Arrival in Korea

It was about a 13 hour flight to Incheon from San Francisco. Once we arrived, we were very happy to see that our luggage made it through as well. :) So far, so good! We then went out to where we were to meet everyone, and found that someone had made a sign for us, to pick us up, but had taped it to a post. The owner of the sign was no where to be found. So, we sat on a bench, next to our sign, until the owner came and got us. He turned out to be not anyone from the school, but actually what they call a "call van" guy. He owns a van, they pay him to go pick up people. He was bringing us to our home, and we would meet my co-teacher nearby. It was a long drive, and I dozed off a lot through it. I don't think Derek did. He was quite excited, but still very tired. We finally got to our area, and met my co-teacher. She was quite surprised that Derek was with me. I guess they don't spend too much time reading the applications that come through, because I had put that information on the application. Oh well, it's all good.

Our apartment is what is called a 'villa'. It's actually got two bedrooms, which is quite surprising. Most apartments provided to teachers are bachelor apartments. So, although we need a bigger bed, and the apartment needs a good cleaning, we can't really complain too much about it, because it's great that it has two bedrooms, and a separate kitchen area. :) The bathroom is also not too bad. There is no separate shower, but the shower area is quite big, and is far enough away from the toilet that there's no worry about having to hide away the toilet paper each time you take a shower.

My co-teacher came to our apartment with us, and showed Derek how to run the floor heating. Derek was very tired, and just kind of wandered around aimlessly while she and I talked about a few things. She did tell me that I couldn't eat anything until after having my health check done the next morning. So, yeah... we were tired, and very hungry, but could not eat anything. I think it was about 8pm by the time she left, and Derek flopped down in bed, and just fell asleep. I had to find a way to set an alarm, because I had to meet the co-teacher at 8:40 am the next morning to go for the health check.

It didn't really matter, the alarm, since Derek and I both woke up around 5am. We went out to look for a PC room to send an e-mail to family and let them know we made it safely, but there was no PC room to be found. The only thing around us are restaurants, and even those were all closed at 5am. There are a couple of convenience stores, though, and so Derek was able to get some Pringles and a Pepsi to have. I wasn't very happy that I couldn't eat anything. I was so hungry.

Later on in the morning we finally met my co-teacher, and we walked to my school. Since it was snowing a bit, the sidewalks were a bit slippery, and I wasn't too keen on walking all over town for everything. So, we found out where our school is, and then we were going to walk to the hospital. I suggested we take a taxi. (Thankfully... it was quite a walk... ) Unfortunately, the health check didn't go super well. My blood pressure was up, and so was my heart rate, not that I'm surprised about that. Having my heart rate monitored just after climbing the stairs to the second floor will do that to me. (I had to go back on Friday and have my blood pressure and heart rate checked again. I sat outside the office for about 10 minutes before going in for the test. Thankfully, everything was normal then. :) )

After the health check, we went to a PC room and finally were able to e-mail everyone and let them know we'd made it. :) Then, we took a taxi to Uijeongbu. We didn't realize how much the taxi would cost. It was about $15 to go there. We ate at Outback Steakhouse, and again, were not too impressed, really, with that. We then did some shopping at HomePlus, but were really getting very tired by the end of it. So, we got a taxi to come back home. I had forgotten to take our address, and so I ended up really having to tell the taxi driver to go around a few times to find the right road. Ooops... He was good about it, though, and we gave him a good tip. (Taxi's are really the one place where tips are accepted.)

That was our first day in Korea. It was tiring, and exciting all at the same time. I really realized, though, that my understanding that Korea is all the same where ever you are, is not necessarily the case. This place that we're living in is not what I'm used to. It's bizarre that there are no PC rooms near us, and that the nearest 'mart' is about a $4 taxi ride away. There are a lot of restaurants, though, most of them for BBQ meat. There is a Domino's though, and that makes me happy. LOL. There is also not too far away a pizza hut. Derek and I tried to go there once, but they're closed for renovations.

All in all, though, it's good to be back, and Derek does seem to be enjoying himself. We are still working on getting into a proper sleep routine, but we are happy. :)