The Eagle Has Landed!!

Sit tight because this is going to be a long one. I’d rather just go ahead and brain dump from the last few days.

I have made to Korea!! Tuesday morning I woke up in Dallas with my family got myself together and loaded a plane at DFW for a non-stop flight bound for Incheon Airport.

It was a 14 hour flight. I didn’t get much sleep the night before which was kind of expected. I’m enough of an insomniac when I have nothing going on let alone when my whole world is about to change. Somehow during check-in when I let it randomize my seat I managed to land a window seat so that was pretty nice. I only managed to sleep for about 30-40 minutes, it was somewhere over Alaska. About Anchorage to Nome. I was pretty much wired for the rest of the flight. I still felt tired but not enough to drop back off again.

The people in my row were pretty nice though. The guy next to me never really said anything but while he was in the bathroom the girl on the end shook my hand and spoke to me for a minute. Just a quick : “are you staying in Korea? Are you military or….? Are you going to Seoul?” But when I dropped off to sleep I missed the snack cart for hot ramen. Which I was pretty ok with, I wasn’t really hungry and from the whispering of the flight attendants I think they might have misplaced a cart of it and were running short. That being said one of my row-mates grabbed me a salted caramel gelato and put it on my tray.

The entire flight it felt so surreal that I was going about to be dropped off in a foreign country. It felt a little panic inducing to be honest but when it started to feel tight I’d quit overthinking and let the dream like feeling slip back over. I just needed to take a step back and a breather, it’s not that bad. One step at a time! That’s all you can do, don’t get ahead of yourself and make it worse!

After I landed there was a driver arranged to pick me up and take me to my new apartment. After spending a while in customs and baggage claim which honestly wasn’t as terrible as I imagined, it just took a little while. They managed the lines very well. When I came out of my gate I apparently missed my driver. I don’t know how, he did have a big sign with my name on it but when I came out all I saw were signs for travel agencies and hotels. I contacted my recruiter over FB messenger immediately and she called the driver. We found each other very quickly after that and he helped me load up into the van. I also got to speak to my recruiter so she could check in that he had me and assure me of what was happening next.

I tried to stay awake during the drive but I think I drifted off toward the end. Coming out of Incheon everything looked pretty odd but after we got further out it didn’t look terribly different from anything at home. Honestly if the buildings weren’t all sky high, I can’t read the signs and some of the cars didn’t look so odd I might not think I’d even left the US. The tall hills and mountains kind of reminded me of going through California.

After we arrived at my new apartment someone was going to be there to meet me and help me get in. My recruiter told me since it was a national holiday my co-teacher wouldn’t be able to meet me and that instead a coordinator was going to come. Instead of her, I did get to meet my co-teacher! He was very flustered so I think they might have dropped it on him last minute. He’s been extremely nice, he just always seems very nervous. When he was showing me my apartment I think his nerves were making him forget words which made him more nervous. I ended up putting two and two together myself about most of it. He at least showed me how to play with the AC and turn on the hot water in the shower. He also brought me a new clean trap for the washer since apparently his is the same and they left me a ragged one. My apartment is about the size of a dorm room but at least this time I  get a bathroom to myself, a kitchen and a washer. My co-teacher also showed my the drying rack for wet clothes except he couldn’t get it to lock back up, which only flustered him more, the poor little dude. I finally had to tell him to leave it, that it would be ok, I can still walk under it. He also brought me several bottles of water and put them in my fridge. He asked if I’d eaten. They’d given us food again before we landed and to be honest I wasn’t very hungry. So I told him I was ok and he left shortly thereafter. It was an EXTREMELY brief “orientation”.

After he left I unloaded what I could from my suitcases since I didn’t have any hangers. I used what I could in the apartment to help hang up some clothes to get the wrinkles out for my first day at school. There was an Ethernet cable sitting on my desk and I plugged it in just to see. I was told I wouldn’t have WiFi until after I can get a bank account set up. I wasn’t expecting it to work but by some miracle it has! I’m expecting it to be turned off any day now though. I don’t think I’m suppose to have it but I’ll take the bill happily. It’s been the one thing keeping me in contact with the world, my family and friends. I immediately turned on Spotify and jammed out at a reasonable volume to Panic! at the Disco while I unpacked and showered. It’s the small things that can make you feel more comfortable in a new place.  I played with the shower the first night, which is going to take some getting use to. Its not like showers you’re accustomed to in the US. I’ll post some pictures of my apartment some time after I get a little more settled and it looks a little more like I live here. After that I pretty much passed out around 6pm.

