Still Adjusting

November 5, 2010
Status: Still alive and semi-bored already.

What did I do today? In school, I'm still introducing myself to the students. I've been introducing myself all week to about 600 students. There are about 35+ students in every class and I teach almost every student in the school. They come to me once a week as an elective. Two things get the same shocked reaction from all the students.

1. My height- I am 180cm which is about 5'11.
2. My siblings- when I tell them I have 2 brothers and 3 sisters, they all say wooooooooaaaa!?and talk amongst themselves. They usually only have 1 or 2 siblings so it's amazing to them. It's just funny to me though. Lol.
My school schedule below. It's pretty awesome cause I don't really teach the whole day.

Suwon------------------

My co-teacher took me to Suwon today so I could submit an application for my alien card. It's weird to think of myself as an alien because I've been a citizen of the states for so long. Suwon is wack, it looks kind of like Saigon- Vietnam.  The streets are busy and it doesn't look as pretty as Hwaseong. We went to HomePlus there to find a converter for my appliances but there wasn't one. Oh yeah, HomePlus is kind of like Walmart to them.
Mission: locate converter= fail.

Kim: They have Asics here! Muhahahaha. See the little blue sign? I wonder if they are cheaper here. Probably not the same quality though huh?

When I got home, I went on a search for food. I'm really scared to walk into a restaurant because of the language barrier so I walked around forever, hoping to locate an empty restaurant to prevent causing a scene. No luck. All the restaurants had occupants. I ended up trying stuff at a stand on the side of the street. I just pointed to whatever people were eating. It wasn't too bad but it was pretty spicy.

Street vendor. The sticks in the far back- tastes like fish because it IS fish. Not my cup of tea.

See those corn dog looking things? I asked some high school girls what they were. They told me the outside was batter and the inside was sweet potato and veggies. I thought that sounded cool so I tried it.

It ended up being a CORN DOG with two layers of batter! I was surprised and disappointed at the same time. How deceiving! Rawr! I didn't know they served corn dogs here. Lol.



As I walked home, I stopped by Pizza Maru, my favorite pizza place. Well, I've never tried pizza anywhere else because the owner at Pizza Maru is so nice to me, I don' bother going anywhere else.  I saw a foreigner there and I asked the owner if he was "Jason" (long story about "Jason" I'll tell you about it later) she said no and asked him for his name. He said Michael then she pointed at me. This is what happened:

I smiled.
Me: Michael, oh...okay
He smiled back.
Michael: And what is your name?
Me: My name is Tia.
Michael: Tia? Well, it's nice to meet you.
Me: Nice to meet you too.
He looked shocked.
Michael: Wow, your English is really good!
Me: Uhh?Thank you.
Michael: May I ask where you're from??
Me: Texas.
I started laughing because I knew he thought I was Korean.
Michael: Ohhhhhh! That explains how your English is so good. I feel like an idiot now.
Me: Don't worry about it. The people here assume I'm from here too.

Hahahaha. Yes, quite entertaining. We ended up chit chatting for a little bit and I found out that he has been in Hwaseong for a year and a few months now. He said there's a group of foreigners that meet up every Wednesday night to hang out. He asked for my # so he could call me up to hang out but I don't have a cell phone yet because I can't get one until my alien card comes in. He gave me his email address instead.

Mission: make a new friend= accomplished.

At home: I get so bored without the internet or phone. I can't watch TV because I don't have cable or the cord to watch free TV. I guess it's a good thing because it motivates me to leave the apartment. Oh yeah, when I walk around the neighborhood, I see students and they get so excited. They usually gasp and shout "Tia Teacher!!!!" then start giggling when I greet or ask them something. They get so flustered when I try to initiate a conversation with them because they're self-conscious about their accent/grammar.  

Note: Last night, I finally met my neighbor. She's American! She teaches English at the middle school and she seems really cool. She lent me her converter because she'll be gone for the weekend. She invited me to a party in Seoul on Saturday but I don't feel like getting lost. I would be more comfortable if I at least had a cell phone to call someone just in case I got on the wrong bus or something. Guess I'll just hang around my neighborhood for the weekend.