Here I am

    Greetings from South Korea, Bitches. Slurp Slurp. 

Been living in Bucheon for about two weeks now. Don't have my alien registration card yet. Need it so I can have a phone, bank account, and the internet.  Drinking a fucking delicious vanilla latte at a coffee shop by my house right now. Thought I'd finally update my blog. Here goes.

So, it's been going well. Seen some parts of the city on my uncle's motorcycle. Seen other parts on the subway. On Thursday, I  attend the weekly trivia night at a western style bar named "Goose Goose" with my co-workers. We sucked last night, but we did win the tequila round, which means we, or at least I, got pretty drunk. At one point in the night, we were all singing Queen's "Don't stop me now" at the top of our lungs. That moment kinda reminded me of home, and of all the nights we would scream those lyrics. We also played a lot of old Blink 182, which is pretty fun to sing along to the drunker you get.

The day to day work here is hard but at least the kids are fucking adorable. It's not easy quieting about 6-10 small children to study English. In the mornings, I teach kindergarten. In the evening, I teach elementary level kids. Some of my classes are pretty tough though. One of my classes is known as the "bad class". Today I played apples to apples with them because my boss thought it would be a nice ice-breaker. They hate me mostly because I'm not "easy". Some of the kids aren't too terrible in that class, but they all do bully one boy. It's a little hard to watch because the boy is only being picked on because he is smarter.  They're both nice kids. Today when we were playing games, one of the other boys in the class pushed him. I asked the kid why and he just said, "cause someone told me too."

I then asked him if he would eat a rotted bug infested sandwich if someone told him too. He said no. Besides that, today was decent enough. At the kindergarten, we carved a pumpkin because we're doing Halloween related activities. I carved a pumpkin with my one British co-worker. It was the first pumpkin carving for many of the kids. They really liked it. To be honest, it was probably the third time I've carved a pumpkin in my life. Afterwards we put a candle inside it and all the kids squealed with enormous joy.

One of my classes really likes to take my sunglasses and hide them. They do this because they like to wear them so they "look cool".  For some reason they think that this is really hilarious. So whenever I turn my back, they run up to my desk and try to make the steal. When they are successful, I ask them where is it with 'mean face' on. One boy, who is always in on it, will then usually laugh really hard and run up to me to poke me in the belly several times playfully. His name is Tony and he always just laughs and laughs and laughs when I make my mean face. He is kind of my favorite student because he is so silly and goofy in the best ways.

I was supposed to go to Seoul tonight, but I'm short on cash and feeling a bit exhausted. Last friday we had a really enjoyable work related bbq on the roof of the school after classes. All the Korean teachers just kept feeding us drinks and food. Tomorrow I'm going to eat dinner with my co-workers at one of out friend's houses. I really like my three other co-workers which consist of two females and one male. One is from the midwest, one is an Irish girl, and the other is a british dude.

Think I might go mountain climbing with them sometime soon. They've been really great about showing me around town and keeping me entertained. I really like all of them and enjoy their company.  I mean, then again, I like anyone I can sing Queen with. I just keep thinking "classic" and then smiling.

I really miss everyone in Kent, Ohio. I think about you guys all the time. I always wish I was going back to Aaron's house where everyone would be on the porch doing crosswords. I miss having you guys around, but I'm sure all of you know that. I miss everyone's laugh so much. The weird grunty laugh we all seem to do when something catches us offguard. Those kind of laughs. Damn. I miss my family too. I've been spending time with my Korean relatives and that has been really special and humbling. Family is good.

Want to go shopping really bad because I'm allowed to wear jeans to work. My mom made me pack business clothes that I don't really have to wear. The clothes here are fucking great and cheap too. I'm eating a lot of food. My apetite seems to have grown here in Korea. The food is good, cheap, and delicious. Korea is pretty strange but oddly charming. The people here are helpful and for the most part super polite. I know in a few more weeks this city will feel like my home away from home. It's exciting and uncomfortable adjusting to a new place but it's just something that happens. I'm just moving moving moving forward. The neon signs never seen to turn off, and there's always some car flying past.

Anyways, here's some Love Love Love. Will update again soon.