The next morning I woke up about 4:50 and just went ahead and got up early. I took a shower and started getting ready for school. While I was doing my makeup and hair I Skyped my mom and we talked until I had to go downstairs and meet my co-teacher. He came by to pick me up and take me to school. He apologized for the day before because he was really nervous. I think he’s just a nervous kind of person, but he’s been extremely nice! I’m pretty much just observing classes right now but eventually we’ll work out a plan to share the class and collaborate a little more. When we got to school and went inside he helped me find a pair of slippers. I don’t have to worry about what shoes I wear too much, I just need to wear stockings or socks because I’m going to change into these clunky black slippers for the day. I probably need to get my own so I can have something a little more comfortable and something that’s mine. After that he showed me around the school, I think I met the principal and vice principal. It wasn’t explained very well. I just smiled. There was a short teacher’s meeting where one of them introduced me to the staff. I understood absolute zero of what she was saying or where she got that much info on me. The other teacher’s oohed and aah-ed and made surprised/impressed? faces the whole time. Whatever she said must have been good. After that they wanted me to say a little something. I was totally unprepared for that. I gave my best attempt at saying hello in Korean. They clapped. I felt embarrassed which is pretty natural for me but I also didn’t really want them clapping for me doing the bare minimum of practical functioning. I kept it pretty brief and was very happy to go sit back down afterwards. When we were about to leave my co-teacher gave me a welcome gift. It was a little bag that had messages from our students to me and a cute little box with pretty artificial flowers inside which I currently have on my desk in the apartment. I also met the Chinese teacher while we were waiting for the meeting to start and she is extremely nice as well. She’s one of the few other teachers that talks to me, but she also might be one of the few that has enough English to do so. I don’t know how many of the other teachers speak any English. She asked if I liked volleyball and when I told them while I haven’t played in a really long time, I played with my family when I was really young they got excited. Apparently on Wednesdays, the teachers play volleyball. I don’t know if I’ll join or just watch but at least I have something that I might be able to interact with them which is exciting.

After the meeting was over my co-teacher took us back to the classroom and while he got set up for the day. On Thursdays we only have 4 classes and we’re done by lunchtime. It was 5th and 6th grade. They were all very nice, I gave short introductions and they asked a few questions about me. I would observe how the lessons were structured and eventually started walking around while the students were suppose to be working on activities. The 40 minute classes pretty much flew by. I wasn’t able to go eat lunch that day because after school I had my health exam and was told not to eat 5-8 hours before. So I went all day until dinner without eating. I sat in the classroom during lunch and sipped some cold water and took a break. Some students who are from the 4th grade class came in to clean. They did more playing than cleaning but they were pretty cute. It was fun to watch even the quieter, shyer students start to come out and show more personality around me. One of them was a straight up ham, but she’s sweet, her English is pretty decent and I thought she was funny. I was exhausted and trying to stay awake so at least I had entertainment to keep me awake.

All day students were walking by the room and peeking at the new foreign teacher. I’d give them a big smile, a wave and a hello. They’d smile really big and run or say it back and then run. One of my 5th or 6th graders came by at some point and gave my a tiny can of orange Fanta. I’ve heard students might give you things so I accepted it with a smile and thank you. During my lunch break one of the shyer 4th graders who had been cleaning the class gave me a chocolate pocky stick. I totally took a bite without thinking. As soon as I got the faintest hint of chocolate on my tongue I held it in my mouth and waited for them to turn their backs. Then I quickly dropped it all in a tissue from my desk and into my backpack. I didn’t want to chance my medical test.

At 3 the coordinator came by to grab me and take me to the hospital for my medical check. This is routine and I knew it was coming but I didn’t realize we’d get to take care of it so soon. She’s a very nice lady, with good English but she’s always in a huge hurry. We got there they checked me in pretty fast and off we went. They took my height and weight, blood pressure,  did a hearing check, a vision test, took a blood sample, then a urine sample (cue my first awkward experience with a squatter toilet, but I survived)  and finally a chest X-ray. I swear this all happened in about 30 minutes or less. The longest part was me getting changed for the X-ray. The results were ready the next day at 3! I’ve been abstaining from literally nearly every medication possible for weeks. The only thing I’ve had is Tylenol for headaches (I read acetaminophen and aspirin are ok before drug tests) and some stomach medicine about 3 or 4 days prior due to some food poisoning back home. After that I made a point to tell her I needed to go to a grocery store so she begrudgingly took me to my local store. I picked up some laundry detergent, paper towels and toilet paper (there was only about 1/2 a roll in my apartment that had been given to me). She rushed me in and out and then brought me back to my apartment and dropped me off.

I was super hungry at this point so I changed clothes and went for a walk into town. I stopped at the 1st food place I found which happened to be a chain. But they had pictures and prices so it was my kind of place. I can’t read the signs but I can point! Also the cashiers have been really nice about it. I got a to go order and walked back to my apartment since it was kind of late. I didn’t know what half of the food on my plate was besides rice and chicken but most of it was pretty good. Some of it was a little too spicy/pickled for me. But the meat was really good and it was super cheap. I’ve actually eaten there for dinner three times now….

