Moving, Indian Food in Korea, and School

Indian food--curry and naan!

Curry, naan, and rice!

Me, Adam, Danielle, Pam, Dolores, and Lily out for Pam's
last night in Korea.

I just wanted to give everyone a run down of what's been happening in the last week or so. Last Saturday was the day that I moved from my tiny rented room to my permanent apartment. Danielle, who lives in Byeongjeom, thankfully helped me move all my suitcases and find the apartment. The apartment does not have any keys, but it has a keypad on the front door and on the apartment door, so all I have to do is enter a code. For those of you who know me quite well, you know that keeping track of keys is not exactly my strong suit. It's definitely large for a Korean apartment, but pretty tiny according to American standards. It's definitely big enough for my needs, though! I'll post some pictures of it soon so you can all take a peak. I unpacked some of my stuff, and then went over to a friend's apartment for a girl's night with wine and a potluck dinner. It was fun, and great to get to know some new people! I was also sad to find out that many of these new people are leaving soon.

On Sunday, I finished unpacking and met up with Danielle and Lily later in the afternoon. They gave me a tour of Byeongjeom, my new neighborhood. They showed me where some good coffee shops, bus stops, grocery stores, and main streets are. We got some coffee and they also gave me a list of helpful words and phrases to use. After coffee, we met a few more people so we could go to Swoyambhu Restaurant in Suwon for Indian food. I've never really had Indian food, so I wasn't sure if I would like it. But it was delicious! It was Pam's going away dinner. Her contract ended, so she is going to travel in Thailand for some time before she moves to Okinawa to teach there. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to visit her!

Korean money, the won. A dollar is about a thousand won.
I think Korean money is very pretty!

Monday was the first day of the new term, and my first day teaching a normal class. (Last week was the end of term, so most classes had finished their exams and were celebrating by playing games for the class hour.) It seemed like everything went well, but it is a very strange feeling to not really know what I am doing. I had been a server for probably about eight years before switching to teaching young children, so I'm definitely still getting used to it. It snowed a tiny bit this day, but there wasn't enough to  stick on the ground at all.

Tuesday was quite uneventful, just teaching and starting to get into a groove at school. Wednesday was our snow day, which I just made a post about. I love unexpected free days! And today, Thursday, was quite swell. I'm feeling more comfortable at school, I'm remembering the names of students, and though the roads were icy, I didn't get lost on my way to work! George helped me to carry the bedding and catching supplies that work got to furnish my apartment home, and then I left to go in search of food. On the way, I ran into Adam, who lives in my building, and he decided to come to dinner with me. Lily and Jen joined us too, and we had some fantastic mondu and noodle soup dish. I'll definitely be going back there soon!

This upcoming weekend, I plan on going to the toilet museum (yes, you read that correctly!) on Saturday and journeying to Seoul on Sunday to visit a Van Gogh exhibit. At least that's the tentative plan, and it sounds like a it should be a fun weekend!