Finally Here!

Yes I actually made it to the airport after what seemed like weeks of waiting around!

I have been here for five days and what a five days it has been!

FRIDAY

I arrived at Incheon airport on Friday night at 5:20, Korean time (we are thirteen hours ahead here). After sixteen hours on an airplane and probably another 5 or 6 of sitting around different airports I was ready for a nice hot shower and a good sleep. INSTEAD, I was picked up by the owner of the hagwon (private school), and driven to Seoul for dinner and to meet his entire family...mother, father, sister in-law, brother, baby niece and dog. Of course they spoke little English so it made for an interesting night of me nodding and smiling and trying to respond to the questions I thought they were asking, in return they nodded and smiled back, pretending to understand. We spent the night at his parents house, which was a beautiful apartment on like the 60th floor of a downtown apartment complex which was quite the view.

Saturday

In the morning they prepared for me a traditional breakfast of rice, that watery soup that I always refer to as dishwater, seaweed, kimchi and egg. The food was really good, although it felt more like dinner than a breakfast. After breakfast they all started going about their daily routines and sat me down with the dog and baby to entertain for a few hours, because apparently I strike people as the type of person who enjoys dogs and babies. In the afternoon the owner, Brian, thought that maybe I was bored, so his brother and him took me to see The Davinci Code, which surprised me because I assumed they would have dubbed movies with Korean soundtracks, but they just stick in Korean subtitles. Finally Brian put me on a bus in the early evening and sent me off to Daejeon, where I met David, whom I have been talking with these past weeks prior to coming to Korea. We grabbed my bags dropped them in my apartment and were off once again to go grocery shopping. I didn't get much because I was moreso walking around in a daze trying to take everything in and let it sink in that I was actually in Korea. David asked me if I liked rice and when I said that I did he told me I needed a rice cooker because it was easier to cook rice with one. I told him I didn't think it was necessary but he insisted, and I gotta admit, I love it. I get home from work, drop some rice in the machine, add some water and 20 minutes later I have perfect rice!

Again David brought me to my place and said he would be back in 45 minutes and we would be going out to meet one of the other teachers and show me around Daejeon a little more. 45 minutes later I was introduced to Lorne, the head teacher from Canada, and his wife, Marianne (whom he met in the Phillapines in December, married her a week later, and with all her visa processing she just arrive last week). We started the night off with a little pool playing, headed downtown to check out two of the foreigner bars, which were pretty deserted, apparently because we were too early, tho I still have yet to see another blond around here. After all that we headed to a singing room which are all the rage in Korea, not quite kareoke, instead you go into a place which has 5 or 6 sound proof rooms with a big screen and music sound system and whoever is in your group gets up and takes turns singing to each other. No, I did not sing, and no i do not plan too! Though David and Lorne both swear I'll be up doing it within the month... Finally at around 3 am we headed for home and I got to sleep in my very own apartment, which I should mention is not quite the shoebox I had imagined it would be and is a nice amount of space for one person.

Sunday

Sunday was pretty uneventful, woke up early and wandered around a little, then spent the better part of the afternoon sleeping and watching dvds. Lorne and his wife came and picked me up at night and we headed out to the mall and market, which is quite similar to malls at home. I picked up a few other odds and ends that I had been needing and came home for a good night's sleep and prepared for my first day of work!

Monday

Hot water guy showed up about 20 minutes after I had had my cold shower for the third day in a row. Followed Lorne around to four different classes that day and had a lot of sitting around. The school is interesting because it is only a few months old, so some classes have as many as 12 kids per class and other classes will have only 1 student. Ages range from 5 to 15, though most are around 7 and 8.

Tuesday

Had three classes of my own. First one was with 2 kindergartens and we pretty much just sang the alphabet song for forty minutes and practiced letter recognition. Second class was with 1 kindergarten who cried so hard when she saw me that her mom cancelled her class for the day and said we would try again Thursday. Third class was 2 girls around the age of 15 who all the other teachers hate and stuck them with me, they actually aren't that bad, I just don't think they really care to learn English that much.

Wednesday

Settled into the typical work day. Got internet at home! Wrote the longest blog entry ever!