Korea and me

Good afternoon everybody.

well, as some of you may know or are just finding out now, i am in South Korea, or as it is also called the Republic of South Korea.

So i have made a pretty big decision to move to Korea as i have left many things at home that i miss a lot.

To start this little adventure I first had to say goodbye to my family, including a new member on the way, she will be known as Brianna. My sister is pregnant, which was the hardest decision of all as it is a once in a lifetime deal. But i think being a part of her growing up is a little more important then just being there for the birth. It will be all the more fun and exciting when I go home in a years time. Also i am missing my friends Jesse and Shannons wedding, and that for sure is a one time deal.

Well, Korea is fun--it is a nice place with very little crime in the area that I am in. People are generally good to you and keep to themselves, although when you try to speak Korean they look at you like you are still speaking English. Emiel suggested the reason is probably because they have never had people butcher their language the same way that people butcher the English language--Korea is a pretty culturally isolated place. Because canadians have heard just about every accent and try and speak some kind of broken English, so with that in mind, there is no broken Korean, it is either perfect or you look like a dumbass. I am trying to not sound like a dumbass.

I have much to tell but i think will do it in spurts, if thats alright.

So I got here after a 17 hour trip, well probably more like 20 by the end of it, door to door that is. I left bright and early on monday July 17th, left around 530am from my house and I arrived in Korea on tuesday around 4pm. I arrived to my apartment, which by the way isn't much bigger than my kitched at home. That was around 6pm. Then I met the councilor that is was supposed to take care of me. She stands at the door of my apartment and says you go to sleep now, rest yes rest, and see you tomorrow. So I am standing there fully rested with nothing to do but look at my whole apartment from the door. I do not want to sleep and need to figure out how to get some food. Plane food sucks by the way. So despite her best efforts to leave me hanging, she did manage to introduce me to a girl named Mandie, who ended up being an angel from America. She did everything short of holding my hand while I got everything done, food, drink, found the school, the washing machine, how to turn on the aircon, the hot water and even to get to the train station and meet up with Emiel. And yes you may be laughing but you come here and try to figure out the hot water on your own. Yeah not easy, well it is easy but when you dont know you feel pretty dumb.

So we have become good friends now and she has managed to change my opinion about Americans in general, so that is one good thing so far.

So, now i am standing in Suwon Station which puts any station in Toronto to shame. Not that i have been to them all but think, 10 million people who want to get to seoul and that station does it. Enough said. So Emiel knows I have no idea how to get there, or how to find him once I am there and have his phone number or in Korean, han pon. haha Konglish is hilarious. So we are both in Suwon Station but have no idea where each other are. So after many phone calls and heated conversations about who should know what we embrace and said hello, good to see you so far from home, and for the first time korea, it started to feel like home. There were four of us, Emiel, Jolie (e's gf) Mandie and myself, walking in the rain, an not the typical shower we have at home, a steady down pour that felt like walking through a swamp. We did manage to find a nice little Korean BBQ spot just down the way from the entrance of Suwon Station. It was delicious.

The first meal I had in Korea was pretty amazing. We sat cross legged on the floor, eating cut up pieces of meat wrapped in lettuce with many other items inside such as kimchi, sprouts, bean sauce and garlic to name a few. It is probably the best thing to eat here. So in the end I was full and happy. I slept well that night with no worries but how I was going to teach. You would think this might worry me enough to keep me up but the jetlag took care of any sleep trouble that might have arisen otherwise. I slept well.

So that is it, a little bit of my first experiance here in korea. It has gone well so far. And last night will be a fun story, when the time comes.