I'll never make it as a mime.

I'm starting day 4 in Korea. Finally last night I got a full night's sleep. Thank God for sleeping pills! I'm hoping I'm well on my way to conquering my jetlag.

I went out yesterday to find an ATM machine, do some grocery shopping and try to buy a cell phone. I used an online translator to get some key words down, but all of the translations were in hangeul characters. No help there! Hoping that my experience playing Charades in Spanish class over the last 2 years would help me out, I set out to brave Anyang, the Seoul suburb where Leslie lives. As it turns out, miming 'ATM Machine' is pretty easy. Miming 'prepaid cell phone,' however, is not. At least I got 2 out of my three tasks completed.

I think I've found a great job! I'm going today to check out the school and meet the Coordinator. It's located in Changno, Central Seoul, near some fantastic parks, a palace and a museum. The pay is good, there's plenty of opportunities for overtime (I could make up to $4000 if I so choose), the coordinator is Canadian (this is a good thing, because working for a Korean boss in a super-heirarchical society can be a challenge at best for stubborn outspoken Westerners like me), they offer to pay 50% of Korean classes taken by employees, there's 5 days of training, after which they give a $400 bonus, they'll pay for a Visa run to Japan, where they'll put me up in a hotel for a night, plus much more! Sounds like a great deal.

The Korean people are not as short as I thought they'd be. I'm tall here, but there are plenty of people my height. I'm not the towering giant I thought I'd be. They're super-helpful, as well. At a cell phone place yesterday, 7 of them gathered around trying to help understand my request for a prepaid phone. This one girl about my age was very outgoing, and her smile revealed poor dental hygiene. Flashing her rotten smile at me, she asked, "Me pretty?" I looked at her, confused, and she repeated, "Me beautiful?" I agreed profusely.