Everything is still weird

     Gamcheon Village:

Gamcheon Village was a fairly spectacular experience. I spent the day with my new friend Catharina, the angelic human being I met at the international party. She was an awesome tour guide and her abilities to speak Korean, English and Chinese all came in handy (we ran into some Chinese tourists along the way). Gamcheon Village is basically a really poor area where many people moved during the Korean War. Someone decided to turn it into a tourist attraction by painting everything in bright colours and turning it into a massive art piece, really. It’s a good thing I suppose... turn somewhere poor and run down into a place where people will come from all over to see (and spend money at!). The weather wasn’t at its best but luckily we left just as the wind started picking up. We then went to Catharina’s hometown where we ate a late lunch together... I had this amazing curry, perhaps even the best curry I’ve ever had, but I’m sad to say that the heat got the better of me. Korean food is often spicy so I should have known better. I didn’t want to stop but the embarrassment of the sweating and runny nose eventually caused me to call it a day! As soon as I got back to my home in Jangsan the rain started pouring down. A successful outing and well-timed too!    

Strange Korean Compliment of the Day:

      Student: Teacher... your nose... like Pinocchio.
Me: Ah... I see. Well, thanks.
Student: No teacher. It good!
Me: To have a nose like Pinocchio?
Student: Yes teacher. Many Koreans... um, silicon nose to look like your.
Me: They have plastic surgery?
Student: Yes, plastic!
Me: Ah, well thank you.
Student: Yes, teacher very handsome.
Me: *plays it cool* There’s a spelling mistake in your answer to question 4. *walks away*

       April Fool’s Day:

April Fool’s Day is apparently a pretty big deal in Korea. At least, they certainly seem to take it more seriously than we do in South Africa. My co-teacher fortunately alerted me to this fact earlier in the week so I could be sure to remember that if anything strange happened it was probably because of the date! I was (fortunately) excluded from most of the activity but my co-teacher had an evil plan... with our best poker faces on, we would tell the students that I would be returning to South Africa in a couple of weeks and they would be getting a new native teacher to take my place. To be perfectly honest, I was worried that the reaction was going to be whoops, cheers and a small party... but solemn faces were the order of the day. I wasn’t sure I would be able to pull it off but I gave a pretty convincing performance if I do say so myself. After telling the students the bad news, my co-teacher whispered to me that we would only tell them the truth after class; how successful this was I can’t be sure, as we still had a lesson to do and the classroom atmosphere was completely dead after that! Nevertheless, it was worth it for the reaction at the end – my co-teacher let them believe it right up until they were lined up and ready to go out the door. Their reaction when they realised they’d been duped was priceless! I still had some students coming up to me days afterwards giving me dirty scowls and calling me a “bad liar”. Mission accomplished!

 Lotte Giants baseball game:

This was something I just knew I had to do. A few friends went a couple of weeks before and it seemed like a really awesome experience. And plus, I’d been missing my live sport over here so I figured it would be fun either way! While my enjoyment of the experience was significantly lessened due to the fact that I’d just visited the ENT doctor earlier in the day and received an unusually large bag of medicine, the baseball was still everything I thought it would be. The experience can be summed up quite nicely in this video:

Birthday bowling celebrations:

This was perhaps the best night out I’ve had in Korea yet. For once the activity was taking place close by to me, in Haeundae, and the plans were simple: hit the bowling alley and partake in the W10,000 (R100) unlimited beer special. While my interest in the bowling itself was initially quite minimal, I soon realised that luck was on my side as I nailed three strikes in a row (with a couple of them admittedly bouncing off the railing) and won myself a pair of socks. While I wasn’t able to maintain that form throughout the round, I did enough to snatch a win despite a nerve-wracking comeback from Tom, the birthday boy, who took it to the final ball being bowled. The proclamations of me being an “awesome bowler” were short-lived, as I finished near the bottom of the pack for the next two games.

I feel like this would be a weirdly awesome photo if those
damn socks I won weren't in the way. Artistic.

As you can see, I enjoyed early dominance
(player D by the way)...

...and then almost lost it at the end. Fortunately I held on
and exorcised some terrible bowling performances from the
past.

