Flight to Korea

After being packed and ready to leave for Korea for nearly a week, and thinking that I was suppose to leave on Saturday, Sept 2, but my ticket never actually got booked until that Monday, and I was taking off at 6am Tuesday.  Due to the lovely people at the Korean Consulate in Montreal, I wouldn't be flying with Kristin because they somehow managed to take 3 or 4 more days to process hers then mine.  We left our house around 2, got to the airport and nearly didn't get on the flight because there was some complications with the ticket so I had to call my recruiter at 4am and he had to call Korea and get some things sorted out.  Made the flight, and nothing exciting happened on the 18 hour trek as I slept most of it. 

I arrived in Korea, and was met by a man with a sign with my name on it at the airport.  I assumed he worked for the school but he was actually just a driver.  The drive to my school where I was getting dropped off was only 100km but it took us about 2 hours because the traffic.  This ride was my first experience witnessing the awesomeness that is Korean drivers.  There favorite thing to do is cut other people off, no matter the speed, and it appears as though that when you do it, you can just turn your four way flashers on, and I think that everyone all of a sudden is fine with it.  My driver had a sweet GPS system that even told him how much he would need to pay at the next toll station, and had TV and everything on it.  All I was really able to see on the drive was countless high rise apartments, sweet drivers and four way flashers.

I finally arrive at the school, which is on the 7th floor of a building but much smaller then I expected.  I really didn't know what to expect though because I had no details about the school except the name.  The school is very nice though, and I meet all of the staff which are very nice as well. There is another foreign teacher at the school from South Africa.  I'm pretty pumped about this because I expected everyone else to be Korean, and now Kristin and I will have someone to talk to in English.  Turns out all the other teachers speak good English too though, so it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. 

Following meeting everyone at school, they bring me to my new apartment, which is only a 2 minute walk to school.  Its a bachelor apartment, that still needs some things such as a stove, cable, and internet, but I have pretty much everything else.  The shower is something else, there is no shower stall, just a hose with the sink on one end and shower head on the other.  You have to turn on the hot water before you use it, and I was unable to figure this out so my first shower in Korea ended up being a ice cold one.  Without TV or internet I was forced to continue something I've been trying out lately and will probably be a huge shock to everyone............................reading.  I know, its pretty outrageous, but true.