I am finally here! After 28.5 hours of travelling (including waiting in airports and driving in taxis) I made it to Eulji University in Seongnam City where my orientation is taking place.
Contrary to the negative images that were running through my head, Noma from docs4expats was waiting for me when I reached Johannesburg, and I was able to get my passport from her (with my visa - I checked) and check-in with some time to spare. The flight from Johannesburg to Dubai wasn't too terrible, aside from quite a bit of turbulence, and I enjoyed the selection of movies that they had to offer. At one point I tried to sleep, but after half an hour of tossing and turning I gave up and decided to carry on taking advantage of the entertainment system instead. I also got to know another girl, Stephanie, who was also headng to Korea, so we got quite friendly during the flight and kept each other company in Dubai during the three hour wait for the next one. As soon as I the flight to Seoul was in the air, I reclined my chair as far back as it would go, took a pill and got to sleep within minutes. Unfortunately it was not uninterupted, despite the sticker saying "DO NOT DISTURB" that I had put on my seat - they still woke me up to ask me if I wanted meals - but despite that, I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep before we landed. And I was grateful for the 6 hours when we did land.
As soon as we got off the plane, Stephanie and I were thrown into a mad throng of people walking at a ridiculous pace, and we just followed along blindly, not really knowing where we were going. Soon we found ourselves queueing to board a train that took us to the "Passenger's Area", where we had to go through passport control, baggage claim and customs (the pace relenting thanks to the queues) before making our way out to the arrivals. As soon as we walked through the door into the arrivals area, we saw a man holding a card that read "Lara Salomon and Stephanie", impossible to miss, so another one of my worries was taken care of. I mentioned that I needed to draw cash and he moved aside revealing, much to my relief, a Global ATM. I drew some cash (not knowing quite how much to draw since I didn't know how much the taxi was going to cost) and followed the driver outside. He took Stephanie to the bus stop and bought her the ticket that she would need before taking me to the car, which I nervously climbed into, the fact that there was no seatbelt not escaping my attention. He climbed in after me five minutes later and we started the trip to Seongnam City.
At first I was paying attention to everything, noticing how beautiful the bridges were and the amazing sunset (I had never seen a bright red sun before, not like that. It wasn't lighting up the sky behind it - it was just a bright red ball on a grey background) and even trying to read some of the signs that we passed, proud to have learned the Korean alphabet before I came. But eventually the sun started going down, and the highway wasn't too exciting so I started dozing a bit. Before I knew it, the sky was black and the driver was telling me we would be there in 5 minutes. I looked around me and realised that he could have dropped me in the middle of nowhere and I would have been completely clueless - I had no one to contact, knew no Korean, nothing. And when he pulled to a stop, I really did think he was dropping me in the middle of nowhere. There were buildings all around us, lit up by the neon Korean signs, but he had stopped outside the only building that wasn't well lit. I had no idea where I was. He pulled my bag out of the car and asked me for the money, which I hesitantly gave him. Then he grabbed my suitcase without my having to ask him and started running up the steps with me hurrying along behind him. As we reached the top of the steps and turned a corner, I saw a giant poster over a doorway reading "WELCOME 2010 EPIK TEACHERS", and knew that I was in the right place. I hurried into the building, which turned out to be Eulji University, after him and he didnt stop until he had found the administration room that I was supposed to be in. From there, he left me in the helpful hands of the dormitory staff who assigned me a room and gave me a welcoming package including a schedule, alarm clock, hoodie and towel. One of them took me to my room and showed me how the electricity worked (you have to put your room card into a holder to start the electricity running) before leaving me alone. I had been told that I would be sharing the room with an American girl, but she wasn't there when I arrived. I made a quick phonecall home to tell Mom that I was safe and then made my way back to my room, unpacked some necessities, briefly met my room mate (Grace, from Houston) and fell asleep.
I woke up this morning nice and early for breakfast (where I avoided things like the cabbage salad and the soup) before heading to the first lectures of the day which lasted until lunch. At lunch, I bumped into girl I knew from University, and she introduced me to some of the South Africans who would be going to her province, who in turn introduced me to some of the South Africans going to my province (there are between ten and fifteen of tem!) There was an hour before the next lecture started, so we took a quick wall through the town before returning to the university for the afternoon lectures. By the last lecture of the day, I had been introduced to most of the people who will be going to Chungcheongbuk, had tasted the traditional kimchi (which wasn't as bad as I had suspected it would be) as well as some other Korean delicacies - sweet potato salad (which included macaroni noodles and dates, and which I am not so sure about) and seaweed and rice balls - and had even explored the city a little bit. It made me feel brave enough to come out on my own after our Korean class (the last class of the day) and head down the road to try and find an internet cafe, which is where I am now.
