First Day

Hey!!
Wow it's certainly been a while since I last posted on this blog, but things here have been super busy. I'm trying to learn as much as I can from my teachers so that I know where to catch the bus - I now know how to get to Gangnam in Seoul - and the best places to eat :D
I did write a bit when I first arrived here so I wouldn't forget my first impressions of Seoul.
The first day is as follows...

Feb 24/25 2009 (First is Canadian time, second is Korean time)

My best friend Hannah decided to join my parents on our trip to the Toronto Pearson International airport on Monday afternoon. In the car we took a TON of random pictures to make a remembrance of this day. They were all great though.
As soon as we began to get closer and closer to the airport, my stomach began to get a bad case of the butterflies, and there were a few moments where I seriously doubted whether or not I could really do this on my own. But I also realized that this was a goal I had worked towards for about 2 and a half years, and that putting this off was not the right thing to do. It was hard saying goodbye to my friends and family, especially my mom at the airport. Even right now I don’t feel like I’ve experienced any significant feelings of homesickness, although I am constantly preparing myself for those times when they DO come. I love the letters and warm sentiments that they wrote to me.
While we were waiting to board our flight to Chicago, I and a few other travelers heard our names being called out on the PA for a last boarding call at a completely different gate. None of us had even heard any earlier announcements that such a change had been made, and we had to book it down the hall to make our flight.
On the flight to Chicago I pretty much just read my book, The Alchemist, for the hour long journey. I kept finding myself distracted from the story however, because I was so nervous about finding my next check in location at an airport I had never visited. When the plane landed, I successfully navigated myself across the Chicago Odhare International Airport (asking the right questions and hopping aboard a train) to the International Terminal 5, serving Asiana airlines on their flight to Korea.
The waiting to board for this flight was the worst. By the time I had reached the boarding waiting area it was 11:00, and I had been up and running around for hours that day. Trying to keep my eyes open so I wouldn’t miss the boarding call was torture, and when we were finally allowed to board the plane at 12:30, I silently thanked God for this merciful turn of events. Although I had hoped I would get a window seat for this long 16 hour flight, I wasn’t as lucky as I thought. I was seated in an aisle seat next to an elderly Chinese couple who must have loved the sounds of their own voices, by the way they were talking so loud. They were very polite and quite friendly – we tried to talk as best we could in the limited English that they knew – but on such a long flight, nobody wants to hear constant loud chatter as if they were the only ones in the area. To make matters worse, they were constantly waking me up so that they could excuse themselves to the bathroom, so I didn’t get nearly as much sleep as I would have liked. By the end of the flight I felt a little bad for the stewardesses that served our aisle, because despite the outward politeness, these elders were quite pushy and demanding for service.
As we finally descended into Seoul Incheon Airport, I began to feel a little anxious because I wasn’t exactly sure of the next step I was supposed to take. Luckily, I met with some other foreigners who were also in Korea to teach ESL, so we stuck together getting our baggage and finding our pick up drivers to take us to our new jobs. Fortunately, we were all picked up at the same time, so nobody was left all alone wondering what they should do. I managed to take a few pictures of the airport outside before I was hurriedly ushered into a van to take me into Suwon.
This is where the real fun began. Driving through the Incheon was actually pretty nice, especially since there were small mountains on either side of the van, and the sun rising up in the east. (haha random DBSK recollection)
And OMG I FINALLY GOT TO PRACTICE MY KOREAN WITH A NATIVE KOREAN PERSON. It was awesome; since I didn’t know the exact way to put together a sentence in Korean, I just used the words I did know in order to explain what I was saying, and for the most part we were able to understand one another. There were some instances where he or I would saying something, but the other person didn’t real understand what they were talking about, but I still feel a little proud at this accomplishment. He asked me things like how I learned to speak Korean, my age, why I was in Korea, etc. Sometimes I would do my best to ask a question about a particular landmark I saw, and he too would try to explain it to me in Korean and English (Konglish!). I tried to rely on things that my Korean friends had told me about Korean culture in order to conduct myself appropriately (aniyo,aniyo,aniyo haha, thank you Hannah).
Funnily enough when he was dropping me off, he kept complimenting my eye colour and saying that I had very beautiful eyes. That was a little awkward haha. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the YES representative – Cloud (yes, that is his actual name) – came to meet me and showed me around my apartment before taking me over to the school. I was quite impressed with the facilities they have, and was relived to learn that they had free wireless internet I could use while waiting for my own to be installed – I need an ARC. After dropping me off at my apartment to get unpacked and settled into my new home for the next year, I was told to be ready for Orientation training later that evening at 6pm. And so now here I sit, detailing my adventure thus far.
Waiting to start my teaching is hard, but I know that this training will help me to prepare myself for next week. Let's hope the kids like me!