Many-any Firsts....

These past two days, I have maaany firsts:

1.) First time taking a shower in my apartment... I know, sounds disgusting seeing as I got here on the 3rd. BUT I stayed clean, and went to bath houses. But until Dave showed me how the whole shower thing works here in Korea, I was terrified!!! If you look at the picture below.. there is a shower head, but no.. shower, and the hose for water is connected to the sink's faucet!! I didn't understand the concept, I didn't want to get everything wet, I didn't want to die!! But I finally got the balls up to do it, and.. it was.. interesting? It got everything wet, the toilet seat.. everything, but the water pressure was awesome.. almost too good, and the temperature was great. But I can't say I'm looking forward to doing it again!




2.) First time seeing someone use chopsticks with their left hand. Haleluia!

3.) First time feeling seriously uncomfortable in a church. They found out I play piano, because my director goes to the same church (which is biig, so I don't know how they figured me out). And basically were asking me/telling me to play for the little kids at 9AM every Sunday. I had to try to be super nice, but explain that I hadn't tried any other churches yet, and I didn't want to make any promises... PLUS I told them I had only been living in Korea for 3 days, so I had no idea what my name was almost. It was really ackward there, just because they hoovered over me and even while I was eating I didn't even want to look to my left because I knew someone would be just lurking over me! BUT I found out that, it is very normal for that church and others to be pushy. Dave and Lynn let me know, sometimes you do just have to say no. And that they learned it the hard way the first time. It is super easy to get burnt out here. SO I will be looking into other places for now. They WERE really nice, but if it is like that every Sunday, It was just stressful.

4.) First time feeling like my personal bubble was encroached upon when no one was around but a couple. This almost goes along with number three, because I am learning that Koreans do not have a sense of personal space like Americans do. I was standing at a large open corner of side walk, waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green... and a couple who had ample space all around me came and stood literally an inch away from me. I looked around, seeing ALL of the space they had... and took a giant side step to the right. I was dumbfounded by it, and it made me almost mad everytime I thought about it. Until I talked with Dave and others about how here, personal space doesn't exist.

5.) First time teaching mini-asians. They were great, there wasn't anything too strange about it. Except for getting called 'new teacha' or 'teacha' a million times in one day. The kids behaved so-so, I had to get mad at some of the boys a couple of times. But it was mostly difficult because I didn't even know where they were in their books, I was basically thrown in a river without paddles. BUT I spent about an hour and a half making lesson plans after class and feel MUCH better.

6.) First time drinking tea that smelt like peanut butter :) I really liked it too!


All in all, the new experiences were good. I LOVE Korea, Korean Food, etc. And can't wait to learn more about their culture and past!