We're in Seoul, South Korea!

So, Daniel and I are now in Seoul, South Korea! For those that don't know, we have one year English teaching contracts in South Korea. We'll be living in Suwon City and teaching 7-12 year olds in after school English classes. Currently, we are staying at a hotel in Seoul (the capital) while completing the training program. It's five days of intense learning and testing...so wish us luck! After this, we'll be sent to our school and hopefully, be teaching next Monday (Sunday in the U.S.)!

We had three tests to pass right off the bat...and we just found out we passed them all!!! They turned out to be not that hard, if you had studied. Several people did fail though, but they just have to take the test again tomorrow. So that’s how we spent our first full day here…studying. We actually ate at a Quizno’s that day for lunch and then Burger King for dinner. I told Daniel that I need to ease myself in slowly to all this Korean food, and he is being pretty patient. He actually just bought some nasty fish/seaweed/rice cake thing and ate it whole while I stuck to a Dove chocolate bar haha :)

So, we haven’t really got to see much of the city of Seoul, just around our hotel. I think we’re both trying to stay focused on getting through training. According to some of the other employees that just got through training, its pretty intense and requires lots of preparing and studying the day before.

Today all we did was have a short orientation, take the tests, and then go in for the medical exam. It was an intense physical! They drew 3 vials of blood, gave us a chest X-ray, and complete vision and blood pressure tests. CRAZY! I thought we would never be done, but all that is a requirement for the foreign alien permit that the government issues.

So, after taking the subway back to the hotel, Daniel and I ate at this pizza & pasta place down the street. EVERYONE here speaks at least a little English, so we’ve had absolutely no problem ordering food or finding our way around. Seriously, old to young—everyone speaks some English!

I'm really liking it here so far, though. Everyone is really nice (Koreans and English speaking co-workers alike). Hopefully, once we get pass the orientation I'll have more culture and travel blogs to post...but for right now, its the boring part. Until next time!

The end

Wow! I can't believe that my semester abroad is coming to an end. Its a bittersweet goodbye really. I've made so many friends here in Uruguay that it is going to be hard to leave, but I also can't wait to get home to my friends and family in Tennessee. All good things must come to an end I guess and I'm so excited to get back home for the holidays. The transition from nice, beach weather to cold, winter weather is going to be hard, but I'll endure it I hope!

Actually, one thing I've missed the most while being down here in South America are the Christmas festivities. The people, in general, here don't seem to celebrate it as much and its hard to image it being Christmas time with the hot weather. I can't wait to get back to the Christmas celebration! Alright, well my flight heads out tomorrow evening and I'll be back in the states Monday morning. Happy Holidays everyone and I can't wait to see you all!

15 days of non-stop travel!

Whew, these last 2 weeks have been crazy! I finished up with finals the end of November and since November 24th I have been traveling through parts of South America. I am traveling with a small group of girl friends and we started off in Iguazu Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. The falls are located on the border of Brazil and Argentina and are truly awe inspiring. While there we went zip lining through the rainforest, rock climbing, rapeling, and took a boat tour to Paraguay. I had a blast.

From there we crossed into Brazil and headed for Rio de Janeiro. The city famous for the Christ the Redeemer statue, rainforests, and Copacabana beach (the picture above). We spent a couple days there laying out on the beach and shopping. Also, we took a train ride up the side of Sugar Loaf mountain and got to see an amazing view of the city and the ocean.

Paraty, Brazil was our next stop. Paraty was a little beach town and old colonial port. I loved the quaint little houses, shops, and restaurants. In Paraty, we took a horseback ride through the rainforest. For some of the girls, it was their first experience riding a horse and this, for me, may have been the best part haha! The trail took us through small villages and finally ended up at a waterfall. The following day some of the girls needed a break from the rough horseback ride, so we took a wonderful schooner boat tour. It took us to 4 deserted and private islands. It was so beautiful. Margaurite and I also ventured out on a kayaking one day. For some reason we just could not get the hang of the two person kayak. I am blaming the current. After a lot of aimless circling around in the ocean and a little embarrassement, we decided to cut kayaking short and spent the rest of the day reading on the beach.

Now, we are in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the last leg of the trip. Yesterday we went to the Museo del Arte de Sao Paulo and to a hippie fair. Today, we spent wondering around the shopping neighborhood of Vila Madelena and eating lunch in the Japanese neighborhood.

Today, we are boarding the 40 hour bus back to Montevideo. We stopped at a bookstore today though and supplied ourselves with lots of novels and hopefully there will be movies on the bus...otherwise, its gonna be a long ride! Only 6 more days until I leave for the states! I will try to update at least once more....chao!

Just to catch you up...

This weekend was great! Friday night, Claire, Abi, Monika, and I went to Carrasco (the ritzy part of town) to have dinner. We ate at this wonderful German restaurant and I'm not kidding when I say, I had the best pork chop ever...haha, it could be the fact that I haven't had pork in a while, but it was delicious! Then, Saturday evening we all went to this Arab/belly dancing show that was amazing. I was definitely impressed!

