Quick update:

Week 2 of teaching went well, this next week features the monthly test on Wednesday, so we've got to make tests for all of classes, but that shouldn't prove to be too difficult. Saturday featured the return of the promotional clown and princess, this time we were even loaded with balloons in additional to school literature. Our fellow teacher Rachel was also dressed up, as the Korean equivalent to Barney, and the post-promo lunch of pork-spine soup was delicious, much better than its name would imply.

Saturday night Anderson made his Pusan DJ debut, and his first time playing in front of a crowd in about 5 years. A local bar/pub, called The Basement, had a "Full Moon Party" techno night, so he played on two CD-decks, with a hastily assembled collection of tunes on burnt CDs. He had the party rocking from 11pm - 1am, and while the dance floor wasn't necessarily packed at all times, people weren't leaving, either :-). Liz and Rachel were definitely getting their groove on, hopefully mostly inspired by the music and less so the discounted pitchers (yes, pitchers) of rum-and-cokes. Anderson will be DJing there again this Friday, for a hip-hop night, which may prove a bit more interesting... we shall see! Once his Mac laptop arrives from the States, then things will get real banging...

Today, Sunday, was also Anderson's debut soccer experience in Korea, with the club DMZ, which is part of a just-starting half-foreign-team and half-Korean-team league. The league officially starts in January, so this is all warm up friendlies, but still fun. He played in goal, since thankfully the club lacked a regular goalkeeper, though the shots were few in DMZ's 7-0 drubbing of rivals Inter Busan. Interesting statistical anamoly - not that any one's keeping them, but - saves equalled assists thanks to the super small field size, 1 of each :-).

We're hoping to get our Alien Registration Cards this week, which we've turned in our passports for, so we're just awaiting processing. That will enable us to get a Korean bank account, as well as a cell phone. Mostly we are waiting for December 8th, though, which is when we finally get paid :-).

A fresh post when it is warranted,
Peace from Pusan
A&E

Had a fun weekend, although Saturday was a bit work oriented. No teaching though, just some promotional work. For about an hour we passed out flyers outside a public elementary school, and then on a street corner to a swarm of potential customers. Afterwards we spent another hour at school during an informational session for parents, which basically meant we introduced ourselves and then hung out and ate snacks.
Oh yeah, and we got to wear costumes, too:

In between our "hours of hard work" we were treated to lunch by the school, and were urged to load up on snacks to take home. Not that working on Saturday is all that sweet, but at least it's easy and fun!

Last night was spent taste-testing Hite beers in our apartment, had to sample quite a few to make sure our tastebuds grasped the full complexities of its flavor :-).

Today we went with our fellow foreign-teacher Rachel to Beomeosa Temple, a gorgeous temple complex at the north end of Pusan. Lots of ornate buildings, most fully painted and well-restored, and everywhere was bustling with plenty of other people. The complex is also the starting point to hiking trails up into the mountains, so we did about an hour's worth of walking along stone paths and steps. The trees were in full-on autumn mode, which meant in the shade it was a bit chilly, but our warm and spicy soup afterwards took care of things nicely. A kindly Korean woman walked around with us, explaining what's what, and introduced us to a delicious fruit: persimmon. We had thought they were weird tomatoes, turns out they are vastly superior, like apples crossed with pears and peaches...

For dinner tonight we combined our very limited groceries to produce a previously unknown concoction: Fish Bacon Corn. It fortunately tasted better than it sounds, although no restaurant will be serving it anytime soon :-).

Week 2 of teaching starts in about 12 hours, we're looking forward to it for sure, although Anderson is more excited for an indoor soccer he's going to join next weekend!

Hope all's well,

Peace

A&E

We're doing fine, settling "down" into our Korean apartment and our new jobs. Liz has returned from Japan, so we're both here for "good" now, and are steadily getting used to teaching. We have the same students 5 days a week, but what we teach is split between M/W/F and T/Th. Classes are short, at 40 minutes, so though it's taking us time to get used to so many new things, time at work definitely flies by! Anderson is currently teaching 6 classes, while Liz only has 5, but those both may increase if more students enroll in the school. Some classes (and students) are easier to teach/handle than others, but all and all things are pretty easy, since after 2 days each we almost feel into the swing of things.
We've got an informational meeting tomorrow morning, so we have to be at school around 10am, but our 2:30 work start time is pretty prime, and then we are finished by 8:30, so our day definitely flies by! There are loads of good restaurants, including several 24 hour places, right around our school (and thus our apartment, too), so we are eating quite well. And for super cheap. Anderson's lunch today was 2000 won, and our dinner for two (soup) was 3000 won. It's around 900 won per dollar, but since we're getting paid in won, once this month is over we don't have to think in dollars anymore.
We'll try to get a more thorough "our thoughts on Korea" post up soon, but eyelids are starting to close...
Peace
A&E