I'm here!!

This post is coming to you from halfway around the world! That's right - I am typing this blog while sitting in the Hyundai Learning Center south of Seoul, So. Korea. By the way, everything here is named either "Hyundai", "Samsung", "LG", etc. You can certainly tell who has the money here.

We (Hilary and I) left from O'Hare at 1 PM on Thursday. We were searched thoroughly they said because we had one-way tickets. I told Hil that it was because she looked suspicious. After it was determined that we were not terrorists, we were allowed to board the plane. It was rather large, though about half of the total space was taken up by first and Prestige classes who got those chairs that lie flat when you push a button. Very nice. It was a 13 hour flight and it certainly felt like it. I think I slept for about 2 hours total. We each had a small tv in the back of the seat in front of us and had probably 40 movies to choose from. Unfortunately, I don't really have the attention span to sit through a whole movie, but I did manage to finish Meet the Robinsons, probably because it was funny and colorful.

We landed in Seoul at 5PM their time on the following day (Friday). The airport was NICE, very modern. We found some other teachers who were on our flight and stuck with them until we found the meeting place. We then got on a bus for a 2 hour ride to the Hyundai Learning Center.

The Learning Center is kind of like a corporate retreat center with nice dorm-style accomodations. There's a gym, an internet lounge (where I am currently), a convenience store, etc. The dorms are attached to the lecture building where we have classes/meetings. I share a room with a Kiwi (a girl from New Zealand) and she's very nice. Her name is Leigh and she's taught in Korea twice before, and then she taught in China for 2 years. I love her accent.

Some things I have noticed already:
-The beds are very small and very hard, and apparently they don't believe in sheets here
-People are very nice and I've already learned how to say hello ("annyong haseyo")
-Most of the other teachers are American, but there are some Canadiens, some Brits and a Kiwi
-Everything in the convenience store is loaded with sugar - I don't know how these people aren't all diabetic
-By the time I leave, I will have eaten a significant quantity of rice. Extremely significant.
-When people here sweat, they only sweat from their heads. Its the weirdest thing I've ever seen. They say its nearly impossible to buy deodorant here because they just don't need it (that's why I brought 3 with me)
-There are a ton of churches, and all are designated by a red neon cross on their steeples
-Kimchi (spicy cabbage), though normally delicious when served cold, should never, EVER be served warm. I had warm kimchi yesterday for lunch and it was like eating sauerkraut. YUCK.
-Metal chopsticks are difficult to use when you've been using wood ones your whole life
-The AC is either on or its not, so its either wickedly freezing or stiflingly sweltering, there's really no middle ground.
-I really like watching the BBC, even though they re-run the same 5 stories over and over

I've been mentally preparing myself to hate it here (because one always plans for the worst case scenario) but so far its been really nice. I'm actually excited (GASP) about teaching in this school system (its very interesting and progressive). Here's the website: http://www.sen.go.kr/HTML/eng/index.html

I would say that I'm adjusting fairly well and that I am not too anxious about my job or living here. I was not prepared to feel this way...I don't quite trust it yet.

Well, its 5 AM here (thank you, jet lag) so I should probably be getting on my merry way. Today is church followed by learning how to play with traditional Korean instruments. Sounds interesting. :)

Hope you all are having a good Saturday - Sunday is quite nice.

Sending you love from across the International Dateline (which is not a "1-800" number :),

Jess