A really late night!

So I don't really have time to type and sleep (it is 3am here) but we had a great time at the welcome new workers and good bye old workers. I have a video here that will explain stuff and some pictures of after the video you can see that I have taken. Sorry this is short but I need to go to bed :) P.S. I had a sandwich toasted with egg, chicken, cheese, and a kiwi spice sauce for lunch and it was delicious!





So there were too of these tables. There were about 30 of us celebrating at this place. The black grill circles is where everyone would place their food to cook. It was really neat! although my legs hurt from crossing after awhile. I didn't say this in the video but the older Korean ladies that sat next to two of my co-workers and I started cooking and putting the food on our place. It is assumed that American's don't know how to grill and we were eating to slow. They were worried we weren't going to each (although I was already eating fast).










Cooked cow intestines! I had 3-4 1.5" pieces. It is considered to be the freshest meat because when the cow is alive the mucus inside is constantly 'refreshed!'










From bottom to top the yellow liquid is a salty sauce, the green veggies had red pepper spice, the middle dish had the bug larvae, and this was followed by garlic slices and a red bean/read pepper sauce.









Beef and pork!













The bottom dish is Kimche and the green dish is a noodle of some sort (rice noodle?). Once you have all of these foods cooked you take what you like and place it in a lettuce leaf, wrap it up, and eat it. I did forget the egg soap (soupy scrambled egg). No picture but really good!

Iksan's City Lights!

So after a nice conversation with Danielle and getting ready for the day I met up with some of the future co-workers and those that are leaving for good. We all went out to lunch and had this. I cant remember what it was called but mine had egg, rice, seaweed, ham, carrot, and pickled radish. It was great. I would like to point out I did try one with crab, tuna, and mayo. It was decent but my stomach didn't like it (I think it was the mayo and tuna).

After that we went back to learn some thing for work. My schedule is from 11:10 to 8:10pm. I plan until noon, each lunch, and go back to planning at 1. Then I teach mainly 5 classes until 8pm. There are books, schedules, and many other things that I have to do. It is really a lot of information. However I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Most of the teachers don't need more than that first hour to actually plan. Unfortunately it seems like I might get the classes with the most planning time :( I'll get back with pictures as well as what I am allowed to say what I do on the internet when I officially work on Wednesday. I do get my own desk! It is really small but I get one.

I spent the rest of the day day trying to find a converter for some co-workers as well as hanging out for dinner. In this picture you see the NEW? It is called New York something...It had a bunch of seating areas and booths with doors on it. I would have taken more pictures but I didn't want to be rude with the people I was eating with. We had white rice, Kemshi, spicy chicken (more like hacked parts) and potatoes, beer (which I could not handle as usual), rice vodka, sugar cookie squares, noodle salad, and one other thing I forgot.


These are everywhere. Not the churches (although those are too) but the little red glowing cross. I've seen 10 of these and only 1 white one (hopefully these red ones haven't converted to the dark side!!!).









One of Korea's cultures involves couples dressing alike...down even to the same underwear... This isn't as good of an example I saw earlier. Imagine a female wearing pink underwear and bra with some black lace. Now imagine the guy's underwear looking the same...








The rest of these pictures are here to show the night of Iksan. That and I like city lights. Enjoy!

A trip through Iksan!

My School Close Up!















So I woke up, showered, and got ready for my day! And then tried using the phone.....It took 20 minutes, accidentally calling the desk like 4 times, 1 of them having a 5 minute conversation which told me to hit 9 to dial out, till the manager came up and handed me his cellphone with a polite smile. I called to make sure I was meeting up with people at 11am. Then I went to get a taxi and the manager's wife gave me an umbrella (which I turned down nicely, I didn't want to loose it). She was the only one who understood I wanted to go to Home Plus (a Korean Wal-mart essentially). By the way....driving for 15minutes was a 4430 Won ticket which is roughly $3.70.


We met up with everyone and had some food to each. I ended up eating Kemshi (spelling), Onion, a sweet pickle, a spicy pickle, a noodle rice with beans and meat, and some egg rolls all for about $4 US. It was a feast. But was also super healthy.



































So this one is for my mom the Animal lover....yea I'm mean....
















Everywhere we went was built within the last 7 years. Because the Korean war they had a fresh start. Where my motel is the buildings have been around forever. Then there is the school's area where it was built in 7 years, and then nothing but rice patties. It is a bit unreal really. Here are some pictures of it.






































Next we went to 'Electronic Land' to get a converter. No luck. Went down to this shop that looked like it belonged there and the owner walked us down a block to show us where we could get one tomorrow. Everyone is nice. Here is that place.














The Home Plus we stopped by was insane. There were people yelling out prices and on top of that it is huge! It is like 4 stores of essentially Wal-Mart. Good luck to me finding stuff the first few times... I did get used to the currency though really quick. It is super easy...


































We then started to walk down the street and headed to what was a coffee shop. I proved again I didn't know anything and just stood there for 8 minutes waiting for my ice cream. I didn't know they had everything on one buzzer so that we would get all of our things at once...doh!

So now we went to visited someone's apartment. I didn't take pictures of it inside but I'll show them to you on Thursday when I get in. Here is the road to it and the building.











































































There is no regulation when it comes to internet. So I believed all this is hijacked internet....














Real sugar in soda = awesome! So much smoother!