The next day my co-teacher came to pick me up for school again. On Monday I think he’s going to pick me up and we’ll go to the bus stop and he’s going to take me through that process so I can start taking myself to school. At some  point he’s also going to bring me a chair for my apartment, since that’s actually in my contract that the school has to provide me with but he’s also bringing me a microwave! That item is not on the list of required items so that may be out of the kindness of his heart and I’m going to be forever grateful. A lot of the things I find at the grocery store or convenience store that I can recognize as food is also microwaveable since people seem to go for quick things a lot.

Friday we have 3rd and 4th grade, there are three 4th grade groups while the other grades only have 2 each, but none of my classes are very big. Honestly I wouldn’t say most of them are over 20 kids. It’s a pretty small school which is just fine by me. I also think its very pretty and my classroom has a nice view. The 3rd and 4th graders seemed to have A LOT more questions for me. Everything from favorite foods to blood type. A few tried to ask if I had a boyfriend but my co-teacher shut them down pretty quick. I was forewarned from my reading that they may ask some personal questions and that it’s pretty normal. There were two that asked me how old I was. My co-teacher kind of stuttered when the first one asked but she asked in English and I just responded before he could say anything. The second one asked through him and he asked me “Is that not considered rude?” I went ahead and answered again, at some point I may try to explain that sometimes it is but since I’m young it’s not a big deal. I had one little girl ask if I liked coffee and I think she’s the same one who came back and gave me a coffee candy during break. I’ve been calling role in all of the classes which the kids get a big kick out of. I know I’m probably butchering their names but I’m going to try and learn them and get better. One kid told the teacher in Korean that apparently his English name is Harry. Another one of my 4th graders when I called his name he goes “That’s my name but you can call me Ben.” That one surprised me, his English was flawless and afterwards I noticed his Korean didn’t sound like the other kids’. It sounded like Korean with an American accent. I may have to have a few questions with him.

School functions and conducts a bit different in Korea than in the US or at least my class does. I don’t know if it’s true for all Korean classes or just with my co-teacher. My memory serves me that you always came in, sat down, and only spoke when spoken to or you were called upon. That is soooooo not how school goes here. The kids talk constantly and the only time the teacher seems even close to scolding them is one of them is getting too loud and rowdy. They get up and walk around when they need something or just because they want to it seems. Most of them though sit down and seem to mostly pay attention. The majority of them seem to engage with the material for the most part. Obviously they all love when my co-teacher pulls out a quick game for them to play and they take it pretty serious and try their best. That’s with no real reward! I’ve only seen him give out one reward to a student and I don’t even know what it was for except maybe homework? He got a free homework pass too. I would just never imagine classes in America like this. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, it’s just different.

I got to eat in the cafeteria Friday! FOOD! I had no idea what anything was on my plate except for the rice and noodles that were apart of a very bizarre but delicious concoction. Oh and there was like ham in it. There was a spicy beef stew with beef and tofu. I wasn’t a big fan, it was just over the line of spicy for my wimpy self but the beef stew part was very reminiscent of stew from home. The rice also looked like it had black beans in it but they tasted more nutty than anything. Either way I ate what didn’t look like it was going to burn me down and it was pretty tasty. I definitely couldn’t eat all of it, I have no idea how anyone could. My co-teacher did ask when we first sat down if I was ok with chopsticks. I mean, I hope so because there wasn’t another option beside my soup spoon. The other teachers didn’t really speak to me or my co-teacher much. I was kind of blown away with how noisy the cafeteria was. When I was in school we didn’t get to talk completely freely and with abandon to volume until high school. My co-teacher asked me if I missed my Mom’s cooking after that too! I found it a little funny but we had a nice discussion about where he was from and went to University after that.

The English coordinator came and grabbed me after school again. This time we went back to the hospital to get my results that I’m NOT a druggy nor do I have any serious medical ailments that would impair my abilities to work. Then we headed over to immigration to apply for my Alien Registration Card (ARC). Honestly all of this went pretty smoothly but I’m really glad she was there to do all of the talking. This would be extremely difficult, if not impossible without her. Her constant desire to be in a giant hurry finally back fired on her though. When we were at the doctor’s she nearly left her phone of the front desk. This time she did leave her umbrella on the 6th floor in the immigration office and didn’t remember until the elevator hit 1.  But anyway I’ll get the ARC in about two weeks and then I can open a bank account and after that I can get a Korean phone plan and WiFi for my apartment and use Korean online shopping! I can basically start to function after I get that little piece of plastic. So for now I just have to make the best of it but soon it’ll all even out and I can get a little more comfortable. I also went on a short outing to the grocery store to get some supplies like dish liquid, a pot (5 dollars!), a small cup (which I may take to school with me for brushing my teeth after lunch. That’s a thing here.) and some other small things for my apartment before going back to the chain restaurant. This time I ate inside so I didn’t take any waste home. There’s also a Korean Air Force base really close to town (I heard jets all day over the school Thursday) and I think they got released for the weekend because they were roaming town for dinner.

