Finally getting settled

We were finally able to leave our hotel and get into our apartments last night!! I had to fight with my bags in order to get everything re-packed but I successfully got everything back in. It will be another story when I move home! I'll have to ship about 5 packages home before I leave just to get it all back.

It was a little frustrating last night after we were able to move in. We were told they would clean the apartments but the people who cleaned mine were either blind or handicapped! I think all they did was sweep and maybe run a rag over a few things. I spent the better part of 3 hours scrubbing the floor and cleaning the kitchen! Let me tell you who's not getting 30,000 WON taken out of their paycheck for the cleaning deposit!! That was ridiculous! Nevertheless it was nice to finally have a home. I finally took something out of a suitcase around midnight. As stressful as packing my life in three bags was, it was equally as overwhelming to unpack my life! I was surprised at the amount of stuff I was actually able to fit in those bags. Slowly the things were started coming together. I had finally gotten my sheets out and made my bed and unpacked the necessary things I needed to go to bed. I finally stopped unpacking and organizing around 3am and decided I should probably get some sleep. I was only able to sleep for about 5 hours and I was up again unpacking and getting ready for my first skype date with my parents!

It was wonderful to finally be able to see my parents and brothers and Toby!! Apparently he was
crying because he wanted to come to Korea to see me (Toby was crying not PJ)! Break my heart! It's hard to see everyone and not be able to be with them but it definitely helps the homesickness. And although I've only been here a week, it's getting easier to be away from home. There are a few things that will take some time to get used to though. 1.) Not having a dryer! 2.) Seeing octopus in the grocery store. 3.) Not flushing toilet paper. 4.) Taking my shoes off as soon as I enter a building. 5.) Bowing when I say hello and good-bye.

I'll get some pictures of my place up soon.

Learning how to become a teacher

Today was a very trying day. The school had their graduation yesterday so today was an in-service day for the teachers. The students come back on Tuesday for the start of their new school year. I will be teaching 3rd year 7-year-olds. That means they have been at Helen Doron for three years and they are now 7 (well their Korean age is really 6). At any rate, they are smart kids. In a way I feel lucky to be teaching the older kids. I will be able to have actual conversations with them and not teaching them what a chair is but in another way, I wish I could just sing songs all day long. Either way it will be very challenging.

Today was used as a day to get the classrooms cleaned and ready for the new school year and to make lesson plans for the month. Typically at home, teachers get a few weeks in the summer to prepare their classrooms and lesson plans before school starts, not here! We are just diving right in! Unlike some of the other teachers, I didn't get a lot of help or guidance from my partner teacher. I felt very lost, frustrated, overwhelmed, and completely out of my element. Thankfully I was getting help from a couple of the other foreign teachers, which was nice. They reassured me that they also felt overwhelmed and completely unprepared when they started teaching but it will get easier as the weeks go on. By the end of the day though, I still felt like I hadn't accomplished anything. I ended up bring some work back to the hotel and was able to get a few lesson plans done for the first few days so I don't feel completely unprepared come Tuesday. I'm sure it will all be fine but I'm still freaking out a bit. On top of feeling overwhelmed and unprepared as a teacher, my partner teacher keeps reminding me that the moms of my kids are very demanding and a bit scary! Great! Just what I need, Korean mom after me because I'm not teaching her child well enough! That scares me more than the lesson planning! Hopefully it's not as bad as she describes.

Even with the complete overwhelmed and unprepared feelings I have right now, I'm very excited for the school year. And I think I'm really going to enjoy teaching. If you want to check out the website for my school you can go to www.hdee.co.kr. It is in Korean but have your speakers turned on and the sound up and you can hear our great theme song!! It's pretty amazing!

I have an address

Some of you have been asking about when I get an address, I was waiting until we moved into our apartments but I guess we just use the school address so we can sign for packages. So if you are going to be so kind to send a care package this is where you send it:
Helen Doron School
Attn: Katie Eichten
15 Geumgok-Dong, Bundang-Gu, Seongnam-Si, Gyeonggi-Do
South Korea 463-804

Things I would like in a care package:
Coffee
Nature Valley granola bars-Honey and Oat or Peanut Butter
Low Sugar Maple Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal
Natural Peanut Butter
Gum
Tootsie Pops
Ovaltine
Any reading materials
Anything from home :)

That's about all I can think of right now!
And thank you to anyone who would actually send me things!!

Getting Adjusted

I'm starting to get more and more adjusted and the homesick feeling is getting a bit better. On Sunday we were able to see the school and meet two of the teachers we will be working with this year. The school is gorgeous! We are lucky because our school has it's own building and is not in the middle of the city. Private schools in Korea are usually in an office building and the kids have no opportunity to go outside. Our school has it's own backyard with playground equipment and garden. In the spring the kids get to plant lettuce and cabbage! The building is less than three years old so everything is new and clean. I'm excited to start teaching.

