I made it!

I am happy to report that I made it safely to my new apartment in Seoul, South Korea! Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. I ended up being awake for right at 27 hours, but I did sleep through the whole night here in Korea. Hopefully the jet lag won't be too bad!

The plane ride was good. I think that I watched enough movies to last me for at least the next month ;-) This was my first long-haul international flight, so I was surprised at some of the things that they gave us. We had real silverware for ever meal, slippers to wear around the plane, and food that was surprisingly good!

I was met at the airport by a shuttle driver who had my name on a card. He didn't speak any English at all, and I exhausted my supply of Korean after saying hello and thanking him for helping my with my luggage, so it was a silent ride through the city. There are some things that Seoul that seem very familiar. There are billboards that are completely in English, the road signs are all in Korean and English. It is definitely the largest city I've ever been in. I think that the shortest building I saw was about 8 stories. 

Geographically, South Korea seems strange to me. The mountains look like the Smokey mountains through West Virginia, there are pine trees everywhere like in Colorado, the dirt is red like in Arizona, and there were quite a few beaches that reminded me of Florida. Only you can see all of those things at the exact same time ;-) 

The shuttle driver took me to the university and we picked up the man who is the administrator for the English department. He is Korean, but he speaks very good English. I was pretty tired at this point, but he thought it would be a good idea to do orientation. So, he showed me how to work everything in my apartment, talked a lot about details of the contract, and then we went exploring. He showed me how to unlock and lock my door (which is much more complicated than it sounds) and how to navigate the Subway to get to work. 

We went to a few smallish restaurants around town and he introduced me to the owners and we figured out some things that I would like to eat sometime. It is strange to me that they will be able to remember me that clearly, but in the three hours we spent walking around yesterday, I didn't see another Westerner, so I guess it really isn't that strange. We also went to a bakery and a convenience store type place. I now have water, milk, bread and strawberry jam in my refrigerator. 

I have an official orientation at the university on Friday at 11, but I don't have anything else to do before that. I'm trying to decide if I feel adventurous enough to take off and explore Nowon and Seoul, or if I want to just lay low for now. There is a convenience store/grocery store on the ground floor of my building where I could go get food and just hang out here the rest of the day... We'll see!