For the past couple of days we have been in training. I have to say that it's been nice to see how things run with the company, but having experience working in schools back home is going to be a great help. Compared to some classes/ students I have seen at home this is going to be a joke. There is a maximum of 13 kids in a class, and they all are very competitive which makes them eager to learn. The biggest concern is when they make fun of each other for having "black eyes". Hellooo they are Korean they ALL have black eyes. It's also funny that some children choose to pick their own English names. Some of them make NO sense like "vegetable" or "alien" and some are common English names, which I find it funny to relate people from home with. The kids also wear some pretty funny things. Animals are a popular item around here so many kids wear big panda bear hats that look like something from a Halloween costume. Hello Kitty is huge here so a lot of kids wear Hello Kitty gear including Hello Kitty H1N1 masks. We have seen a lot of people here wearing masks, apparently it was for the H1N1 scare but now it is part of a fashion statement.

Yesterday it snowed here. We only got about 5cm of snow but it was a big deal. People here are not use to seeing snow and have no idea what to do with it. Kids were collecting snow off the sidewalks in grocery bags, people were driving super slow with their 4 way flashers on, walkers were sliding all over the place, and kids were bringing snowmen which they had built into school with them. They soon discovered that snow melts. We also taught them that in Canada most people build snowmen with 3 balls, here they only use 2. We said it was because we had A LOT of snow.

Last night we ventured to the grocery store. I love just looking around and seeing all the different things. I have been practicing my Korean letters so I can read the labels, but a lot of things we just had no idea about. We walked around empty handed for a while. There's a lots of things I would never eat (dried whole fish which they eat like beef jerky) but we did manage to find a few things we like (Korean "Mr Noodles", soup, chips). Mostly snack food, but once we have an apartment with a stove and oven I will explore the grocery store in depth.

Tonight is the last night in the "love shack", we will be moving into our apartments tomorrow. It will be nice to get set up, and we are excited to see them. We have heard good things, but just to arrive in the town we will be working and have our own space will be great. Our next adventures will be in Gumi. We start teaching our own classes on Thursday which I am looking forward to. I'm sure in the next week I will have plenty to update about my apartment, work, and life in Gumi.