We have arrived!

After almost 2 solid days of traveling, we arrived here in Ulsan and have been here for almost a week now. The past week has been filled with lots of school, shopping, unpacking, meeting new people, and preparing for classes. We started work on Monday, observing our 11 classes that we would be teaching. Tuesday afternoon, we started our first day of teaching all by our selves! So far, only one class has caused me too much grief (and tears). I think Jared is handling it better than I am. Classes are only 25 minutes long, which sounded short to me before, but I have quickly come to realize how long 25 minutes can take. We are teaching math, science, or language, depending on the class; and if all else fails, it's a game day!

We work with 6 other American teachers who have all been very helpful in teaching us how to plan our classes, as well as get to know the huge city of Ulsan. With a 1.3 million person population, I thought getting around would be much harder than it has been. We have been able to walk everywhere we have needed to go, with an occational $3 cab ride to go out to eat wih our coworkers. Our school is on the left side of our building (our porch actually overlooks our school), and the gym that we will soon be members of, is on the right side.

Eating out here is cheaper than buying food at the grocery store. Typically, between Jared and I, our lunch will be about $ 6 total. Buying meat or cheese at the store is about 10 times what it is back in Washington. It's pretty amazing how expensive certain items are, and how cheap others are.

The weather has been in the high 60's since we got here. It seems to rain often at night, and the evenings are cooler, but the days have been sunny. We met another couple at a bar, who took us on a 10 mile hike last Sunday, through Grand Park, about 10 minutes from our apartment. We have off work today and I'm trying to convince Jared to go back!