Costco, Indian Food, and Church

We decided to be brave on Saturday and get to Costco on our own.  We wrote down the address and got a taxi right by our apartment.  The first guy acted like he didn’t know what it was, but the next guy did.  It was about a 15 minute ride, and cost less than $7 to get there.  Our mission was to find a good, relatively cheap TV, which we did!  We were also noticing some very cheap digital cameras.  We also bought a nice blanket because I was very sad to leave my nice one back in the States.  We got some Tupperware – the first real Tupperware we have seen – meaning that it isn’t glass or $5 for one container.  We also found real bath towels (the “towels” provided for us, which Koreans usually use, I guess, were the size of hand towels, and we only brought one set from home) for $6.  We made it out of the crazy-busy store and found taxi drivers waiting.  We loaded up our new purchases and made it home without any problems! Yes, we were pretty proud of ourselves for making it without any help. 

For dinner Saturday night we went to an Indian restaurant called “Namaste” with a big group from school.  We all met up and walked down towards the beach together and just spent the evening getting to know each other.  While walking down I got talking with a girl named Laura who went to IU and found out that she is a Christian as well! She ended up coming to church with us and the Olsons on Sunday. We both were so excited to find a friend within our school who is a Christian!  We also spent a good amount of time talking to a couple – Miten and Maggie – who live right by us in our apartment complex.  We shared a taxi back with them (a whopping $3 total) and had a great time laughing with them and getting to know them.  It was great to find out that I am not the only one here who isn’t thrilled about seafood – Maggie is the same way.  They will both be teaching in the middle/high school. 

Church on Sunday was pretty good.  It took us about 45 minutes or so to get there.  We enjoyed it, but are planning on trying a different one next week just to see.  After the service, the new people were invited upstairs to have Dunkin Donuts and coffee, so we went.  We briefly met some other new people as well as the Pastor and a few others who volunteer/work with the church.  While we do not know if we will end up going there or another church we are so glad we got started in the process.  It was such a blessing to have other people from school to go to, so for that we are very thankful.  

Haeundae Beach

We spent Friday afternoon at Haeundae Beach with a couple from school – the Olsons.  Nancy will be teaching High School English and her husband, Rolf, is a Lutheran Pastor back in Minnesota and will only be in Busan for a month.  We walked about 30 minutes to the beach and rented umbrellas and chairs because it was SO hot.  One umbrella and 2 chairs costs 5,000 won, just under $5.00.  The water felt great and was so refreshing from the humid air and heat.  We stayed for about 4 hours just talking and getting to know them.  Below is a picture of the beach. It was pretty hazy out, but it was still beautiful.

We ran into a few other people from school, including a couple who lives on the other side of our building.  They also informed us that we get to pick out a new tv, which is great because ours doesn’t currently have a way to hook up to our computers to watch stuff online once we have internet.  We also found out that our $250 settling-in allowance is per contract, so dishwasher here we come! We found one for about $60 that just plugs into the wall.  We also might get a little mini toaster oven so that we can “bake” a few things.  Those things will require a trip to Costco soon because we have heard that it’s cheaper to get some of those things there.

Sunday we are going to church with the Olson’s. We are leaving extra time for getting lost, so hopefully we won’t miss it. J  We are really looking forward to finding a community of believers, so pray that we either feel that at this church or know we need to keep looking.  We are both so used to being surrounded by our Christian friends and family, so we are really craving that. We are so excited to become better friends with people at school too.  There are 14 new teachers – we have met 8 of them or so, I think.

Monday we hit the ground running. We will be at school from 8:30-4 every day until school starts.  They have scheduled part of each day to be in our classrooms though, so that’s good. All three of the Early Childhood teachers are new this year.  In the rest of the elementary classes, there is only one returning teacher.  At least we’re all in the same boat!

We ask for continued prayer in adjusting to the time difference.  We tend to get tired pretty early and then wake up around 6, and we want to get used to staying up a little later for when school starts.  Also pray that we can form good connections with people both at school and in whatever church we end up going to.  Praise the Lord that we seem to be doing so well at settling in and finding our way around our part of the city.  It is such a blessing to live so close to the school and have so many amenities just as close.  We can’t thank you enough for your prayers, and kind words of encouragement.  They mean the world to us!  

Lessons in Driving and EMart

We learned this week that in Korea, red lights are more like a suggestion than a mandatory law.  Most people will stop at them, but if no one is coming from the other direction, they just go.  Part of the reason that this is the case is probably because police officers have little or no authority compared to in the US.  We have seen one police car so far.  We are told that they don’t even carry guns.  When you are stopped at a red light, it is also legal to make either a right or a left turn on red.  Parking spaces are also MUCH smaller here, but they are way more efficient with their parking in that it is mostly either underground or in parking garages.  People also rarely honk their horns or get road rage because they see no point in that.  We were picturing there being a lot more scooters and full, packed streets, but there hasn’t much pedestrian or car traffic so far.  You might be surprised to know that we are in a city of almost 4 million if you saw that. 

