Happy St. Patrick's Day to me!

This blog is about our experiences teaching abroad in Deokso, South Korea.

For those of you who aren't aware, Teddy and I applied for a teaching position at a hagwon (English school) in January. We heard about the opportunity to teach in South Korea through our college friends who have and are currently teaching in many parts of the country. After lots of prayer and research we felt like the Lord was leading us to leave our home, job, family and friends to come to a foreign land to teach English. Crazy, huh? We thought so too. Yet God works in mysterious ways.

We applied in January, got a job in February. We quit our job, packed all our belongings and moved into Teddy's parent's house. For two weeks we waited for our visa to come in. We spent that time saying our goodbyes and enjoying America=) After we received our Visa we packed our bags and set off for the airport on St. Patrick's Day. After a 14 hour flight we arrived in Incheon, South Korea the next day at 9pm.

Unfortunately things weren't as we expected them to be. First of all Korea is cold! Our first night we did not have heat or hot water in our apartment. It was about 30 degrees in our room. The next day we went to our school and met all of the teachers. We were able to observe classes that day. We told our director about our problems and they were fixed that day! We went home to a warm and cozy apartment and we were able to shower!! Things were looking up!

On Sunday we decided to be adventurous and navigate the Subway system. It's alot easier than it looks. We went to Iteawon which is known as the foreigner district. We were set on trying to find a Methodist church. We found many churches that day just not the Methodist one. We ended up going to a Baptist church. This was also the first place we saw foreigners. We were so excited! There are probably about 3 foreigners that live in our city. We are definetely a minority here. After church we decided to walk down the street and randomly ran into 3 TFC friends. How crazy! In a city of 10 million we would find them. We ended up meeting up with some more TFC friends and hung out the rest of the day. We went to an old tea house where birds fly around everywhere and there is a fish tank in the bathroom floor. Very cultural =) We also got to see a really cool palace from some dynasty. Everything was in Korean sorry. We finished the day with a trip to Emart. It's like going to Walmart here except way more exciting! We finally got clothes hangers for our apartment. Yay!

Monday was our very first day teaching. We teach kids from the age of 7 to 13. The kids are very respectful and adorable! Teaching is really laid back here. We have a curriclum that we follow so it's very easy. The kids seem to learn really fast. We teach six classes a day. The kids here are in school till 8:30 at night! They are pretty hardcore about education over here.

Things are going pretty well here in Korea. We are taking it one day at a time. It is easy to get overwhelmed by how completely different the culture is. I have never lived in such a big city before. Atlanta is nothing compared to Seoul! Will keep you updated and post pictures when we get internet at our apartment. Would love your prayers! Thanks for all the support!