We were also able to go out to lunch with the two teachers and ask any questions we had. We also saw our apartments and got a tour of the area we will be living in. I'm really lucky because our apartments are very nice and our location is great! We are right by a subway line, many bus lines and it's very easy to get a cab. We have everything we need within walking distance and it's really easy to get to those places we can't walk to. We also have a gym about a block away and the river is close. So I will have many running options! The weather so far has been great and I've been able to run outside all 4 days we've been here.

This week has been our orientation/training week. We were able to observe the current teachers the first two days and do practice lesson plans for the assistant director. Tuesday we were told what age group we would be teaching and who our partner teacher would be. In this school, we each teach two different classes of the same age group. Our partner teacher teaches the same classes but at opposite times and they teach different subjects. This makes it much easier on us to only have to prepare 3-4 lesson plans a day opposed to 7-8 everyday. Our partner teacher is Korean and can also help us with any language barriers we might face with the kids. But the kids are so smart and their English is better than most American kids I know. I was surprised at how much they know and how well they can speak English at such a young age. Today we were given our schedules for the first month and our lesson plans. It's a bit overwhelming at first but it will be nice once we can get in our classrooms on Friday and really start planning for the year.

I have also been fighting a cold/sickness these first few days. I think my body is just trying to get used to the new foods, climate, and the fact I just traveled half way around the world. I was pretty miserable yesterday and just wanted a few pieces of toast and my own bed. But I was able to get a lot of sleep and feel much better today. I hope once we get into our apartments and can actually go grocery shopping and eat food we want to eat I'll start feeling better. The food isn't bad but it's just not as filling or satisfying as I'm used to. I understand now why Koreans are so skinny! They don't eat a lot of fat or high caloric foods.

Thankfully we aren't getting picked up for school tomorrow until 11 so we can sleep in a bit. Tomorrow and Friday will be spent preparing for the start of the new school year, which starts next Tuesday. It'll be nice to actually do something productive the next few days.

I'm here

I have made it to South Korea. We got in last night after 23 hours of travel. The day went really smooth, no delays or missed flights or lost luggage so that was a positive. And it was nice to arrive at night so I could just crash and not force myself to stay awake to get on their time.

Last night was tough. The director of the school met us at the hotel ( I arrived with two other girls from the states.) He showed us to our rooms, gave us our cell phones, our week's pay and said good night. Once we got all that taken care of us and the three of us said goodnight to each other it all started sinking in. I was alone in my room and looking at the three huge bags that held my life for the next year and didn't know what I had gotten myself into. Before I really did anything I got on line and went on facebook, bad idea! I saw the posts from friends and family about me leaving and the homesickness was too much to handle. Then I found a card my brother had put in my suitcase before I left and that was hard to read. I was trying so hard to not cry because I know it's going to be hard but it's so worth it. I wrote an e-mail to my parents to let them know I was okay. It's so hard to think right now, my first day here, that I have an entire year here without seeing them. But I know I got the courage ad strength to embark on a journey like this from them. They know this will be tough for me but they are so encouraging and have been nothing but supportive in my decision to move.

As I laid down to go to sleep, I had to fight back tears thinking about everyone and everything I will miss in the next year. I was already missing home when I laid down on my bed, which felt like I was sleeping on concrete and realized I won't have my own bed for a whole year! I fell asleep for about 30 mins and I woke up and thought I was at home, once I realized where I was I was sad again. But I evenually fell asleep. It wasnt' the greatest nights sleep but it was just nice not be on a plane! When I got up this morning it was about 7 am and I couldn't sleep anymore. So what did I do, well if you know me at all you can probably guess, I went for a run! I brought my cell phone, some Korean cash, and the address to my hotel in case I got lost. Thankfully I found a nice running sidewalk and was able to run for about an hour. It felt great! When I got back to the hotel I showered had some oatmeal, yes I brought my own food! By then the other two girls were up and we started talking about this crazy adventure we were about to start. As we were talking we all started to tear up a little bit just thinking of this year without family and friends but then Lindsey put a twist on the situation. She said one of her friends had just finished a year teaching in South Korea and described the year as "an extension of undergrad." And that is very true. The 8 American teachers I will be working with will become my best friends over the next year and the experiences we will share will be unforgettable!

Although I know I will be homesick for the next couple of weeks, I am so glad I decided to take this risk. I still can't believe I'm in South Korea! And now I can say I have ran on another continent!!

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, this is it. My last night at home.I can't believe how fast time has gone by. The past four months I have just been talking about this great experience I've decided to take and all the great things I will learn and all the amazing things I will see; and now it's actually happening. It still seems a bit unreal to me and I don't think it will actually sink in until I've landed in Seoul and realize what I've gotten myself into for the next year. But even with the great deal of unknown that is awaiting me, I'm really not that nervous. There's more excitement than nerves.

