Non Stop

Some things:

I now have an alien registration card, two bank accounts, AND a working cell phone. 

It's really starting to set in that this is a new home; that this is not a vacation.

It was really hard to say goodbye to all the people I love because I knew I would miss them. What I didn't really know is how much I would miss being around people who completely know me. It's been a struggle, but I'm learning. I have really great coworkers, and plenty to keep me busy, but I still find myself thinking "And Why did I choose to leave all my favorite people?". 

So, I'm looking at cats. Cause cats make everything better? Now you all know that I have a great potential within me to become a crazy cat lady. But seriously, I'm looking at cats and kittens. Hopefully soon I'll be able to add to "the herd" (the name we gave our pets back home) internationally.

On friday we had back to school night - a time when parents came to school to meet teachers and learn more about syllabi, expectations, common practices, etc. We had some delicious pizza hut before the parents came - a real treat. no corn on the pizza! It was nice to see parents faces and associate them with their child/my student. There was a big presentation/worship service as well that helped me to learn more about my schools identity and christianity within our community. 

That night a bunch of ladies and I ended up playing Cards Against Humanity with a couple drinks in one of our apartments. Loved it. The next morning, Jen and I went off to Itaewon (the foreigner part of town) to collect some things she'd purchased on Craigslist. We started the day off right with McDonald's breakfast and public transportation (missing our transfer... wooops), and had a great time. We found pedicures, starbucks, delicious sandwiches, indian food, furniture, an irish bar, and so much more. 

On friday, Renee mentioned that there is a Subway sandwich store in our area. Saturday when Jen and I got back from Itaewon, I asked her to go with me up to Nowon to find indian food for dinner. We walked along a route we thought would take us past Subway, but couldn't find it. We DID find the indian food - super delicious. I wandered my way home, and jen went to find some other craigslist things. Its about a mile from Nowon to my apartment, and it took me quite a while to get home because I was stopping at whatever store I wanted. I found a stationary store, bought some produce from a street vendor, visited some bakeries (scoping out the wheat bread scene in Seoul), and found a fancy department store. Once I made it home, I unloaded my purchases and went grocery shopping. Unloaded all of that, and then decided I had too much energy to go to bed. I went on a journey to try and find that stupid subway. Even though I wasn't hungry and it was closed once I found it, I loved this search. It was night time, nice and calm. I'm generally not accustomed to being lost - I'm good with directions... so I had to let go and use some instinct and strangers' input (in broken english) to find my way. 

Sunday was excellent - went to school to sort out some details for the coming week and then headed to church with Sophie and her husband Jeff. They took me to the International Lutheran Church (near Itaewon) in their car. The church is one of 4 in the world to be both Missouri Synod AND ELCA, so that was interesting. The pastor is from Mankato, MN! After church we went to Vatos, a relatively new mexican place. Best choice everrrrrrrrrr (I'm salivating thinking about it). We had chips and guac, salsa, kimchi fries, and 18 tacos. Sophie and I drank a pitcher of water.... which the waiter brought after we'd consumed a couple of their tiny carafes. They were meeting up with one of Jeff's former coworkers, and were kind enough to let me come along. It was a really fun afternoon filled with my favorite things - funny people and delicious food. We got done eating around 2, and I had choir rehearsal at 3 near by, so they dropped me off and I got some practice time in before rehearsal.

Yesterday I went to Nowon with Janice to get my cell phone up and running. We taxi'd there from school and sat down. It was kind of strange... I handed him my phone and pointed to the plan (in english) that I'd selected and then about 40 minutes later he handed me my phone all good to go. Oh! I did give him my bank book (kind of like a checkbook?), but that was pretty much all of our interaction. So yeah. That was easy.

Tomorrow I'm going on retreat with the 6-12th graders. We'll be going to the same camp as our staff retreat, but one of their other... camps? I don't know. Should be fun. I've really enjoyed getting to know all my students and I think this will be great.

When I return, we'll be celebrating a birthday friday night, and then I get to see Weston Noble give a lecture on the lutheran choral tradition on saturday morning.