First day of "school"

I say first day of "school" because it really was. It was one of those mornings when I woke up super early before my alarm, I tried on everything in my closet because nothing looked good, and the thought "what will people think of me?" ran constantly through my mind. (Essentially, I haven't changed since middle school, lol) I am still unfamiliar with where everything is in the village, so it really felt like I was navigating a college campus all over again. I am aware that I don't do well with change (shocker!) so today was inevitably a little overwhelming for me. However, the day was also exhilarating, creative, and motivating too!

Everyone at GEV has been incredibly friendly and helpful. It's a pretty "small town" so everyone seems to know that I am the new face and they come up and introduce themselves! Stephanie, our head teacher, took me on a tour of the village first thing this morning. And she basically led the whole day of orientation: reading through policy handbook, setting up my on-campus bank account, answering questions, introducing me to admin...etc. She was so wonderful and patient with me.

I do feel as though 9am-6pm was PACKED with information overload from policies, to various Korean words, to choreogrpahy and blocking, to scheduling, to meeting many new faces....it was awesome and terrifying at the same time.

I love how organized everyone is here. Stephanie sends out a spreadsheet with everyone's schedule every few days... here is an example:

I know its hard to read anything on here; I more just wanted to post it for the visual sake!

This is the spreadsheet for one day
 :-)

Its super busy here, but just as exciting.



After rehearsal today, a few of us went upstairs to this huge dance studio and worked out to one of Jillian Michaels (the trainer from 'The Biggest Loser') workout videos. It was intense! Zumba is tomorrow!

While I was sitting outside waiting to set up my bank account, I took some pics of the village.... here are some of the little ones lining up outside :-) Korean babies are so cute!

And here is another picture of the village (part of it at least) The building is City Hall. This is where we clock in or out by scanning our fingerprints! High tech, right?

Arriving at Gyeonggi English Village

"She knew this transition was not about becoming someone better, but about finally allowing herself to become who she'd always been"

Hello all!!!
I've decided to start a blog about my experiences here in Paju, South Korea for the next year! Now, I have never successfully started and kept a blog before, but I am determined to update it regularly this time :-)

I have only been here two days, and I am already learning so much! I left Kansas City early Saturday morning and arrived in Korea Sunday evening (Korean time). I had a very tearful goodbye Saturday morning to my sister, Bob and Mom. I know that a year can fly by, but time seems infinite when you know you are going to be away for a year. I did get a chance to call mom when I made my connecting flight in Atlanta (I no longer have a cell phone, so when I asked a lady if there were pay phones nearby, she offered her phone instead! How nice!!!) The flight on Korean Air was about 14 hours long, but I actually had a good time on the plane ride...I watched 4 movies, napped, watched the Princess Consuela episode of "Friends" twice (for those of you who know, its a good episode, right?!), and got up and walked around quite a bit. There was someone at the airport to drive me to the village, but he didn't speak any English, so I used a lot of charades and I managed to make it to the village safe and sound!

I love my apartment. The person who lived here before me had painted and decorated the room annndddd guess what color all of the accents are???? PINK! Not kidding. I will post pictures soon :-)

The village itself is absolutely beautiful. The best way to describe it is to think of that scene in "Beauty and the Beast" when everyone is singing "Belle" and she is walking through the village reading her book....it looks like that village. Its amazing. Everything is very green and hilly and quite clean. There is a coffee shop across from me (yay!), and there are several cafes and gift shops nearby. I have only seen the village on its days off (Monday and Tuesday) so I am anxious to see what it will be like during park hours this week!

I have ventured outside the village a couple of times into the town of Paju. There is an E-mart a few minutes away that I have shopped at twice; luckily our head teacher, Stephanie, went with me the first time to show me around. Everything is written in Korean, of course, so its hard to determine what some products are! The pictures on various packaging come in handy!

Today, Stephanie and I went to the Home Plus store which is about a 15 minute cab ride away from the village. Home Plus is essentially a Bed, Bath, and Beyond/Super Target hybrid, so I was able to purchase a few more things for my apartment. They have slightly more American options, but its so fun to see things like "Frosted Flakes" written in Korean!

I am fearful that my blog is going to be really boring if I just list the things I did that day, so I promise I will try to get better at content. More posts to come later! Tomorrow is my first day at work, so I am sure I will have much more to post soon!