The ceiling light in our bedroom went out last night, so we took the cover off and discovered these hoola-hoop-shaped light bulbs.  One was about 10 inches across and the other about 14.  So we took a walk down to EMart today to see if we could find them.  Thankfully we took a picture of the bulbs with the labels so that we could try to find the right one.  However, after looking at the shelves for a few minutes in complete confusion, a wonderfully nice EMart worker came over to try to help us.  We showed her the pictures of the light bulbs and she pulled them out for us in no time.  Lesson learned: always take a picture of what you need to the store. 

Getting to the store and then out of the store was also interesting.  There wasn’t a crosswalk to actually get to EMart, so we went down the metro station hoping we could come out on the other side, which we could.  That was interesting.  Then coming out of the store, we had to go up the escalator after checking out, even though we wanted to exit on the ground floor.  Then we had to take an elevator back down to the main floor.  I can’t imagine this is the most efficient way to get out of the store, but that’s how we did.  Koreans seem to be so efficient in everything that there must be an easier way. 

We are off to the beach for the afternoon!  Finally some relief from the heat without being stuck in our apartment!  We'll post pictures soon! Have a great weekend!

Korean Barbecue

For lunch on Wednesday Ron and Mr. Saunders (the Vice Principal) took us to a traditional Korean Barbecue restaurant. We sat down on the floor to eat and they brought probably a dozen bowls of side dishes.  Everything from vegetables to kimchi to seaweed…and then came this huge plate of raw beef.  Ron then cooked it all on the table (like hibachi) for us to eat.  The meat was delicious!  You could mix it in with some soy sauce, or there were pieces of lettuce-like leaves that you could wrap the meat and other sauces/veggies around.  It really was very good!  A few things were a little spicy, but not bad as long as we had a piece of meat or a drink right after.  They even had Pineapple Fanta (Mom!!) to drink.  Unfortunately this restaurant is in a different town, so I’m not sure how to get back there, and I think it was bit pricy, but it was a nice treat! 

After lunch, they drove us up this mountain where we walked up about 100 steps to this giant gazebo-looking platform to look out over the water and the city.  We could see the beach in the town where we ate, and a good portion of Busan.  As we drove back to Haeundae (where we live…pronounced “hay-oon-day”) we saw Haeundae Beach, which we still need to venture out to see!  It has been raining off and on since we got here on Sunday, and it’s a good walk to the beach so we’re waiting for a nice day for that.  Also on our drive back we went through quite the shopping district, which we are told isn’t even the most popular place to shop.  We saw an Adidas store, Tommy Hilfiger, The North Face, DKNY, “TG Maxx,” Puma, and several others that we can’t think of right now.  It was pretty funny since some of those stores your rarely see in the States. 

After we got back we took a walk around our area and found a bread shop, a farmers’ market-like store that has fruits and vegetables, and found a very nice River Walk.  We walked along the river until we got back to our apartment complex.  It’s good to feel like we are starting to know where things are and where we can buy certain foods and things.  We are hoping to also hike up into the mountains pretty soon.  

It has been good to hear from some of you!  Until next time...

Our Apartment

Here are a few pictures of our apartment along with out apartment layout!

We can see the school from our apartment.  It is the building in the middle with all of the scaffolding.

View of the mountains from our apartment!

The bigger balcony.

Living Room

Master Bedroom.  Lovely curtains, I know.

Bathroom

Kitchen with a door out to the other balcony

The layout!

Hello From Busan!

After nearly 24 hours of travel and no sleep, we made it to Busan! 

In Ft Wayne we had to purchase a return ticket for me (Megan) because I didn’t have a Visa.  Thankfully we were able to buy a refundable ticket.  We made it to Busan around 9pm on Sunday night.  Customs here was a breeze – they didn’t even ask for a return ticket.  He just told me to get my status changed within 90 days!  As soon as we got to baggage claim we saw all four of our bags already on the belt.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

Our new principal was waiting for us at the airport, and we took the school bus back to our apartment.  We are on the 13^th floor of our building, and it technically has 3 bedrooms, although we’re not quite sure how even a twin bed would fit in the third.   We have balconies on both sides of the apartment, and the school even just had air conditioning put in for us!  That was a nice surprise.  There really is a pretty nice cross breeze without it, but it’s pretty hot and muggy, so we are very thankful for AC. 

We tried to stay up as late as we could that first night and finally went to bed at about 11:30.  We were hoping that the later we stayed up, the later we would sleep, but we were both awake by 5:00.  We spent that morning putting clothes away and trying to settle into our new home a little bit.  Thankfully there was also some food already in our apartment for us for breakfast and lunch. 