Tonight was the last of my good-byes. And it started with my sister and her two kids coming over to say good-bye. My niece and nephew are 10 and 7 and they both drew pictures for me to hang on my wall in Korea. As they were giving them to me I started to tear up. It was nice to be able to see them for even a short period of time before I left. Saying good-bye to my sister was hard. And what makes it even more hard is that both her and I cry at a drop of a hat so you can imagine what it was like to try to say good-bye for a year. I'll miss being able to pick up the phone to ask her one simple question and end up talking for an hour and a half! At least I can cut back on my cell phone minutes.

Then there came saying good-bye to Toby and Jen. Toby is 3 so he doesn't quite understand that when I said good-bye tonight that he won't see me at grandma and grandpa's for Sunday night dinners. Needless to say the good-bye was much harder for me than him. And knowing that I won't be seeing the twin girls for their first year of life sucks but at least they won't forget me, because they won't remember who I am. And hopefully Jen can make it over, seeing as though it is her homeland.

Then there was the boys. Not all of them yet, just PJ and Matt. Although they don't cry at Kleenex commercials like me and Angie, there were still some tears and long hugs. I'll miss running Saturday mornings and back-to-back marathons with them and just hanging out. It's amazing how much we take things for granted and we don't realize it. Like being able to drive up to CR to hang out with Matt or shoot over to PJ's and see Toby and the girls. Yes, I realize that may be a bit dramatic, it's not like I'm leaving and never coming back, but being as close to my siblings as I am, I'm not just leaving family, I'm leaving my best friends too.

Tomorrow morning will bring the toughest task of them all, saying good-bye to Luke and my parents. I think my dad will try to be strong and not cry for mine and my mom's sake. Because God knows my mom will be a wreck. They have been my inspiration, ,my role models, and my support system my entire life. They have always been supportive in whatever I do and I wouldn't be where I am today without there love and care. It's going to be hard to leave them but it's because of them I am able to venture off and do what I need to do.

I can't wait to get there and finally start living!

Some final good-byes

Less than 36 hours before liftoff and this afternoon was full of a few final good-byes. I made my way up to Coon Rapids today to say good-bye to two of my closest friends. It was strange to visit with them knowing I won't be seeing them for over a year. And even though we don't see each other all that often during the year, we still make it to Caribou once every few months and were able to catch up and reminisce about the many nights in high school we would spend at Caribou doing physics homework. It's those little things that I won't be able to take part in during the next year that I will miss.

I also said my final good-bye to my wonderful ex-roommate. For two and a half years we lived together and after I decided to take on this amazing journey, I moved home and away from living with him. That in itself was hard. Then tonight I had to say a real good-bye. He was/is my best guy friend and has helped me through a lot in the last two and a half years, including rent at a discount :)

As the good-byes keep coming, everyone is asking me if I'm nervous, excited, sad, and/or scared. And honestly, although I am really sad to leave everyone, I'm really excited! Saying good-bye to friends was hard, and I know tomorrow night will be the hardest to come when I say good-bye to my siblings and my little buddy, but it's not a depressing sad because I know the next year or two to come with be two of the greatest years of my life. I'm so excited to experience a new culture, to learn a new language and new traditions, but most of all I'm excited to learn about myself. My parents keep telling me this can be a great experience but it will be what I make of it. I know I'll be home-sick but its how I overcome that and take advantage of my time abroad.

I can't wait for the year ahead and everything I will learn.

Oh yea, my teddy bear and pillow will be making the trip :)

2, how about 3 bags?

As it turns out I may be bringing three bags with me. It is very hard to pack my life into two bags so I have looked into what it will take to bring an extra bag. It's a little spendy but I think it's worth it. I have now packed and unpacked then repacked a couple times and I am still taking stuff out. This is much more difficult than I thought. There is truth in that traveling light is better, but I'm all about being happy once I get there because I could bring my favorite sweatpants. We'll see how it all pans out and how many bags I end up bringing.

Friday morning is creeping up on me. I have said good-bye to a few more people and we had our "last" family dinner last night. Most of us were a little teary-eyed during dinner so I cant' imagine what Thursday night and Friday morning will be like. But it was good to be able to see everyone together and spend my last weekend with my family. The next three days will be the final good-byes for my good friends and getting EVERYTHING packed.

I would love to only bring two bags but that pillow and teddy bear are just too important to leave behind!

How do you pack your life in 2 bags!?!?!

I have 10 days until I leave and I haven't started packing yet! How do you pack your life into 2 bags?! What do I bring, what do I leave? The most important things are those that I can't get over there, pictures, posters, a few books, and things that remind me of home :) When it comes to clothes, I may have been born Asian because I will fit into most of the clothes over there.
The packing has now diverted my constant thoughts of the fact that I am actually moving across the world. The going away party has come and gone and thus the "good-byes" have started. Its very strange that I am now saying good-bye to people and I probably won't see them for over a year. Dana and Dave were the first two that I had to say my final farewells to at the good bye party. Although that was hard, if I can say good-bye to two of my closest friends and not want to back out of this contract, I know I will be okay!