First Impressions (cont'd)
To continue on my initial impressions:
My apartment is really nice. It's shabby in some places, gashes in walls, peeling paper, raised flooring, etc. But it's spacious and has a good flow. I think I'll quite enjoy it. I can't figure out how to work the gas stove (and I should know, I had one in Poland) but I think it may be that the propane was turned off from when the last teacher who lived here moved out over a month and a half ago. I can' t get hot water either. . . which made for a super quick shower last night but I'm sure I'll get both of those things sorted quickly.
Note in the bathroom the shower head
above the sink and washer. I just shower
right there in the bathroom with no
separate space.
My living room is really nice - amazing t.v. but the cable connections are in the bedrooms for some reason and there's certainly no room in my bedroom. I could move it into the spare room I suppose but hopefully I'll just be able to not get cable, save that cost and in addition save my mind the rot!
My Porch
My room - about half the size of the spare room but I took it for the air conditioner.
The spare room
I arrived Wed. night and Thurs. went in to start training. A little intense but I'm holding up pretty well I think, and am looking forward to actually start teaching as today and tomorrow I'm just observing. Interesting at first but it gets tiring just sitting there all day not saying or doing anything really. The kids are super cute though. Some of them look like they'll be a handful but most of them also seem to really enjoy learning which I love. I haven't learned many of their names yet . . . except some of the cutest ones of course! Like Beth who has the hugest, darkest eyes I think I've ever seen, Marlon who is . . . ummm, kinda like a little Korean GQ man - and I mena little. I'd be surprised if he's more than 4 feet, Rob, excited little smooth-talker, and a few others.
The teachers mostly seem fairly nice though there hastn't really been a lot of time to talk yet. Someone left a bananna on my desk for me which was fairly nice . . . and interesting! Becky, a girl from England who I was in touch with through email and MSN is incredibly friendly and nice. She's gone out of her way in a few areas to help me otu and try to make this transition a bit smooth for me. I went out with he
r, another foreign teacher and a Korean teacher to a restaurant called Shabby Shaboo tonight. It was beautiful. You go in, take your shoes off at the door then it's this alrge open space (only separated by a wall of water with blue bubbles. It's all wood (or wood finishing) and the tables are long and in rows throughout the buliding. There are little red pillows for people to sit on and grills set up in the middle of each table. We ordered three course meal. It comes together and we all cook the food in one pot and share it. It starts with spicy soup, (with vegetables) which is brought to a boil on the grill. You then add the meat and wait for it to cook in the soup. After that is all finished you add noodles to the soup pot, cook them, and enjoy. Finally, for a finisher a server comes and mixes up a rice, vegetable and egg pudding in the pot. It was really good! I ate most of my meal with chopsticks, though they were metal ones and probably the hardest I've ever used (of the maybe 4 times I've eaten with chopsticks in 7 years). I got the hang of it at one point though and was really on a role . . . then I wanted some water- bad idea. Word of advice, if you've got a position that's working for you and this is a rare occurence forego the drink or use your other hand! I spean the rest of the meal trying to get them so I could use them well again. If I don't catch on quick I'm probably going to lose some serious weight while here. I doubt if I ate a quarter of the food the others did because it took me so long to pick up anything.
It was also nice to get to know the teachers a little bit better. I really liked the Korean teacher who was with us, Jamie. She's incredibly sweet. She emphasized through the meal and after we left as well how glad she was that I had come and that she thought we'd become great friends.
Hmm, a few people have asked about the city. I still haven't seen much beyond the area I live in. It's surrounded by mountains though. I can't really see them from where I am except in the top floor of our school building but they're there. Not as close as I'd hoped but I imagine I'll get to visit them on weekends. The area I'm in isn't a great part of town I think. The sidewalks are very broken up and uneven and it's incredibly dirty. There's always a smell - sometimes/places worse than others but it's constant. There seem to be a lot of little parks though and they're really pretty. Also, most of the small streets I've been on are lined with big luscious trees.
On the way home, at about 11:00 at night I was coming out of a shop and absolutely bombarded by a group of about 15 young school boys. It was pretty cute. They were so excited to see a foreigner and practice their English. They were saying 'hello', and 'goodnight', asking my name, where I was from, etc.
My apartment is really nice. It's shabby in some places, gashes in walls, peeling paper, raised flooring, etc. But it's spacious and has a good flow. I think I'll quite enjoy it. I can't figure out how to work the gas stove (and I should know, I had one in Poland) but I think it may be that the propane was turned off from when the last teacher who lived here moved out over a month and a half ago. I can' t get hot water either. . . which made for a super quick shower last night but I'm sure I'll get both of those things sorted quickly.
