Off to Korea!

Fri. 6/28 - Sat. 6/29  Off to Korea!

Hooray for aisle seats!

 After three airports, four security checkpoints, and 20 hours of travel, I have finally arrived in Korea!  Despite a minor flight delay from Seoul to Busan, all went smoothly and well.  Aisle seats all the way!


  

On the plane I had a chance to peruse my "Korean At a Glance" book (thanks Becky!), but still can only comfortably say the following words in Korean--
Hello
Thank you
American
English

I also started reading "The Book Thief."  For anyone looking for an interesting read this summer, I highly recommend it!

A little about the exchange program-

I am here with one other ESOL teacher from Fairfax County - Lee Braddock.  The Gyeongnam Office of Education is sponsoring us here for the next five weeks.  A representative from the Office of Education as well as the English teachers who will host each of us met us at the airport.  We were greeted by their smiling faces as well as this lovely flag :)

They took us to our hotel - Hotel International - in Changwon, where we will stay for two nights.  Sunday we have the day to ourselves.  On Monday morning, we will meet back up with our host teachers as well as the principals and vice principals from our respective schools.  I think we will get to visit some schools with them on Monday.  I am looking forward to it!

Sun. 6/30  Changwon

Today is Lee's birthday!  After a good night's sleep and a shower, I feel slightly less jet-lagged.  Today was completely free for us to explore the city.  We wandered around all morning and afternoon - up and down streets, in and out of stores and markets, pleasantly getting lost along the way.  We came across the following restaurant during our wanderings (see picture below).  Of course we were naturally amused by the statue out front and had to stop and take a picture.  Then we decided to come back to the restaurant later for Lee's birthday dinner.  It turned out to be a really nice Korean BBQ-style restaurant.      
   

Lee's birthday dinner restaurant

Tomorrow we are off to our schools and host families' homes!