On Sunday, Maddy and I met up in Ciudad Vieja to go to Iglesia Matriz, the oldest church and building in Uruguay. We attended mass and it got interesting toward the end. Maddy told me that since neither of us were Catholic we couldn't take communion but we could be blessed by the priest. She just said that we needed to cross our arms over our chests and he would know that we weren't Catholic and would only give us a blessing. Well, easier said than done. He just looked at me like I was crazy when I did it and practically shoved the bread into Maddy mouth before she could get away. After, I think she felt a little bad for taking it, lol. So we obviously stood out as the two foreigners who had no clue what to do haha! Then, we headed to the market in Parque Rodo (neighborhood where I live) and tried to go souvenir/gift shopping, but didn't have too much luck.

So, this week is exam week. I had my Spanish exam on Monday, my Uruguayan Literature oral exam today, and another oral exam in Pensamiento on Friday. Let me tell you, taking an oral exam in a language you only halfway know is horrible! But, I'm almost done, yay! Going to Teatro Solis tonight to see a modern dance performace and then its study time tomorrow, boo. I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, though. This weekend I'm heading to Punta del Este beach with all the girls, about 15 of us in all. Then on Monday, I'm heading to on a 15 days South American adventure. First, we are going to see the largest waterfalls in the world at Iguazu, Argentina (the picture above). Then, we are heading on into Brazil to visit the cities of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. Finally, we are wrapping up the trip with a stay on the island of Florianopolis, Brazil. I can't wait!!!

A little good with a little bad

So, today was wonderful right up until the point when I was almost mugged, haha. Today, a whole crew of us girls met up at the "Mercado del Puerto (Port Market)" to have a birthday lunch for Elsa (another exchange student from California). It was a delicious meal followed by a saxophone accompanied rendition of "Feliz Cumpleanos." The day was beautiful and so the short walk to get the bus would've been pleasant had we not have been followed by a couple of trouble makers. They started asking for money and we told them we didn't have any (total lie, Cat had just withdrew a month's worth of rent from the ATM). Then one of them told the other to circle to the other side, but I think the one was scared and backed off a bit. The other boy however, grabbed my purse and tried to run off with it. It was a good thing he was an amateur and I'm a tough cookie. I held on to my bag and although it now has a broken strap, the boys were easily scared off and didn't get anything. It was broad daylight with tons of people around, though! I was shocked! Oh well, no harm done. I'm definitely signing up for a self defense class when I get home though. When it happened I didn't even yell, I just kinda stood in shock and held on tight. Next time, I'll be prepared with some karate moves or tai chi tricks, or just some pepperspray would've been nice. And to think...I told Cat when we first arrived that I wanted to buy some pepperspray and she laughed and said I was paranoid...ha what now Cat?

The picture was taken earlier but is kinda where the attempted mugging took place, lol.

Bueno muy bueno

So, this past weekend was Halloween and for us in Uruguay that meant a crazy blend of nationalities and really fun costumes. Maddy, Catherine, and I decided to go in a Carnaval theme since we will probably never get the chance again! Thus, with various colors of eye shadow, feather masks, and bright clothing, we pulled off the Carnaval look pretty well. At the Halloween party, there were gauchos, "dead" people, rockers, gangsters, hippies, and various other costumes. Every party is really fun though when you consider the blend of people there: German, Austrian, British, Danish, American, Mexican, Spanish, French, am I forgeting anyone....oh yeah and Icelandic (can't forget Inga)!

The rest of the weekend was spent studying for my spanish and literature exams with trips to the beach thrown in every now and then. Its soooo hot here now. It went from freezing to super hot like that! It was probably about 90 today. Lately I've been getting pretty fed up with the bus, so Cat and I walked the 2 miles to school today. Its not so bad and its way better than being squashed on the bus and feeling like you're in a sauna.

Anyway, my spanish test went good (don't know about lit yet)....got a bueno muy bueno. Haha, yeah, the grading system here is a litter confusing here, but that translates to about a "B." The levels are ridiculous, they go; deficiente, regular, bueno, bueno muy bueno, muy bueno, y sobresaliente. Yeah, a little silly if you ask me and thats not even all of the levels, those are just the main ones.

Got a spanish presentation coming up and lots of exams...but only 1 week of class and 1 week of exams left! 37 days left in Uruguay!!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm thinking this is going to be a little different from my ususal October 31st back in the states, but i'm up for some Montevideo Halloween times. Tonight, a few exchange students from Spain are hosting a Halloween costume party! It should be fun!


On Wednesday night, us girls went to Azabache which is a salsa club here. Danced a little salsa and celebrated Tine's 22nd birthday. Tine is another exchange student from Germany. Catherine and I left pretty early because she has Thursday morning classes, but by early I mean we were in bed at 3 o'clock. Nightlife goes on till the wee hours of the morning here, and for us Americans/British, its hard to keep up sometimes!


Anway, also on Wednesday was our last community service trip to Don Basco school. It was a little sad to have to leave the kids. You hope that you have made some kind of difference in their lives. Its sad not knowing what will happen with these kids. What will become of each of them. They have such hard lives and I just wanted to grab them all and take them home with me! We had a wonderful day though full of fun Halloween activities. Before we left, they had prepared a little "Going Away" party for us with cookies, coke, and other treats. They also presented us with a group picture and a small gift. It was so sweet and I'm definitely going to miss them!