I've been in Korea for...oh, only four days now! Days are so screwed up. And our schedule is so jam-packed here, it's been difficult to keep track. Like things we did just yesterday seem like days ago. But I think I'm finally getting adjusted!
Computer time is hard to come by, since all of the instructors are staying in one "compound" for the orientation week, with only a handful of computers available. And I can't get my laptop connected, either by wireless or by landline, so I decided to create this here Blooger instead of using the super-cool iWeb! Oh well. I think right now I just want to do a run-down of what has happened so far:
Monday (7/14): Nicholas and I drove to St. Louis and spent the day just hanging out, shopping, eating and buying fudge :-) We stayed at the Hyatt at Union Station and enjoyed the day.
Tuesday: I needed to arrive at the airport by 6:00 am to meet the group, so my alarm went off at 4:15. My emotions about leaving hadn't caught up with my until then. But that morning, it was a different story. I made it to the MetroLink and caught the train to the airport, and made it in time to meet up with my new friends!
The trip went very smoothly. St. Louis to Chicago, then a three hour stop, then we boarded Korean Airlines! The plane was huge. And the flight attendants were amazing! They had shiny sky-blue outfits, and bows and scarfs that somehow defied gravity and floated in mid-air, very Jetsons-like. They even had matching blue eye shadow!
The 14-hour trip really wasn't so bad. I slept most of the way. We landed, got off the plane, and walked through the Seoul airport to get our luggage and catch our charter bus. The airport was very high-tech and efficient-looking, and everyone there was soooo stylish. Finally, we got on the bus and headed to Gwangju - about four hours away. Halfway there, we stopped at what would probably be a truckstop in America. But here in Korea, it was amaaaaazinggg!!! OK, it was dark, and raining the slightest bit, making it misty and other-worldly. But it was accented in neon, and had beautiful reflecting pools, and inside there were many different fast food and convenience stype little stores. Our meal was brought to us, and we had a choice of bi bim bap or udon noodles. I went bi bim bap, which is a bunch of vegetables and hot sauce that you mix with rice. And it was good. Walking back on to the bus, I felt like I was in a Haruki Murakami novel.
As we drove into Gwangju (the fourth largest city in South Korea and our orientation city), I saw a sparkling beautiful city with lots of tasteful neon. Not garrish, Las Vegas neon, but clean, efficient neon. We got there after 11 pm Korean time. The bus pulled up, then as there was no eleveator, we all heaved our bags up a flght of stairs. We got our room assignments, then crashed for the night.
Wednesday: Despite having gone to sleep only a few hours ago, most of us were up pretty early. Also, the air conditioning shut off, so it was hard to stay in bed. We had breakfast at 8 am, then we had the morning free since they assumed we would want to sleep until noon. But no. A group of us decided to venture out, with the intention of finding a convenience store for water and an ATM and plug adapters. Instead, we found a bus stop (actually it looked like the main bus, um, place) and decided to take the bus into town! Of course we had no idea where we were going, and didn't speak Korean. But we figured out that the No. 6 bus would take us in to town. Yeah! So we got on the bus, and stopped in an area with shops an markets and stuff. We had a great time just walking around. We got Korean juices and coffee drinks, found an international bank and exchanged our dollars (1,000 won = $1) and found some plug adapters. Hooray! Then we tried to get back on the bus to go back to our compound. For some reason, we still don't know, the bus driver would not let us on to the bus! There must have been a good reason, but with the language barrier it was impossible to figure out. So we ended up hoofing it all the way back to our place, which took about 30 minutes. And we were not exactly wearing our walking shoes. Oh well.
We got back a little late for lunch, ate a bit, then started our orientation!
I'm going to stop at this point. I'll have to look at my schedule, and we're abou to go to dinner tonight. Write more later!
1 comment:
"KINK" - That's a hilarious title for your blog. Only you would think of that Kelly. There's that sense of humor coming out again. Everything sounds wonderful and I can't wait to read about your experiences for the next few weeks. Love Nicholas
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