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.