First Thoughts on the apartment.

The apartment is nicer than I expected. It’s bigger than my friend’s in Seoul. Luckily it came with a bed, desk, nice chair, kitchen table with two chairs, two dressers, tv, tv stand with drawers, washer, AC, shoe cabinet and clean sheets and blankets. Alfredo left a mug, pot and pan, spatula and a few other things. He also broke the toilet seat and the shower head. The sink in the bathroom drains really slow so it always fills up the sink. The power doesn’t stay on for longer than an hour which is REALLY annoying. I can’t buy food because the fridge doesn’t get/stay cold. I asked the landlady and she said she was gonna fix it. They might have changed the box but it didn’t work.

The location is awesome! The people next door/or upstairs wake up at 6 and yell but that hasn’t bugged me yet, I fall back to sleep (after turning the power back on) downstairs is a old lady meeting area. Idk why or what its for but a crowd of old ladies block up the stairs getting in and out twice a day. A man talks on a mic for a while, they do karaoke and who knows what else then they get free stuff when they leave. The landlady has a restaurant downstairs, haven’t eaten there yet. There’s a convenient store 4 doors down which is awesome. There’s a dollar store down the block, another cheaper store on the next block and a market across the street! The bus station and taxis are also down the street and a bunch of other stores. And the bank is next to all that stuff too. I’ve walked in almost every direction and seen Naribongs and PC rooms and lots of places to eat.

I couldn’t get internet or a phone until I get my ARC so I have to sit outside on the street to pick up internet on my ipod. People stare at me but it’s ok. I made a friend yesterday. One girl stoped to stare at me and her mom pushed her to talk to me in English. One thing led to another and I ended up in their house being asked to teach the 3 kids in the house (age 13, 12 and 7). I also got invited to a birthday party on the 26^th of September. They have two hedgehogs one albino baby and the other is full grown, I think. I got to hold them and touch them, the mom poked all of us with a needle she pulled out and it hurt. They introduced me to another guy who spoke some English (he translated a lot of what we were saying) he owns a fried chicken place a few doors away from my place! He said I could come use his computer in the store any time. I think I’m going to visit them today. I have to check and see if anyone has emailed me.

My mentor teacher hasn’t contacted me since the day she dropped me off. Everyone else has visited their school and a few have internet and stuff set up. I don’t know what to do everyday or when school starts or anything.

I took the bus by myself yesterday to visit my coteacher at her university. It’s a Christian university. We ate in their cafeteria. There were a few international students and lots of English signs and stuff. She’s an RA. She told me they’re not allowed out of the building after 11pm. If they want to stay overnight they have to get written permission from her and they can only do it a few times a month! Besides that it seemed like a pretty cool school. The teachers stay on campus in apartment buildings just like dorms cuz it’s kinda far from any town. I think that’s how a lot of schools are out here though.

Well I’m going to scrub out my fridge. Alfredo didn’t do a very good job, it stinks when I open it and once my power starts working I wanna get food in here.