Arctic circle and large feet

B here-

So now that we've been in Korea for 5 days I've found the time to sit down and write my own blog. It's been busy! To start with, the flight was pretty uneventful. Which is the best way to fly. We flew Asiana Air from Chicago to Incheon International Airport (the largest airport in SK). Apparently they believe that the best way to make sure you enjoy your flight is to feed you dinner, serve you unlimited alcohol, and then turn off all the cabin lights and tell you that "it's time to rest." We were only about 2hrs into a 13hr and 50min flight when I fell asleep after about 4 drinks. It seemed like only an hour later, but when I woke up and checked the time, we only had 5hrs left until landing! Those stewardesses really know what they're doing.

When I first heard that we were going to be flying out of Chicago, I expected our flight path to cross America through California, but one thing I didn't realize was the curvature of Earth. It takes longer to go from point A to point B when you are closer to the equator. So, the flight path was straight up through Canada beyond the Arctic circle! It was very exciting to realize that we were literally flying that far north on this planet. Our airplane seats each had a tv monitor on the back of the seat in front of us and one of the channels was a real time flight path for the plane. It was pretty cool. It told you elevation, speed, arrival time, and outside temperature. The coldest temperature I noticed was more than negative 80 degrees! Frost was forming on the outside windows it was so cold. Crossing over Russia and northern China was really interesting. I should have some pictures below showing the mountains. It was such a vast terrain. I can't imagine crossing that on foot centuries ago.

After getting our luggage at Incheon we hopped a bus to Gimpo Airport (for domestic flights). Then we flew an hour to Busan where we were picked up by who we had been told was "a school representative." This elderly Korean man was holding up a sign with our names on it, bowed to us, grabbed a bag, and took off! This is a go-go-go country. We had to rush to keep up. He turned out to be the Director of the school's father-in-law and we were staying at their house (2 generations in 1 family apartment). We overlapped with the soon-to-be-leaving teachers by 3 nights so Mr. A wanted us to stay with him. He said to consider him family and his mother-in-law cooked a wonderful Korean meal for us each morning. My favorite foods were small, red dried cod; kimchi; and sesame/soy sauce seaweed salad. I tried almost everything, including Ox Tail Soup (which I think was just boiled oyster soup). We told Mr. A that after we moved into our own apartment on the 4th night we should have his mother-in-law come and cook for us each morning! Koreans don't designate the breakfast meal to "normal breakfast food." They treat it as any other meal and usually eat the same types of food they would eat for lunch or dinner. We ate a lot of fish at their place and Mr. A and his wife were always talking about how healthy Korean food is (which it seems to be). After every Korean breakfast we always felt full but never that nasty stuffed feeling like in America. It was really nice.

The teachers whose spot we were taking were really cool and Thursday night we all went out for Korean barbecue (along with ESL teachers in a sister school led by Mr. A's wife from the neighboring town). They brought us small side dishes of food and drinks when we first sat down. I felt my laryngitis resurfacing from when I was back home, so when I spied a dish of raw halved garlic on the table I thought it would be a wonderful idea to eat one. They're good for colds, I hear. Horrible mistake! The garlic was so spicy as I chewed it that I just swallowed it down to be done with it. Within 2min I was feeling horrible and like I might throw up. I couldn't eat or even try soju for the first time! Soju is an experience. It looks and tastes like vodka and has an alcohol content of about 20% (beer is usually around 5.5%). You usually drink it in a group and there are some rules for drinking it. First when receiving a glass from someone, you have to hold the glass (shot glass) with two hands (in case of an elder; left palm on the bottom and hold the glass with the right hand) and bow the head slightly. You never pour your own drink, and don't refill anyone's glass until it's empty. When someone else's glass is empty you pour another glass for them (hold the bottle with your right hand and support your right arm with your left hand by touching its elbow). An empty glass means you're getting more and you have to shoot it! Danger Will Robinson! I think the trick is to leave a little in your glass if you want out of this endless cycle.

