I love my Korean friends!

Well, I finally got a cell phone! I know none of you can believe it. Amanda, the girl who hates cell phones has a cell phone. The nice thing is here the cell phone only costs $13 a month plus how much I talk... most people say it doesn't go about $20 or $25. We will see how much I use it. I doubt I will use it much, but then again it is really cute. Actually in the first six days I have had this phone I have already let the batter run out once... and I think I have only made one phone call and sent two text messages. So I don't see myself going crazy over it.

Ok, so let me tell you why my Korean friends are so awesome. First of all many people (Hannah, Kristen, Vicky, Soojin, Alley, Kuntae, Jasmine, and Im sure more soon) are helping me learn Korean. Any time I have an absent student I grab my Korean book and find one of my fellow teachers (a Korean one though) and I ask they questions. They are really cool about it, and some of them even seem to like teaching me Korean. I was just sitting in the bank with my landlady (and I learned that her name is Cheong Soon) and she was saying Korean words to me and I was practicing writing them. Its just amazing how much people want to help. And I had my friend Hannah there with me, and the Landlady told Hannah she was impressed that I could write Korean (its called hangeul.) My landlady (and her husband) can speak a good amount of English, but its always good to have an interpreter :)

I have had Hannah write a note for me to show the pharmacist when I was sick, and then she also came to the bank with us to help John get an IC chip in is cell phone (which is a chip that makes your cell phone act like a debit card.) And Kristen worked her butt off getting phones for me and John. She sat in Gangnam station for almost 2 hours interpreting and haggling on our behalf. Its amazing how helpful people are here!

Anytime I have a question about language or culture or anything else I can always ask one of the Korean teachers. I am also finding out that Korean people in general are really nice. Especailly when they see you are trying to learn their language. Even just a quick "shil rae hamnida" which means excuse me, when I have to get off the subway train gets impressed glances. I think that if more of the foreigners who came to Korea took up an interest in Korean language and culture (not just food) then I think our relationship would be better for it.