Around Noon we were picked up to go see the school and to go grocery shopping.  The school has just begun construction on a new building, and they are refurbishing the old building at the same time.  We got to see both of our classrooms, which was very exciting!  My classroom is really small, but as of right now, I only have 1 student!  There is one table with about 8 chairs, a good amount of reading books, workbooks,  worksheets, lots of decorations, and plenty of resources to go along with the ones that I brought.  There is also what the Vice Principal told me was a “small tv” which probably at least 52 inches.  He said that because every other classroom has a SmartBoard.  I have several educational movies, a tiny bathroom, two sinks, and little lockers.  I have my own desk with a printer too.  Justin’s classroom is pretty big (probably at least 3 times bigger than mine) with 13 desks, 2 very nice computers, a whole separate seating area with nice couch-like chairs, all of his textbooks and workbooks, and an entire cabinet of supplies, posters, and hands-on materials.  It was really fun for us to finally get to see what we have been wondering about for so long.  We also got to meet a few other teachers and most of the administrative staff. 

We then went on to EMart, which is kind of like a WalMart and Target combined.  We get $250 for a settling in allowance, so we were able to get an iron and ironing board, a desk, a chair, a clock, some kitchen utensils and other supplies.  We also got some groceries to last us for a few days.  EMart is probably only a 10 minute walk, but thankfully we got to go in a car because we walked out with so much stuff!  There are closer places to get most groceries, but we are planning on going back to EMart soon to look around more.  There are 4 floors (at least) and we didn’t even see everything.  They have these escalators to go between the different floors that are flat inclines like moving sidewalks.  The carts have these rubbery blocks on the wheels that somehow cling to the escalator and you don’t have to hold the cart!  It was pretty cool. 

On the way back to our apartment they pointed out a golf driving range (Dad!) just down the street from us and the school.  There are electronic stores everywhere as well as coffee shops with free WiFi so we plan on using those quite a bit until we have internet.  We won’t be able to get internet or phones until we have our alien registration cards which apparently will take some time. 

We came home from all of that and hauled everything up to the 13^th floor, put it all away, made our first dinner in our tiny kitchen (chicken, noodles, and veggies).  We were exhausted by 6, so we decided to take an hour nap – except that turned into a 2 ½ hour nap.  Oops.  So then we had to get up and try to stay awake as late as we could.  We have a few English channels on our tv, so that’s helpful. 

On Tuesday we spent the morning going through things in our classrooms and unpacking all of the boxes that we shipped to the school.  Thankfully we have received all of them already!  We organized a lot of what was already in our classrooms and are feeling pretty good about getting school started!  We were also able to Skype with my parents for a few minutes at school, so we took them on a “tour” through both of our classrooms. 

It has been a great first few days in Korea!  We are getting more and more excited each day for the start of school!  Thank you all again for all of your prayers and words of encouragement!  We miss you all very much!

Psalm 108:4     For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your steadfast love reaches to the skies.

Ready, Set, Go!

Tomorrow is the big day!  After months of planning and thinking about this day, we cannot believe that it is finally here!  Our flight leaves at 9am tomorrow morning from Ft Wayne and we arrive in Busan at 8pm on Sunday night (Sunday at 7am Indiana time). 

These last 2 weeks or so have been full of goodbyes, and we have been so blessed to have so much support from our family, friends, and community around us.  It is very comforting to know we have people praying for us and thinking of us while we will be away.

Our bags are almost all packed, and we have used every bit of the 50 pound limit in each bag.  Let’s hope that the airports scale is close enough to ours!  It was so difficult to decide what to leave and what to pack!

This week has seemed to pass very slowly.  I (Megan) have decided that I am WAY too organized.  The average person would probably be going crazy this week packing and making several trips to the store to get something else, but because I am so organized, we did all of that last week.  So this week really has been very relaxing, and we have been able to spend a lot of good time with family and friends without being too rushed. 

We received an email from the school this week with a link to a blog that gave us all kinds of tips about living in Busan.  It also had a link to a google map that has locations of everything around us marked.  You can look at it here:   Map of Busan

The school is the first place listed on the map, and our new home, the Jugong 400 Apartments, are listed next.  You can zoom in to the street level and see what our Apartment building looks like!  That definitely got us more excited!  If you want to read some of the blog that we got in order to get an idea of some of the cultural differences, you can go here:  http://koreanewcomers.wikispaces.com/

After we arrive in Busan on Sunday, we have about a week until we have our first day of New Teacher Orientation on August 20^th.  We then have a full week of In-Service until our first day with students on August 28^th.  We have been trying to plan as much as possible for at least the first week of school, but we are really hoping those first few weeks will give us a good amount of time to feel more prepared…if that’s possible.

Thank you again for all of your support and words of encouragement.  Pray that our travels are safe, smooth, and that time will pass quickly.   Also pray that we have no complications with customs and immigration and that all of our bags arrive with us!  We will do our best to get an update posted as soon as we are settled and have internet. 

Romans 15:13    May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.