     On-air reading:

      My debut television appearance was nowhere near as glamorous as I’d always imagined it might be. My blonde locks weren’t blowing in the wind and there were no cute girls by my side. Instead I held a children’s book in my hand as I nervously read and asked comprehension questions to an imaginary audience. Of course, that imaginary audience was in fact hundreds of students and teachers looking on at me from the TV screens in their classrooms. I read The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear which was quite entertaining for the kids I think; maybe if a reading coincides with April Fool’s Day next year I’ll introduce them to William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. 

A very short, quick update - not long at all

Here’s the deal: I’ve had a blog post half-finished for over two weeks now. In fact, this is the third week I think. So if I go into detail about every little thing, this is going to be one very, very long post. Instead, allow me to give you the short version:

·         I had my first weekend outing after finally recovering from my cold (I honestly think my co-workers were starting to believe that I’m just the kind of person who blows his nose 50 times a day, regardless of the season or location). We went on a hike to Taejongdae which was just spectacular.

·         We headed to Gwangalli beach to enjoy some drinks near the water. The waves here are unbelievably pathetic compared to back home, I seriously don’t even know how there are (apparently) Korean surfers. But it was lovely all the same and it was actually nice to see a different kind of ocean to what I’m used to! Of course, despite being some of the best weather since I arrived, it was still way too cold to even consider dipping my feet in the water. I think I’ll wait until summer...

Gwangalli Beach

·         We went to a foreigners bar for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. There was green beer just like there is back home (which apparently doesn’t happen in Ireland according to some Irish friends) and the bar was full of waygooks. It was awesome but I was quite thankful the subway stops running at 12 so I had an excuse to leave early! I then made myself some coffee and watched the Sharks game and for once I wasn’t disappointed I stayed up (I think this was when we played the Cheetahs)!

·         The school lunches are very... interesting. I’ve eaten squid (which actually isn’t all that bad – a bit chewy and flavourless though), seaweed, tofu (which I hate), cold fish (not raw... just cold) and of course kimchi and rice with every... single... meal. I’m slowly getting used to it all though and lately I’ve been cleaning my plate – what a shocker!

·         My principal has decided that he absolutely loves me now. I got lost on my way to school the one day (yes, even after all this time I can’t understand the announcements on the bus!) and ended up running late. I ran into the school entrance at 08:35 completely out of breath and was then terrified to see the principal walking towards me. So as confidently as I could, I bowed low and greeted him with “Annyeong hashimnikka, gyojang-seonsaengnim” which is the most respectful form of “hello” in Korean followed by his title of “principal” (i.e. “Good morning, principal”). He just laughed and gave me a pat on the back as I ran off to class. Later, at the lunch table, I was looking back and forth between teachers and principal as they had a discussion about me which I, of course, could not understand. Later, my co-teacher told me that I had made the principal very, very happy as he had never had someone greet him by his title before and he liked it very much. So now he apparently wants to buy some special Korean alcohol for me and do some shots... could be an interesting experience!

·         The next weekend we headed to Seomyeon to celebrate Simon’s birthday – he’s another South African. The pub was fun but all the action really happened at the noraebang. Noraebangs can be found around every corner in Korea as they’re hugely popular places to visit during a night out. Basically it’s just karaoke but you hire out individual rooms for you and your friends so other people don’t have to be tormented by your terrible singing. I must say, I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it but it was amazing after the few drinks we’d enjoyed at the pub! Everyone sang and everyone sang really badly - we greatly enjoyed this communal experience.

It was getting out of control by the end...

·         On Saturday I was joined by my new friend Lindsey and we headed to Busan Tower where I was determined to take a replica photo of the one I posted before coming to Korea (and that serves as the background to this blog). I succeeded... almost. Since that picture was taken, a massive Lotte Mall has been built in front of the beautiful orange bridge that you can see in the original. Ah, well. Close enough – I’m here and now I have proof of it!

Let's see how my replica holds up against the blog background...

