Friday, December 5, 2008

Choosing a School & Eating Shellfish

I've spent the last few weeks fielding interviews, researching schools, talking to teachers already in Korea, and just generally learning more about the country. After sorting through literally dozens of offers from schools, I've finally decided on where I'll be working for the next year! It's in a city called Bucheon (Boo-chun), which is about 20 minutes away from Seoul by subway. This doesn't mean I'll be living out in the sticks though: its population is over 800,000! Craziness.

Right now I'm about to send off all of my important documents that I talked about in an earlier post. It's just a TINY bit nerve-wracking to mail your university degree off to a foreign country! I'm sure it'll be fine, but still...

I've also started to buy some of the many things I need to take with me. From what I've read, Koreans don't use the exact same brands or quality for certain items, so I'm stocking up. For instance, I've bought a year's supply of: deodorant, soap, toothpaste, razors, gum, medicines. I also bought a set of luggage for the first time. Shut up, it's exciting to me! :-)

This is only some of the stuff...


This is my ridiculous collection of DVDs. I hardly ever watch them.


And here's what they'll look like for the next year!


I'm really excited now, especially since I have a fixed departure date and location.

Oh, one more thing! Some of you know that I claim to have a shellfish allergy. Well, this isn't entirely true. My dad's allergic, so he's basically scared me into thinking that I am as well. This has gone on for 25 years. Flash forward to my current adventure. I figured that once I got to Korea, I might not know exactly what I was eating all the time and didn't want to worry about dying. So today, I decided to brave the shellfish world and try shrimp and crab. I brought my mommy with me for moral and financial support.

Here I am, waiting for the potentially-deadly food to arrive. Note the hint of fear in my smile.


Shrimp! I don't even know what kind, but it was pretty decent.


My mom, trying to figure out crab legs.


The verdict? About 6 hours afterward, I felt kinda queasy, but it passed. I probably won't purposely eat shellfish again, but I won't avoid it like the plague, either. Yay for trying new things! :-)