Wow, it has been a couple fast weeks

I can't believe we are already halfway through August. We have the day off today because it is Gwangbokjeol, a holiday that celebrates Victory over Japan Day which also liberated Korea from Japan's colonial rule.

So far, everything at work has been great. The team I work with is filled with awesome guys, and just about everyone else I have met at school has been great. It has been frustrating adapting to a new school as I don't know much about Mac and the programs they use at school. But I have been learning and will eventually practice excellence just as I did at Nesbit. I hope everyone at Nesbit is doing well :-)

I have had a few occasions to go out in Korea. There was a gathering of expats a mile from my apartment that I attended last Friday. It was a fun time, and I met people from Ireland, Australia, Korea, France, Germany, and the USA. The beer is not as good in Korea but it still does the job. We talked and drank at the original place for a good 4 hours or so, and then headed to an expat bar to keep the party going. I guess it goes back to my days at Oswego (a small college in upstate NY), but I love walking around with a buzz. Not stumbling drunk and barely alive, but a nice happy buzz. The weather was beautiful and it just feels good to be alive. Anyway, the expat bar was fun, the drinking and talking continued plus we were able to catch some of the Olympics on TV. And they had Guinness on tap. Unfortunately I had to work the next day on Saturday, so at 2am I got up and headed home. I thought I knew where I was so I started walking. 30 minutes later I had no idea where I was so I took a taxi home. Thankfully I was not that far off from where I thought I was, and taxis in Korea are cheap as hell. The funniest thing is, the very next night I went to that bar with another friend, and realized that I was one turn away from being exactly where I thought I was. I even remembered from the night before that I stopped at that corner and couldn't decide which way to go. Regardless it was a fun mini-adventure.

I also was taken to an amazing Mexican restaurant. It was right up there with Los Hermanos. They have a much smaller menu, keeping it to simple stuff like tacos, burritos, quesadillas, etc. But they burrito I had was so good that I came back the next day and tried another one. It is called Dos Tacos and it is by Seohyeon Station if there are any locals reading this.

I am going to try and take some more pictures around my area and at school. Hopefully I will post more often than every two weeks. But, at least it is more than Grant and Jen did :-)

Some pictures

Here are some miscellaneous photos:

The Tancheon River flows through my district, and there are walkways on both sides as it moves through the city.

The Job Center, right down the road from me. Students come here to learn about careers and such.

Cans of Guinness are available at most of the little corner shops for about 3 bucks. Not too bad...

My apartment from just inside the door.

My apartment from the windows. Blue door is the main door, closest door on left is a closet, and second door on left is the bathroom. The door on the right is the bedroom.

Bedroom

Bedroom

Bathroom (with the fancy toilet. Yes, it is nice to have). Washing machine on the left side. No dryer unit. Most Koreans do not use clothes driers but air dry in the apartment or on their balcony (or outside if not in a high rise apartment). I don't have a balcony so I just dry them in the middle of the room.

Sink and shower

Spa shower. It's nice having the main shower, the spa jets, and the handheld. Plus they can all my turned on or off independently.

Batman

Well, I have to say it is my least favorite of the three by Nolan. I did like the ending though except for the possible setup for other movies. I really did not like Bane's voice. It sounded horrible. Overall the movie was OK. There were too may places where I had to wave my hand jedi-style and just go with it.

The theater had really nice seats. It was about 2/3 packed and I ended up having people right next to me. I guess I got used to Movie Tavern where I sat with friends and had extra space the sides if I didn't. They let us in 10 minutes before the movie started and commercials were playing. They continued commercials for 10 minutes after the movie was about to start, and then went right into the movie. No previews. There was a commercial for Total Recall (looks like a horrible, generic, scifi movie that will end up making big bucks anyway). I kinda missed the previews but not a big deal. They also don't sell candy at the theater. They had drinks, nachos, and popcorn though.

It is hot in Korea.

Seriously, it is hot and humid here. I was walking around a shopping area looking for a case for my camera and it was ridiculous. The worst part of the heat is when I come back to my apartment. There is air in the lobby but not in the area with elevator and not in the hallways of each floor. There is a little a/c in the elevator but not much. So when you walk in the door all sweaty and nasty, you have 30secs to a minute standing in a 90 degree hallway, and then a minute on the elevator and then another 30 seconds to get into my apartment. It feels like a sauna once I come in the building but at least my apartment is decently cool once I get in the door.

