My Co-teacher is Awesome

Well, finally, orientation is over. I moved into my new apartment in Ulsan and was quite shocked. It actually has four rooms! A kitchen, a bedroom, a living/dining room, a laundry room, and a bathroom! Woo-hoo! As someone who'd prepared himself for just living in a one bedroom/efficiency type place, this was quite the pleasant surprise. Not only that, but also included were all new appliances and a HDTV! Oh yeah! Anyway, my co-teacher has already been very helpful; showing me around and helping me buy some more stuff. Oh, did I mention they're giving me $500 more for other new appliances I might need? Geez Louise, that's awesome! Anyway, I'm about halfway unpacked. No internet yet; I'm typing this from a PC Bang down the street from my apartment. Hopefully I will get internet on Tuesday or Wednesday and I will be able to post some pics and a movie tour of my apartment I made.

Random videos I've taken

I love youtube :) I can't figure out how to make this page show up in English, so no blog title change yet.

Here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/scvfan99

I've arrived!

Guess it's time to change the title of my blog now :) The plane ride was really, really long. Luckily Korean Air has little tv's in each seatback so you can watch movies, sports, tv shows, etc. all on demand. Unluckily, mine broke about 10 minutes into the flight so I was forced to watch what everybody around me was watching. I sat next to some neat people on the plane who liked to talk, which made the flight go by more quickly too.

So far, the best thing about Korea is all the robotic traffic cops on the highways directing traffic. I have a week of orientation outside of Seoul at Korea University, and the it's on to Ulsan. I've met a ton of people already--mostly Canadians, but a few Brits and fellow Americans too. The Canadians are easiest to spot because they're all wearing some kind of Maple Leaf on their backpack or hat.

I want to write some more, but I'll wait till I can post some accompanying pictures.

Here I Go Again On My Own...

Well, it's finally here. I'm sitting in the airport in Charleston waiting to get my flight to JFK, then it's on to Incheon. It's kind of surreal, because I've been looking forward to this trip since January, and now that I'm ready to go, I don't quite know how to feel. On one hand, I'm sad to leave my family and all three of the friends I have left in Hurricane, but at the same time I'm really exciting about going somewhere new. I know this all sounds tired and cliche, but hey, what would a real blog be without posts like this? :)

Next time I post, I'll be in Korea. Pictures to follow soon.

Ulsan, Here I Come...

I just submitted the last of my paperwork to Korean immigrations---it's almost official, I'm going to Ulsan. It's a small (by Korean standards) costal city, about 1.8 million people. I've heard some good things about it, though. I'm teaching at a public school, which is where I really think I belong. Plus, John in Ulsan rhymes. That will work out well for my blog's new title once I arrive. I should get my final contract in about ten days--then all I have to do is wait.

Luckily, my summer jobs is going great and it's looking really possible that I'll be able to go to the Classic Gaming Expo on the last week of July, as long as I get my first paycheck before then.

In other news, my iBook has a brand spankin' new 100GB hard drive, so I have more than enough room to keep all my music on it. Yay!

2 Months and Counting...

Tomorrow is the last day of school. I get a week off, and then I start teaching music technology at the Newport News Summer Institute of the Arts (SIA) until August 3rd. SIA flew by last year, so if that's any indication, August will be here before I know it.

I still haven't figured out where I'm going yet. At first, I thought Incheon, but I was dissuaded by those who thought it was too small (only 2 million people, compared to Seoul's 22 million). I'm 90% sure I want to teach in the public schools, so now I just have to decide on whether to take a job in Incheon or go with 10% of my instincts and take a private school job in Seoul, which I've been offered three so far. I really had my heart set on a public school job in Seoul, but I got an email from SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) saying they weren't taking any more applications for August. After doing more research on Incheon, I don't think it would be a bad place to live--sure, it's not nearly as big as Seoul, but 2 million people is still quite a few, and it looks like they're really doing a lot to make the city the "Hub of Asia" (according to their webpage.) That's the thing about Korea. The country is so wired, everything you can think of has its own webpage. I guess it's getting to be like that to now in the states--I just don't spend too much time on tourist websites here. A plus to living in Incheon is that it's on the coast, which means beaches and easy weekend trips to China. Incheon also has the biggest airport in Korea, so anyone coming to visit me will fly into my city :)

Anyway, I'm trying to stay positive about the whole thing. The important thing, I've been told, is to not take the first job you're offered, because there are 20,000 jobs and only 11,000 teachers to fill them, and with my qualifications of previous teaching experience, I should be able to find a job that I can really look forward to starting once I arrive.

It's official: I'm here till August.

I found out today that I'm officially going to be in Newport News until August. There was some confusion about the Summer Institute of the Arts, specifically whether my services as teacher of music technology and brass instruments were going to be required again. Thankfully, I finally got ahold of my supervisor today and he informed me that I would be teaching there again. This is great news for me because it will put me in great shape financially to start in Korea-I may even get to buy a TV when I get there, which would be great!

In other news, I'm almost done listing all my video games on ebay. The last big thing I need to sell is my arcade machine, which I think I'll just put up on Craigslist to avoid the hassle and fees of a major ebay transaction.

Seven more days of school left! :)