2nd Week of Training and Christmas

So we finished our second week of training on Thursday. My school decided they wanted me to teach TOEFL prep so I had a week of that. Because there are only 5 of us left, our class sizes were tiny. My class was just me! It feels good to be done again though. I've been living in a hotel for 2 weeks now which means it has been 2 weeks since I've done laundry, unpacked, or cooked.

But that should all change soon because I now have my branch assignment: Pyeongchon, which means I can go apartment hunting. I'm meeting with the realtor on Monday and I start teaching on Tuesday. For the first two weeks I'll just be substituting, and then I'll get my own classes. I picked up my books today at the branch and had a look around the neighborhood. It's pretty suburban, but there is a main street and a large stripmall so it should be OK. There are also some pretty mountains in the background and I saw a few people with ski/hiking gear.

Oh yeah, and it snowed on Christmas!!! Yes, it was just a few flakes. No, it didn't collect. And no, I wasn't able to capture it on camera. But still, it snowed on Christmas! It was my first time witnessing snowing in action and it was awesome....until it got in my eye and then it was marginally less awesome.

Today was super cold (18 F) and I think it's supposed to snow again next week. Today and tomorrow I'll be prepping for my first class, and on Monday I'm going back out to Pyeongchon to look for housing and have orientation for the non-TOEFL classes I'll be teaching.

As for Christmas, the gang and I decided to go traditional: We hit up a burger joint called Smokey Saloon and then went to the mall. Apparently that's what they do here in Korea because Coex mall was packed (I could probably devote an entire post to Coex, which includes within its walls a Megabox movie theater, an aquarium, a casino, and a kimchi museum, in addition to hundreds of stores and restaurants). I also watched a classic Christmas movie, Grosse Pointe Blank. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty successful Noel.