In the spirit of streamlining my
updates, here is the email I wrote 8/26/12, my first morning.
“Good
morning! Here is a very much still sleep-deprived, informal update! I guess I'll catch up on sleep when I
can, because it’s not going to be this morning. Didn’t get to bed until 3am and
still woke up at 7am. Bethany said
this happened to her so I guess I'm not as surprised. Between nervous
excitement upon departure and 24 hours of traveling, I’d say I’m a few hours
behind, to say the least.
I landed around 4am your time and after immigration,
baggage claim, and customs, the school president’s son picked me up (cool kid
with a British accent studying at St. Andrew's in Scotland) and took me to the
apartment that Bethany and I will be staying at until we get our own
apartments. This was about 7pm our
time.
Immediately upon arriving, I was informed the WILS
teacher group was going out tonight.
In a thirty minute turn around, I put my stuff down and got ready to hit
the town. I definitely didn't want
to stay in and get freaked out by being by myself...
Two teachers, married, who are finishing their last week, came over and then we picked up a few a few more teachers from “The Tower” which is the apartment building that almost all the other non-married teachers live in and hopefully where Bethany and I will live. They may not be as nice as where we are now, which is modest but comfortable, but I think Bethany saw a picture and said they looked decent. Socially, it’s where I want to be. I'm a little concerned with the heating/AC situation there, though. So many things to figure out. WILS is definitely taking care of us, but we have certainly have our independence. It's busy for them finishing up this term, so I get the slight sense that getting us settled is not their main priority, but no doubt that everything will work out just fine.
We walked to the Hongdae area (aka “the magical world'”) which has a good nightlife and fun university influences. It was a long walk (they usually cab but wanted to enjoy the city on their last weekend) so I had good opportunity to get to know a few people and ask questions about EVERYTHING. We went to a Korean BBQ place and Bethany and I tried a few different vegetarian things. I think I was (maybe still am) a little too freaked out to have my full appetite (That and my several encounters with Korean food so far haven't been too great...on the plane I ended up eating plain white rice. It seems they eat a lot of red meat here).
After dinner, headed to a bar/club with live music called FF. Possibly a Japanese band playing, kind of heavy metal, which was…loud. But it was cocktail hour so free drinks between 11-12! Afterward met up with the rest of the WILS teacher group. They are a very close-knit group and they seem to have a really good time (hope I can keep up!) Drank some cocktails-in-a-bag type thing (almost like Capri-sun but custom made) and we hung outside on the sidewalk for a bit. The drinking culture is pretty intense here and the lack of open-container laws will lead to nights of grabbing a cheap beer for the walk to the bars.
Finally, I decided maybe I should head home and Bethany was more than willing to come home with me, even though I figure she'd probably rather stay out longer. Having recently being jet-lagged herself, she understood, and I appreciated her offer.
Two teachers, married, who are finishing their last week, came over and then we picked up a few a few more teachers from “The Tower” which is the apartment building that almost all the other non-married teachers live in and hopefully where Bethany and I will live. They may not be as nice as where we are now, which is modest but comfortable, but I think Bethany saw a picture and said they looked decent. Socially, it’s where I want to be. I'm a little concerned with the heating/AC situation there, though. So many things to figure out. WILS is definitely taking care of us, but we have certainly have our independence. It's busy for them finishing up this term, so I get the slight sense that getting us settled is not their main priority, but no doubt that everything will work out just fine.
We walked to the Hongdae area (aka “the magical world'”) which has a good nightlife and fun university influences. It was a long walk (they usually cab but wanted to enjoy the city on their last weekend) so I had good opportunity to get to know a few people and ask questions about EVERYTHING. We went to a Korean BBQ place and Bethany and I tried a few different vegetarian things. I think I was (maybe still am) a little too freaked out to have my full appetite (That and my several encounters with Korean food so far haven't been too great...on the plane I ended up eating plain white rice. It seems they eat a lot of red meat here).
After dinner, headed to a bar/club with live music called FF. Possibly a Japanese band playing, kind of heavy metal, which was…loud. But it was cocktail hour so free drinks between 11-12! Afterward met up with the rest of the WILS teacher group. They are a very close-knit group and they seem to have a really good time (hope I can keep up!) Drank some cocktails-in-a-bag type thing (almost like Capri-sun but custom made) and we hung outside on the sidewalk for a bit. The drinking culture is pretty intense here and the lack of open-container laws will lead to nights of grabbing a cheap beer for the walk to the bars.
Finally, I decided maybe I should head home and Bethany was more than willing to come home with me, even though I figure she'd probably rather stay out longer. Having recently being jet-lagged herself, she understood, and I appreciated her offer.
A fellow teacher, Michael, will show us around some
today and take us to Insa-dong and a palace. Glad there is another newbie to do all these first-time
activities with. I really like everything I know of Bethany so far.
Teacher training looks like it will consist of observing the last three days of the term, pretty informal. Thursday and Friday are days off (maybe also to wrap things up) and Monday starts the new term...and I'll be teaching. The first term can be difficult, some have said, as you figure out how to do things. It’s on the job training. Everything is a little overwhelming! But I know that adjusting takes more than…12 hours :)”
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