The next day we slept... a lot. Dick came to take us shopping along with Hannah. The first store smelled pretty strongly of fish, which makes sense, because Korea is a peninsula. They eat a pretty large amount of seafood relative to the typical Lebanon county diet! We got mostly western things, including some "ham", that turned out to be more of a salami. We bought some peanut butter which has basically kept me alive far. If only I had some nutella, I could thrive ;) Most importantly we bought a fan at the next store we entered. Not a lot of people do air conditioning here. The apartments have large glass windows one one side of the apartment and on the other side, the whole wall is comprised of windows. If you open the all of windows, a pleasant breeze rolls through the apartment!
Later, we went for dinner at a Korean Barbeque. It was delicious. It featured pork and around 20 small side dishes (including a soup that smelled like a foot). Everyone sat on the floor. The table was pretty low, so my legs were awkwardly positioned. Eventually my leg fell asleep, and when I tried to stand, I almost fell! We met the other foreign teachers there, and they were all really nice and welcoming. One of the foreign teachers lives directly below us, and he's the only reason I have access to the internet right now. Thank you, Jason! Two of the foreign teachers at young ladies from South Africa. I think besides those two, all of the other teachers are from the States.
Other than that, we have just been getting settled in and used to the fact that not a lot of people here speak English. The school switched us to a more rural area before we came, so that means not as many people speaking English. If you saw the picture of little kids on Julia's facebook, you know that we have little kids in the apartment across from us. One day we came out of the elevator and they were playing near our door. All the kids laughed and ran, except one little girl who was probably around two years old. She stood there, looked up at us, and cried... and screamed.. and cried until we walked down the stairs so she could "escape"!
Oh, and it rains everyday. The forecast says rain everyday for the next two weeks. Oh well, we have umbrellas!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Post The Second
Salutations!
I wanted to have this second post here earlier, but I found out I HAD to do seven small assignments to receive a grade for a class that officially ended August 11th! They have since been submitted, and I earned an A, so that's a relief. Just so we both know what to expect, after this blog gets a'rolling, I intend to post roughly once a week, maybe more, maybe less depending on what's going on over here in Hanguk! If you didn't already guess, "Hanguk" means South Korea in Korean!
So where were we... Ah, arrived at the airport, got our stuff, and now we are walking through the double doors where so many Asian faces are waiting anxiously for a family member, a friend, or maybe even a client, a few have signs but most just beam with excitement. We spotted the"GVCS" on a plain white piece of paper held by a welcoming white lady! The lady, Sherry, and Dick, her husband, welcome us to South Korea, and we chitchat for a bit. We had to wait for another inbound teacher from Seattle. After a slight wait, Hannah, a Korean American, arrived and greeted her extended family.
Then we were off. We crossed an amazing bridge that is 13.28 miles long! It's called Incheon Grand Bridge, and boy, is it grand. It is illuminated at night by colored lights that change hue periodically. I couldn't help but think of Rochelle while I was on the bridge. For those of you who don't know, Rochelle is a good friend who isn't too fond of bridges.
It was a two-hour drive from the airport to our apartments, so Julia and I got some much needed sleep once we got onto the open road. We stopped at a rest station and ate at, where else but McDonalds. We got back on the road for the last hour of the trip, and then we arrived at our apartment complex. The apartment is pretty nice. It came with a Samsung television, Samsung microwave, and Samsung refrigerator haha. We didn't have any towels or sheets, but that was all taken care of the next day. The apartment has three bedrooms, but only one bed, so if you're thinking of coming to visit, we'll have to pick up an air mattress :D We couldn't see it then, because it was around 11:30 pm, but the view from the apartment is great! I won't bother describing it, because there are pictures of it in the next post!
I wanted to have this second post here earlier, but I found out I HAD to do seven small assignments to receive a grade for a class that officially ended August 11th! They have since been submitted, and I earned an A, so that's a relief. Just so we both know what to expect, after this blog gets a'rolling, I intend to post roughly once a week, maybe more, maybe less depending on what's going on over here in Hanguk! If you didn't already guess, "Hanguk" means South Korea in Korean!
So where were we... Ah, arrived at the airport, got our stuff, and now we are walking through the double doors where so many Asian faces are waiting anxiously for a family member, a friend, or maybe even a client, a few have signs but most just beam with excitement. We spotted the"GVCS" on a plain white piece of paper held by a welcoming white lady! The lady, Sherry, and Dick, her husband, welcome us to South Korea, and we chitchat for a bit. We had to wait for another inbound teacher from Seattle. After a slight wait, Hannah, a Korean American, arrived and greeted her extended family.
