email: i love v8.

Subject: daughter
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 04:41:27 +0000
dear mom and dad,

hi! wow things have gotten busy. i deal with 7 groups of students in the week, teaching two classes a day, and the classes are 3 hours long. even tho i only teach for 6 hours a day, a LOT of time is spent on prepping for the lesson. i make sure i've got enough xerox copies of everything, i look over the reading and vocabulary to see how i should break it down to teach it, etc. my colleagues said it'll get faster for me as i get more experience, but in the meanwhile, woo!

one of the teachers here, her name is leah, took me to itewon yesterday. itewon is the part of town where all the foreigners are, and i think very close to a military base as well? it was strange to see so many non korean people after having spent all this time in pyongchon. plenty of fast food places there, all gigantic shiny two story mcdonalds, burger king, startbucks, kfc... actually, i dont even remember seeing any korean restaurant during my little 30 min trip there. i saw plenty of clubs tho! there's like 5 bars on each block! lot's of partying going on. well, you guys know how i feel about drinking these days: too many calories. i'm sticking with coke zero. the roads in itewon were just dirty looking, not terribly, but it's like avenue revolucion in tijuana, just looks USED, you know? im glad i live in pyongchon, it's very clean there, and i'll never want for white rice b/c korean restaurants are everywhere.

leah is a sister, not quite thick as me, and has locks as well. in all honesty, ive barely noticed the stares people cautioned me about, but when leah and i were walking around together, and especially on the subway, i felt it! it was all good, tho, i know it's because people were dazzled to see two beautiful black women together. leah has been a good friend to me, she showed me how to use the atm, how to cut down on my prep time, and she's going to take me to a place to get a cell phone.

i played around with my washing machine and now have clean clothes. no dryers here, so i have a rack thing where i hung all my clothes to dry. i used way too much soap, so i smell like lemons. im sure mom would be laughing at me were she here!

hey so i found v8 here!!! im so happy! trying to make sure i get all my vegetables is. i bought a scale and i am down a total of 20 lbs! now i really REALLY want to hurry up and get that dvd player so i can continue my step workout. maybe a portable dvd player, it'll be more affordable and a good temporary fix. dont worry about money for me, dad, i havent even spent 1/4 of what i brought with me, i've been very frugal.

things here are so great. i keep thinking that i'll wake up one morning and found i've dreamed it all, i cant believe im getting paid for this, the curriculum is great and the kids are wonderful. i thought i'd have a hard time with the elementary school kids, but they've been so well behaved, and on the rare points they arent, they snap right back into place b/c ive got that iron fist. well i best go... have some prepping to do. give my greetings to mr. hector gonzales. ~sha.