First Impressions

Fast Internet
-Even when a wireless network is being used by many users, web pages still load quickly. And at nighttime... A friend at orientation said that in one night he downloaded 48 gigs of the show Frasier. (Every episode of every season).

Black Hair
-There's the obvious greyness that age brings to hair, but other than that there are very few variations in the blackness. I have never felt like such a obvious blonde.

Corporal Punishment
-I was advised about this before I arrived in Korea, but the reality of teachers carrying around sticks is not something that I could even have imagined before I arrived. I guess I am in a relatively rural public school, but teachers in the USA would go to jail for some of what I've seen.

Speaking Korean
-The students really like it when I try to speak Korean, because I'm sure it sounds very strange to them.

Dryers
-Throughout Asia it is not common to use a dryer to dry your clothes. In the NIIED dorm in Seoul, I saw these cool Samsung machines in the laurndy area and I thought that they were washer/dryers in one. And then I realized that they are just washers and you hang your clothes to dry. This is awkward for me, because I am so used to dryers, and I don't know how long it will take to dry a particular garment, but I did some laundry when I got home from school yesterady and it was dry this morning. But one of my shirts has this weird lint crap all over it, I think it might be because I washed it along with a towel??? I didn't realize the extent of it until I put the shirt on and brushed a little off and it got all over my pants. So I have all of this little white crap embedded into my pants and it is getting on the outside of my jacket. Mom!! I need a lint roller!

Thrown in there
-We had a few lectures on how to organize a lesson plan, but the orientation was short, and I was tired the whole time, and my mind felt over saturated... So there is a great deal of "winging it" in terms of being in front of the students. What I have come to realize is that they are as nervous and shy as I am, so awkward silences aren't that bad. I just hope that I don't start rambling about politics or religion ever.

Vegetarian Mumbo Jumbo
-Being vegetarian is not common in the Korean culture. I made it a point to let both of my schools know immediately that I didn't eat meat, and they were very understanding, even though there are many "aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh's", and little chuckles, and those things where you suck air into your mouth when your teeth are closed... There is a traditional Korean rice dish called bi bim bap that rules, and you can easily get it with no gogi, or meat. Just make your hands into an x and say "anio gogi" and they will understand. I plan on eating bi bim bap a lot in the future, there are soup varieties and you can make it more spicy or get seaweed on it, or sometimes they sprinkle ground cashews on it... Mmmmmm.

The little noises
-There is a little Nintendo like noise for everything in korea. The intercoms, the clocks, the tv's, whenever you turn something on it makes a little cool 4 tone song or something. In America when class gets out there is a bell, but here this cute little song plays over the speakers throughout the school.

Motion Sensors
-The lights in the stairwell of my apartment building are on an extremely short (like 3 second) motion sensing system. This means that right when I walk in, the stairwell is dark, and if I stop for too long the lights go off. When I enter my apartment, there is a little shoes off foyer area, which is also on this system, so as I stoop down to take my shoes off the lights often go off. But inside my actual apartment there is no such system.

Squat toilets
-There is not much to say about this, other than that I really hope that I never have to use one. I will most likely fall over. Most places have at least 1 western style toilet. When in doubt, find a McDonalds if you need a western style toilet. Although I have heard that when you squat it is a better angle for your body, ergonomically speaking...

Inexpensive everything
-I went to a doctor and got a chest xray, peed in a cup, my blood drawn, my eyes and hearing checked, and my height and weight checked. This cost me 46,000 won. Could you imagine how much a similar experience would have cost in the USA? Not to mention the fact that I don't have health insurance. It is less expensive to eat out every day than to buy food and cook it at home. Weird huh.

Unitarian
-The concept of being unitarian is hard enough to describe to people in the USA, god I don't know WHAT I was thinking when I brought it up to my students here. Saying that you have religious beliefs that affect vegetarianism is a good thing to say as an excuse, but be prepared to then explain exactly what kind of religious beliefs you have. Unitarian was not in their dictionaries.