Then we were off. We crossed an amazing bridge that is 13.28 miles long! It's called Incheon Grand Bridge, and boy, is it grand. It is illuminated at night by colored lights that change hue periodically. I couldn't help but think of Rochelle while I was on the bridge. For those of you who don't know, Rochelle is a good friend who isn't too fond of bridges.
It was a two-hour drive from the airport to our apartments, so Julia and I got some much needed sleep once we got onto the open road. We stopped at a rest station and ate at, where else but McDonalds. We got back on the road for the last hour of the trip, and then we arrived at our apartment complex. The apartment is pretty nice. It came with a Samsung television, Samsung microwave, and Samsung refrigerator haha. We didn't have any towels or sheets, but that was all taken care of the next day. The apartment has three bedrooms, but only one bed, so if you're thinking of coming to visit, we'll have to pick up an air mattress :D We couldn't see it then, because it was around 11:30 pm, but the view from the apartment is great! I won't bother describing it, because there are pictures of it in the next post!
Pictures!
 |
| This is the first thing I accomplished in the apartment! |
 |
| Ultra-hard bed! |
 |
| To the right is one of the buildings in our complex |
These are the pictures of the nice view from our place.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Genesis 8:12
(SPOILER ALERT) We have arrived in the Republic of Korea (South Korea)... a few days
ago. After a weekend of eating meat flavored snacks and some language
frustration, my written record of my time in what so far could be called
the Land of Rain is underway!
To all my friends and family reading this, I love and miss you dearly, even though we've only been gone for a few days. If any strangers are reading this, then welcome! I don't know what brought you, but pull up a chair and stay awhile!
I decided to make a blog instead of pounding out Facebook note after Facebook note to update those of you who are interested in our time away. Julia (my lovely wife) and I are embracing adventure and spending a year (or more) in South Korea and seeing what God and fate have in store for us. Julia has a full-time teaching position, and I will be tutoring local children in English. Although we miss all of friends and family back in the States and beyond, we are looking forward to the exciting year ahead.
On the second of August, we took off on Asiana Airlines for our destination after saying goodbye to our families at JFK. I may or may not have caused a bag check by forgetting to remove my Xbox 360 (product placement) from my carry-on. The flight was LONG, and as you might already know, it was my first time flying anywhere. Thankfully, the person who was supposed to sit next to us was MIA, so we had some much needed "extra" room.The food on the flight was okay. It was such a long flight, that we had two inflight meals, both of which were Korean dishes (one of which looked like this). When we weren't eating kimchi, I was watching movies. I don't really know why, but I didn't get out of my seat for the whole 15-hour flight! After circling the airport for a bit, we landed safely, got our luggage and looked for a sign marked "GVCS"!
... And that's where I'll pick up on my next post!
P.S. I picked Gen 8:12 as the title because I was creating the blog, and that's the date, but I feel like that verse might relate to the end of our trip in a way. We'll see :D
To all my friends and family reading this, I love and miss you dearly, even though we've only been gone for a few days. If any strangers are reading this, then welcome! I don't know what brought you, but pull up a chair and stay awhile!
I decided to make a blog instead of pounding out Facebook note after Facebook note to update those of you who are interested in our time away. Julia (my lovely wife) and I are embracing adventure and spending a year (or more) in South Korea and seeing what God and fate have in store for us. Julia has a full-time teaching position, and I will be tutoring local children in English. Although we miss all of friends and family back in the States and beyond, we are looking forward to the exciting year ahead.
On the second of August, we took off on Asiana Airlines for our destination after saying goodbye to our families at JFK. I may or may not have caused a bag check by forgetting to remove my Xbox 360 (product placement) from my carry-on. The flight was LONG, and as you might already know, it was my first time flying anywhere. Thankfully, the person who was supposed to sit next to us was MIA, so we had some much needed "extra" room.The food on the flight was okay. It was such a long flight, that we had two inflight meals, both of which were Korean dishes (one of which looked like this). When we weren't eating kimchi, I was watching movies. I don't really know why, but I didn't get out of my seat for the whole 15-hour flight! After circling the airport for a bit, we landed safely, got our luggage and looked for a sign marked "GVCS"!
... And that's where I'll pick up on my next post!
P.S. I picked Gen 8:12 as the title because I was creating the blog, and that's the date, but I feel like that verse might relate to the end of our trip in a way. We'll see :D
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