Update Letter to Family and Friends

Dear Family and Friends, November 17, 2009

I am finally getting around to writing to all of you after being in South Korea now for three weeks. I am sorry it has taken so long, but I still don't have internet in my new apartment and since I had some time to kill at work today, I thought I would use my school computer to connect with my family and friends. I have been writing my future BLOG entries that give my daily experiences in more detail on my laptop, but have yet to post them to the BLOG and I also haven’t bought a digital camera to share pictures yet. This is simply an update to let you know how I am doing and what living in Korea is like. I truly love living here, the people are so nice, the streets are safe, things are cheap, and the food is awesome. I am settling in nicely and adapting to my new surroundings. The only thing I don’t like about Korea is the weather, it is absolutely freezing. We have even had snow flurries twice since I have been here and my feet and hands have never been so cold. At least my time on the East Coast has helped me prepare for the cold weather, but it is still a shock after living in California again the last six years.

I am teaching at two middle schools, one in the city for three days and one in the country for two days. The two schools are like night and day. The city school has a large number of students and the class sizes are in the 30-40’s, where the country school only has about 80 students and the class sizes are about 16-20. Both schools feed me daily these incredible 7-8 course meals that have unbelievable flavor and spice. The Korean’s really know how to cook. They always have rice, soup, multiple vegetables and kimchi with every meal it seems like. The kimchi is always the same, but the types of rice, vegetables, and soups vary. I can see why most Korean’s are so skinny, none of them drink soda. In fact, they don’t drink anything with their meals, they use the soup broth during the meal and they might swig down a shot of water or green tea after the meal on the way out of the cafeteria, which is quite different from the states. All of the teachers eat in the same cafeteria as the students, and the students even sometimes sit with you. I am still learning how to use chopsticks, there are no forks in my school cafeterias, and the teachers laugh at me watching me using the chopsticks. I usually just get so frustrated that I resort to using my spoon and my hands or I might starve to death. Both of my classrooms have amazing technology, nothing you would see in a public school in the states, not for many years anyway. My huge monitor on my computer is directly hooked up to an 80-90 inch TV that is easily the length of the width span of my arms and serves as a touch screen. My classes are the nicest classrooms by far in both of the schools, very modernized and decorated and have entirely new desks, books, materials, chairs, computers, and digital lecterns. All of my lessons are being put on PowerPoint and full use of the technology is planned. I don’t teach very many classes though, which is kind of weird to me. It equates to lots of down time. In the states, a full load would put me teaching about 30 classes a week, here I might teach a maximum of 14, and sometimes less. No more than four in one day and sometimes only one class in a day. It seems be kind of a waste, but who am I to complain.

My apartment is really nice, not the newest in town, but very warm, thank you Lord, and pretty big, it is actually a two bedroom, one bath with a kitchen and a dining room. So I have plenty of room if anyone wants to come and visit. I look forward to my sister’s Amy and Paula coming in May. It is on the 15th floor, which is a nice view of both the yellow sea and the mountains. I get a nice view of the sunset each night over the mountains, if it is a clear day. There are lots of other foreigners in the apartment buildings including my new friend named Joanna from Canada. She is also teaching at two public middle schools out here, so we have been sharing our stories and lesson ideas. We are planning a hiking trip up one of the local mountains and a cabin stay for my birthday weekend, it should be fun. I will post pictures and tell all about it on the future BLOG. She has talked me into joining Facebook, since that is the way to stay connected to all of the 30-40 foreigners living in the area of Gunsan. My Facebook name is my maiden name, Tonya Lemmons, if any of you are on the site.

The first week I was here I found a Christian church that welcomed me with open arms. The Lord really blessed me with a loving, caring, and gracious church family. The church is all in Korean, but one of the ministers sits with me and does her best to translate the sermon. The pastor is a women and she must be funny, because I hear laughter throughout the sermon. We have a huge lunch between services every Sunday where I eat at the front table and I am treated like royalty. They have allowed me to use the phone to make international calls, use their computers, and have given me many things for my apartment including a brand new comforter, food, towels, and a rice cooker. My new friend from the church has taken me to lunch several times and driven me around town to shop and be my personal translator, I really owe the world to her and my new family and the thank the Lord everyday for all of them. They really have made adjusting to life and a new culture easier. When we sing in church I just mumble the sounds and clap, so it seems like I am singing, I really enjoy the music. We had a contest yesterday for their big Thanksgiving Day celebration where you had to guess the tune and then come up and sing the song in front of the entire congregation, about 200 people. I recognized a song and told my friend that I knew the song. She talked me into participating and going up and singing the song I recognized as “Lord I Lift Your Name on High,” which is one of my favorite songs of which I know all of the words. I use to sing it in the shower all the time. Anyway, the church recorded the performance and I have it on video, which I posted to the BLOG, if you want a good laugh. I am not very good, but I got the largest applause before and after the performance and they loved it.

So far, I love Korea, my new job, and all my new experiences. The only thing I miss is my dog, Jezebel, and Mexican food. I have lots of new friends, new challenges, and places to still visit. I am learning Korean and am also registering for school to get my TEFL certificate while I am here. Korea is a beautiful country with great food, great people, and a wealth of possibilities for a native speaker of English with a degree. I look forward to hearing from all of you either by email, phone, posting to the BLOG, or regular mail. I pray for all of you everyday and I hope all is well with each and every one of you. I love you all and God Bless.

From Freezing Korea,


Tonya Armenakis
760-298-8872
Building 101 APT 1514
Cityville Apt, So-ryong Dong
Gunsan City, South Korea
tonyaa@eduwizards.com
www.gunsanadventure.blogspot.com