Our first 2 weeks.......

So after two plane trips, many games of monopoly and wondering around airports looking for snacks but only finding sausages on a stick, we finally made it to Jin Yeong! We were welcomed with a huge downpour of rain and checked into our Motel. Alas though it had no windows, which made our jet lag far worse as we had no concept of time whatsoever! Even though the cleaner saw both of us on numerous occasions she still continued to provide us with only one large towel and two hand towels...??.
Anyhows, day 1 we had to be up bright and early to go for a medical health check. All Koreans have to have this if they want to apply for a job. It consisted of a full chest x-ray, blood test, hearing test, eye sight test and a urine test. Everything was operated in a sort of conveyor belt system which was very surreal. Ed's eye sight test could of gone better..... they made him take of his glasses and he failed to see the very first number- the biggest number of the chart. Then came the oh so lovely urine test....... we were both given a small cup and ushered to the toilet, Nina completed the task no problem whatsoever. Ed on the other hand, after being in the toilet for about 5 minutes (bearing in mind we were with our new teaching director and her husband who we had just met), came back empty handed saying 'he had stage fright'. After 40 minutes and 3 litres of water, Ed still claimed it was impossible for him to go as he was too nervous. We began to worry that our director might think that Ed had a serious drug problem and therefore couldn't go through with the test! However, help was on hand in the shape of Luke our director's husband...  Ed and Luke coincidently went into the toilet at the same time and Ed miraculously returned with a full cup! Medical test done and passed.
The first weekend we met Andrew and Amanda the previous teaching couple at the school, they immediately showed us the delights of Korean barbeque, which is delicious. Then we travelled 5 minutes outside Jin Yeong to President Roh-Moo-Hyun's house, as he sadly commited suicide it is a popular place to visit for Koreans. The landscape (actually the Korean landscape in general) is very beautiful with a constant skyline of mountain peaks. Rather morbidly the climax of the visit is hiking up to the point of the mountain where he committed suicide.. however, it was a really great introduction to Korea's history and scenery. Here are a few photos from our visit;

Then began our week of training at school under the guidance of Andrew and Amanda who were very very helpful and patient with us! The school is only a year old so it's very smart and modern. More detailed information to follow in future posts.

The second weekend saw us move into our new snazzy apartment about a 2 minute walk from the school. It came complete with pink flowery wallpaper, only on one wall, which contrasted beautifully with the 1980s-esque lime green kitchen tiling! However, it is much bigger than we thought it would be and we have managed to make it pretty cosy! Pictures below:

The same day we walked up the road to Jinyeong Market. The market pretty much contained fish, fish, more fish, and kimchi. Everything is locally sourced which means everything is so cheap! In general everything here is cheap unless you're buying western food. You can buy packs of beef that will last you a week for half the price of a jar of peanut butter. As we are the only foreigners in Jinyeong, pretty much anyone who can, comes up to us to either practise their English or just say hello. While walking in the market an elderly gentleman approached Ed and said 'Hello, nice to have met you', to which Ed replied 'Yeh, you too mate' without thinking. The man just looked puzzled and repeated his original greeting.

Our first supermarket shopping trip resulted in a massive amount of food for about £35. In korea, you need to buy a specific blue bag to use as your rubbish bag. We had some difficulty with the language barrier managing to get the right one, meaning we ended up carrying our shopping home in a 100 litre bag, with locals looking at us like we were crazy. Regardless, we managed to buy what we think was pork, beef and fish along with seaweed, rice and a variety of fillings to make korean sushi (gimbap) with.

Our latest exploration was hiking our local mountain in Jinyeong today. Everywhere you look here you can see mountains so we thought what better way to experience the scenery than to hike up our own local one. It was a lot steeper than we thought it would be but totally worth it for the views at the top. Hopefully we can try to hike up it once a week for the rest of the year! Following this, we went to the Sweet Persimmon festival in Jinyeong, where two of our students had offered to act as our guides. Sweet Persimmon is a type of fruit which looks like an orange tomato and Jinyeong is apparently famous for it. It was quite a fun experience, we tasted all kinds of food ranging from octopus to deep fried hot dogs (dont worry not real dog), and it was capped off with a terrible korean singer and some awesome fireworks.