Live from Korea: First days in Korea :)

Hey Everyone!! In case you didn't get the memo, I arrived safe and sound in my new home of Nonsan, Korea after a few mishaps in SFO that delayed my trip by two days. Essentially, I am never flying United Airlines ever again unless it is a direct flight and their flight attendants prove to be adequate in their knowledge of gate info. Okay- that's enough negativity for one post. *take a deep breath*

It's hard to pick the right spot in my adventure to be the "beginning" of my story, but I suppose arriving at the international airport at Incheon would be best. Initial reaction as I stepped off the plane? "Holy Mother -----! It's hot!!!" Within perhaps 20 seconds I was sweating bullets from the intense humidty walking through the gate to make my way to customs. But wait! I had to wait in line to be checked for a fever so the Korean government could be assured that I didn't have swine flu. Once cleared, I made my way through the empty international wing of the airport, and began to strip down to my tank top in hopes of cooling off. Nope. It only meant more surface area of skin to be affected by the humidity. Next came my trip through immigration which resulted in immediate service and no questions asked. Go figure, every time I came back into London, I got grilled by immigration officials while my friends went right through. But I guess already having the all important VISA stamp already in place made my arrival less suspicious.

My traveling didn't stop at the airport, however. Nope, I then had to board a bus to Iksan (a city near Nonsan) for four hours!!! Thankfully I got to sleep for most of the way, but not before making several humorous (at least to me) observations about my new home. First, they take the term "limosine bus" very seriously. I'm talking flatscreen TVs and multi-colored lights lining the aisle from above and amazing air conditioning! Next, traffic in Seoul is a b----. I don't know how Koreans can do it. This was even worse than LA traffic. On the plus side, I did get to see the beautiful lights of Seoul (as well as at least 5 Baskin Robbins) as we drove through to get onto the main expressway south. I also utilized my height advantage to look down into the cars beside me. Nearly every single one was a Kia or Hyundai (for obvious reasons) and they all had GPS monitors in the center console as well as a tv for the driver to enjoy while s/he was stuck in traffic. I also was fortunate enough to spot a driver skilled enough to text, watch tv and drive with his foot!

When I finally arrived in Iksan, my director and the other native teacher were there to greet me and take me to my apartment.

A shot of my apartment from the entryway. The sink and stove are to the right.

Another pic of my apartment from my back "porch" where my washing machine resides.

I did a little unpacking that night and then crashed for a few hours until I woke up around 4 AM local time. Mind you, I had just gone to bed at 11:30 pm - darn jetlag! The next day presented me with an oportunity to shadow my fellow teacher to each of his classes. Most of the kids are beyond adorable (save for the painfully shy ones in my middle school classes who hate to talk up and practice their English. The boys even sit on one side while the girls stay clumped together on the other) and were incredibly excited to meet me and practice some of the English they had already learned. In my next post I'll make sure to add pics of them. I also learned that my name in Korean means a type of fish which of course caused a few giggles to erupt in the classroom when I was introduced. After a "full" day of classes - aka six periods of 45 minutes mostly spent playing games- the director and the owner took us all out to celebrate my arrival. What happened next included a huge feast of amazing lean beef (which we cooked ourselves) served with at least seven different side dishes. I also was very quickly introduced to the drinking culture in Korea; which included a few rules like never look your elder in the eye when taking a shot, never leave another person's glass empty and always place your hand over your heart or at your elbow when pouring for someone else (you're never allowed to pour for yourself). The first drink of the night was a Korean version of an Irish Car Bomb where you drop a shot of Soju into a glass of beer. Then came multiple shots of Soju for no reason other than Mr. Kim wanted everyone to get drunk on a Thursday night! I eventually had to turn my shot glass over to opt out of the game, but that didn't stop the awful affects of drinking too much hit me when I got home that night.

The two Korean teachers; Kelly and Sarah, as well as the owner of my school sitting awkwardly behind me.

The secretary of our school along with our director Mr. Kim, Michael from Canada and Nicholas (his wife had her baby the next day!)

The massive amount of food that never seemed to stop coming.

Random action shot at dinner.

After another early morning (six o'clock this time!) I got ready for my first day flying solo. Before getting to actually take over my class, I had to go to the hospital just up the street from my school for several medical tests to establish my health insurance including; a chest x-ray, peeing into a paper cup, vision test and having my blood drawn. My experience in the hospital made me have great appreciation for the Korean health care system, everything was very quick and efficient and being in a rural part of the country meant hardly ever waiting! When I returned to the school I was super nervous, but the kids seemed to like me and my horrible pronounciation of their names! I did have a slight crisis when a boy broke down in tears when he hit himself in the face. I found out after the class that he tends to cry a lot. Poor thing. Later that night we all had dinner at the school. Apparently my director will pay for our night meals as long as whatever we order is under 3,000 won (which will buy you a lot of food!) On Friday's it's the foreign teacher's choice, so we had Chinese food. I know... it's seems pretty darn ironic to be eating Chinese food in Korea, but there you have it. Surprisingly, it was a lot like the American version of Chinese food and I enjoyed every last bite!

Today (Saturday) I took a little walk through downtown Nonsan to do some grocery shopping at Home Plus - aka Tesco (I pretty much freaked out when I realized it was a Tesco, which brought back so many fond memories of London) aka Walmart. I unfortunately didn't have any coins with me to rent a cart, so I could only buy what I could carry, which wasn't much. Next time I will come prepared and take a taxi home because the walk back seemed much longer in the humidty while carrying a super heavy bag. Thankfully, many of the items had English subtitles to make shopping much easier than I thought it would be. I also met a very nice gentleman from Australia who was teaching the next town over and had already been here two years! When I checked out, I also learned that much like in Europe, you have to pay a minimal fee for your bags. Hopefully I will collect enough to not have to buy anymore. Along the way on my adventure, I took several shots of the city to give you all a flavor of where I am living. :)