Yes! We are finally in Korea, an adventure that has been half a year in the making. The flight was long and we did not get much sleep beforehand. (any actually, we did not sleep!) When we got to the airport surprise surprise I had over packed, but luckily we just bumped a seat up to first class and got way better luggage allowances. Not to mention some lucky individual (ME;)) got to fly first class..Thanks Nikola..<3.. style="">We slept a lot on the flights!
We met MJ in while on layover in Chicago, he will be teaching at my school and is also from Texas! Yay for expatriates!
Korean Air was absolutely awesome. The flight attendants dress like futuristic pop stars and are super nice. We had an authentic Korean meal on the plane called Bibimbap. It was really good considering it was airplane food. The on seats were comfy and there was plenty on flight entertainment to watch.
When we landed the first thing we had to do was get our temperature checked by Korean airport officials wearing facemasks. Basically they were checking to see if we had fevers because of the swine flu scare. There aren't many people in Korean with the 'swine flu' so they are making a huge effort to keep it out. There are plenty of people around Seoul who were facemasks while riding the subway, walking down the street or even while shopping. I have yet to see a designer facemask that I had heard about back in the SARS scare days..
Customs was surprisingly a breeze. Somehow it was 1 million times easier than when I recently encountered the Canadian customs where I was questioned intensely and had my bags searched! One customs officer even told MJ that she learned English at the company where we will all be teaching>> YBM!!
Anyway we got on the bus and headed to Gwangmyeong to meet with administrators from our schools. The scenery was amazing and everything seemed so new shiny and different. Everything has been an experience! When we made it to our stop we were greeted by Mr. Yoon and Justin to take us to our temporary living quarters. That is when the mind trips began. After attempting to make conversation with Justin we soon realized that English speakers were not as easy to come by as we were expecting. And those who do speak English, speak very little. That was mind-trip #1. Mindtrip #2 was the car elevator who rode down with Mr. Yoon and Justin to our officetel. Imagine: a sardine can parking lot on the 5th level, a rather large elevator in one corner of the parking lot, driving into the elevator, and finally reaching the ground floor and driving out onto the street. I know these types of things are common in New York but I have never been in one!
When we made it to our officetel we were greeted by a small one room 'officetel' complete with a queen sized mattress, a washing machine, mini kitchen area with stove top, sink, and fridge, a TV and the restroom. Ahh yes the restroom. That is where we were introduced to mind-trip #3.. Restrooms in apartments do not have any type of dividers for the shower.. So there you are standing in front of the sink and right by the toilet and there is a shower head hanging from the wall, there is a big drain under the sink that it all ends up at.. By now we have become pretty comfortable with this style of shower and actually it keeps everything pretty clean since it is all getting rinsed off every time you shower.
Mind-trip #4 was when we took our first stroll through our temporary neighborhood: Guro Digital Complex. Think: Kayne West's Flashing Lights song. There are neon signs on top of neon sign on top of restaurants on top of Hangul writing on top of who knows what. It's crazy, it is like New York's Times Square only down every rinky dink street and every alley way. There are also a ton of outdoor markets, restaurants, and vendors of all kinds. I haven't seen so many outdoor markets since I was in Europe! Let me tell you it is very alive. So much energy at all times of day and ALL night.
The last substantial mind-trip (#5) of our first day in Seoul was when we had our first meal. We chose the restaurant with the biggest outdoor menu with the biggest possible pictures on it thinking it would be easy to just get inside and start pointing. We walk in a notice that there are dozens of shoes stacked in neat cubbies before you enter the actual restaurant. The tables were about a foot off the ground and there are are little pads to sit on around the tables. (Kind of like the take shoes off room at Kyotos in Austin) This type of seating is VERY common in restaurants here we come to learn over the days. Anyway we do our best to say our hellos and pleasantries, sit down, open the menu and basically see a bunch of dishes that look sorta familiar but in reality we have NO idea what most of it is. So we just randomly chose a couple different soups which ended up being really spicy and eggy. I was delighted by the variety of banchan: tiny side dishes that come with every meal including different types of kimchi! It was good. We were happy.
That was only the flight here and our first night in Seoul. We have had a VERY full and eventful week, and for those that know me well..you know I took a ton of pictures. Tomorrow our quarantine/vacation week is over and we start working..which will be an experience in itself. I have more to post about our first week which I will be posting soon.
Goodnight ya'll!
Sincerely,
Natalie
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.