Staying connected

One things thats really important about going overseas is that there are multiple ways of staying connected with both those at home, and those who you will meet. You will have to decide what ways you'll want to use.

this is by no means a complete list, It's just some things I know of, and the numbers I give are current as of 08-20-2012.

First, staying connected with back home.

the first part of this is knowing "who do I need to contact?"
friends? family? buisnesses? student loans? College? You need to know how to contact them. Also if you are going to have someone doing business on your behalf back home, make sure to get a Federal Privacy Act Waiver for them to do so or set them up on your accounts.

1. Google Voice: Google voice is a service where you can text and make calls through the internet. At the time I got it a phone number in The United States of America was free to get. This will get you unlimited calls to a USA number, unlimited text messages, and they can leave voice mails. no picture messages but you can send things through email. You can check it from your smartphone or on a computer.

2. Skype: Skype can do calls, text messages, instant messages, and video calls. Skype is free from Skype to Skype account, so if you have smart phones and computers, you can do this all free. However, If you are like me, then not everyone you know has a smart phone/computer. Also, business don't have Skype. There are different ways to use Skype.

• You can put money and be charged by the minute for a call, this changes by location, but it's $0.02 a minute right now. Pro is that its cheap short term if you aren't going to make a lot of calls. not good is that your number will show up blocked and people can't call you because you don't have a fixed number. unless you buy one. 
• you can buy a phone number: This lets you get phone calls in, people can leave voicemails. It can also be forwarded to your phone. This cost about $61.50 for a year
• you can get a subscription plan. If you know how much you are going to call, you can buy different plans.
• 60 min per mon    $1.09 a month
• 120 min per mon $2.09 a month
• 400 min per mon $4.99 a month
• unlimited U.S.A   $6.99 a month

personally, I have both a google voice (for the easy free text messaging) and skype (for the calling)

3. International calling cards: You can pick these up all over the place, they range in different prices. I've been told they range from $0.05 to $0.50 a minute on calls. There are lots of different carries as well, but I can't figure out all of them. If you are going to buy one I'd see if someone at your school can help you figure out which one is best for you unless you have good Korean.

4. Call from your phone: You can get a landline in Korea, and/or a handphone. A landline in Korea will be a monthly fee, which changes depending on your provider... I tried calling olleh to ask but that didn't work out well. I also couldn't read their website. soo... I don't have a lot of information on landlines. Cellphones can be used, I know Olleh and KT prices aren't that bad about 500 won a minute. 

5. Using other apps! Free ones! this works well if you get a smartphone or bring over something that can connect via wifi. You can either search for free wifi or buy wificards from the connivence stores to purchase some of the olleh wifi this is everywhere. 

Apps I use: 

• Kakao Talk. You can do free calling, send message, have group conversations, send pictures, video, and voice chats! It's userfriendly, has a easy to mange interface. It has a sister app called Kakao Story where you can post a little blog about yourself that others can follow.
• Hallo: It lets you send little voicemails.
• facebook
• google plus
• skype
• foursquare ( you know your friends when to chipotle and that you can't)
• instagram
• twitter

on a side note, apps you should have when you live in korea are 

1. Jihachul - tells you Korean subway map in English! lets you plan routes and bookmark and leave notes about things.
2. Visit Korea: quick tourist info
3. Korean Cuisine: has information about food. will help with pronunciation
4. google translate: not only does it translate, it will read the word for you so even if you can't pronounce it you can show it to whoever you are trying to talk too.

I talked about phones, and how you can use them, but not the cost of phones themselves, and I'm not going to cover that. I don't have a lot of information about them, as I don't ever use mine.

