It's not ALL sunshine and smiles in South Korea!

I realized that all of my posts, to date, have been really positive and may make it seem as though Steve and I are just on a wonderful vacation in South Korea. It may seem as though we live in a world where nothing ever goes wrong and that we are always skipping merrily around, holding hands, and smiling. Most days we are really happy and having a really amazing time and those are the things I blog about. However, there are bad times wherever you live and in the fear of sounding like one of those bragging and super positive Christmas letters (that some people really dislike) I will talk a little bit about some of the negative things and some of the bad experiences that we have had thus far.
Let me start by saying we lived in a motel room for a month! One night we returned to our motel room and went to the front desk to retrieve our key and the motel manager rattled off rapid Korean to us angrily and crossed his arms in a big X and said "MONEY, MONEY"! He had not been paid by our school yet, didn't know when we were checking out, and refused to give us our key until he talked to someone at our school. We had no minutes on our cell phone and couldn't get in contact with our supervisor. We frantically called our supervisor over and over again, using his cell phone. Eventually, we received a call back from our supervisor and the misunderstanding was worked out and we were allowed to enter our room, but the time spent standing in front of the check-in counter feeling helpless, embarrassed, and angry was a really bad time.
We didn't receive a paycheck for the first month and a half that we were here, because they only get paid once per month at our school and we arrived at the end of January and only worked a few days that month. We had to be really careful about our spending in order to live off of the money we had. There were many times that we wanted to buy things and couldn't. It was hard to live off of a small amount of money for a month and a half in a new place where we wanted to do and see many things (that cost money). Needless to say, we were really excited to get paid! On the day that we were supposed to get our first full pay, our paycheck wasn't there. We went to the ATM twice that day and checked (before school and after).  Waiting for the pay and standing at the ATM looking at a big won 0 in the balance made us very angry.  I felt like I wanted to go home. Eventually, late that evening it was there after we called our supervisor.
One day we went to a restaurant and I ordered cheesu ramyean (ramen with cheese). I had ordered it at a similar restaurant before, but the waitress gave me the big X with her arms and said "no" this time and laughed loudly and made quite a scene.  I felt embarrassed. After a few minutes, she brought out a cheese slice and gestured about it. I said, "yes, cheesu ramyean". They made it for me! However, the next time we went back to eat, she gave me the big X as soon as we walked in the door (I wasn't even going to order cheesu ramyean!).  It made me feel really stupid, angry, and embarrassed.
We went to Changwon for a hike last weekend and had a great time. After dinner we couldn't find our way home. We didn't know what bus to take to get to our town and didn't have enough money for the 20 minute cab ride (because we hadn't been paid yet). We took a cab and two different buses, walked around Changwon with very sore legs from the hike, and felt very helpless and lost. Eventually, we found a bus stop and ticket station and were able to get back to Jinyeong.
So, as you can see there have been some tough times. Overall, though, the good times and great experiences greatly outweigh and outnumber the bad times! Most days I feel really happy and I get over things that upset or annoy me very quickly. I am learning to be more easygoing, forgiving (of myself and others), and much more optimistic. I can feel myself changing in very positive ways and maybe this is why the bad things don't stand out for me as much and why I focus much more on the positives these days. Well I hope that you enjoy reading about the good and now a little bit of the bad in this blog!
teaching english in korea. 
blogging here: www.teachingintherok.blogspot.com