Today I officially accomplished one of my goals while living in Korea. I purchased food and coffee at two separate shops. I used complete sentences and even comprehended how much change I was receiving (they speak so fast the numbers normally blend together, that was until today). It is amazing how quickly you catch on when your stomach is rumbling. I am still no where near having conversational Korean skills, but I can speak enough to get around. I am going to do an advertisement for Rosetta Stone. If you have to travel somewhere and want to learn the language it is worth the money. Get it! If I can pick up freaking Korean anyone can learn any language they want. Grab a foreign language dictionary to fill in the gaps and get to studying. Rosetta Stone plug now over.

Back to my day. I have spent a majority of my time the last three days alone. Sungjoo, my roommate, has been away working on a huge project for Younsi University (Younsi is the Harvard of South Korea, PS Sungjoo is brilliant). It has been an amazing learning experience. Walking all over a city not knowing anyone, and not being capable of complete communication is a new experience for me. I highly recommend it. You have to think and do things completely out of your norm. Communicating is not just about words. You have to pay attention to tone of voice, gestures, eye contact, etc. You have to become perceptive to everything around you. Once you do you pick up a lot. Kids are constantly gesturing and saying yellow hair in Korean. You have to constantly be on your toes and watch out for those pesky ppl on mopeds also. They are getting more annoying as the days pass. I might just try a stiff arm/clothes line sometime in the next year. I would love to post it on You Tube in slow motion and try for a 100,000 hits. Honestly, they are just doing their job, but they do suck.

I start working on the 18th of Aug. That gives me more than enough time to go accustom to the way things work here in Korea. I am teaching grade school students and I am very excited about that. In Korea the students become slaves to education once the 7th grade starts. School from 8am-10pm. It sucks. The kids are over worked, drained of energy and not receptive to much of anything halfway through the day. I will be teaching 1st - 4th graders. They are still energetic and have not been drilled to death by teachers and exams yet. If anyone has any ideas on games to play with kids let me know.
Tomorrow I will start traveling with Sungjoo all around Korea. I am going to have some amazing pictures to post in the next week or so. Keep checking back. I hope you have a great Friday. Mine is almost over.