is the wardrobe and TV and when you walk into the apartment next to the walkway is the bathroom. I have been trying to decorate to make it a little comfortable. I can say it is cozy. So people ended up with bigger or smaller apartments.My friend Monica's apartment has two bedrooms, and some apartments are described as shoe boxes.
The English classroom at Igok Elementary School I believe is the nicest classroom in the school. It appears to have the most money put into it. We have a smart board, 4 computers, 4 radios with headset, a stage, library section, teachers room and the hallway leading to the 'English Zone' is covered in pictures from English speaking countries. Jenna (other Native English teacher) and I have two new co teachers (Korean English Teachers). I am going to be teaching fifth and sixth graders, fifth grade one month then six grade the next and then fifth grade again. Jenna is teaching third and fourth grade in the other English classrooms. We have been at the school since Wednesday, my days had consisted of watching Mad Men and Facebook. Tomorrow I actually start teaching, next week I have 21 classes (40 minutes each). I am a little nervous but this week I am more observing and introducing myself. Wish me luck :)Heres Daegu:
The Hello Kitty store downtown, Korean BBQ, My apartment building (I am the bottom window on the right) and some of my new friends on our way to go eat...still more exploring is need!
Since we all live in different parts of the city, what we have decided to do is have a Sunday dinner/lunch in each others neighborhoods. Today we went to Johns, he lives in about 30 minutes by bus outside of the city. We went to our first restaurant in which you take your shoes off at the door and sit on the ground (with cushions). The food was amazing (you can see it pictured above). I think this restaurant had the best kimchi in Korea. Well, so far my favorite kimchi, we asked for about 6 plates of kimchi. I also tried makgeolli for the first time, which is a type of rice wine. They serve it in bowls, it was pretty tasty. I don't think I can describe the taste though. During lunch we started planning some trips around Korea and other countries in Asia. We are pretty much on the same page with where we want to travel. Maggie has been to Thailand and would love to go back, so we are planning Philippines and Thailand during our summer break. Hong Kong during a five day weekend in May. We met a guy named Jeff who used to live in Hong Kong and he has been here in Korea for 1 year, he renewed his contract to stay another year. We want to go to Tokyo, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam but waiting until Winter break to go. Tokyo we want to go on a long weekend. Around Korea, we are planning to go on temple stays, hanok villages (traditional Korean village + houses), Seoul, Busan (again! we have to see SOPHIA!!), festivals festivals and festivals. Hiking is also very big in Korea, seeing as 70% of the country is moutains...so next week we are going on a hiking/bus tour of a temple and hot springs. Should be fun. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill.
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