First Meetings

South Korea. Land of the rising calm. It is certainly calm, at least at 5:00 AM in the morning. My plane ride was long and arduous, although not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. The plane took off from Pierson at 1:30 AM – a blessing in disguise, since I was properly exhausted by the time I got onto the plane. Falling asleep was not so easy, though – like all my airplane adventures, it was less a solid, 8 hour chunk of uninterrupted sleep, and more 5 hours of tossing and turning while the kindly gentlemen to either side of me made annoyed noises and huddled away from my constantly shifting limbs.

I have to say this about Korean Air, though. Despite the cramped seats and lack of leg room, they know how to travel in style. Moist towelettes were provided on two separate occasions, drinks served throughout the flight... and the entertainment! First of all, the waitresses themselves were absolutely fascinating to watch, because they all had their hair drawn back in completely identical, not a strand out of place, twist buns with oddly stiff ribbons. But better were the little television screens at each person’s seat – that way, I could watch anything I wanted, and even skip through the parts I found boring. My movies of choice included Toy Story 3, Karate Kid, Prince of Persia, and Iron Man 2. Unfortunately my complimentary headset arrived broken, but I cleverly brought along a spare set.

Blankets and pillows were provided, which eased travel significantly. Even slippers, although I didn’t wear them. It must be a Korean thing. I suspect that I will find out more as my year here progresses. The food on the plane was... different, even for airplane food. Perhaps that’s because it was not just airplane food, but Korean airplane food. Here’s the thing about Korean food – I assumed it would be like Japanese, or Chinese, because they’re so close geographically. But this may not be the case, from what I witnessed. A weird ravioli and beef concoction, which to be honest, did not taste very Korean. The breakfast, though, was fascinating – green-tea flavoured rice porridge with these thinly sliced orange things that may have been pickled at some point.

Having thus survived the plane flight, I disembarked and immediately ran into trouble in the form of not having filled out my school’s address on my arrivals card. No matter – one quick hold-up-everyone-else-in-line-while-I-rummage-through-my-bag-for-the-relevant-information later, and I was through! Baggage check was surprisingly easy – my bags came out almost instantly, although I looked so perplexed trying to handle two roller suitcases that a nice Korean woman suggested I get a cart. A cart! Bah! Carts are for the weak!

Luckily I found my driver immediately upon exiting the Customs area. I was a bit confused, because I had been under the impression that visiting ESL teachers to Korea were required to undergo some sort of medical check-up, which possibly involved peeing in a paper cup. So I got myself all worked up over it, only to discover that there was no such thing. Or maybe I just didn’t look very dangerous? Considering that I was wearing baggy sweatpants and my brother’s oversized sweater, I probably looked fairly harmless.

My driver was sweet – told me I was pretty, helped me carry my bags to his minivan parked nearby. As a slow walker, especially an exhausted one, I was hard-pressed to keep up with my rapidly-paced driver, but I managed well enough. The ride to Pyeongtaek city from Incheon (the airport/city) is about an hour and a half, although my driver claimed that it was two hours. At five in the morning, Korea is very serene – and continued to be, although my trip did not end up being very calming.

The driving part was wonderful – smooth roads, lovely curves and brightly lit roadways. Then we got to Pyeongtaek, and my driver had no idea where the school was. We ended up sitting at a curb for ten minutes while he talked on the phone in Korean, and then we found the school, except no one was there to meet me. Apparently “CK”, the head teacher, thought that I was arriving at 5 pm, not 5 am, which does explain the absence of a teacher, but wasn’t terribly inspiring.

Together with two other Korean teachers, CK got me to my apartment, although he was confused by which floor I was on. He had to wake up Sean, my neighbour and another teacher at the school, who showed them where I was going to be living. Apparently the guy who lived in the apartment before me – Sasha, same name as Sean’s girlfriend, another teacher – was a “psycho”, which kind of shows. There’s a pink light installed over the kitchen, apparently to mimic the “pink light” district of Pyeongtaek, which is equivalent to the red light district of Amsterdam. Not to mention the poster of scantily clad women gracing the wall.

My apartment is small – smaller than I had expected, although to be honest I’m not sure what I was expecting. It’s a single room, with a balcony-ish type area that leads over to the bathroom. I will have to keep my room clean if I want to have guests over. Which is great for me, because I love cleaning ever so much. There is a TV, but Sean and Sasha aren’t sure whether or not it works, so I’ll have to wait and see. The internet didn’t work for the longest while, but now I’m hijacking Sasha’s internet, which I will continue to do until someone sorts out my internet.

After a short nap – too short – I got up and took a shower... and then went promptly back to sleep. I also did some unpacking, so now I’m about halfway through my second bag. Sean woke me around 2 pm, and we went out for lunch at a Korean BBQ place, which was very nice. It’s cool, because there’s an actual grill in the middle of the table – outlawed in North America, because they’re worried that customers might burn themselves. Which is the same thinking that goes for those open crepe grills in France, I expect.

Sean and Sasha dished on the school, how the kids are, what lessons are like, how different Korea is from home, etc. Sean has been here for almost two years, and Sasha is – I believe – 6 months into her contract, so they’ve been around. They started dating a few months ago, and are a very cute couple – Sean calls her “babe”, and they bicker unceasingly. Reminds me of a certain couple that I know back home.

We then went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Actually, we were nominally there to buy food, but I only got a few foodstuffs – the majority of time was spent getting cleaning supplies, toilet paper, etc. And a bath mat! It is green and says “Full House”, which puzzles me to no end, although it does have a picture of a house on it, so I suppose it makes some sense.

Then back to the apartment to put things away! Sean and I bonded over books, while Sasha attempted to hook me up to the internet. She ended up connecting me to her wireless, but the landline in my room does not work, so I’ll have to hijack her internet until someone can set mine up for me. I asked about a bank account, phone, health plan, etc., and I can’t get any of that until I have my Resident Alien Card, which will take about a month to process.

After all this, they departed for their own room, leaving me to my own devices. I am currently lying on my bed, which I have covered with sheets of questionable cleanliness. Tomorrow I may have to invest some time into cleaning, as the apartment is in a sorry state – the last tenant, as I stated, was “psycho”, so things aren’t quite up to snuff. But Sasha and Sean assure me that I’ll get used to things soon enough. I think that this will be expedited if I learn Korean, so I’ll have to get on that! Seoul is only 45 minutes away by train, so I’ll definitely be going there every couple of weekends.