Korean Gum...

I have officially completed one full week of working at the school!! Woohoo!! I've been in Korea now for 10 days, even though it feels like a lot longer than that to me :)

Yesterday, I went to Lotte Mart (pronounced "low-tay-mart") which is basically like a Sam's Club or a Costco. They have everything you could possibly imagine, plus more! And they sell everything in bulk. For example, one can't just buy a toothbrush or two. One must buy 8 toothbrushes... :) Everything is super cheap though, and they have a lot of American brand things there, like foods, clothing, appliances. Well, I needed to go get a 2.5 in. X 3 in. photo taken for my upcoming hospital visit. (Unfortunately, I left my entire "Korea" folder at home in Tampa, and it had all the rest of the paperwork and photos I needed...) Anyway, I went to Lotte Mart and had to buy 8 photos, not just one. It was done in an hour, and they came out really good!! That was yet another successful adventure I've been on. I anticipated having to play charades with the guy to tell him exactly what I needed, but surprisingly, he spoke pretty good English! It ended up being a lot less difficult than I thought.

So, on Monday, I'm going to the Suwon Medical Center to get my check-up done. I have to get a check-up, go to the Immigration Office, and then I can receive my Alien Registration Card. With my ARC, I can get a bank account set-up. It's all pretty complicated, but it will be done soon :) Anyway, it's really interesting here because every appointment you go to, doctor, hospital, dentist, you have to have a small photo of yourself. Koreans carry copies of small photos of themselves in their wallets for when they are out places. I'm not sure what the purpose of that is. I guess it's just an easy way to identify you or something. It's probably a good thing that I have 8 copies in case something comes up :)

Before I left Tampa, my mom gave me 6 packs of Stride gum. I love gum. A lot. And it's a really good thing that she gave them to me because the Korean gum here is SO GROSS!! It's all fruit flavored, but it actually tastes like you're gnawing on a real fruit, and it's sticky, and the flavor only lasts for about two minutes. Your mouth doesn't feel clean and refreshed after that...So thanks, Mom, for the gum! :)

In the office at school, there are two American teachers: Beth and me, and four Korean teachers: Kate, Sue, Iris, and Melly. We all hang up our keys by the door when we first walk in. I was looking at the key rings the other day and just started wondering...It's funny to me what kind of keychains people choose to hang their keys on. You can learn things about people from what they have. On my key ring I have a Spiderman keychain (of course!) and the pink cowgirl boot keychain my mom gave me at the airport before I left. I love Spiderman, pink is my favorite color, country music is my favorite, and I love line-dancing :) All of our keys in the office are very easily identified based on our keychains. I don't know, maybe this is just random, but I thought it was interesting. :)

I love being in the office and talking with the Korean teachers. We are constantly exchanging questions with one another about how to pronounce something or spell a word. It's a really great way to learn the language!! We are all able to laugh at each other, but there's a sense of respect because everyone is trying to learn the other person's language. It's great.