The beginning...

They say international travel is like going through a blender with your eyes taped open and the circulation cut off from all your limbs.  

Ok, no one says that.  But, it kind of is horrible!  The trip to Korea was my first solo international travel experience and I really missed the companionship of my family or mission team members.

I said goodbye to my parents and Tabi at the security checkpoint around 5 AM monday morning.  I only slept a few hours the night before, out of restless excitement and worry that I would somehow miss my flight, then I didn’t sleep at all on my five hour first flight to San Francisco because it was morning and I wasn’t tired.  Everything really went quite smoothly as far as checking in and finding my gate.  I was bored and couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep at the San Francisco airport, but I was able to play around with my Kindle some!  

The twelve hour flight from San Francisco to Seoul was very confusing time-wise.  We left at 1:10 PM from San Francisco and arrived around 5 PM the next day, but as far as I could tell it was never dark outside.  All the meals were at entirely random times and were either lunch or dinner, I suppose.  That flight was probably the eleventh circle of hell.  A place where you cannot sleep because a shrill Bangladeshi child is kicking or pulling your seat, while intermittently screaming in your ear about something happening on whatever movie she is watching.  I was too exhausted to try to get to know the people sitting next to me, but also unable to lose consciousness for more than a few minutes.  

That may be an excessively dramatic rendering of my flight, because, although it was pretty miserable, it was still an interesting experience and didn’t make me less excited to be heading to Korea.  On arriving at the airport it was surprisingly easy to get through immigration and claim my luggage.  Finding my bus and figuring out how to use a pay phone were my next adventures and I discovered upon calling the school that hired me that I would need to call again from my bus stop because the director was detained by a family emergency.  

I knew my bus stop would directly after the Incheon Bridge, which is the longest bridge in Korea, however I couldn’t get off the bus with all my luggage before the driver closed the doors!!  Thankfully the Korean people are amazing and, as I struggled to get off two stops (I don’t know why I didn’t get off at the next stop…) later, a Korean girl about my age grabbed one of my suitcases, lugged it off the bus, and started walking down the street with it (did I mention it was raining quite hard?).  She spoke great English and told me that she would walk me back to my stop and wait with me for someone to meet me!  She also let me use her phone to call the school to send someone.  It was very encouraging to meet someone so incredibly kind and hospitable.

Due to his family emergency, the director did not come to get me at the school until almost three hours later (about 10:30 PM).  I was absolutely exhausted, but I sat in on two classes and got to see a bit of how the school was run.  I also got to meet my fellow teachers, who are awesome!  

It was a relief to get to my apartment and get to sleep that night, but due to a mixture of jet-lag and crazy lightning and thunder/rain coming in through the window I had left open, it wasn’t the most restful of nights.  Wednesday morning Richie, my director, came and took me to open a bank account and eat my first (in Korea) traditional Korean meal!  

Then work began!  I taught six classes that first day and I literally had no idea what I was doing.  My schedule was changed and given to me about ten minutes before my first class started (on the original schedule I had had another hour before teaching), so I somehow gathered my curriculum and nerve and made it through the day!  The kids all seemed really fantastic.  Obviously, they were not perfect robot students, but as a whole they were quite respectful and studious!

After work that night I got to hang out with my fellow teacher, Devin, and meet some other ex-patriates working and living in Korea.  Thursday was much the same as Wednesday, except I taught a few less classes and was able to get a better grip on what I was actually doing.  Yesterday was definitely my best day of teaching so far.  Although I taught seven classes (it was that many classes because Devin was on vacation, but he had helped me out a lot the day before with preparing for classes I was teaching in his place), I was also able to prepare much better based on my experiences of the previous two days.  Emma, the other female American teacher, was also a great resource, helping answer any questions I had.  

Friday night ended with an employee dinner at a Korean fried chicken restaurant of some kind.  There were eight of us who attend and it was a great oppotunity to get to know the people I work with!  The chicken was great and I even ate some of the caterpillar larva soup!  Ok, so maybe I only had one bite of caterpillar larva.  That’s still far more culinary risk than I am naturally inclined to!

Sorry if this post is longwinded and long overdue!  I have been writing it in tiny spurts the last few days, but it is harder than I imagined to gather my thoughts and put them into type.  I miss home and all of my family and friends a ton!  I like living alone, but it is more difficult than I thought.  Overall, I am having a great time in Korea and I can’t wait to see what the next following weeks and months bring : D