Our flights over here went rather smooth. We started in Boston and flew to JFK in New York. From there we had a direct, 14 hour flight to Korea. We arrived at the Incheon Airport outside of Seoul. We were greeted by Jiyyeon Kim from our recruiting agency. We sat with her for about an hour as we waited for our bus to Mokpo. She defiantly noticed Teddy hanging out of my bad and commented on him ha ha (Teddy is a big hit, what can I say?!)
Side story about the airport: While we were sitting in the airport in NY we were surrounded by Koreans. There was a few ladies sitting across from eating a ton of food. One of them pulled out an apple and started ripping it apart (don't as me how). She broke of a few good sized hunks before it got too difficult. Her solution, bang the apple on the armrest of the chair! hahaha She hit it a few times and apple juice was flying all over. On the last time, she hit it, and the apple went flying across the floor! I could have died! A chunk flew off and then she offered it to her friend on the side of her. The friend didn't want it. haha
Once we got on the bus we spent the next 4 1/2 hours sleeping on the bus. When we arrived in Mokpo we met our Director at the bus terminal and she brought us to our new apartment! She is a very kind person. She is easy to get along with and she seems like great person to work for. Not giving us any time, she told us that she will pick us up at 7:20 in the morning so we can go on a picnic.
I would like to take this time to tell you about our apartment. When you walk there is a tiny bathroom to your right. The bathroom consists of a toilet, a sink....that's it. Our shower nozzle is an attachment that comes out of our sink faucet that you can hang on the wall. There is a drain in our floor so essentially the whole bathroom is our shower. Everything gets SOAKED when you take a shower! Moving on through the apartment we have our living room equipped with a couch and a table with 2 chairs. Our kitchen is in the same room as the living room. Continiuing up the stairs we have our loft bedroom. We have a double bed on the floor, a table and a TV (which has 2 English channels). Being a loft, you can only imagine how high the ceiling is...not very! haha One other thing is that when we want hot water we need to press a button on a panel on the wall. When we are done we need to shut it off. In the winter time we have heated floors too (my dream come true)! We love it so much! Our new home is fantastic!
Low and behold, 7:20 AM we get a call from Director saying she is outside. She picked us up in her car and brought us to E Bo Young Talking Club to meet all of our co-teachers and Luke and Kristy who are the native speakers we are replacing. They are a wealth of information. We ate kimbap for breakfast, which is the Korean form of sushi. It was delicious! We took an hour and half ride north to a beautiful park to go for a hike. All of the trees were changing colors and it was stunning! There were a few Buddist Temples with prayer lanterns hanging outside. As we were hiking we were getting to know our Korean co-teachers who are all super nice. I really enjoyed getting to know Claire and Jenny. We hiked for about an hour before we had to leave to get back to Mokpo. It was a great way to get welcomed into our new school.
For lunch we had Korean BBQ. It was very traditional. We took our shoes off at the door and we sat on the floor. Korea has many traditions that we are unfamiliar with, but we are quickly getting used to. When eating, the youngest person should poar the water for everyone, and we cannot eat until the oldest male, or person in charge has started eating. Koreans have a very communal way of eating. There are a bunch of different dishes on the table and everyone eats and shares from those dishes. With Korean BBQ the servers give us the meat and we cook it ourselves on the grill in the middle of the table. Instead of using knives, scissors are used to cut the meat (so genius). Also, one other thing that is different from the States is that the server does not come to you unless you call them. It's interesting.
From there we headed back to our school where we met Secretary Teacher and Driver Teacher. We introduced to them as that, and that is what we should call them. The kids call me "Lindsey Teacher" (it's very cute). We shadowed Kristy and Luke in the classes that we will be taking over. The kids had very funny reactions to the new teachers. It was a mix of curious, skeptical, scared, and excited. Their faces lit up when the saw us. They would yell and point at us, "Who's this!?" or they would timidly come around the corner and play a hide and seek game until we spoke to them. A lot of times they would say, "New Teacher!" The kids have a hard time pronouncing my name. Both Dave and I have to teach a series of 40 minute classes until 6 PM in which we have a dinner break. Dinner is always provided by our school, which is great. We didn't expect that at all. After dinner I have to go over and teach at the EZ Academy which is Directors new school that she opened up. Dave stays at E Bo Young. I'm not happy about this at all. First of all, I get out an hour and a half later every night. Dave only works until 7:15 every night and I work until 8:40, except Fridays in which Dave works until 9:45 and I get out at 8:15. It's a really cooky schedule. I end up teaching more hours than Dave and the classes are more difficult and with no direction. Its a bit frustrating, but I have no room to complain.
We were exhausted by the end of the day. Director brought us home and we passed out within seconds.
The next morning we met Director, Luke and Kristy to switch their phones over to us. That took a while, and come to think of it, is pretty irrelevant to this story. After that we went to school to set up for the Halloween party. We went crazy! The place looked so spooky. We had a few different rooms set up; games, face paint, movies, costume, and scary. In the scary room we had different food that felt like human body parts. The kids loved it. The party was a bit crazy, but Dave and I are used to that with camp.
As a going away/ welcome present, Director brought us to a norebang. For those of you who do not know what this it, you need to know! It is the greatest thing ever! (waving my arms in the air like Nancy Lenhart). It's the Korean form of Karaoke. Norebang literally means singing room. In the room you hang out with your friends and sing together (as opposed to singing in front of everyone at the bar back home). There is a table, chairs, a huge screen, and microphones, and disco lights!!!! Using a massive remote control you can pick from a variety of songs. When the song comes on the disco lights go crazy. Also, on the screen there are very cheesy 80's videos playing in the background. They have the most outlandish themes. One of them looked like a home video of mountains. It is so much fun! Dave and I sang our first song together, Jessies Girl. Turns out I don't know any of the words except the chorus. It was intimidating getting up and singing in front of all of your new co-workers and your director! Director grabbed me at one point and handed me the tambourine and we started dancing together. As the time went on it eventually turned into everyone standing up and swaying back and fourth holding each other. At the end, Director got up there and told everyone to sit down and she belted out a balled like she was on American Idol (or the Korean equivilent) It was great to see everyone together having so much fun.
It has been a crazy couple of days and I am so so so excited to take this weekend to relax and take everything in. If there has ever been a time in my life that I have been completely overwhelmed it would be now. There is a lot to process between learning a new job, getting to know new people, dealing with the language barrier, not being able to communicate/ read anything, new culture and just change in general.
Everyone is very understanding and helpful. We are learning so much and experiencing even more. I am excited for our new adventure here in Korea. We have a lot of places to explore, a lot of friends to meet, a lot of food to try. I think it is safe to say that I am very easily falling in love with Korea.
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