Pre-Work Day 1

Friday, August 24 9:47am Seoul

The view of my road. You can't see all the lights, but it's bright!

I fell asleep almost immediately last night after writing my last blog. I’m not sure how I did it, but I think I avoided jet lag. Like I said, I took several small naps throughout the 24 hours I was traveling, so I think that sustained me enough, and when I finally got to a bed, I was pooped. I set my alarm on my iPad for 8am; I could probably have slept much longer, but I want to start getting into a routine. 

The far building is my future apartment; the closer one with the overhang is my motel.

I won’t go into work until 12:30 today, but I wanted time to get ready, get some food, and relax before my first day. When my alarm went off, my room was pretty dark. I have 1 tiny window, which looks out into a parking garage aka: no light. I was very disoriented when I woke up. I was dreaming, although I don’t remember what exactly, but that made me even more confused waking up. When I finally remembered where I was, I hit snooze for 10 more minutes. I couldn’t really get back to dozing during my snooze, just watched the alarm. 

I got up at 8:10 and turned off the A/C which is very effective. It works by a remote, which is kinda cool. The one thing I wish I’d brought so far is a robe. I got in the shower, which was again amazing. Great hot water! The shower area is not open like what my apartment will have, but it still doesn’t have a shower curtain. There is a tub area though. Before the shower, I found my face wash, which was great since last night I had to wash my face with shampoo for lack of face wash. 

After the shower, I turned on the TV in my room and found 1 of 3 English channels. It was showing Night at the Museum II with Korean subtitles. I got ready watching that. The motel provided a hair dryer (thank goodness) so I was set. I took my gummy vitamins (remembering how poorly I ate yesterday, and will likely continue to eat) and headed out to find breakfast. There is a dunkin donuts around the block, so I went there. 

I am already wishing I spoke at least minimal Korean, but oh well. I got a “cheese bagel twist” for ~$1.50 (1,600 KW) then went over to the 7-Eleven for something to drink. I got chocolate milk, since I could tell what it was. I would have prefered skim milk, but I wouldn’t have any idea how to identify skim from full fat. I went through the park across from my motel/future apartment to get to the motel. That brings us to present. 

The park across from my apartment.

I’m now watching CSI:Miami and writing this. I’m not sure when I’ll get internet to post these. I’m really missing instant access to information and communication with home. I keep thinking how lucky I am that I brought the Airport Express to setup a wifi network in my apartment. Of course, I would be okay hard wiring into my computer, but I have the iPad and iPod Touch that I want to use for phone calls home. 

Speaking absolutely no Korean is quite hard. Most of the Koreans I’ve interacted with are nice when I say I only speak English, but I wish I could even say Hello and Thank you. Hopefully my coteachers will help me out with that today. At least I have some food in my belly and rest. I have some time to kill, so I might watch a movie from the hard drive. 

I’m not really nervous for work yet, but I think I will be once we are on the way over. Apparently it’s about a 15 minute walk to school. I think the teachers who are picking us up are taking Sean and I to get some lunch first. 

I am so thankful that my moment of freaking out is gone. I’m sure I’ll have more of those little episodes, especially when I’m overwhelmed. Especially with people. I get intimidated and close up when I’m around too many people I don’t know. I’m glad there are only 4 upper level teachers, and 2 of us are new. I’ll be in the same boat with someone, and there are only 2 others who know what they are doing. I’m not all alone! 

Sean has come by, and we are going to look for wifi before work...

A bakery Sean & I found while exploring, shortly after I wrote this blog.