(Note: I have included several maps on this post, so it's kind of long...just keep scrolling!)
I am back in Seoul after a 2 week vacation back home. Vacation was amazing in several different ways and helped to kind of guide my outlook/goals for the rest of my time here. If you don't know, I am staying on another 6 months at LCI. For those who thought I was staying another full year -- well, that plan has been vetoed. God willing, I will be home in February.
In the meanwhile, I wanted to give a "refresher" on my life over here. I created this blog to share my experiences with you all, but there are basic things I probably never mention...like, where exactly do I live? What do I do all day? What kind of food do I eat? Also, I have some new ideas for the bloggyblog here...mainly, in addition to sharing my adventures, also sharing some infos on life in Korea and Korean culture and such. I am totally in love with here, and I want to share that love!
SO, first things first...Korea? Where is that? How did you end up there?
I'll be honest and say...it may be started with a little show called Coffee Prince (thanks Maurietta) and a hankering I generally have to not only see, but truly live around the whole world. I mean, that's what I thought. I got over here and learned, ahhh, maybe God had something greater planned and maybe He's behind all these hankerings I get and wants to use them somehow? I mean, we'll see, but it's something that my mind's been opened to over the past year.
Anyways, so I was ready to get out of the Midwest...and I thought, hm, Europe, I've done that before (plus, high taxes, few available jobs, preference given to EU citizens, etc.) ...but Asia! Aha! In Asia, they seem to love English-speakers and have no ending of jobs available for them. And somehow (or not somehow, it was God, but I didn't know that till later) Korea just clicked in. I had no desire to go to any other country in Asia aside from Korea. It was an often overlooked country, and that in itself was enough to make me think, there is something there worth finding. And here I am!
Where is here?
Home is Seoul.
I've been to big cities before, but never really lived in one...but I found myself diving right in as soon as I got here. Sometimes I look around me and think, me? Little ole' me from Indiana? Here, in Seoul? You've got to be kidding me. And yet, here I am. I live in a neighborhood called Yeoksam (역삼)which is inside of the district of Gangnam (강남). Gangnam is the financial district and known to be pretty swanky and a generally happening place. 
I feel like my little neighborhood is perhaps a little ways off from that, but it's good to be close to a good subway line and plenty of stores. :)
I live in the LCI House with all the other teachers from our school. Like pretty much every other English teacher in Seoul, it's a studio apartment...Nothing glamorous, but the ondol (온돌 -- floor heating) works in the winter and AC in the summer, so I have few complaints. I work at a Kindergarten called LCI Kids Club (http://www.lcischool.com/). Its about a 15 minute jaunt to work, including a stop for coffee. :) Life as a teacher in Korea is a story all its own, so I'll save those details for later...Here is a closer map of my neighborhood...if you scroll around towards the left, the LCI House lights up and over at the right of the map you can scroll around and find LCI Kids Club.
There's the digest version of my life. I will be adding more and more details and adventures, so I hope you enjoy reading!
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