February 22: Day One

After a 30 hour journey and a 5 hour nap, I woke up at 8 am today to do a little exploring (as I am wont to do). The hagwon (private school) director had said that she would pick me up at 11 am to take me to school so I could get some extra sleep, but I wasn't tired and since I didn't know where the school was I had little else to do but get familiar with my surroundings.  Shortly into my first Jackventure in the land of indoor barbecues someone called me by name, which took me by surprise to say the least; it turned out to be two of the foreign teachers at my school, one of whom I had been in brief contact with before my departure.  So I followed them to school and shadowed a few different teachers for the day: I'll be doing this until March 2nd when I get my own classes.  The school is mostly kindergarten to 3rd grade level students, and they are certainly both vivacious and inquisitive.  I was called "Huge Jack Teecha", "Jack with the Beanstalk", "grandpa", and "Wayne Rooney" all on my first day!

There are storefronts pretty much everywhere that I have seen in this city, a good sign of competition in a growing economy. Some of the teachers who have been here for a while showed me to a giant international supermarket, a cupcake shop -- which really isn't my scene, but is pretty cool if you're into that kind of thing -- and a bebimbap shop. Bebimbap is meat, seasoned vegetables, and an egg on top. You throw some rice on that piece, take your tools (chopsticks) and get all Genghis Khan on it until its mixed up to your satisfaction. Then you eat it.

Well, that's pretty much it for Day One! I'm sure I won't be able to write every day but I'll do my best to put in between two and four entries every week. Oh yeah and there will be pictures! Hopefully lots! Thanks for reading everyone, I'll be back soon.

Action Jackson