Annyong Haseyo! ("Hello" in Korean)

Happy New Year!!! We're so excited to finally be able to start our Korea blog. Today marks our 4th week in Korea and everything has been great so far. We arrived on December 4th after a 15 hour non-stop flight from Atlanta. Unfortunately our over-the-counter sleeping pills didn't work and we only slept for 2 hours! At least we were able to catch up on some new movies. We started working the next day, regardless of our jet lag. So far, we've spent most of our mornings before work exploring the city and getting accustomed to transportation and how things work here. The city we live in, Ulsan, is on the south-eastern coast of Korea. It has about 1.1 million people and our area is considered to be the upper-class part of the city, with many of our students' parents being doctors, lawyers, etc. Also, KIA and Hyundai manufacturing sites are based in Ulsan; operating the largest ship building facility in the world, which employs many of the parents as well. The map below shows where Ulsan is. We're about a 5 hour bus ride or 50 minute flight to Seoul, and only a 45 minute bus ride to Pusan, which is S. Korea's 2nd largest city.

Everyone's been asking us "How does Korea compare to Japan?" and to tell you the truth, there is almost no way this experience can beat our time in Japan. With that said, we think the food is much better here and much more people speak English, which is great since we've only learned about 3 words in Korean since we've been here! The food here is very flavorful and spicy. They eat a ton of pork and kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) with every meal. Things here are much cheaper than Japan and the states. We can eat a meal for 2 consisting of Korean BBQ, rice, kimchi, and many other small side dishes for 11,000 Won, which is less than $11! Western restaurants are much more expensive, though. Our city has TGIFridays, Bennigans, and Outback, as well as McDonald's, KFC, Baskin Robbins, and Dunkin Donuts. When we first arrived, our apartment didn't have a fridge yet, so we were forced to eat out every meal. At first, we were eating McDonald's every day, but we eventually got sick of it and ventured into some Korean restaurants, which was nerve-racking, but fun! We now have our fridge and cook just about every meal. No one rides bikes here, so to get around, we either have to take a bus or taxi. The grocery store is about a 10 minute taxi ride, which costs about $4 each way, so we usually only go when the other teachers need to go shopping and we can split the cab fare. On the upside, a small outdoor market sets up every 5 days that is just down the street from our apartment and we always go there to buy fruits, veggies, and chicken from the local people. It's SO much cheaper than the grocery store! We can get a huge bag of oranges for $4, a package of 4 chicken breasts for$3, and a basket of about 3 dozen eggs (with the feathers still on them!) for $4.

Here are some pictures of the outdoor market: