1. My passport took forever to get back to me from the Korean consulate in Chicago. I had to send it there in order to get the E2 Visa stamp in it and before my plane ticket could be booked, I needed that document in my hand. Well, it came down to the very, absolute, last day that it possibly could. I owe a post master in Hampton, IA a huge big thank you because he drove an hour away to go and pick up my package for me. He made it possible for me to be on the same flight as my three friends. Huge advantage of living in a small town I suppose.
2. We flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco (left at 7am) and then from San Francisco to Seoul, Korea. Here is a picture of the stuff I tried to fit in the suitcase.
It's hard to pack everything you will need for a year. (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting me trash your basement for two weeks.) The first leg of the journey took about 4 hours and the second leg of the journey about 12 hours and 20 minutes. I never really sleep when I am traveling, so this made for a loooong flight. Luckily, on the airline we flew on over to Seoul, Korea (Korean Air) we each had individual screens on which we could watch whatever we wanted. There was actually a large selection of recent movies and TV shows to choose from as well as a bunch of music to listen to. I mostly watched movies the entire flight. Here is a brief list of things I saw (I won't remember them all because I was pretty out of it): Taken (the best movie I watched), Fast and Furious (this movie starts out so much like the original that I actually thought I WAS watching the original movie), I Love You, Man (much better than I had heard, you were right Steph and Jon), The International (I had only brief recollections of what this movie was...I will probably not remember anything about this movie later because it was pretty forgettable), aaaand that's all I can remember. Like I said, I was pretty out of it, but it was so nice to have the options right in front of me and to be able to choose whatever I wanted instead of having to watch one common, crappy movie. We did have two meals on the plane and I would have to say that, for how fancy everything else on the plane was (they gave us special socks to wear when we took off our shoes, an eye mask for sleeping, a beautiful blanket {no joke}, a toothbrush and toothpaste) the food wasn't real good.
3. When we arrived in Seoul at the airport, there was a driver to pick up Joe and Heidi, but Blake and I were left without a ride to our destinations. However, after awhile our driver did show up. Of course, he knew were to take us, but neither of us knew what the other was saying to each other, so it was a quiet ride. A quiet, long ride. The first thing I noticed when I walked outside was how hot and muggy it was. The second thing I noticed was the smell. Something like sewage, fish, and musty smell. Not the best scent ever. Now, my apartment wouldn't be ready until the end of the week, so I was dropped off at a co-op residence and Blake was taken to her apartment.
Here is the co-op room I stayed in:
<---Shower room. Yeah, the bathroom is one big shower. Here is the view right when you walk in the door. 
Here is a picture from the bed looking at the door and the "kitchen"
Here is a view from the co-op window
It looks like there is a lot around the co-op, but I found out there really wasn't a whole lot. Apparently there is a Costco around the same area as the co-op, but I never found it. I guess that is where a lot of the teachers go in order to buy their meat and large quantities of groceries.4. My first day of adventure. Blake lived a ways away from me in the apartment building I would eventually move into, so we thought it would be cool if I came to see what it was like there. She had gotten my room phone number before we parted ways, so she gave me a call via a payphone and gave me her address. I gave her address to the front desk worker at the co-op who translated a note written in Korean. Then, the front desk worker called the cab for me and I got in. I gave the note to the driver and we started off. It didn't take too long to get there, maybe twenty minutes. I paid the driver and off he went. I then went to the apartment building the driver pointed at when he left me. Blake's room was 508, so I got in the elevator and headed up to the fifth floor, stepped out of the elevator...and there was 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, .......no 508. Uh oh. This is how my first adventure began...being dropped off in the completely wrong place by a cab driver....a completely wrong place in a city where no one speaks English. Great. Well, started looking around for anyone that looked like they may speak English and found a bank that looked like may do international banking. They were able to understand the address I had written in Korean and then showed me a map from their computer. I took a glance, said 'Thank you', bowed slightly, and went on my way. Their directions did not get me to the apartment, but I did find a post office. The post man drew me a map to the apartment...or what he thought was the apartment. It was not. However, I did find a police station and they pointed to the location on a large map. I wasn't too far away and I had a really good idea of where to go from the station. Finally, two hours after the cab dropped me off I walked into Blake's apartment. All in all, it was good to walk around that much because now I know where a lot of things are...I guess. After I visited the new apartment building and Blake for awhile we got something to eat (we had no idea what to order but the ladies that were working were really nice and just brought us some food) and it was delicious. I then decided to could navigate back to the co-op by walking. It was a long walk, but again, it was good to find a bunch of locations, and actually it was very easy to get there because I just followed the subway stops.
5. Wow. I hope you made it through that last part...it was pretty long.
6. Training. We had a day of training that was pretty good, but we still would not start teaching until Monday. We really couldn't go to the school at all because of the quarantine. We did get to met the teachers we would be teaching with and the next day we all went to staff dinner. They showed us how to eat some of the food and we had some great Korean barbecue and Korean drinks. Then many of us went to a noribang (pronounced nor-ee-bong) which is basically a single, rentable, karaoke room. Lots and lots of fun for everyone. After that we all went back to the apartment were we all live and sat outside and just got to know one another. Everyone is very nice and excited to show us around.
7. Blake and I ventured out and found an electronics market and that is how I am typing right now. We found power converters and power strips. The apartments are pretty small and only have a few outlets. As soon as I move into my place and get it set up I will take some pictures and post them with a new post.
8. All in all things are going really quite well. I actually am ready to start meeting the kids and set up my classroom. It will be a lot of work getting things rolling with the classroom and curriculum, but I look forward to the challenges ahead.
9. I will end this blog post with saying that everyone is very nice to us. Koreans understand that I have no idea what I am doing, but they are really excited to say 'Bye bye' and 'Thank you'. They seem to want to make that connection with me. I have learned that gam sa had nida (pronounced gahm say HAHD needa) means thank you, so I have been saying that a lot.
10. Look for another post soon as I have already had more adventures!