I found out a few things regarding Korean movie theaters today. Number 1: they sell out fast. Number 2: you pick your exact seat when you buy your ticket. At first i thought that was lame, but then I bought a ticket for Batman for tomorrow and was able to get a great seat. So no rushing to the theater early, just walk in right before it starts and go to my seat. We will see how it works in practice tomorrow...

I miss Netflix. I mean, I really miss Netflix. I have not found any streaming services in Korea yet, but hopefully once I meet and talk with other teachers later this week I will get some good info. My apartment has a tv, it's small but decent. I do not have cable service, but I do get 6 channels in Korean. While it is interesting to watch here and there (the Korean soaps are no where near as good as the Mexican ones I used to watch on Unavision), it gets old quick. I do have my DVD collection but I have also watched a ton of South Park. All of their episodes can be seen for free at southparkstudios.net. I have been a fan of the show since some friends introduced to the Weight Gainer 5000 episode long long ago. I have seen every episode as far as I know, but restarted from Season 3 last week. I am now in Season 8. I forgot how good some of these episodes are. I watched old episodes on Comedy Central once in awhile, but it has been fun going back and watching them again. The only bad thing about watching them online is that there is a commercial for Comedy Central each time there is a normal break in the show. Not a big deal really, except that it is the same commercial every freaking time. So I have seen this one bit about 200 times (or more). There is also a really annoying commercial for this English version of Justin Beiber named Conor Maynard. That commercial I only have to see once per episode. So in summary, I love South Park.

I have been trying to find food joints that have menus in English. Though I know a few dishes in Korean, it is difficult to find exactly what is what. So, I have been going to English fast food the few times I have gone out for a meal. So far that includes Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and Burger King. The Burger King was pretty good; it was far better than I remember in the states. The gralic steakhouse burger that I had was the best fast food burger I have had in a long time (that's fast food only; Farmburger and other similar places still blow it out of the water). Other western places I have seen include Papa Johns, KFC, Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts. I don't drink coffee so I can't help the curious coffee drinkers. I did go to a coffee place called Tom and Toms Coffee (side note: anyone remember Tom and Tom, the Brothers brothers from Living Color?). Anyway, they had a number of pretzels on a sign so I stopped in and got one. Except the one I ordered was more like a stromboli with jalapenos. It was damn good and was only 3 bucks. So at least I have a go-to for a quick cheap eat.

I report to work on Wednesday, but I am planning on doing some photos tomorrow and Tuesday for posting here.

Thursday July 26

Nothing too exciting has been happening recently. I go for a morning walk to get some exercise and learn the area around me better. My school is only a 1.5 km walk from my apartment, but it is at the top of a really steep hill. I walked there yesterday morning to workout at the fitness center (small but has all the equipment I need) and could barely get my workout completed because of sucking wind from going up the hill. It will get better as I get back into shape but it's still a little laughable.

You don't know how bad I miss Target and Wal-Mart. Stuff that was so easy to get to is now a giant pain in the ass to find. There are many department stores that have a variety of items and most of them have a floor devoted to groceries. But, each one stocks different stuff so I have been going to different ones to see what they have. Like today I went to Kim's Club and loaded up on pasta, sauce, and canned veggies. But they didn't have some of the other stuff I like so I need to go to another place in a few days for more. There is a Costco in Seoul, and we will be going during orientation next week.Once I get my membership I can go when I please. Hopefully it is good and I can do most of my shopping there.

Miscellaneous stuff:
* went to an Irish bar last night that was supposed to be a favorite of ex-pats. Nice little place and they had Guinness on tap (at 8 bucks a glass). Not many people there but some cute bartenders and a few Korean ladies were there. I will head back this weekend when I am sure it is more livelier. There are rules for beer pong on the window so it will be fun I am sure.
* taxis in Korea are awesome. They are plentiful and cheap, and the drivers are insane. I have no desire to try to drive in Korea, unless I get on the highway and go cruising to another part of the country. But even then it will probably be easier and faster to take a train. I had a driver today that was working a manual and the old bastard drove like Mario Andretti. I have yet to see any traffic accidents in all my hours of walking and taking taxis.
* kiwis here are cheap as hell and bigger than the ones in the states (the fruit that is). damn good eats.
* tried an Italian place Sunday night. Another cure place that had a nice Italian atmosphere. I had spaghetti with chicken in a spicy marinara that blew me away. If I didn't already feel like a weird foreigner I would have licked the plate clean.Going to have to go back to that place again.
* I have yet to have anyone come up and talk to me. I have had plenty of looks and a few stares but people leave me alone. I know I am not the most inviting person but I figured someone would have stopped to say hi and try their English on me.

