Where to start?

Having been in South Korea for 4 nights now, 

you would think I would have some idea about what to say... But I don't know where to start!

So, backtracking to Thursday (gonna skip over the teary goodbyes at the airport - lets just say it involved a lot of crying. Quick shout out to everyone who came to see me off and a BIG thank you to Anne and Jo for looking after me in customs and the international lounge).

The Flight

I flew with China Souther Air, and it actually wasn't that bad. I paid $725 for the flight so I wasn't expecting red carpet, but it was better than Jetstar thats for sure. The meals were Asian food so I wasn't that keen but all in all not bad. I got a little bit of sleep but I never sleep well on planes. I think its more the sitting upright.

There was a stop over in Guangzhou (?) in China, which was decidedly uneventful. I got changed into something less homeless looking as I knew I was being met in Incheon. We boarded the next flight and took off to Korea. The weather in China was HOT and the air con in the airport was shit house so I was looking a bit worse for wear when I got to Korea. 

Somewhere between China and Korea the clouds had rolled in, so when we landed it was still super muggy but raining pretty heavily. I was picked up by a cute little old Korean man who didn't really speak English at all but he tried. My bag felt like I had packed lead cannonballs but he offered to wheel it anyway. We got into his lovely van thing and headed off to Pyeongtaek.

NB

People drive on the wrong side of the road in Korea!!! No one told me that! The poor little man thought I wanted to drive lol

South Korea

The drive from the airport to Songtan took nearly 2 hours, mainly because of the traffic in shitty weather. The rain kept getting heavier so it was a downpour by the time we arrived at the school. The drive over was different to what I expected - the highways here are waaayyyy better than ours, and there were nice small mountains on either side so there was a lot of greenery. And there are these long ass bridges linking the airport island to the rest of the country - side note here is that the eastern side of South Korea has a heap of large islands. The airport appears to be on one of these...

I was so tired by the time I arrived at the school, but put on my bestest happy face and greeted my co-teacher, Jean (haha I know, that was my recruiters name too). I don't think thats how you spell it, but whatever.

He throughout I was arriving earlier, so all we really did was meet the principal and then got back in the car for him to take me to my little house/room/cave. I didn't get a good look at the school, but it looked pretty big. The plan was to go back the next day and have a proper look around.

My studio apartment

I know most of you will have already seen these pics on FB, but in case you haven't here are a few:

So its a bit hard to see, but I can get from one side to the other in 2 big steps. Its adorable and I love it! I am 3 minutes from the supermarket (Highwaymart), 5 minutes from the station and 10 minutes from my school. Walking, not driving. 

It also turns out I am in Songtan, not Pyeongtaek as I thought... This suits me just fine, as I am that little bit closer to Suwon, and there are a lot of people who speak English here because the Air Force Base in 15 minutes away (walking). It also means I am not stared at too much because the Koreans here are used to looking at Americans... I need to get a tee that says 'Australia' so they know the difference.

Anyway, I am dead tired tonight. It was my first day at school today, but there is so much to blog about for my first weekend that I don't want to launch into it. But now that my internet is working, and I have a plug adaptor there is no reason for me to hold anything back! So I will probe add a blog a day for a while so everyone can catch up on my news. 

I feel like I have done so much in such a short space of time. Its the weirdest thing, I don't feel scared or lonely or anything like that here. I wouldn't say I feel at home, because I don't, but it just doesn't feel that foreign. Maybe because I have spent so much time in Box Hill, or maybe because I have made my little cave into a warm fuzzy retreat with pics of home. Either way, Korea feels friendly, and I like it here. 

I think i'll stick around...

xoxo