Today was a Saturday so there was no school or anything. So I slept in, I didn’t get up until 7! I guess this is my payback for making fun of my Dad for that kind of thing all these years. I kind of like it though because I can get up early and Skype with my Mom and answer messages when friends and family are awake. I also get to feel like I get the most out of my day. This morning it was raining HARD. Apparently we were getting hit with a little bit of the typhoon that came really close to Korea, the actual real thing is headed for Japan. My coordinator said that’s a pretty typical pattern and that most of them don’t really hit Korea they turn and go for Japan. So this morning was super windy and raining hard. I spent most of the morning on Skype and by the time the storm had passed my Mom was headed for bed and I got ready and went out in search of coffee and WiFi to mooch. Again I walked maybe 10 steps into town and found a little coffee shop, had a delicious mocha and found strong enough free WiFi I could use my phone. Finally! It’s only been good for texts right now, not so much on data. The coffee shop owner didn’t know much English but just enough to understand mocha coffee. I think she thought I would leave because she gave me a disposable cup but I was totally planting my happy butt for that WiFi signal.

There were some older guys sitting at a table sipping coffee and shooting the breeze. While I was at the counter I heard a Hello behind me. One of them started asking me where I was from? What was my job in Korea? Where was I from in the US? They were very nice and didn’t say much besides that, just went back to their conversation. According to my recruiters there may only be one other foreign English teacher here (who I have not seen or been able to meet yet). So there really aren’t a lot of foreigners around here. After that I went for a walk around town. I pretty much walked all over the place. When I was ready to wrap up I dropped into a convenience store and got some cold coffee to put in the fridge and try to ask for a garbage bag (I don’t know how successful that was). The cashier was super nice even my dumb self had a brain-fart on what 2+1 deal meant. I’m still trying to figure out the garbage situation here. I understand the recycling I’m just unsure about food waste and non-recyclable items. I know I need special bags and I don’t know what day is garbage day. I’ll figure it out eventually. I dropped my stuff off at my apartment and burned a little more time, researching and sending messages before I tried to go find dinner.

I walked pretty much all over town but I couldn’t find anywhere that had pictures inside and I don’t know enough Korean or Hangul to order in other places. And without a microwave right now and a limited knowledge of what things are at the grocery store I’m a little limited. So once again I went to my new favorite restaurant. I think the lady recognizes me at this point, but she’s extremely nice! She told me they were about to close and would only do take out orders. They were out of the one I pointed to and she she was super nice about it. I ended up with a plate of delicious chicken thigh, a little pat of rice and “Western Sauce” which is like a really mild, slightly sweet BBQ sauce. Good thing is dinner has been 5 dollars or under every night. I also asked her very simply if they were open Sunday which apparently they aren’t so I’ll be trying the convenience store tomorrow for dinner I guess. It’ll work out.

I’m also going to go on a short adventure and cross the bigger road next to my apartment and go down the continuation of my street. I think I saw a coffee shop down there and maybe more food places. When you know very little everything is an adventure! Just smile! I was glad people haven’t seemed to freak and try to turn me down when I walk in. I’ve read stories like that and it’s just because people freak out that they won’t be able to help you. Everyone around here just seems to not pay me much mind or they smile back and we both do our best when it comes to food orders.  The kindness has felt like a huge blessing. Even the little things like the little group of grandmas giving me the little head nod, bow thing back and saying hello in Korean and smiling even bigger when I said it back.

Tomorrow is a new day and new excursion to take. I’m going to dump my pictures now! This has been extremely long but it’s several days of experiences going down.

Here are the pictures of my classroom and the view outside the windows!

Here was the little flower gift from my co-teacher!

The river that runs beside my apartment. I follow it down to a bridge to cross into town and my new favorite food place. The cloudy pictures were from yesterday before the storm hit today but after it all cleared up the sun came out and it was actually a really beautiful day.

There was a lot more water in the river today than this. Most of the grass in the middle was covered up.

This was the sunset after my first evening going into town to get food and heading back to my apartment. And that’s some kind of giant office building to the left.

This was the view outside my school Friday when the beginnings of the storm were rolling in. Friday was a light drizzle all day before the downpour this morning. It was all totally gone by about noon today. I thought the clouds hanging around the mountains looked cool.

I’ll leave one last apology for the length and any mistakes that I left.