Typhoon Day

Today, school was cancelled. I was so thankful for that when I found out last night, and it's been so wonderful. Although I woke up early, it allowed me to talk to my mom and dad, and Michael, and get some necessary internet surfing done, all before noon. I took a shower and watched a movie ("Jeff Who Lives At Home" which I was skeptical about at first, but ended very good!) while Sean mooched off my internet for a while. All in all, it was a very lazy morning...

Around 2, Jamie came by and I let her use my internet as well. (What a nice person I am! Haha) We decided that if the typhoon was supposed to get bad tonight, we should get some food early. We gathered Sean and all went to a Japanese restaurant around the corner. I was very glad to go somewhere with a menu in English.

Jamie recommended the cold buckwheat noodles, so I tried them (couldn't be too crazy, right?), and got the "set" with sushi and rolls (2 pieces of some kind of sushi roll, and 2 pieces of sushi on rice). I can't seem to find my camera cord, but I will try to add a photo of my dinner later. It was pretty good! I wish I had gotten more meat, chicken maybe. But, I'm quite nervous to order something and end up hating it. Noodles seemed safe, and as it would be my only true meal of the day, I went with it.

We stopped at a convenience store after to get snacks for the night. We were thinking that the typhoon must be getting close, since thus far we hadn't experienced much of anything. I got a packet of some cookies and a packet of these hazelnut straw things.

When we got back, Jamie & Sean decided it was a movie afternoon. We went to Sean's room and watched Titanic on TV. There is something about that movie that really gets to me. I love it, but it just makes me nervous! The whole time, I'm just thinking "oh my gosh, in 30 minutes they'll be swimming down that hallway rather than running..." etc. So, when it was about time for the ship to hit the iceberg, I abandoned the proverbial ship in favor of Big Bang Theory on my computer.

When I got back, I realized that since the typhoon thus far had yet to make a true appearance, and stores seemed to be open, that I would try out BauHaus (department store on my block) for some clothes. I have been feeling frumpy as compared to my other teachers, and the majority of my clothes are fall weather clothes. Monday I just about died of heat stroke, and it doesnt' seem to be cooling down anytime soon. So, I'm going to invest in a few pieces of summer weather work clothes.

When I got to BauHaus, it still hadn't really started raining. I wore my new wellies since I could (hehe) and found a few things on sale. I tried one dress on, and it was so cute! Only problem was it barely covered my butt. Literally, it fit perfect everywhere else, but could have passed for a shirt. I couldn't see myself actually wearing pants with it because it was fairly tight, so I passed. I went up a level, but couldn't find anymore women's clothes. But, I found the hair dryers.

Now, I've looked at these blow dryers before, a few days ago. This time, however, I had an English-speaking salesperson. (This is an anomaly). He saw me looking at the dryers and recommended one, told me it was "the best brand in Korea, very famous". He even plugged it in and let me test drive it. I loved that! I needed to see it in action, and he provided that. It took me all of 30 seconds to decide "I'll take it!" It was 39,000 W (around $35) which is dirt cheap compared to my dryer at home which was about $100. I think I will really appreciate having a good dryer!

Even though I couldn't find any clothes, the hair dryer made me confident that even if my clothes weren't cute the next few days (I am going shopping on Saturday and will come home with something!), that if my hair looked good and I did my makeup, I would feel much better about my appearance.

On the way back to the motel, something funny happened. But first, I must explain my motel. I haven't gotten around to doing this because I've had so much else to talk about. But since today was such a slow, lazy day, I actually have time for it.

This is the motel every new teacher at my school must stay in for approximately a week until we can move into our apartments. Therefore, it is famous. When we had dinner with the teachers the first night, they asked how we liked the "love motel." Eh, it was okay. They had a laugh when we were asked the question, and explained that it is called a "love motel" because in Korea, many young adults still live with their families, so couples have to have somewhere to go for "alone time." They said it was even pay by the hour. *Woooowwww....*

The room is extremely basic, but once I found out it's true purpose, I saw the signs: condoms at the front desk checkin, a toothbrush provided, some toiletries to spruce up after, a water machine in the corner, and almost no bed linens (this last point is probably quite common in Korea). So, basically, I'm staying at the sleaze-inn. Great.

So, when I walked back to the motel, someone had just gone in before me. I paused to see if it was a teacher before I followed, but didn't recognize the person. When I walked up the steps, the girl turned left and sort of hid behind the stairs while a guy talked to the front desk guy and grabbed a handful of condoms and stuffed them in his pocket. I tactfully avoided eye contact with either person, and avoided looking at them in general. I just find it funny to actually see someone checking in! Obviously, Sean, Jamie & I are temporarily living here, so we're here often, but we don't usually see anyone else. I suppose they come & go at odd hours... Haha! Gross.

Well, not much of anything happened today... the typhoon hardly made an appearance. Some wind and a bit of rain in early afternoon, but nothing like I was expecting. I guess that's good! It meant I could go out and get something done on my day off. Now, the rest of the night will be dedicated to watching movies on the computer. :)

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.