Last time we chatted I was in the cab. The bad news: my cab driver did not know any English and tried to get directions from me to my school (our final destination). I, in turn, do not know any Korean. Needless to say we drove a few blocks on the sidewalk until we found the place. That's right, the sidewalk. The good news: I didn't have to pay! On arrival to the school I was greeted out of the cab by an assortment of important people who I don't really remember. lol. I know the school director and faculty manager were there. Then they whisked my bags from the cab and led me upstairs. When they asked me if they had all my bags I looked and only saw my one big suitcase that Aunt Lorrie gave me. "Ummmm.... I have one more." I looked in the back of the cab and it wasn't there. In a panic I tried to stay clam. "I'm positive that I put it in the cab." Alas the cab was empty. After a minute of freaking out, one of the men turned and revealed that it was on his back the whole time. Holy shit, thanks fancy suit man.
Overwhelmed by meeting seven important people outside and thinking my bag was missing, I shakily walked upstairs to the school on the third floor. By this time it was about 7 pm. School was in session. I was led to the teachers lounge and told to wait there. Five minutes pass and all six of the other teachers come bustling in. Everyone welcomed me and tried to make conversation, but they only had 20 minutes before the next class started. At the end of this 20 minute break I watched two classes until the end of school. Sigh, maybe I can finally go home and sleep; after all I began the day at 7 am and it was now 11 pm.
The teachers and our manager KP carried my bags and drove me to my new apartment. All the teachers live here. I'll explain more about my apartment in another post. After throwing my crap all over my room the other teachers revealed the plan for the night: Dinner then the bar. I thought to myself, "man, I'm going to like these people."
We went out to eat and I had my first Korean BBQ! It was so tasty!!!! Before entering the dinning room you have to remove your shoes and then sit on the floor next to your burner where you cook the food.
It was an amazing beginning to get to know everybody. In clockwise order starting from the person sitting on my left: Matt, Rachel, Franesca, Aaron, Amanda, and Blake is taking the picture. Amanda is the one I'll be replacing; which is sad because shes a lot of fun. She kind of reminds me of Joy. Anyway, then they took me to the WaBa bar. There is this liquor called Agwa, which we don't have in the U.S., and we finished 3 bottles of it. Needless to say it was a pretty crazy night. The bartenders there (Cameron, San, and Zed) were all really fun and silly. I'm excited to talk to them again too.
The next day I crawled out of bed around noon. I should mention that Korea is like Vegas in the fact that the bars never close so you have no idea what time it is. We left the bar around 3:30-4 am! Hence why I crawled out of bed. Most of us went for the lunch to a chicken place where they also cook in front of you; once again shoes off and sitting on the floor. I've been there twice now; it's really good. Most of the food I've had is spicy, but in a flavorful way so it's manageable. Also, almost every meal has some form of cabbage. Fun fact.
So Saturday evening (aka: 11 pm) we went to a foreign bar called Warehouse. It was nice, but I like WaBa more. Warehouse has loud dance music so it's hard to talk to people; which makes talking to Koreans nearly impossible. However I did make friends with the two Korean men that own a salon a block away from our apartment building. That was pretty sweet.
The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key. Blake and Rachel (the married teacher pair) took me to Home Plus which is like if Macy's and Wal-Mart had a child, so I could grab some groceries. Then we went to the movies. Yes, I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but we saw Twilight. Forgive me. It was interesting to see it in a Korean movie theater though. They are SUPER fancy. There is like three feet of leg-room and the chairs are almost like lazy-boy. Pretty cool. Also the seats are assigned, so you can reserve the best seats ahead of time. That was Sunday.
Monday KP took me to do all the necessary, scary, life-changing, boring stuff. We drove an hour to get to the immigration office so I could apply for my alien residence card (ARC card). It was in some random town next to the ocean, so I got to see the ocean for the first time. There was also some old man there trying to prove heritage or something. For proof he pulled out these scrolls wrapped in newspaper that must have been at least 100 years old. It looked like they were made for papyrus. Amazing. My archaeology geekyness was in full swing. However, our business was done and it was time to leave.
KP took us back to Gangneung. We headed to the bank where I (really it was KP who did all the work I just signed the papers) created a bank account. Next we went to the National Healthcare Center to apply for, you guessed it, healthcare. Note that every adults coverage is about $75 a month. I know it seems so simple as a write this day in my blog, but man was it overwhelming.
It had finally hit me that I was going to be here for a while; paying bills, working, becoming a real adult. No one really speaks English. The language barrier is almost as big as the ocean that separates Korea from the U.S. I was freaking out. The only cure? I walked around, got lost, found a doughnut shop, and then found home. Crisis averted.
Today made it all better though. I shadowed Rachel as she taught her classes; the ones I will start teaching tomorrow. Although I'm scared out of my mind to start teaching (with all the teachers and employees watching me on camera), I can't wait to start interacting with the kids. Man they are so funny. One of the classes today kept bringing up ghosts in every example they had to make. I think it might be a strange sign that everything is going to be okay, because you know I love me some ghosts!
Nice to blog with you,
<3 Stine
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