Life in the first couple weeks

Ok, so first of all, bear with me because I don't really know how this blogging thing really works and all that jazz. But, I'll start from the beginning:


So, first of all there was leaving home in the middle of April, which was a super crazy day that involved trying to get at least one of my pieces of luggage down to a non-overweight weight.  So not fun!  That was followed by what was one of the LONGEST trips of my life!  With 1.5 hours from Calgary to Vancouver, 2 hours of waiting in Vancouver, then a 12 hour flight to Seoul, a 30 minute bus ride to a different airport (which thank goodness there was a large group of us together, because it was kind of confusing finding out where to go to catch that bus and then which bus it was), that was followed by a ridiculously long wait at the Gimpo airport, where the group of us ended up playing Cards Against Humanity.  Don't ask.  It's a very unusual game.  As a side note, it would have been faster to take the bus from Incheon to Gwanju than it was to fly there.  But I think the logic there was that all of our baggage wouldn't fit on the bus.  The flight from Gimpo to Gwanju ended up being delayed a little bit, but it was only an hour long and was the most relaxing flight ever!! They played classical music the whole way, the plane was nice and warm, and it just had a relaxing vibe.  Oh, and if you're ever in Korea, or on a Korean plane, try the plum juice - it's delicious and refreshing!!  Right, so after that flight we all piled onto yet another bus that was headed towards our hotel.  Add another half hour to the travel time.  By the time we got to the hotel and got to our rooms it was 10:30 at night and I had been travelling for about 22 hours in total, so yes, it was a long day.  Unfortunately for us, orientation started first thing the next morning.

Orientation was very informative and at times fun; my only issue with it was that it really would have been nice to get a day or at least one morning to ourselves, but it was 10 days of go-go-go. The hotel we stayed at was quite nice, and they fed us really well.  If you were hungry, it was definitely your own fault.
One night near the beginning of orientation we went to a baseball game.  It was very cold that night and the game was ridiculously long - I stayed for 3 hours, but it apparently took 6 hours before it was done. Crazy!!  Here's some proof that I was there:

On our field trip day, we went to a temple in Hwasun, which I really enjoyed, even though it was raining.  Pictures can be found here, for those of you without facebook.


Gwanju itself had some nice aspects as well - went for a hike and some walks, here are some pictures from Gwanju:


So now onto talking about the last day of orientation/travel day to the new city!
This was another crazy day.  We basically had part of the morning to eat and get packed up, then it was down to get lined up to meet our teachers.  After meeting our co-teachers, everyone had to head up to their rooms, get their luggage and haul it down into the teachers' cars.  CHAOS at the elevators!!  That done, we wolfed down our lunches and headed off to our cities.  For me, it was about 1.5-2 hour drive to Yeosu.  First stop was the school where I met the principal, vice-principal, master teacher and a number of other people.  My co-teacher and I had tea with the principal, which was awkward because he doesn't speak English and I don't really speak enough Korean (especially not comfortable with it with the principal!!) so it was a lot of smiling and nodding.  As a side note, I don't think I've met a single Korean yet who can properly or easily pronounce my last name.  Who would've guessed?  Anyway, after the school visit, we went to my apartment to check it out, get the keys, and figure out what I needed to buy, then it was off to the immigration office so that I could apply for my Alien Card, followed by setting up a bank account, buying a phone, and getting some groceries/supplies for my apartment.  By the time I got back to my place it was nearly 8pm, and I still needed to eat, and at the very least unpack the essentials for the night.  Then it was go out and make sure I knew how to get to my school for the next morning.  Finding the school was easy enough, although I definitely got slightly lost on the way back home.  In my defence, it was dark and I was tired.  Then there was a small issue in not realizing certain things about how to unlock electronic locks to get into my building.  Not to worry though, I figured it out after about 10 minutes of frustration.  Crazy day may have been an understatement. 

And in case anyone is wondering this is what my apartment looks like.

And this is the view that I have.


More on life at school in Korea later!