First Weekend

First Draft


My first weekend and first days of work went really well.
My co-workers are very helpful and wonderfully nice. I think I will really get a long with them. I ended up teaching my first class on friday night. It wasn't as complex as I thought it would be. Going from tech support to training kids how to say common words and phrases to help their future is a major change.

Over the weekend I decided to take a tour across the different blocks around here. I went across the local river and saw a track that I might start running on during the weekends. I am always finding ways to stay in shape and running in the mornings will keep me busy and toned. It was about 30 degrees in the cold and I just walked all by myself, testing wether or not I would come across any animosity. There actually was peace amongst the people across all corners. No yelling, fighting, and people seemed to get along with one another. There were girls holding hands which is common in South Korea. Everyone walked peacefully to their desingnated places, without being on the cell phones. Which is very different from my homeland.

Everyone seemed to be in decent shaped because walking is primary transportation. Boy, does my feet hurt though, I figured I get used to it. I already ran about 10,000miles playing soccer.

I went to sleep around 11am Saturday and woke up around 4 am on Sunday because of jet lag.

Around 9am Sunday I decided to take a trip to Yongsan,Seoul, and Itaewon from Bundang. The projected time frame to get there was about 1hr 15 min trip to Yongsan, which happend to be my frist destination. It is a place known for its monumental mall "Ipark" and electronics. I had to pick up some adapters so that I could plug in my electronics from The U.S. Each adapter only cost about 3,5000 won. That's not bad if you want to be able to shave and play your Playstation 2 during free time.

The subway system is very easy to figure out. I think I only got lost and ended up on the wrong train once because I misread the sign. It's what I will probably do for the majority of the time up here. I might even order octopus instead of chicken one day.

Yongsan is the metropolis of electronics and mall items. It's a wonderful place to shape if you have lots of money. I only used my time there to observe all the items. They even had a place to buy musical instruments. I definitely want to learn how to play the violin and saprano Saxaphone. Those are my favorite instruments. Why not take lessons from the people that play some of the best jazz music known to man kind. The video game, camera, digital phone, and other places are huge. The sellers are aggressive and they have a person at each store ready to sell you something speaking Korean. I aslo came across a movie theatre and they had a section where you could play X-Box 360 while your waiting for your movies. That's so wonderful.

I found an E-Mart that everyone was talking about. I still wouldn't know what to buy because everything is in Korea. Luckily I live off of freshmeat and vegetables. Those are always universal. They don't have junk as much as America does. And the food are usually served in smaller portions, that contributes to people being a lot thinner. Along with everyone walking all over the place.

I decided to skip out of there after my long observations and take a trip to Seoul Station. It was successful, but I will definitely need to catch a bus to explore since it's somewhat huge. I happend to finally find a pay phone and called my friend that stays out here as well. It was pretty easy figuring out the phones , they only take 100 won coins, I tried to stuff the machines with 500 won but it didn't work. So Don't use 500 won coins in the pay phones because it's useless lol.

After a stroll to the phones I turned around because Seoul is to overwhelming to start walking to random places. I hopped back on to the train and took a trip to the mulicultural Itaewon. My feet were already hurting but I found out that place happend to be foreigner's heaven. They actually have books in English there. But their aren't books that I would read anyway. I am not a fan of American literature, that's why i came to Asia. I am fit along with their way of life.

Well during my observations, Mexican resturants were owned by a Caucasian male from an American city. Coming from Laredo, Texas, where it's considered little mexico. That would be considered a disgrace lol j.p I visited a Foreign Food stores. I won't be going there because a gallon of orange juice cost 12,000 won. The stores in Itaewon are very very small. My whole foot takes up the whole place. I did see a more diverse poplutation but it wasn't as many people as I thought would be there. It is filled with familiar stores, but food places I never shop at. I was the type of person that cooked at home. So now going out to eat would be a lot cheaper. EAting at a foreign resturant like Mcdonalds and Subway is much more expensive than eating at a local korean resturant.

During my stroll I got to see a store where African products are sold like hair grease, clippers, and what not. I noticed that majority of the African or African Americans there were dressed in Tailor suits lol. Only a few were dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. Most of the South Korean males are always dressed in suits as well or ahtletic clothing you find soccer players like myself wearing. I plan on collecting Puma and Addidas jackets all day long here. :D

After a trip around most of the world OF Seoul. I decided to pack my hungry self up and go back home. My dogs were barking. I felt 8 hrs of walking and oberving was enough for the day. All in all there is a big language barrier but most of the people under 30 usually speaks a decent amount of english so it's not to bad.

I do feel somewhat glad to be out here journeying and have the ability to find out about myself. The children are calling me Obama out here which is funny. I don't even like politics. lol. This is going to be an amazing journey and as soon as the pay check rolls in I will be able to participate in some more activities besides eating ,observing, and walking lol.