About a week and a half in

I'm lovin' it in Korea right now. I've been teaching for 4 days now and I really enjoy my classes. I'm teaching 7 classes total. 3 seven year old classes, two 8 year old classes, one 11 year old class, and a 6 year old class. The kids are all so nice and affectionate. The first day I got there they were already happy to see me calling me "Mark Teacher!!"

Seoul is incredible and massive. Coming from Philly where you can be in and out in 20 minutes makes Seoul seem like a giant. It can take up to 2 hours (subway) to get from one part to the other. The place is huge. I've live in a nice, somewhat busy area of Seoul called Guro, and it's not the flashiest place, but I live right next to the subway, and all the great places to go are only 20 minutes away at the most.

The food in Korea so far has been amazing. Half of the restaurants I've eaten at are called "galbi" restaurants. At these places you fry up your own meat right on the table. It's pretty sweet!

Public transportation in Seoul is also incredible. It's so cheeeep and soooo efficient. The subway and buses are always on time, and you'll never wait more than 5 minutes for another train to come by. The picture of the subway station here is at like 12:00 PM, right when the subway is about to close. We caught the last possible train. Usually the subway is JAMMED. People fight tooth and nail to get off at the right stop, but it's fun!

One night, after some galbi, we saw some street performers that were pretty cool. It was all interpretive dance. But it attracted a pretty big crowd!

I've already made a lot of great friends through my co-workers, and I've also reconnected with some old friends! It's been only a week and a half and I already feel like I've done so much. Oh, and I just got back from an ice show of the Nutcracker! Pretty fun.

And just for fun, here's a picture of me singing my heart out at a Norebang (kereoke room)