Note in the bathroom the shower head
above the sink and washer. I just shower
right there in the bathroom with no
separate space.
My living room is really nice - amazing t.v. but the cable connections are in the bedrooms for some reason and there's certainly no room in my bedroom. I could move it into the spare room I suppose but hopefully I'll just be able to not get cable, save that cost and in addition save my mind the rot!
My Porch
My room - about half the size of the spare room but I took it for the air conditioner.
The spare roomI arrived Wed. night and Thurs. went in to start training. A little intense but I'm holding up pretty well I think, and am looking forward to actually start teaching as today and tomorrow I'm just observing. Interesting at first but it gets tiring just sitting there all day not saying or doing anything really. The kids are super cute though. Some of them look like they'll be a handful but most of them also seem to really enjoy learning which I love. I haven't learned many of their names yet . . . except some of the cutest ones of course! Like Beth who has the hugest, darkest eyes I think I've ever seen, Marlon who is . . . ummm, kinda like a little Korean GQ man - and I mena little. I'd be surprised if he's more than 4 feet, Rob, excited little smooth-talker, and a few others.
The teachers mostly seem fairly nice though there hastn't really been a lot of time to talk yet. Someone left a bananna on my desk for me which was fairly nice . . . and interesting! Becky, a girl from England who I was in touch with through email and MSN is incredibly friendly and nice. She's gone out of her way in a few areas to help me otu and try to make this transition a bit smooth for me. I went out with he
r, another foreign teacher and a Korean teacher to a restaurant called Shabby Shaboo tonight. It was beautiful. You go in, take your shoes off at the door then it's this alrge open space (only separated by a wall of water with blue bubbles. It's all wood (or wood finishing) and the tables are long and in rows throughout the buliding. There are little red pillows for people to sit on and grills set up in the middle of each table. We ordered three course meal. It comes together and we all cook the food in one pot and share it. It starts with spicy soup, (with vegetables) which is brought to a boil on the grill. You then add the meat and wait for it to cook in the soup. After that is all finished you add noodles to the soup pot, cook them, and enjoy. Finally, for a finisher a server comes and mixes up a rice, vegetable and egg pudding in the pot. It was really good! I ate most of my meal with chopsticks, though they were metal ones and probably the hardest I've ever used (of the maybe 4 times I've eaten with chopsticks in 7 years). I got the hang of it at one point though and was really on a role . . . then I wanted some water- bad idea. Word of advice, if you've got a position that's working for you and this is a rare occurence forego the drink or use your other hand! I spean the rest of the meal trying to get them so I could use them well again. If I don't catch on quick I'm probably going to lose some serious weight while here. I doubt if I ate a quarter of the food the others did because it took me so long to pick up anything.It was also nice to get to know the teachers a little bit better. I really liked the Korean teacher who was with us, Jamie. She's incredibly sweet. She emphasized through the meal and after we left as well how glad she was that I had come and that she thought we'd become great friends.
Hmm, a few people have asked about the city. I still haven't seen much beyond the area I live in. It's surrounded by mountains though. I can't really see them from where I am except in the top floor of our school building but they're there. Not as close as I'd hoped but I imagine I'll get to visit them on weekends. The area I'm in isn't a great part of town I think. The sidewalks are very broken up and uneven and it's incredibly dirty. There's always a smell - sometimes/places worse than others but it's constant. There seem to be a lot of little parks though and they're really pretty. Also, most of the small streets I've been on are lined with big luscious trees.
On the way home, at about 11:00 at night I was coming out of a shop and absolutely bombarded by a group of about 15 young school boys. It was pretty cute. They were so excited to see a foreigner and practice their English. They were saying 'hello', and 'goodnight', asking my name, where I was from, etc.
posted by Charles at 8:48 AM
3 Comments:
The thing that caught my attention the most in this post, is the shower. That just blows my mind...seriously.
strangely enough, this weird multi-tasking shower stall/bathroom thing isn't as uncommon as one would think (and by one i mean sane ppl)mari just got back from...denmark and she had the same set up. i guess it's a bit of a time saver. clean yourself and your bathroom at the same time. but to address more important things, i hope you've figured out the hot water problem.
I used to have a blogger account ...but I cannot remember the pw for the life of me.
about the shower... I LOVE IT. We used to have that at my grandmas house back in S'pore. i find it very practical and exteremly easy to clean :D
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