I'm here

It’s been quite an eventful few days. I got on the plane from Daytona on time, and transferred planes with no problem. The flight from San Francisco was very long, and a bit cramped. I had wanted to at least see the US for the last time as we were flying away, but it was overcast from the moment we got in the air until we hit Alaska. I did get to see a little bit of Russia before we got to Korea – seems like a vast wasteland of frozen tundra to me. I got off the plane, and got through customs with no problem. My bags were even at the baggage claim as soon as I got there. I found the limousine bus that I needed (they’re basically like charter busses) and got on it right away. The bus driver, however, didn’t speak English. The stops were announced in Korean, and then in English. But at the City Hall stop, it didn’t say that the next stop was in Uijeongbu. So I tried to ask the driver, since I had been told that my ride would meet me at the last stop in Uijeongbu. He didn’t understand what I was asking.


 

There was a family that got off at the stop with me, who had a little girl and a little boy. I guess the girl was taking English classes because she knew a few words and tried to find out where I was trying to go. But I had conveniently forgotten the name of the school, and I hadn’t written down any of the phone numbers that my boss had given me. So they drove me about a block to the city hall, where the night watchmen were nice enough to let me use their computers to find the phone number of Lee, who was supposed to pick me up. After we finally got a hold of him, they gave me come coffee (which is actually instant coffee sold in little packets, but it wasn’t bad), and we watched soccer until Lee, the director's husband, arrived.

He got my bags into the van, and drove me though downtown Uijeongbu, passed the school that I’ll be working at, and then showed me where my apartment is. It’s right off the main road, but on a little side street so there’s no traffic, and about 10 blocks or so from the school. My apartment is on the second floor, right above a flower shop. It’s a studio, with what passes for a kitchen, a bathroom, and a “porch” where the washer is that faces another apartment building under construction. The front door doesn’t have a key; it’s a number code so I don’t need to worry about loosing my keys anymore. The kitchen has a dorm-type fridge, a microwave, a sink, and a hot plate. There’s no closet, just a metal rack with some hangers on it. There’s a desk/table with two chairs, a place near the door to put your shoes, a small table that you have to sit on the ground to use, a tv with the cable already working (My options in English include the BBC and a movie channel. That's it.), a bed (which is apparently brand new but hard as a rock), and a cubby hole-type thing. The air conditioner has a remote, but it’s been cold enough here that I’ve just left the windows open. Apparently this is spring weather, and it’s going to get much hotter in the summer.
 

 


The area itself is beautiful. The mountains are right next to the city, walking distance actually, but you’d never know it if you’re in downtown because everything is so flat, and the high-rise buildings cover them up. Since the country is so small, everything has a small footprint and goes up ridiculously high. All the apartment buildings are higher than most hotels I’ve seen. Mine is an exception, as it’s only three stories, and has shops underneath it, including a flower/plant shop. The school is on the sixth floor of one of these buildings.


I’m a few blocks from Home Plus, which is like a 24 hour Walmart, mixed with a department store. The bottom floor is a food court and the designer clothes. Each section is separate, and you have to pay the cashier for the items you want in their section – most of them are separated by brand. The second floor is the grocery section. When they run out of something, they don’t re-stock it until 5am, so when I went there tonight, they were out of bread, bananas, and a few other things I had wanted to get. There’s a little section in the middle that’s kind of like a mini restaurant, so if you get hungry while you’re food shopping you can eat. And yes, deodorant is no-where to be found. This place is much more sanitary than the downtown market-place, which has every kind of meat and seafood (squid, manta-ray, octopus, etc.) lying out in the air with no ice and flies buzzing around. The third floor is the rest of the home-type things that you would normally find in a Walmart. Of course everything is in Korean, though there’s a lot more English than I thought there would be. There’s more English on things like shirts and ads, but I think most people that wear those shirts have no idea what they say. Tax is included in the price of everything, so the price listed is what you pay.

There’s also old money and new money, referring to bills and not to people. I tried to use one of my bills in a vending machine to get a drink, but they only take the new money. I should be able to trade out the rest of my US dollars sometime this week, when I set up a bank account. Cherita, one of the other teachers who showed me around today, thinks that I’ll get paid next week for half a paycheck. She said they take your bills, like electricity and cable, out of your check. There’s a wireless set up here, but I need the password for it, which I was told I’ll get tomorrow.
Cherita took me out to lunch today around 1. I didn’t wake up until noon when she knocked on my door – and I probably should be in bed right now since I have to be at work tomorrow at 9:15. She said there are three English teachers – myself, Cherita, and James- and three Korean teachers. It’s a private school, and apparently very expensive, as I only have 6 or 7 kids per class. I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow more of what that’s going to be like.