Soy en Korea-yo

Hey all...

so i've finally made it. 2.5 months after deciding to make the jump, i'm sitting in the teacher's lounge at dongtan readingtown's (what a mouthful huh?) teacher lounge. i've yet to start teaching as of yet and won't for a few days, but observing the foreign (english) and native (korean) teachers has been interesting. the kids in korea seem almost as confused as the kids in america.

"han guk saram eeyayo?" -- are you korean?

i've already been distracted by the numerous dumbfounded glances i've received while the son sang nim is doling out the daily lesson.

so i just finished my self-paid physical...which was also interesting. i was escorted around by the school's equipment manager who had put on his translator hat for the morning. it's intriguing how much non-verbal communication can be effective.

now, the chief reason why my stay has been busy is my family. from the moment i stepped off the A330 in incheon airport until 12:30 am today, i was with family every free moment i had. i am surprisingly (maybe to some of you) the largest member. the night i arrived, i was greeting with warm, extensive, and fairly emotional embraces from my eldest (sung jin ,40) and 3rd eldest (hae jin, ?) brothers. the hour and half ride from incheon international to my place in byeongjeom was a little awkward at first, but funny enough, the ice was broken after we started talking about sports.

after staying with my sister (hae mi, 28) in her pretty plush new place--conveniently located 1o minutes from my numberless building--i woke up from the heated floor (very common and very efficient) to an american breakfast of spam and eggs ^^ . my sister and her husband, who works for samsung, were extremely great hosts. she also, shared with me some of her bands' songs--more on musical interests later.

to meet my 2nd oldest sister (crap i forgot my name list at home, 43?) and her pseudo famous daughter (ye seul, 16). my niece won 3rd place in all of the peninsula for ping pong...pretty sweet, huh? at one point, hae mi had to take a shower, and the two shy non-english speakers giggled as they snuck out so as to not be in the same room as me. when they returned, we shared pictures and took poloraids for a while. the pictures of my sister's korean wedding were gorgeous! "second oldest sister" is a hanbok model, and her portfolio was quite impressive as well. they all seemed very intrigued by a few particular pictures: 1) me and breeze on my citizenship-winning day, 2) me on my senior prom, and 3) of course, ms. holmes and mr. vanderbeek.

the day continued as my eldest brother returned with his/my mother. she made mugs look like a giant! for being 69, she is surprisingly very spry, and wouldn't let go of me for a solid 5 minutes. i had wondered how this particular meeting would turn out, and i found myself feeling a little detached (even though she wasn't), yet appreciative of her, and all of their, love. we sat some more and compared characteristics of me and my brothers. turns out many of my traits are not of my own creation! :

1- SLEEPING: my sister says that all of my brothers have a difficulty waking up.
2- DRY LIPS: they all have chapped lips most of the time
3- FACIAL FEATURES: the consensus is is that i have the lips/jaw of the youngest brother (hae-il) and the 3rd oldest/2nd youngest (hae jin).

well, i should probably run for now, but i will continue the story of my second day soon...