So we got to Korea late Tuesday night and finally were able to get into our apartment Friday night after school! It was very nice to have our own space and unpack. J said that our apartment is about 600 square feet and we think it's quite enough for the 2 of us. The heating for the rooms are ondol, which means that the floors are heated and that heats the room. The bathroom is typical Korean and is a wet bathroom. There is no shower stall or tub, just a drain in the floor and an overhead shower nozzle on the wall. When we shower the sink, toilet, and floor all get wet! The floors are ice cold and Koreans take short showers so the hot water doesn't usually last long at all. This will be hard to get used to, we being 2 souls who LOVE long, red hot showers. Shoes are not worn inside houses in Korea (not that anyone has a house; they all live in apartments; they like to live close to each other and no one lives on the mountainside; mountains here on the island are a preserve) so we are keeping to that at our place too. I think it's great because we'll have to sweep and wet mop the floors way less. It keeps the nasty stuff your shoes track in to a small foyer by the door. The thresholds are raised near the front door to contain the grit shoes track in. Our place has sliding glass doors between each room. I love how it looks and it helps to only heat the room you're in (with the help of our trusty space heater). There's also a laundry area where we'll hang everything to dry because most apartments only have a washer. Even in the dead of winter we'll have to open a window in there to make sure stuff actually dries. At least our utilities will be low due to having no dryer!

So our apartment is a 3rd floor walkup in Okpo, a community on Geojedo ("do" means island). It's right in the heart of things and we can walk everywhere. It feels like how I imagine living in NYC would be, just more narrow streets and mopeds dangerously zipping down the streets. It's weird walking around and mostly seeing Koreans. When I see a foreigner/international person (which is the group we now belong to!) my eyes are drawn to the other; almost as if thinking "ooh, look a westerner!". So, in Okpo there is a really big international presence due to Daewoo and Samsung ship building being located here. Pretty much everyone works for them. These 2 companies produce ⅓ of the world's cargo vessels. Cargo vessels are what gets goods from China to your local Wally World. Most of the foreigners are engineers at the companies and bring their families here. Koreans also work there and they send their kids to us to learn English after their normal school. We also have a few French kids in our classes.

We teach at an English Academy, or hagwon. Pretty much all of the kids' parents made them come  and besides the high-schoolers (who are deep in study to learn enough English to go to a good college) and the little kids, the rest don't want to be there. The middle schoolers are really a sullen lot sometimes. They just need to be motivated and have the class be exciting. With the little kids it's just like babysitting with fun English-learning activities thrown in. The babies (as we call them) are constantly yelling "Teacher! Water! Teacher! Bathroom!" Before I came here I thought Korean kids were well behaved but now I know! They sure are a cute lot though and are very sweet. I think it will be a fun and interesting year with them. We teach Monday through Friday at 3p every day. We'll probably get there a little bit early to organize our minds before the craziness starts! The classes come right after each other with no 5 or 10min break in between. We teach 6 classes a day and they last about 50min each. The babies come first with the high-schoolers and adult classes last. With our MWF schedule we get off at 10p and at 9:30p on Tuesday and Thursday. The school is only a 5min walk from our apartment and it'll be super easy to walk to a nearby Korean restaurant. There are only a thousand of them in Okpo.

Yesterday (Saturday) we took the city bus 15min to Gohyeon, a larger neighboring community. This place is huge. We went to Home Plus (the Korean version of Wally World or Target) and just walked around the city looking for sneakers for both of us. We went into a Nike store and while J tried on shoes I asked a store clerk if I could try a cute pair. She pretty much spoke no English but I was able to show her that I wanted a US 9. She came back and said that they don't carry that size and that they only went up to an 8.5. She kept pointing towards the men's shoes and clearly wanted me to try on those! As if my foot's that big! I told her those were for guys but she didn't seem to care. I didn't get offended really. Just chalked it up to that cultural difference that J's been telling me about. Koreans don't really seem to censor what they say. The kids will call you fat or tell you your clothes are ugly (hasn't happened to me yet!). It's not meant to be rude, it's just the way things are here. Welcome to Korea, I guess.

:)

View over Chicago

Crazy!

Somewhere over Russia or China

Our flight path