Reboot in Korea -- Part 2

Day 2 in Suwon was pretty busy. I had a meeting with the other teachers and school director, Joseph Kim, for about an hour and a half. Then an American family took my fellow teacher and I to the local "Walmart." We grabbed some basic food necessities, and then enjoyed a great lunch in the Korea food court. I had bulgogi -- meet mixed with rice and wrapped in lettuce -- and kimchi. We came back to the apartment after lunch and i fell asleep on the couch. With a combination of jet lag and that amazing lunch, can ya blame me? We were then picked up about 2:30 and taken to a Korean cultural village. I really enjoyed walking around and seeing lots of old houses as well as some great dancing and a very old tightrope walker.

The day ended with a great supper -- bibimbop. This is one of my new favorite Korean dishes. It's is vegetables mixed with rice and chili sauce. Sometimes there is an egg added, but the veggies and rice are so hot (temperature) the egg cooks right away. All in all, I would say that the first couple days here have been great. Tomorrow is church and then a free afternoon, and Monday we will begin teaching. Please pray that the teaching goes well -- SAT prep is not something I have done before, but I think it will be fun.

I will load more pics onto facebook and my picasa site (https://picasaweb.google.com/philbrande)

Until next time...Peace, love & kimbap...

Reboot in Korea -- Part 1.

So, I know I have not updated my blog in quite a while, and there really isn't much exuse -- i have only been teaching middle school, traveling all over the world, finishing my time in Russia, packing up my classroom and apartment, and saying lots and lots of goodbyes. Well, now that I am in Korea for a month, i might as well get this thing back on track. I mean, i'm not sure there would be a better time or place to do so. So, here we go again...

I left Moscow Thursday evening (June 9) after having said goodbye to my apartment and my roommates. It was pretty surreal walking out of my apartment (where i have lived for 10 yrs) for the last time. I flew from Moscow to Dubai, waited in the Dubai airport for about 3 hrs, and then flew to Seoul. The flight left at 3:30 am and the plane was massive! I don't think I have ever flown on a plane that large. The plane was a double-decker, and I think there were between 90-100 rows on both decks combined. Technology is an amazing thing. If we stopped to think about how we can do lots of things in the world that we really shouldn't be able to do (like get a plane that big to stay in the air), I think we would be rather shocked.

Anyway, I was able to get some sleep on that flight, so I was thankful for that. I got into Seoul about 4:30, but by the time I got through passport and customs, and collected my bag -- the baggage carousel broke down just as I got into the luggage area but thankfully, my bag had already come out -- and got to the school in SuWon, it was about 7:00. I was given a good meal for supper and forced myself to stay awake until 9:30. I slept well until 3:30 - gotta love that jet lag. I fell asleep again at 5:30 and was woken up once more my my alarm at 7:00.

Day 2 and pictures in Part 2...