Had my first pizza! The closer one is a plain cheese (which comes with corn?) and it was delicious! The one on the top right was a deluxe of things I cant remember. The one on the top right was something I cant remember (except the pineapple). I had the first too. It was the first time I actually got a bit sick from eating. It only lasted for a bit so no biggie.
















It does exist....Channel 49. I watched it a bit and realize there are a crap load of games they play here not just Starcraft. It was interesting.

Korea!

Hey Guys I made it! There is so much to talk about but I haven't the time to do it!

I'll let the videos do the talking. Sorry about the shots up my nose....and being quite. People sit next to you and there isn't enough space because of it to do anything!

(Video Later...having problems with it)

We got delayed. We ran over something that wrecked a tire so we had to sit for 3 hours while they replaced it. They had a lot of things on the little computer screen on the back of the chair in front of me. I could watch 1 of 30 movies, listen to Korean/American music, play games (got good at minesweeper), and more!

(Video Later....having problems with it)

Our flight passed! I was so annoyed that I had to sit for 3 hours...then have to anticipate a 13.5 hour sitting while on the plane (except for 1 bathroom break I sat... I sat at the window and the two people blocking me slept most of the time) and then have to sit for 3 hours on a bus ride was already going to take its toll on me.

(Video Later....having problems with it)

Hey! I'm not afraid of flying! I enjoyed it! Granted the two rather large turbulence we had scared to crap out of me buy they only lasted 10 seconds. The food was great! They past out a small 3" diamater bread thing filled with a beef and sauce mixture. It was soo good and they gave me another part way through the flight. I didn't get much to drink at first because the flight attendants were everywhere. For the lunch portion I got beef (same sauce I think) with rice, a fruit bowl (which I didn't eat, don't like watermelon, melon, and pineapple), a salad bowl, and one other thing. For dinner I got the beef again (too good to pass up) with veggies, salad....maybe...I just forgot what was for dinner. There was tea but the attendants were busy helping so many people that forgot about me....

So customs and everything was very easy to work with. Baggage was easy (as long as you were patient) and getting a bus ticket was easy. Apparently travelers checks weren't used.....I have to figure out what to do with them. I do like to point out that I found the only non-global ATM first and didn't check until I asked an individual what was going on. I'd like to point out that within the first 20 minutes after I got my bags I was stopped and helped out by 3 different Korean people. I must of had 'Cant read anything' stamped on my head. Many people also asked if I was in the military. Even the guy from New York asked if I was in the military. He was very sad that he was stuck 6 months on an airforce base leaving his girlfriend of 14 months. I didn't want to point out that I'm leaving my girlfriend of 5 years and 2 months for almost two years (she leaves for England just before I come back).

By the way....sooo many rice patties....

I met with the SoGang University people and they all thought I'd be taller... Tammy (my boss) speaks very fluent English. Dr...something is very hard to understand. I met Russel and Margaret (both from Minnesota) and they are awesome. We have a hangout date that I will be attending. I'm really hungry too....hopefully I'll get some food soon. I have to figure out a tax too :(. Good news though. I live 4 blocks from work. Next to my future apartment is essentially a Shopko. Right in front of work is essentially a walmart (2 story) and a target side by side. There are a million 24hr markets everywhere.

The apartment is nice...I will have pictures of that on my facebook! If you don't write a comment and I'll email you them. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2164958&id=219700409&saved#!/album.php?aid=2164958&id=219700409&ref=mf

Alright guys I'll try to get those videos working. I'm wide awake and ready for my day to begin. Suck it jet lag!

Video Blog and what has been happening!

So here is my first video blog to test many options to keeping people up to date with me! There is an update afterwords that I'll be writing after this.



Let me know what you think!

For those who didn't want to watch it basically I talked about my consulate meeting and my fear of flying. The consulate meeting was really different then what I expected. I was expecting things like, "Do you plan on destroying South Korea? Are you a walking infection of diseases?," but it ended up not being like that at all. Most of the questions were about my personal life and I got to learn about him. South Korea wants to have sons more than daughters. Something culturally says they'd rather have a boy than a girl. He grew up with six other brothers and 1 sister. His father died so he had to be the man of the house since he was the oldest. Because of this he said he wanted two daughters and that is it. He got his wish but the dreaded 'mother-in-law' said you better give me a grandson. So three time's a charm and it worked...but his back has been hurting ever since :) After that he asked how many kids I wanted. When I said two-three he immediately said "NO NO NO! Stay with two or you'll hurt your back." So I am stuck with two kids I guess. A phone call later, two more minutes of talking, and out of the blue he said we (another lady was with me) passed after ten minutes of talking.

I got my work visa last week Thursday but I wasn't able to see it until last week Friday when I got home. And they spelled my middle name wrong. My full name is Andrew John Roy Goldbach. But they spelled it Andrew John Ray Goldbach. So because of that (and how complex it is to change it here) it has to be fixed when I get there. So the hassles might be large when I get there.

My fear of heights gets the best of me. I don't do roller coasters nor in-closed water slides. If I am not in control (i.e. Flying a plane myself) I tend to freak out. So we will see how this plane ride goes. Unfortunately I cannot use my music or computer to distract myself while I am taking off or landing (could mess with the electronics of the plane?). S0 I'll be reading the "Left Behind" series of which my girlfriend gave me three books. I enjoy the Book of Revelations because who doesn't want to hear about the end of the world. Its very interesting. Will the "Left Behind" series is a modernize story about it happening based on the authors take. So we'll see how it goes.

Well this is it for now. Hopefully you've enjoyed it as much as I have.