anyeong haseyo!

so, we're finally starting to feel a little bit more settled around here. yesterday, mark and i got the keys to our long-awaited apartment! originally, we were supposed to be shacked up in the motel for 4 days, which somehow became 7 days, which eventually became 10 days ... all in all, too many days to be "living" in a room that's the equivalent size of a dorm room, and living out of rifled-through hockey bags and suitcases. our move was a little bittersweet, because while we were ECSTATIC to finally have a place to call our own, it also marked the departure of our new dear friends mark and bridget from new zealand. the kiwis had trained us at work, and also shown us the initial ropes of life in korea - taking us to seoul via subway, touring us around in their crazy set of wheels (an aggressively driven slim van with only one operating door), and how to pickpocket a bottle of soju out of a passing korean's back pocket (see the facebook photos for documentation of said events). bittersweet, indeed.

however, life goes on. mark and i have been keeping busy as teaching our own classes is well underway. somehow or other, i ended up with ten classes to teach (more than any other teacher!) but it's interesting and funny and tiring and challenging all wrapped up into one. i'm sure the challenging part will diminish, but the interesting part may not! i still have yet to figure out how to keep control of a class of 10 grade one and twos who barely speak english and are all yelling at me in korean. one was under the table, while another emptied his tin case of pencils all over the table and proceeded to bang them around incessantly. they seem somewhat oblivious to my repetitive: "ARE YOU LISTENING!?" (in which they're supposed to respond in unison: "we are listening!!"). give me a break, it's only week one!

in other news, we had to go to the hospital in uijeongbu today for further medical tests in the process of applying for our alien cards. these cards, which are so blatantly named for foreigners, will allow us to open bank accounts and get cell phones (yes!). the medical test included a blood test and urine test in which they screen for HIV and drugs; the additional tests today involved another blood test, another urine test, blood pressure check, height, weight, and chest measurements, hearing test, colour blindness test, eye test, xrays, and a dental check. all very interesting and thorough. maybe it's possible to be too short, too fat, or have too small of a chest girth to qualify for an alien card? hmmm. the hearing test was the probably my favourite; they made us sit in this little sound booth all alone with headphones on and you had to press a button every time you heard this tinny beep. all of these examinations were done in the "health promotion" area of the hospital - we didn't have to wait in any line ups (likely aided by the accompaniment of our korean-speaking boss) and the waiting room was equipped with a huge flat screen tv and a delicious free coffee machine. hands down, my favourite part of the experience was mark's attempt to get us cups of water and accidentally using the paper (yes, paper) urine cups for our beverages. oops.

i'll soon post long-awaited pics. one internet-connected step at a time. we're off to seoul tomorrow with our new friends shanna and dave, more specifically to check out the ice bar in hongdae - how fitting for canadians, har har.

love you, miss you.
xoxo