·         Afterwards we went to Gwangalli Beach to a foreigners’ market where I bought banana bread and chicken curry to last me a week! The most interesting part of the day, however, were the wonderful Korean people we met. There are many bad stories online about Koreans’ hostility towards foreigners but (at least in my area) I have never experienced this. Some of them will refuse to sit near me on the subway or bus or whatever but hey, more space for me! Other than that, everyone has been so, so, so friendly and helpful – more than people in South Africa even and I consider us to be pretty nice people in general! Firstly, we were helped with directions by a couple of university students. They didn’t just tell us where to go but actually took us all the way there, which was about a 20-25 minute walk! Along the way they spoke to us in English and told us about themselves. They were lovely. Later on in the day we bumped into them again and offered to buy them a beer to thank them for their help. So we sat and enjoyed a drink with them which was great. Then in the evening, Lindsey and I decided to check out this foreigners meeting in the area. Turned out it was a little more formal than we’d thought – we had to pay a fee to get in and then we were given name tags and assigned seating. Luckily for me, I ended up near this really lovely girl who had lived in South Africa for a year. She’s Korean but lived in China for many years and also spent some time in the USA too. Not only could she speak Korean, Chinese, English and Spanish but she’s also a talented artist and quite possibly the single nicest human being I have ever met. Like unbelievably nice. I’m pretty sure she’s an angel.

That chicken curry with some instant rice, beer, bread and sweets

·         Last weekend we hiked up Jangsan mountain which was incredibly tough (people say we took the easy route; I call bullshit) but ultimately very rewarding. The view from the top was spectacular, even better than the view from Busan Tower if I’m honest. Everyone agreed that it would be awesome to see it at night so a potentially dangerous night hike could happen at some stage – I’d better get a bright lumo outfit before that happens!

Amazing view from the top of Jangsan Mountain (which, I might
add, is in my area of Busan; 10 minutes away minus the climb)

·         My teacher’s dinners took place last week too. All I’ll say is that Koreans really know how to drink... and eat! Alcohol is apparently never consumed without food (short anecdote: when I was buying a pack of beers from the supermarket my co-teacher disbelievingly asked me: “But how will you drink it without peanuts!?!”) but the saying of “eating is cheating” clearly doesn’t apply here. In fact, there are some special foods Koreans eat during a night out to actually help them drink even more alcohol. So, in short, the teacher’s dinners (one official and one unofficial one with just the subject teachers) were very new experiences for me. They have these insane drinking customs:

o   Rule #1: you never, ever pour your own drink. Never never never. Soju and beer is placed in the middle of the table and it’s your job to take care of the people around you. I got gently scolded once or twice for not keeping my co-workers’ glasses full.

o   Rule #2: it’s incredibly rude, disrespectful even, to refuse alcohol from an elder. Which is basically a short way of saying that at every teacher’s dinner, I have no choice but to get monumentally wasted.

o   Rule #3: always hold your glass (or the bottle if you’re pouring) with two hands. This is a general rule in Korea that also applies to handshakes and passing objects to an older person or person of higher authority.

o   Rule #4: look away when taking a shot. This is the craziest one for me. You have to turn your entire body away from the elders when taking a shot so that they cannot see you downing it. The look my co-teacher gave me when I forgot to do it the first time is a look I won’t forget, which is why I haven’t forgotten since!

·         In short, I find drinking to be a rather stressful experience here but it’s pretty great once you get used to it. It’s customary for the oldest or person of highest authority to pay for meals and drinks so I got all of this completely free of charge. My co-workers couldn’t believe it when I told them that in South Africa we pay for our own drinks and meals and pour our own drinks! They were shocked.

The first stop on the teacher's dinner part 2 was this wonderful
Chinese restaurant - the food was great!

That’s it for now. Bullet point format was necessary for this behemoth. More news on the way soon enough...

Week 1

After what has been a full week of teaching, I think I can safely say that I’m going to be in for a very interesting year!

I teach grades 5 and 6 at Jaesong Elementary School and everything has been really great so far. My co-teachers are awesome: my primary caretaker and co-teacher has been wonderful in helping me get settled in Busan and at the school. She’s set me up with Wi-Fi, a bank account, alien registration card, bought me lunch, arranged to have my broken windows fixed (which no doubt contributed to my ongoing cold that’s had me in lockdown since arriving here), labelled my washing machine and is in the process of dealing with the administration at my building to uncover the mystery as to why my floor was covered in water when I finally got round to doing the dishes! All these things would have frustrated me endlessly were it not for her help.

