Saturday, October 5, 2013

Working and Living…in South Korea.


We have now been LIVING in South Korea for a little over a month.  This is the first time we have “lived” overseas. The first time we have invested in a place of our own, the first time we have had to get a foreign bank account, and the first time we have had to find a dentist.  (Yes a dentist, I’m in the middle of getting a root canal done!!)  We have TRAVELED all over the world but knowing that we will be in one place for at least a year is a different feeling.  It is hard to explain.  


At the dentist about to start the root canal!
We found an apartment, finally!  And each day it is feeling more and more like home. The apartment is in a good central location in the city and is closer to Justin's work. Therefore Justin is walking about 15-20 minutes to work and I’m mainly riding the subway for 25-30 minutes a day!  That has been a challenge in and of itself, and a definite reminder that we are not in west Texas anymore. The city is very clean and safe which has been a nice change from some of the other places we have been.

Riding the subway one night to work.  This picture doesn't even do it any justice.  
Lets just say it was a little crowded.  

We just finished our first month of teaching.  At Pagoda the classes are a month long with 20 teaching days per month.  This is both the good and bad thing about working here!  Each month we have to get used to a new work schedule, new students and new levels of teaching.  I guess it keeps us on our toes and work is never boring.  Also, we get our new schedules/students/and class levels the night before the new month starts.  So planning ahead is really not an option. 

We will be teaching an average of 7 hours a day, in a variety of different classes.  Last month I had both Level 1 and Level 2 classes as well as a one on one English student. Justin had 5 different classes he had to prepare for.  We are still learning how to manage our time throughout the day.  


After class one night! 

Some awesome things about our apartment:
 
- We live on the 10th floor, so we have a good view!
- We have no roommates…no offense mom ;)
- We have glitter wall paper that makes me think of the stars.
- 400 square feet!

Some NOT so awesome things about our apartment:
 
- 400 square feet.
- Elephants live upstairs.  Well, at least as far as we can guess from the sound of heavy walking 24/7!
- Our neighbor across the hall smokes and likes to leave his door open. 
- We have sweet purple and gold wall paper, which was cool in the 70’s!



We are having trouble uploading the video to see it go to: 


Some have asked about our mailing address:

 Send envelopes here:

Justin and Tiffany Hanes
Topopilia 1011
Jeonpo-Dong 643
Busanjin-Gu
Busan 614-865
SOUTH KOREA

Send packages here:

Pagoda Seomyeon
Justin and Tiffany Hanes
Bujeon-Dong 232-2
Busanjin-Gu
Busan  614-032
SOUTH KOREA