update

Hey all,

Just sitting on my bed in my official apartment in the Sang-In Neighborhood of Daegu, South Korea and I thought i'd check-in and give you a bit of an update.  Well, a lot has happened in a very short time but so as not to bore you entirely to death i'll hit some of the main points.  so far my impression of this city of Daegu, South Korea was COMPLETELY wrong.  It is huge.  Not compared to Seoul but it is HUGE.  My "neighborhood" of Sang-In on the outskirts of Daegu is HUGE.  I'll post pictures soon.  The heat and humidity is not as bad as I expected.  Are you sweating when you are outside?  Yes.  Is it hot?  Yes.  But, with that said,  it is very comparable to the midwest in the summer or northeast.  All of the buildings, and thankfully my apartment, have aircon so no worries once you get inside.  Today I explored my neighborhood and got my bearings.  I realized quickly that I packed WAY too much and most western conveniences you can get here for pretty cheap.  Most items in the grocery store are about half what they cost at home.  For you beer lovers, western beers are a tad expensive (a six pack of corono extra is 7 bucks) however, the local "Hite" beer is close to 3 dollars for six!  Haven't had any yet, but plan to soon.  Same goes for general merchandise.  Shoes that cost about $100 at home cost about half that here.  Pretty amazing.

My town, although extremely cryptic in all of the buildings and advertisements, has some western comforts.  Pizza hut, Baskin Robins and Dunkin Donuts seem to be very popular.  Last night a coworker helped me order some REAL korean food and for about 3 bucks, it was pretty delicious.

Walking about town today I definitely got that "living in a fish bowl" feel.  Westerners stand out here.  We ARE different and people can easily spot us.  However, that wasn't all bad today because I got my first "wersterner fish bowl/celebrity moment."  Three 10-13 year old girls kept following me outside of a department store before finally saying, "HELLO!"  Then they laughed heartily and ran away.  Kids...gotta love 'em.

I start classes on Monday which I am a little nervous about.  The system, while extremely organized, is still different from what i've been used to and most things that are different tend to take some work at the beginning.  So, at around midnight, P.S. Time, be dreaming about me totally dominating in my first english class in South Korea.  I hope all of you back home are doing well and enjoying the warm spell that conveniently came your way once I got outta dodge.  Thank you for all of the well wishes, I miss you all and I will check back as soon as I can.  Right now my apartment doesn't have internet and won't for about 2 more weeks, so right now i'm gladly stealing a signal from a neighbor.  Pictures coming soon.

P.S.-Did I mention that on my first day observing at my official school and meeting my new coworkers my left eye was almost completely swollen shut and blood red?  Oh yeah, that previous night i got some spec in my eye and it irritated it so much that I had to get rushed to an optometrist where he successfully removed the spec and prescribed me two sets of eye drops.  Today was my follow up, so considering I know zero korean, except "hello" and "thank you,"  a lot of hand gestures got us through.  The eye is getting better but I have to go in next monday for another follow up.  Only to me.  Those of you in the pagaard clan know that a story like that was expected from Herr. Nate Pagaard.  One more for my autobiography called, "Oh C'mon!!!" coming soon to a bookstore near you.