My First Post, General Information

I have currently been living here for one week, and I have, already, so many things to discuss.
For my protection, that of the school in which I work, and the people with whom I interact, names of people will be represented with a letter and the school name will never be revealed.

A quick overview, I am living and working in South Korea for an entire year. I live on an island in the Southeast part of the country. The closest biggest city, (P)Busan, is approximately a 30-45 minute ferry ride from my town. I am currently residing in the town of Okpo, on the island of Geoje-do.
http://encarta.msn.com/map_701524652/geoje.html
The map link listed above does not, for some reason, show Okpo. To provide further explanation, Okpo is just a little Northwest of Jangseungpo in that small bay area.
In Okpo, lies the world's strongest crane. It is used at the Daewoo Shipyard located in the bay. The town is populated with many foreigners, however, if you want a Korean to speak English, you must patronize the foreign establishments, (bars, restaurants, etc.). The grocery does not have any items with English labels. Until my Korean gets better, illustrations on packaging determine my grocery purchases! For instance, the familiar 'Tony the Tiger' image decided the cereal in which I was to buy.

I live in a studio apartment provided by the school in which I work. It is only 2 years old and nicer than I could have ever hoped for. I have a queen size bed, TV, kitchen with all appliances, desk and a separate bathroom. Internet connection is DSL (even faster than the broadband I had in the US). My apartment is heated by pipes in the floor, with water running through them. I control how hot I want the floors to get, and it doesn't take much at all. It is very energy efficient. I turn on my heat approximately 1 hour per day, primarily for warming up the water for my shower, and that keeps the apartment nice and toasty for a very long time.

Climate in Okpo is considered temperate. This past week (Feb. 20-28), the temperature has been high in the 50's and 60's, low in the 40's. Very nice! We follow the same 4 seasons as the US. I recently read that Busan is comparable to San Francisco, California in weather and city personality. Okpo is just a little warmer than Busan, overall. All of the following posts will be labeled by topic of discussion. I hope this will help you when navigating your way through my blog. I appreciate the time you take to read this!