What I did is I got a phone, the cheapest one on the cheapest plan, through The Arrival Store. I pay like 28,000 won a month for it, and use it pretty much so the school can contact me. I use my ipod and apps to keep in contact mostly, I text my friends here or use the Kakao talk free calling, and I use Skype for calling back home to those without Kakao and without a smart phone or computer. I'm trying to make all my friends get Kakao talk cause its awesome sauce. 

anyways, don't know if this will ever help anyone, but I think this is a post that I was looking for when I came to Korea. Sure, It doesn't have all the info you could want, but it gives me a general idea of some options out there. 

what I do

So I haven't been lazy about posting, I just haven't done anything to post about.


so to be clear, I'm lazy about doing things worth posting about.

so, to let you all know I'm alive, here is what I'm doing!

weekday
1. wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work
2. work. prep for work. snack on things. hug children. work. work. work. prep for next day work.
3.make schedules for next month.
4.write progress reports for each child.
5. review the students work, check their homework, and make sure I've signed every page so parents don't yell at me.
6. go home.
7 - either go out to dinner alone/with friends or cook
8. go home, internet time is now. check facebook. check email. check my financial info.
9. cookdinner/lunch for next day clean/laundry time (if I'm home early enough. may be sacrificed to play a video game)
10. sleep time.

weekend
wake up, work on whatever work i brought home, eat food, clean, hang out with friends somewhere close, perhaps go to park for a walk, try to do some yoga. in whatever order it happens. maybe skype home.

so.. yup. Not much.

Accents

My friend Lila and I say different words too see how our accents are different.

It's been a really long time since i posted

So I figured I should post something!
Album

The hagwon I work in gives you 2 weeks of vacation, one I'm getting now, and the other I'll get at christmas time. After finishing up everything that was due for work, a crazy fire drill, and then saying goodbye to my kids, it was vacation time. Everyone had these grand plans, traveling lots of places.

And I, oh if you know me well you'll expect this, used my vacation to do NOTHING. I went on some short trips, but mostly, I just relaxed. I haven't been doing anything active or exploring, just ... eating and enjoying not working. I didn't want a vacation filled with travel and exploring.

This leas me even more to think that I'm defiantly  not cut out for this wild living. I'm very much a homebody. I am ready to work and play and not explore much. I'm lame I guess.

However, I have been doing some sketches, really quick ones, of what I've been doing on vacation , which is mostly eating so this is mostly food. So I feel accomplished that way.

It's also been super hot and my AC still doesn't work right after 2 times trying to get it fixed, so I've been roasting whenever I'm outside, which leads me to stay places where they give you ac, which means I tend to go buy coffee.

I also went to a vegan restaurant called Loving Hut They had good food.

I'm working on building the album up so that you can see all the sketches, though i'm doing a horrible job photographing them. Just want to give you a rough Idea.

Album

Acupuncture

So I was out walking in Korea, and they are fixing all the streets.

And when they fix the streets they put down these cloths on top, and sometimes you have to walk across to be able to get where you are going. well, I did, and happend to walk into a hole, and hurt my ankle. I went to the doctor, and he said it was just my weight making it hurt, which I didn't think was the case because my other ankle doesn't hurt, just this one, and in just the one spot. So it was highly recommended to me to go see an acupuncturist.

An acupuncturist eh? I said, and was like "why not? doesn't hurt to try I guess" anything to be better. So off I went with my Korean friend to help assist me on this new medical journey. The place was very nice, and they helped me figure out my insurance (so far my school had made every doctor appointment and I've only had to pay a tiny amount, I never had to figure out any insurance stuff.) It cost me a whopping 8,000 won to get it done.

Overall, the appointment took about an hour and a half. I had a meeting with the doctor, who spoke some english, but my friend was translating so I don't know how well he actually spoke.
Then we went to the back of the place and they sat me on a table and did some tests, which hurt in only the places I had said where hurting. Then the doctor came over and talked, and I was like "when is he gonna put the needles in he's just tapping my leg?" and go figure, that tapping was him putting them in!

All told he put in 7 needles, we got permission to take one picture.

After the needles, they did two more things, another one with electricity where they had these little suction pads, and then another one where they did a light cut on my foot then had a tube that they created a vacuum with around the cut. I just laid there between these, they gave each time, I'm not sure how much for each.

Then they tapped up my foot, gave me some icky tea to drink, and told me to come back for more treatments, about 4 or 5.

Overall, it was pretty easy, at this time I don't feel any different after the treatment.