Fresh off the Boat

Okay, it’s 6am here and I’m typing in the lobby because I don’t want to wake my roommate up. If you want to know, it’s 4pm back in Kansas. 

There’s so much to type, I doubt I can remember it all. Surprisingly, I’m a little scared to go to my province, but mostly its okay. So far. There’s two other guys going to Gangwon: Anton and Edwin. Edwin’s a nice guy from the UK who got his Masters in English Lit. He’s pretty chatting and in my teaching group. Anton I briefly met but haven’t gotten to talk to a lot. I’m sure we’ll get a chance before the end of the week.

Anyway, my flight in was surprisingly glitch-less. There was a bit of a mix up with my ticket at MCI, but the guy straightened it out without any problems. The trip to San Fran was fine. SFO is a horrible airport. I now see why I needed a 4 hour layover! It took me an hour just to get to the right terminal because apparently terminal A is different from terminal G (which is where I was originally sent) and there were no SIGNS for A, so I had to ask several employees like a breadcrumb trail. And I had to go through security again. Screw that! Anyhow, all the food in there was super expensive (I know, California), so my last meal in the States was a can of pringles and a hershey bar because I didn’t want to pay $10 for a freakin’ sandwich. 

Not much to say about the flight over. I was wedged between an old Korean lady and an old Indian lady. Neither one spoke English. The Indian lady’s eyes were cool though; they were black except the very rim of the iris, which was violet. In any case, she kept saying ‘off, off’ at the tv, but I think she meant ‘on’ and I tried to get it on, but I think it was broken. We both had special meals, so we generally ate at the same time. But I was watching her and she was copying the order that I ate, which was weird. But I explained that the lemon dressing went over the salad and the butter on the bread. Otherwise it was a long painful flight where I watched Twilight (as much as I could stand, although Jane was cool. The wolf CG bothered me a lot and Jacob’s head was too small, LOL), Prince of Persia (okay, but the action was a little over the top), The Karate Kid, some Korean film, and Toy Story 3.

Getting off the plane was fun because I’m suddenly in this sea of Koreans with no idea where to go or what to do. So like any good duckling, I followed them. At immigrations I met with another girl who was going to teach at a Hangwon (private school). So we muddled through Immigrations, customs, and the baggage area together. Then I got picked up by my driver. Who did not speak English. And I discovered who bought Hyundai cars… and that Koreans have interesting driving skills… and scooter boys are scary. The driver got a little lost and frustrated, but eventually I was tossed down at EPIK’s orientation. I lucked out apparently because I got a room with a bathroom (no communal shower!). My roommate, Nia, showed up about an hour later. 

Nia’s really cool. She’s from South Africa. And is having Blackberry withdrawal. Apparently there’s actually a lot of South Africans here. South Africans, Canadians, Americans, and UK. Plus, Irish, NZ, and Aussies. She and I both just got here, which is great, because apparently 3/4s of the people at this orientation have been in Korea for 3-8 months and are just now getting orientation. Which is also good because I’ve been asking a ton of questions and tagging along out into Seoul with them.

In any case, yesterday was classes from 9 am to 9 pm. I ate a huge breakfast (4 eggs, 2 bowls of cereal, an apple, a glass of water, and a glass of juice with a chaser of precautionary painkillers—the painkillers were an excellent idea, as the opening ceremony had high schoolers with drums!). Shuffled through the classes, met a ton of new people, went out into Seoul with a group of people, learned McD’s is the same here, learned a lot of other stuff. Crashed from jet lag right after dinner in the middle of Korean class. I remember the straight vertical line is ‘E’ and that’s about it. Went to sleep at 9 pm and woke up at 6 am… yay! Its just now getting light outside because they don’t have daylight savings.

Who knows what fun I’ll have today? After burning my taste buds out with kimchi (gimchi) which is cabbage and hot pepper, I fear for my life. Other than that, everything else I tried was fairly good/decent. I’m going to be eating a lot of salad—they have salad with every meal, at least so far, including breakfast. I’m hoping to get a converter plug for my laptop (they have western style plugs in the dorms), a watch, and convert some more USD to KRW. I didn’t do it all at the airport because of the fees.

No pictures yet. We go on a field trip Wednesday, so a castle? I think. So maybe some pictures then.

So far, so good.

But the only bit of bad news is my longtime companion, Shadow, had to be put down on Friday. She’d been going downhill for months (although still spry enough to tear through the house). I could tell at the party that she really wasn’t feeling too well and after I left for KC she just got worse, puking, refusing to eat, completely disoriented and unable to recognize people/surroundings. I think she picked her time because she saw the suitcases, and well, the dog knows what suitcases mean. Although I think she knew before that because she was very clingy that last week. She will be buried up on Kerry’s pet cemetery with Bailey, Silver, the rats, and Cher. I’m sad she didn’t let me be there at the end, but I’m happy she lived a long life and was in good shape until that last week or so. RIP Shadow.