Week 1: Check!

Is it time to breathe yet?? This past week has been CRAZY! I left last Monday morning and was supposed to arrive in Korea Tuesday evening. Just my luck, my flight from Charlotte to Chicago was delayed because of bad weather in Chicago. I would have been pushing it without the delay to catch my flight to Korea, so I missed my flight. There were no other flights that day so I was stuck until the next day in Chicago. They wouldn't pay the full price of my hotel room because they said the weather wasn't their fault. They gave me a voucher to get a hotel room for $60. There was another english teacher and a dad and his son who missed the same flight, so at least i wasn't alone. We went out for dinner that night, and I at least got to see a little of Chicago.
So the next day I made my flight in plenty of time. I got a seat on the exit row, so a little extra leg room. The plane leaked on me where the door was at take-off and landing though... that was a little scary. I finally arrived in Korea around 4:00pm wednesday. I had planned on taking the bus to bucheon, but the driver wouldn't let me on with my 2 big suitcases so i ended up having to take a cab for 90,000won (about $90)! i know i got ripped off, but i couldn't find one to take me for any cheaper and by that point, i didn't really even care so much. The driver took me to my hotel where someone from my school met me. She drove me around and showed me where the school was, etc. Then I went to see Kristina and her mom for a few minutes before meeting Abby for galbi. I was exhausted, but super-excited to see my korea chingus again!
Thursday and Friday I observed a couple classes, but it was kind of a weird week. Kindergarten graduation was Friday and Thursday was rehersal, plus I had to do my health examination thing. Glad that's over! This school is a good bit bigger than ILS. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on.
Friday I moved from my hotel to Abby's apt. Abby, Kristina, and I went to Beijing for the weekend because Monday was a holiday for us. It was soooooo cold, especially Saturday. None of us had expected it to be quite that cold, so we didn't pack our warmest clothes.
Anyway, we paid to have someone from our hostel pick us up at the airport, which was about an hour away. Our hostel was pretty good for being cheap. We got a room to ourselves, so that was nice. It was really close to tiananmen square and the forbidden city, so we did that the first day and nearly froze to death. We were miserable and had a really hard time catching a cab to take us back to our hostel.
That night we braved the cold again and went out in search of a toilet themed restaurant kristina had found online. We found some interesting street food on the way...
Starfish anyone?

Somehow, we managed to find the restaurant. The chairs were toilets and they bring your food in toilet bowl shaped dishes. i got the curry. it was good, but perhaps a little too realistic looking in that toilet...

Sunday we went to the great wall with a tour we had arranged at the hostel. It ended up being only us going, so that was kinda nice. We stopped at the ming tombs and a jade place on the way there. They say in China that you are not a real man until you climb the great wall. When you do, you become a hero. After being there, i think i understand why they say that. Those stairs were INSANE! I wouldn't say i'm really scared of heights or anything, but I wasn't letting go of that handrail. It was soooo steep. I was scared I wouldn't be able to get back down. There was one little tower part that you could go up in if you wanted. Those stairs were like 10 times worse. When I climbed back down, I had to sit on the stairs and inch my way down. It was sooo scary. BUT i am now a hero! haha:)
After coming back down, we stopped for lunch, which turned out to be our only chinese meal in china...sad, i know. it was really good though. Next, we went to a silk factory where we got to see how silk is made. i bought a pillow that unzips into a blanket. It's not all silk, but I thought it was cool. After that we went to a tea place where we got to try several different kinds of tea. Then we went to get free foot massages. The master doctor guy came to tell us what our health problems were. he told me I was anemic.
When we got back to the hostel, it was about 5:00. We were supposed to have a 1 hour nap, but somehow that turned into like 15 hours... Abby tried to wake us up, but it was really cold and we were really tired. Oh well, I think I needed the extra sleep.
Monday was our shopping day. Shopping is fun in cheap countries:) You have to haggle with them a lot, but I think we're pretty good at that now. I bought a few souvenirs plus a new purse. It's dulce & gabana, which i'd never heard of, but abby says its a really good brand.
We were pushing it on time to get back to our hostel so we could get to the airport in time, but we stopped for a 3 course meal. Food was what caused me to miss my flight in tokyo... Luckily they were pretty fast. I had pumpkin soup, asparagus wrapped in bacon, and lasagna (very chinese, i know). Everything was really good.
Soooo our flight was at 6:50, the lady at the hostel said we should leave at 3:50 to get to the airport in time, but we (meaning abby and kristina;)) said 4:30. It was a little after 4:30 when we got back to the hostel and then there was a lot of traffic on the way to the airport, but somehow we managed to make it with enough time to spare for some last minute airport shopping. I got panda earmuffs:) When we got back to Korea, we made the last bus from the airport to Bucheon. It was like midnight when we got home. We tried to move my stuff from Abby's to my new apt (which is the building beside hers), but the school had changed the code. I got to move in on Monday! This apt is smaller than my old one, but I like it. It has a lot more storage space. I have an actual closet and drawers, plus a loft! The washing machine is NOT in my bathtub. I don't have a bathtub acutally, just a shower.
So tomorrow will be my first day with actual classes. I'm a little nervous, but hopefully everything will go ok.
Well, I guess I should stop wasting time on here and go finish unpacking... Annyeong!