round two: 석천 (seokcheon), south korea

in case you were wondering, i made it to korea as scheduled.  15 hours in the air was a bit rough with only patches of sleep, but i had my own movie theater/video game console on this flight, which was a first for me, so that kept me occupied a bit.  when i landed, there was a cab driver waiting for me who had a sign with my name on it.  that always makes things so easy.  i had a pleasant ride south with another arriving teacher, thomas.  he was heading to a middle school about an hour away from where i am.  i haven't heard from him since being dropped off at my school, so i hope he's adjusting well.

i'm in 석천 (seokcheon) this time, which is nowhere.  it's located on the west coast about an hour southwest of where i was last time in suwon.  that's not too bad of a bus ride, but getting to the 'local' bus station in jo-am is a bit of a hassle.  a bus stops at the bus stop near my apartment only a few times a day and i still haven't figured out exactly when those times are.  so i can call a taxi to come pick me up and take me to jo-am if i want to go somewhere on the weekends, but no matter how hard i try with the best korean i've got, they have a difficult time figuring out that i want a taxi to come pick me up.  they'll figure out soon enough that i'm the only foreigner in this apartment, that's in the middle of nowhere, that wants a ride and send one right away.

that's my apartment building on the right (click photo to enlarge).

i have a half-basement apartment that is quite a bit larger than my old places in the gok.  i'll post some interior pics sometime.  it snowed a few inches one night last week, it's snowing again tonight.  here's a 7am sunrise shot out from one of the ground-level windows in my kitchen.

the raised rows and wooden stakes are for planting a new crop of ginseng.

here's my school, 석천초등학교 (seokcheon elementary).  it's fairly small because it's so rural.  about half of the students' parents work at a local kia factory, the remainder are mostly farmers and fishermen.  i haven't started teaching yet, but i'll be primarily teaching 3rd-6th graders.  i'll have a couple of extra (outside of the core curriculum) classes, composed of 1st-2nd graders, as well as a parent and a teacher class.  i get free school lunch everyday and i would say that it's probably better quality than what i remember of public school lunches.  all of the lunch ladies know that i'm a vegetarian, so if there's a whole bunch of meat in the dishes one day, they set some aside just for me that doesn't.  that makes it especially awesome and i really appreciate the effort.

on the left we have king sejong, who invented hangeul, and on the right i believe we have a famous maritime admiral whose name i don't know (it could be there in hangeul, but i don't know which part would be his name, i could guess but i'd probably be wrong).

this right here is a korean swing called a 그네 (geu-nae).

well, it's approaching my bed time of 10pm (which is about 5 hours earlier than i'm used to, but i'm adjusting) so it's time for a late, but light dinner and some sleepy time tea.

i'm out

due to the incompetence of the united states postal service, i just received my visa back from the consulate nearly a week after it should have arrived.

i'm leaving my parents' in an hour to go to the airport.  i'll be arriving in korea on friday afternoon (korean time).

we'll see how this year fares.  stay posted for more happenings in the east.