Day one

I HATE ASIA ALREADY!

I’m kidding, of course, though I am a tad overstimulated.

The flights over SUCKED.  Like, seriously worst flights ever.  On the way to LA I was in the middle seat and the guy at the window kept falling asleep on me while the woman at the aisle kept elbowing me while she did what looked like some sort of aura cleansing ritual.  For the entire five-hour flight.  No sleep there.  So I thought, well Kelsey you have a twelve-hour flight coming your way, plenty of time to sleep then.  Yeah, no.  Middle seat again, with an eight year-old boy who incessantly kicked my seat the whole flight and a teenaged boy in front of me who kept his seat leaned back.  They had the movie-screens-in-the-back-of-the-seat-in-front-of-you a la Pimp My Ride (though I’m sure international airlines did it at least a short while before Xhibit) so I basically just watched movies the whole time because they had the lights turned off and I couldn’t sleep with the Asian David Beckham in-training behind me. 

At the same time, this may be a blessing in disguise.  I had a really good idea for a story while I was on the plane, and because I was awake, I had plenty of time to take notes and flesh out some of the characters and polish some of the plot.  Hopefully over the next few months I’ll be able to find time to write it.

I finally got off the plane and got my bags, which was surprisingly easy (thanks Mom and Dad for the swivel wheeled suitcase, without which I would not have been able to maneuver AT ALL) because the Seoul airport really is the best airport (in my opinion, having been to a decent number of airports).  Getting through customs was a hop, skip, three pieces of paper work, two lines, one passport stamp, and some sort of object that lit up and made a beeping noise which they put next to my ear away from baggage claim and the world outside. David, the owner of the school I’m working for, was waiting for me right outside the doors, with the cutest sign that said KELSEY in huge bold letters, and then in tiny letters at the bottom of the page the school's logo (a bear sitting on a Maple Leaf.  Everybody together now, awww).

The drive was interesting.  There were a lot of signs that had the English phonetics of the Korean characters, which will make it easier to get around, and it was surprisingly green. There were lots of trees, bushes, grass and hills.  It was kind of pretty.  Reminded me a bit of Portland, to be honest.  Though some of the trees (not all, but some) were a bit more exotic than I’m used to, there were also pine trees.  I noticed several things on the drive.

1)    Korean drivers do not slow down, stop, or look before they do anything.  I saw about ten near accidents, one of which involved us almost getting hit.  David never seemed fazed at all.

2)    Rather than building one huge, fat building with big apartments on each block of land, they have four identical skinny buildings with big numbers on the sides on one block of land, that I’m sure are filled with tiny apartments.  I suppose this is much more responsible, as they have a lot of people to accommodate.

3)    For some unknown reason, there are a LOT of crosses.  Everywhere.  I must have passed, no exaggeration, at least twenty-five buildings with crosses/ churches.  Some of the crosses were nice and simple, and the buildings below them looked much like Western churches, no big surprise there.  There were others, however, that were stuck on top of plain brick buildings.  Several of these lit up.  Lots of those were pink.

Now I am sitting in my apartment, which is actually pretty nice.  It’s small, which I expected, but nicer than I imagined.  You walk in through the small kitchen, which has no oven (Korean food isn’t ever really baked) but has two stove burners, a large sink, and lots of cabinet space.  You step through that into the bedroom/ all-purpose room since it’s a studio.  Past that there is a sliding door out onto a sort of patio where my washer is, with racks for hanging my clothes on the ceiling.  To one side of the door is the bed, at the foot of which is a good-sized dresser.  To the other side is a mini fridge, with a T.V. on top.  To the other side of the mini fridge is the bathroom.  This is my favorite part.  It has a sink, a toilet, a drain in the middle of the floor and a hand-held showerhead attached to the wall.  That’ll be an experience.

Writing this post was the first thing I did when I arrived, and now it is time to unpack, get a little more organized, and figure out what I will need to buy to outfit my apartment.  Hopefully I won’t need too much stuff.  I am exhausted, but my apartment doesn’t have curtains and it’s broad daylight.  Besides, my theory about jet lag is that if you force yourself to stay up until a reasonable time to go to sleep, it will help your body normalize to the time change.

Update: There was an exploding body wash incident, accompanied by a faulty Ziploc.  So far, only three shirts are effected.  We will keep reporting on this tragedy as new information comes in from the site.  My largest suitcase sustained minor injuries while acting as a savior.  Its heroism protected two winter coats.