So this is culture shock.

Well, Im in Daejeon, which is where I will be living for the next year. And it's alot bigger than I thought it would be. Here's a map in case you are like me and have no clue where anything in the world is.


There's about sixty of us teachers here and I have no clue where any of them are because our internet isn't supposed to be set-up yet but I kind of lucked out with already having internet so that was osom. My house is pretty tiny, pretty standard for Korea, but still tiny. It's basically a bedroom with a small (we're talking tiny) kitchen when you first walk in the door before you get to the bedroom. Then there's a bathroom and basically a closet where my washer is. They dont use dryers to dry their clothes or ovens. It's about as basic as you can get but I can tell that my school really tried hard to accomodate me because I have a brand new tv and all new appliances. And I figure, what's the point of coming to experience a new culture if you don't actually live the way they do. Right?

I went out this morning to kind of get my bearings and it was pretty overwhelming because I couldn't read anything and can't talk to anyone...so I think that is the hardest part about all of this. Not gonna lie, I did just cry to my mom on skype and almost lost it when I was talking to Beth's parents. For those of you who know me well though I'm a baby so it should be no suprise to you:)

One important thing I must note though is that I unknowingly ate dog last night. I felt like barfing all night. My co-teacher took me out to a Korean restaurant with my principal, vice-principle, and all the other teachers from my school so that I could meet all of them. None of them could speak English but they were really fun and every minute or so one of them would yell out "Washington!" So anyways though, when you first meet someone, especially your principal, it's kind of disrespectful to turn down food or drink that they offer you so I tried this meat and about ten seconds after I did this one guy says "you like the chicken" and I said "I have no clue what that is but I know it's not chicken" at which point my co-teacher informed me that I had just eaten dog. So I would like to formally apologize to all of the important dogs in my life: Stuart, Scarlett, Tilly, George and Summerset (RIP for the last two. They passed away from old age. I did not eat them). I even dreamt about dogs last night. There is a slight chance I'll be returning to America very deficient of protein since I might not be eating meat for a year:)