I had originally wanted to try and post every day with news and comments and pictures but I don't know if that will happen. I will try to post often but don't look for something every day.

Day 1 in Korea

July 20, 2012

So I woke up at 5am and could not get back to sleep. So I got about 7 hours after I tossed and turned trying to fall asleep. So I got dressed and went for a walk. My apartment is in a large building, about 25 stories. I am the 7th floor. Apartment is small but nice. More about the apartment in a few days once I unpack and such.

The walk was cool. I am right near a subway station and a large department store. There are also lots of restaurants, bars, and shops right close by. I had breakfast at McDonald's since it was open (it was good). I continued walking and ended up spending a good 60 minutes looping around the blocks near me.

KIS had scheduled me and 2 other families for a shopping trip to a department store for Friday afternoon. Shopping is a real pain when you can't read or speak the language LOL. I got some necessary stuff but had a hard time finding things like a bedsheet. Evidently, in Korea they use a fitted mattress cover and quilts. To find just a plain bedsheet I have to pay like 80 bucks. So I will be getting some sheets sent over soon. I bought a fan which made the apt much more bearable. I have ac but is a single unit that blows only into the living room. If anyone at Nesbit has seen the little unit that cools Coffey's office in the gym then you know what i am talking about. I couldn't find some decent shelves for the crapload of books I brought. Clothes-hangers were also a pain to find. I still have plenty to find and purchase to get myself settled.

So the entire trip took over 3 hours and I was pretty beat by the time I got home. Nothing else exciting happened, just resting and trying to do some unpacking. I did go to Pizza Hut for lunch which was interesting. They have some interesting stuff going on with their pizzas. And they are more expensive. Check out the picture of my pizza below:

And finally, here is a shot from my apartment window:

The Trip to Korea

July 19, 2012

I arrived in Korea at about 5pm local time (Korea is currently of EST by 13 hours). I woke up at 5am to get ready and do the last bit of packing. I slept on and off and may have gotten 5 hours of sleep if I'm lucky.

Everything was fine in Tampa and had a nice easy flight to Atlanta. I have said it many times, but the Atlanta airport sucks. Anyway, the layover was only 2 hours and went by quickly. The flight to Seoul was on Korean Air and the gigantic airplane was packed to capacity. I had an aisle seat, and was not able to change it because of the full house. The good thing was I was seated next to a couple on their way to Thailand. They flew internationally quite a bit and were fun to talk to and helped me understand the routine on the plane. Korean Air is a great company. I will fly them anytime. And the Korean flight attendants were gorgeous ;-)

The flight ended up being about 14 hours in the air. I was not able to sleep at all. I tried a bunch of times but just wasn't comfortable in my seat enough to drift off. So I watched a lot of movies (all for free). I think I watched 2 Korean movies, 2 Chinese movies, The Matrix (god that movie is awful; I can't believe I liked this when it came out), and about an hour of another movie. The food was quite good on the flight. We had 2 full meals over the whole time, with plenty of drinks and a single hot towel service. I had a Korean meal and a pasta dish and both were quite good.

The landing was fine in Seoul, but we had to wait 15 minutes before we could traverse the runways with planes coming and going before we got to the terminal. The representative from my school (Korea International School, or KIS) was not waiting at my gate. I stood around feeling stupid for 5 minutes and then started walking the airport looking for someone with a KIS sign at the other arrival points. I was dead tired and hauling 150 lbs of crap in my 2 suitcases and 2 carryons. I was at Gate A and walked the entire length of the international section to Gate F with no luck. So, I grabbed a vitamin water and headed all the way back to Gate A. I still didn't see anyone with a sign when I got back there, but was finally approached by the guys from KIS after I stood there for a minute. Then I found out that we were waiting for a family to arrive that would be travelling with us. So I got sit around and do nothing for another 45 minutes.

The family were nice. They are a couple from Monterrey with a couple of kids (1 year and almost 5 years I think). The ride on the KIS bus was another hour to get to my actual apartment. That was after I crammed my stuff and the dozen or so boxes of stuff from the family onto the small bus. SO by the time I got my stuff to my apartment and got settled and oriented it was about 7:15. I took a shower and ate some of the food that had been left as my welcome gift. I was tired as hell but a little wired but I finally went to bed at 9pm.