We met the supervisor from our school just outside where you clear customs and claim your bags. There was a ton of other Koreans with signs in English on school banners claiming other foreign teachers, but nothing that said “Adam and Lisa” or anything close so we just waited around. Michelle finally found us, while I was attempting to use a payphone and some newly changed Korean Won. We took the bus into Goyang which dropped us off about a block from the hotel and the school. We had tons of stuff, so getting on and off the bus with it all was a big process, and people were already staring at us because we’re white. We checked into hotel but there was only time to brush our teeth and change. We were running late and everyone was waiting outside the restaurant for us.
We went right to dinner, with no shower after travelling for 24 hours. The Korean barbeque place we went to was on the first floor of our school building. Apparently, this wasn’t one of the best places, but I thought it was pretty cool for the first night, and there were tons of spicy side dishes. The teachers we were going to be working with seemed pretty cool. We went out for a couple more beers at Miller Time just around the corner after the meal for a really big beer to share. They were going out, but we were so tired we just went to bed.
Sunday we slept a lot, hard core sleeping in. We were too tired the night before, but in the morning we finally showered too. Later in the afternoon we met up with the other teachers and walked around our little part of the city. We took subway a couple stops to Ilsan, which is the next satellite city over from us, where there’s a bigger shopping area, an Imax theatre, and lots of restaurants.
We went for dinner at their usual dinner spot to a Mexican restaurant. It’s owned by this guy Dane, who is a retired politician and apparently still a big deal. He used to be high up in Federal politics but now he just chills and runs this random restaurant/bar. He lived in the States for awhile too, so his English is really good. He drinks and hangs out with the foreign teachers here sometimes and seems to know everyone. That day he was at the funeral for a famous past President of South Korea. The service was all over the news, the man had won the Nobel Prize before for his relations with the North and everything was shut down because the country was in morning. One TV we watched everyone wearing a white visor and lapel in the VIP area up front. When Dane got to the restaurant after the service, we was wearing the visor and lapel. I’m thinking he’s probably a good person to have as a friend here.
After some beers at Dane’s we went back to Hwajong and to a movie. The actual theatre room was really small. We were seeing Public Enemies, and since it was an English movie, hardly anyone goes to them.
It was really hard to sleep for at least the first week. We are now on very different schedules than before, with exactly 12 hours time difference from home. On the Monday after our first weekend we started shadowing at school before the two teachers we were replacing left. More on the school later.
No comments:
Post a Comment