Day's 1 and 2

Hello All!

In summary of the following text: I arrived, I'm alive, and I miss you all!

I arrived in Korea last night after a 17 hour trip. The actual flight to Korea was 11 hours long, and I was awake every minute of it. The strangest thing about the flight was that it was bright and sunny outside the whole trip, yet I left Canada on a Sunday and arrived on a Monday. As the plane arrived in Seoul, I was lucky to have a window seat and saw the giant, sprawling city from above. The main difference between a North American city and a Korean city appears to be in the housing. Whereas flying in to Calgary I would look down and see endless cul-de-sacs of perfect houses with white picket fenses, flying into Seoul, the landscape was filled with similar amount of sprawl, but entirely of high-rises, condos and apartment buildings. Between theses city neighbourhoods were large hills, covered entirely with dense green forest.

The large plane arrived at Incheon International Airport on time, and deboarded all 300 passengers into the international terminal. We then all hurried to the lower level, where a train departed every five minutes to take us to the main terminal, for immigration, customs and baggage claim. After successfully doing all three, I walked through sliding glass doors and saw a large crowd of people holding signs with names written on in them. I looked around, easily found the sign with my name on it, and met my contact. She helped me steer my heavy luggage cart to her vehicle (a very nice Kia) and drove me to my new apartment. The airport is on an Island, connected by a massive bridge to the Greater city of seoul. Using a GPS system that talked and made game show like sounds as we approached and successfully passed a Speed Camera, my contact navigated us to the suberb of seoul where I would be living. The city is called Goyang, and I’m either living in Jeongbalsandong or Ilsandong. I honestly haven’t figured that out yet.

The streets are all filled with bright neon lights and signs. We drove by La Festa, which is a large shopping/entertainment area very near my new place, and my contact informed me that various celebrities live in the large buildings that reached into the now (finally) night sky above. My new place is in an older version of these buildings, and is essentially a studio apartment but called an “officetal” or something like that. Three other teachers from my school live in the building, and one of them was kind enough to meet me in the parkade and help carry my luggage. The apartment supplied for me was previously used by another teacher at my school, and he left me some basic supplies, including a few dishes, a pot, a toaster oven, some random stuffed animals in the corner and a laundry basket. The Officetal itself contains a queen sized bed, a tv, a few low cabinets and some large built in shelving units. There is also a kitchenette with a 2 burner Gas stove, a fridge and freezer, and a washing machine. The washroom is fully tiled, with western style toilet and sink, but the shower is partitioned off with a glass door that sits about an inch off the ground. This explains why you step down into the washroom, as the whole floor is covered with water after you shower.

After dropping off my luggage, my contact took me back downstairs and pointed out where the nearest convenient stores and grocery stores are located, and showed me where she will pick me up on Wednesday morning to begin orientation. She then headed back to the school, and I went upstairs to the other teacher’s place to briefly use the internet. They had a larger apartment and a Dog, and let me use their internet to email home. By this point I was exhausted, and even though it was only 8pm in Korea, I went back to my place and fell asleep.

This morning I woke up early, watched the sun rise and found that someone had dropped off my new sheet/blanket set during the night. Today is my rest day, So I’ve spent it cleaning and unpacking. I wandered down the street and found a grocery store, but I can’t read Korean yet so I was indecisive on buying stuff. I ended up walking away with some oranges, eggs, bread and a box of cereal, but no milk. There are a ton of stores, bars and restaurants very close to my apartment, but as I don’t really know my address, I was unwilling to venture too far from home.

For lunch I ended up having the noodles I didn’t eat on the airplane. Later on in the evening the other teacher, Josh, took me for a walk to show me the area. Turns out La Festa is just two blocks away from my apartment, and has many stores, 2 movie theatres and several western restaurants and fast food chains. La Festa is essentially an outdoor mall. The street has no vehicle traffic, so it’s just a giant cobblestone walkway. The are at least two stories of shops and restaurants on each side for the entire 6+ block length. Josh also took me to the “Home plus” department store which is located near the other end of La Festa. He helped me find a transformer and pointed out different areas of the store before he took off to his Korean class. I walked back to the apartment on my own, and felt quite safe. At around 9 the stores seemed to be closing, but there were still a lot of people walking around, and the whole street is incredibly well lit. Different restaurants and bars were projecting ‘K-pop’ music out onto the street. The music is upbeat and very synthesized, but quite fun.

I ended up having KFC for dinner, and felt guilty for not immersing myself in Korean culture. However, I’m not confident enough yet to walk into a restaurant whose name I can’t read, and to order something off the menu by pointing at a picture of something I don’t recognise, so KFC felt like my only option. I don’t have internet in my apartment, but I am getting some television channels. There is one channel called AFN Korea, and I believe it stands for American Forces Network. The channel is entirely aimed at Americans serving abroad, and has few ads: mostly public service announcements about army events, safety and wellness. Besides news, the network caries American shows including soap operas, talk shows, game shows, and a random selection of prime time TV. The Jet lag hasn't been so bad, but I definately ended up in bed relatively early.

So no real adventures yet, but I'd love to hear back from people if they get a chance. I haven't met too many people yet so it would be nice to hear from home.