And so my adventure has begun!
Contrary to the negative images that were running through my head, Noma from docs4expats was waiting for me when I reached Johannesburg, and I was able to get my passport from her (with my visa - I checked) and check-in with some time to spare. The flight from Johannesburg to Dubai wasn't too terrible, aside from quite a bit of turbulence, and I enjoyed the selection of movies that they had to offer. At one point I tried to sleep, but after half an hour of tossing and turning I gave up and decided to carry on taking advantage of the entertainment system instead. I also got to know another girl, Stephanie, who was also headng to Korea, so we got quite friendly during the flight and kept each other company in Dubai during the three hour wait for the next one. As soon as I the flight to Seoul was in the air, I reclined my chair as far back as it would go, took a pill and got to sleep within minutes. Unfortunately it was not uninterupted, despite the sticker saying "DO NOT DISTURB" that I had put on my seat - they still woke me up to ask me if I wanted meals - but despite that, I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep before we landed. And I was grateful for the 6 hours when we did land.
As soon as we got off the plane, Stephanie and I were thrown into a mad throng of people walking at a ridiculous pace, and we just followed along blindly, not really knowing where we were going. Soon we found ourselves queueing to board a train that took us to the "Passenger's Area", where we had to go through passport control, baggage claim and customs (the pace relenting thanks to the queues) before making our way out to the arrivals. As soon as we walked through the door into the arrivals area, we saw a man holding a card that read "Lara Salomon and Stephanie", impossible to miss, so another one of my worries was taken care of. I mentioned that I needed to draw cash and he moved aside revealing, much to my relief, a Global ATM. I drew some cash (not knowing quite how much to draw since I didn't know how much the taxi was going to cost) and followed the driver outside. He took Stephanie to the bus stop and bought her the ticket that she would need before taking me to the car, which I nervously climbed into, the fact that there was no seatbelt not escaping my attention. He climbed in after me five minutes later and we started the trip to Seongnam City.
At first I was paying attention to everything, noticing how beautiful the bridges were and the amazing sunset (I had never seen a bright red sun before, not like that. It wasn't lighting up the sky behind it - it was just a bright red ball on a grey background) and even trying to read some of the signs that we passed, proud to have learned the Korean alphabet before I came. But eventually the sun started going down, and the highway wasn't too exciting so I started dozing a bit. Before I knew it, the sky was black and the driver was telling me we would be there in 5 minutes. I looked around me and realised that he could have dropped me in the middle of nowhere and I would have been completely clueless - I had no one to contact, knew no Korean, nothing. And when he pulled to a stop, I really did think he was dropping me in the middle of nowhere. There were buildings all around us, lit up by the neon Korean signs, but he had stopped outside the only building that wasn't well lit. I had no idea where I was. He pulled my bag out of the car and asked me for the money, which I hesitantly gave him. Then he grabbed my suitcase without my having to ask him and started running up the steps with me hurrying along behind him. As we reached the top of the steps and turned a corner, I saw a giant poster over a doorway reading "WELCOME 2010 EPIK TEACHERS", and knew that I was in the right place. I hurried into the building, which turned out to be Eulji University, after him and he didnt stop until he had found the administration room that I was supposed to be in. From there, he left me in the helpful hands of the dormitory staff who assigned me a room and gave me a welcoming package including a schedule, alarm clock, hoodie and towel. One of them took me to my room and showed me how the electricity worked (you have to put your room card into a holder to start the electricity running) before leaving me alone. I had been told that I would be sharing the room with an American girl, but she wasn't there when I arrived. I made a quick phonecall home to tell Mom that I was safe and then made my way back to my room, unpacked some necessities, briefly met my room mate (Grace, from Houston) and fell asleep.
I woke up this morning nice and early for breakfast (where I avoided things like the cabbage salad and the soup) before heading to the first lectures of the day which lasted until lunch. At lunch, I bumped into girl I knew from University, and she introduced me to some of the South Africans who would be going to her province, who in turn introduced me to some of the South Africans going to my province (there are between ten and fifteen of tem!) There was an hour before the next lecture started, so we took a quick wall through the town before returning to the university for the afternoon lectures. By the last lecture of the day, I had been introduced to most of the people who will be going to Chungcheongbuk, had tasted the traditional kimchi (which wasn't as bad as I had suspected it would be) as well as some other Korean delicacies - sweet potato salad (which included macaroni noodles and dates, and which I am not so sure about) and seaweed and rice balls - and had even explored the city a little bit. It made me feel brave enough to come out on my own after our Korean class (the last class of the day) and head down the road to try and find an internet cafe, which is where I am now.
And so my adventure has begun!
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