jinju stand up!

today we finally met our school officials and homestays. most schools send their principals or vice principals plus our co-teacher (the teacher who will work the closest with us throughout the year). my school just sent the two youngest english teachers. they are tight! we had a great time at lunch. it was not awkward at all. they're both pretty new to the school too. Ellie's been there for a year now while Min has only been there for half a year. the former fulbrighter at this school was there for two years, meaning he was there for longer than these two teachers. in any case, after spending lunch, an hour taxi and subway ride, and a 4-hour bus ride together with them, we are tight. i love them. Min has a 3 year-old boy and a British accent. apparently he studied in England for a year. it's great. Ellie spend a year in Canada, although she doesn't really have a foreign accent. she did say that she wanted to adopt a British accent though. she once attended some workshop where the speaker said that Americans will ignore people who speak English with weird accents. she doesn't want to be ignored. she also lives near busan and loves it and has therefore offered to take me on the weekends.

at the rest stop during the bus ride, Min bought me a pizza-hotdog. the heck is a pizza-hotdog you ask? well, the inside is like a pizza flavored sauce. and the outside is like a hotdog bun thingy that's been deep-fried kind of like a bread stick. it was weird. he also bought red ginseng chocolate. i can't really decide if i like it yet. but i do keep on eating it.

and now on to the homestay. when we get off the bus, the homestay father is already there waiting. he sees us from across the street and starts yelling and waving. it was pretty cute. we get home and the mother is cooking some amazing food. which included fried eggs and potatoes. so good! there were tons of other stuff too, like tonkatsu, soup, salad, etc. but the eggs and potatoes really hit the spot. especially after not really haven eaten them at all this last month. my father is a university professor, though i have yet to find out what he teaches. my mother is a nutritionist (i can only imagine what this will mean for my stomach). their english is not the greatest - they kind of just throw out words without making sentences. so i am a little bit worried about how i am going to communicate with them. they're both super nice though. my mother grew up with one of my co-teachers, so that's how they were brought into all of this.

the boys are awesome. their english is a little bit better, though it is still a little bit of a challenge to communicate. when i got to the house they weren't there because they were at the academies. the younger one (chang uk) got home around 9:30. he's a middle school second year and is apparently ranked #4 out of 400 students. the older one (sang uk) got home around 10:45. he's a high school third year and is also supposed to be brilliant. well, at math at least. he just won some award today that he was showing me though i couldn't figure out what it was for. he'll be applying for colleges this year and could be moving out of the house next february. because of this, his schedule until nov, when he takes the big test, is absolutely ridiculous. he wakes up at 7am and goes to bed at 2am and is basically studying all day. i tell him that if there is anything i can do for him, that he should let me know. this is what he says to me: "my brother is pretty lonely these days [because the older brother has to study so much], take care of him and play with him."

you can learn so much about a family by watching how they interact. this family is awesome. the parents are great together. the two boys are great together. and the boys are great with their parents. you can really tell that they all get along real well and love each other. the father tells me that i should talk to the boys in English and to the parents in Korean. that way it's a win/win for all of us. it really is going to be a great year. the only thing though, is i don't know how much time i'll get to spent with the boys if they're going to be at school for so much of their days.

the apartment is sweet. i've got my own room which is a pretty good size - a castle compared to our dorms in chuncheon. the father also bought me a brand new bed and maybe dressers too. these people have been so great to me. there's also talk of trying to get me a car. but we'll see how that plays out. i will meet my principal tomorrow and then start teaching next monday. which means i'll finally get to sleep! thank God. goodnight.