After a full 27.5 hours of travel (flight from NC to DC- DC to Tokyo-Tokyo to Seoul, then a four hour bus ride from Seoul to Daegu) and two nights in a motel, I'm finally at the place that I will call home for the next year.
I'm unpacking in my cozy studio apartment in the Suseong-gu section of Daegu, South Korea. The apartment is certainly larger than anything I'd be able to afford on my own in New York City but, I think my bedroom in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn was larger than my apartment here. A few "strange" things about my apartment: no tub or shower; just a shower head on the wall in the bathroom, no oven; just two gas stove top burners, must push a button to get hot water, washer but no dryer. That's it really...I'm going to be just fine here. I have Internet (not wireless), cable with a few English speaking channels, and plenty of space for my things.
Speaking of my things, I'm feeling like I didn't bring enough clothes. I unpacked, threw out select items, and repacked my belongings six times since I left New York. The good news was that both of my two checked bags were not over the airline carrier's 50lb weight limit.
How was my travel from America to South Korea?
Trip highlights: No problems at any of the three airports. I was concerned about the two month old baby next to me on the flight from DC to Tokyo but that ended up not being an issue. Read my entire "Living Abroad in South Korea" book. Listened to several "Korean 101" podcasts. Got sick on the last hour of my flight to Tokyo and puked twice. I had my first taste of Asian culture while wandering around the Tokyo airport during my two hour layover. Once in Seoul, I had no problems navigating around the airport to get my luggage and buy my bus ticket to Daegu but, it took me five tries to figure out how to use the pay phone. I finally got through to my school director who answered the call "Alicia?" I was relieved that she was expecting my call but then surprised to discover that she doesn't know much English. After three other people got on the phone, the message was finally across that I had arrived in Seoul and will need to be picked up at the bus station in Daegu in four hours. It was 9:30pm on July 5th when I arrived in Seoul. I slept the entire four hour bus ride to Daegu.
The "bus station" in Daegu was just a small empty parking lot at 1:30 am. I looked around for someone that might be expecting me and saw no one. No cell phone. No idea where I am. Don't tell my mother, but I was scared and started to question this whole trip. "Did I get scammed? Is someone going to come scoop me up into a van and sell me into sex slavery?" I stood with my abundant amount of luggage in a dark parking lot just waiting for something horrible to happen for 40 minutes. Then, a minivan pulled up next to me. A petite, smiling Korean woman stepped out of the passenger side with open arms and said, "Alicia, nice to meet you." A man came out from the driver's side, scooped up my luggage and put it in the van. I let out a big sigh of relief. The man is my school director's husband, Mr. Chung. They both knew enough English to carry on a three minute conversation. The rest of the 20 minute drive was silent...and awkward. They brought me to a hotel, unloaded my luggage from the van, and checked me into a room with kiwi wallpaper.
It was 2:30am and my school director, Grace, said she would come pick me up at 3pm to bring me to the school for training. Yup, I started working just hours after I arrived. My one day of training consisted of shadowing Christina (a recent college graduate from Maryland who only had 3 more days left on her contract in South Korea) for eight 35 minute classes. In between classes she tried to show me the ropes of the office, the class schedule, homework, lessons,etc.
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed but relieved that I wouldn't need to do much lesson planning in the beginning. My job is to teach right from workbooks mainly using CDs. I give daily vocabulary quizzes and make sure the children are filling out their workbooks. The only real room for creativity is if I have time after the "book lesson." Thankfully, all of the students have a fair understanding of English already. There are 11 different levels between elementary and middle school children. I teach Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing, and Storybook classes. I have eight classes on Mondays; nine classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays; and five classes on Wednesdays.
I was prepared for the students to call me Ms. Alicia, but quickly discovered that all teachers in Korea are called the same thing, teacher.
I'm very fortunate to have a good friend from "home" living and teaching in Daegu. Robin, a dear friend from high school who has been in Daegu since September 2009, suggested I apply for the teaching program in South Korea back in February when I vented to her about how miserable I was with life in New York. I did and here I am. Robin and I met for lunch at a cafe yesterday. She discussed the highs and lows of South Korea. Daegu is a big city but luckily, we are living quite close to each other.
Last night after work, I took a bus downtown (on my own...it was so easy) to meet Robin and a few of her friends to see the Korean opening of Eclipse, the Twilight Saga. The movie was in English with Korean subtitles. Between the cheesy dialogue, hot bodied actors, and action, the movie was really enjoyable. After the movie, the six of us girls went to a bar called Commune's Lonely Hearts Club, which is a popular spot for foreigners. I was so thrilled to see so many familiar, unfamiliar faces. At the end of the night, I had exchanged phone numbers with three Korean girls that are learning English, Jullia, Blair, and Isabel.
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