Five years ago, I was at crossroads in my life. High school was coming to a close and there were choices that needed to be made. What was I going to do next?
Go to university like my parents wanted me to do?
And study what exactly?
Take a gap year?
Travel the world?
Find a job?
A year earlier, my sister had been faced with some choices of her own - her university career was coming to a close and she could get a permanent job or take a gap year. She decided on the gap year option, and she looked at a number of different possibilities, including that of teaching abroad. Though I was never involved in the decision-making process, the prospect of teaching abroad was the one that appealed to me the most. It wasn't her final decision - she instead decided to work on cruise ships in the Caribbean - but the idea stuck in my head, and a year later when I was making decisions of my own, the idea was looking very very appealing. I didn't get very far with the planning of it at that stage, since my parents were pretty adament that I would go to university before anything else, but the idea stuck in the back of my mind.

Three years later, I was at another crossroads. I was about to finish my degree. I had applied to do a post-graduate diploma, but I was worried that I wouldn't get into the programme and I wanted to be prepared for that possibility. The idea of teaching abroad which had been at the back of my mind for three years came to the foreground when I got an e-mail from Teach Korea, a company based in Cape Town that looked for bright eyed and bushy tailed graduates to come and teach on this side of the world. I hadn't really considered Korea before then - I had been focussing my attention on Thailand, but had recently heard that it wasn't really the place to go. And then this opportunity fell into my lap. Teaching in Korea. It didn't sound too bad to me. I looked at the benefits, and almost responded to the e-mail right then and there saying "sign me up". But then I got a response from the journalism department. I had been accepted into the post-graduate diploma programme. I had been given an amazing opportunity, and I wasn't about to let that pass me by. Korea could wait, I decided.

I started my journalism course and got stuck into it. I put my heart and soul into the programme and loved it to pieces. But, on the sideline, I was still doing research. I looked into Thailand once more, and decided that it definitely wasn't the place for me. I looked into Japan, but the cost of living was too high and the benefits weren't even close to those that I would get in Korea. I looked into China, but found that they wouldn't accept me because I have no prior teaching experience. I looked into Taiwan, but the pay wasn't as good and and I would have to pay for my own apartment on top of the reduction in salary. My focus was always on Asia, since I wanted to go somewhere that was completely out of my comfort zone. I wanted an experience, and in my mind going somewhere completely removed from the Western world was the only way I could guarantee getting that. And so I went through my options and started gathering my paperwork and filling out applications.
Resumes.
Police Clearances.
Reference Letters.
Interviews.
Teaching course.
Though the teaching course wasn't compulsary, I had been told that it would help my cause a great deal and make it easier for me to get a job as a teacher in Korea and anywhere else in the world. So I went for it. By December I was told that I had been accepted for the February intake, and I couldn't have been happier. It was perfect - I would have two months to prepare myself, to save up some money and invest in some work-appropriate clothing, to say goodbye to my friends and family, and to come to terms with moving halfway across the world. I was told that I would have my contract by the beginning of January, and so I waited with baited breathe.

The beginning of January came and went. I had sent e-mails to the company asking what was happening, but got no response. I had been informed late in December that the contracts could arrive as far in the future as mid- to late January, but I started getting nervous. By the time the 20th came around, I was a nervous wreck. Screw it, I decided, I was phoning them. The call was one of the hardest I have ever been through. Being told that I had been shortlisted, rejected, that I could leave as late as August if then and trying not to cry while I was being told this was nightmarish. I hung up the phone and realised that I would have to find a job. A decent job, that is, rather than the one that I already had working for my aunt on a part-time basis. Three weeks, they said. They would give me three weeks of notice before I would have to leave.

I started the job hunt that I had seen Michael going through, and though I did better than him initially, getting lots of interviews and lots of praise, I couldn't find anything even vaguely decent. I slipped into a mild depression, feeling that everything in my life was going wrong. And then, one morning, while driving Michael to an interview, I got the call. My contract was on its way. They wanted me to leave in a week and a half. From there it was a rush of
getting contracts read and signed by various parties,
shopping,
booking plane tickets,
shopping,
getting contracts signed,
shopping,
quitting my part-time job and,
oh yeah,
SHOPPING!
I had to prepare for the cold winter that I would be facing. I had a week and a half to get ready, and somehow I managed. My contract arrived on the Monday after the phone call and was quickly scanned, signed, and sent off to Pretoria along with my visa application.
"It will be ready on Wednesday and we want you to leave on Thursday."
Tuesday morning came the call from the Korean embassy.
"You forgot to sign the last page."
Sending off another contract to Pretoria.
"It will be ready on Thursday and we want you to leave on Friday."
"It will be ready on Friday morning and we want you to pick it up at the airport."
"It will be ready on Friday afternoon and we want you to leave on Saturday."
"Perhaps it is best if you leave on Monday."
All of this came in the midst of hurried goodbyes and dealing with Catherine from Pangea Travels who insisted that I travel with them despite their plane tickets being R1000 more expensive than the airline was advertising for the same flight. Eventually the day arrived, and I left South Africa, a 21 year old recent graduate with no real work experiences who had never travelled on her own.

I arrived in Korea an inexperienced bundle of nerves, hardly prepared for what it would be like, and hardly prepared to be a role-model to teenage children. But that is what I have become, or at the very least what I am becoming. This is the story of my year in Korea - the ups, the downs, the happiness, the sadness and all the details of the things that happen in between. Enjoy.

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!