The view from my desk at Jaesong Elementary School

My other co-teacher lives a few blocks away from me so she’s helped me in other ways. She’s visited my studio plenty of times just to come and say hi and I got to introduce her to the wonders of rooibos tea (which the previous native teacher – also South African – kindly left me). Likewise, she’s invited me to her place to drink honey and lemon juice when my cold was at its worst and also translate for me at the pharmacy so as to avoid angry old ladies throwing medicine at me! Perhaps the best thing she’s done for me though was help me through the process of buying bedding. It may sound simple enough but quality bedding is weirdly hard to find in South Korea. I was under the impression that living in Busan, the country’s second largest city and therefore (I assumed) having a fairly large Western influence, would make finding these products far easier than it has been. Many Koreans choose to sleep on mattresses on the floor or with very low beds, perhaps to be closer to the ‘ondol’ (underfloor heating!). Fitted sheets are hard to come by and they’re super expensive when you do find them. But after a solid week of sleeping on a naked mattress with a thin, uncovered duvet, I’d had enough and decided I was willing to fork out just about any amount of cash for the sake of comfort! My co-teacher took me to e-Mart which had more variety than the local department store near my studio. Thankfully she was with me and could help me find the perfect set. I paid through my nose for it (the duvet was on special, brought down from R1100 to R650 or so, and the sheet alone cost me close to R400) but I didn’t care. I slept better that night than any other night I’ve been here.

My much improved bedding

As for the actual teaching, it’s been pretty great so far! Jaesong appears to be a really lovely school with friendly co-workers (although there is a Korean equivalent of Mr Beukes – not as demented but just as eccentric) and excellent facilities. On Wednesdays all the teachers get together to exercise through a variety of sports. Of course, I had absolutely no idea what was going on and performed all the stretches a good few seconds after everyone else, just so they could see how terrible I was at doing them. Then we played dodgeball which I actually wasn’t too bad at – one of the older ladies was the most terrifying dodgeball player I have ever encountered... in fact, she reminded me a bit of the Russian woman in the movie, Dodgeball. She flung the ball with such force that everyone would end up huddled in one corner, all trying to hide behind each other. She was a lot braver than me, as I found myself going relatively easy on my co-workers so as to avoid breaking someone’s (most likely the principal’s) nose in my first week! We then did team jump-rope skipping which was quite tiring – I found myself quite drained from the whole experience! I therefore decided to skip volleyball, which I don’t really know how to play anyway.

Jaesong main entrance

The kids at the school are wonderful but I can already tell it’s going to be a long year! They’re not any different to South African kids of that age – too old to be treated like babies, too young to be treated like adults. You have to think on your feet a lot in order to gain their trust and admiration. Fortunately, just by virtue of being a foreigner, I’m pretty interesting (and also a little scary) to them. I got asked all the usual invasive questions that are commonplace in Korea – “how old are you?”, “do you have a girlfriend?”, who was your first love?”, “are you married?” (they asked a lot about my dating history... fortunately there isn’t much to tell!) but what I wasn’t really prepared for were the comments of “you’re handsome”. This isn’t a big deal in Korea and it’s quite difficult to get used to, mainly because it’s often boys saying it! It’s a compliment but it doesn’t have the same connotations as it does in the Western world. The same goes for “you have a small/round face”, which is one of the strangest compliments you hear... fortunately, I apparently don’t possess this trait because no one has commented on it yet. Oh, and one girl also called me ugly so I guess that kind of cancels out all the ‘handsome’ comments!

Unrelated: this was one of my first dinners in Busan - the
only Korean meal I knew - bibimbap!

Oh man, but my real crowning achievement came just a couple of days ago. As I steadily recovered from my cold, which is still persisting through an occasional cough and bloody nose, I found myself wanting to leave the confines of my small studio to explore Busan. Of course, the last time I tried to do that I got horribly lost so I tried to have a goal in mind this time. That goal was McDonalds. Since I’ve been in Korea, I have not seen a single Western restaurant – not one! They’re like these mythical places that people talk about and that you know exist but just never see. So I went onto Google Maps and checked to see how close the nearest McDonalds was... 15 minutes by bus. My Korean was really put to the test as all the street names were written in Hangul but I was determined. I plugged into my MP3 player and set off on a journey of Mordor-esque proportions. For the first time I felt like I really got to appreciate Korea, as the sounds of Mogwai soundtracked the stunning visuals around me. It’s true what people say – everywhere in Korea pretty much looks the same and I’ll admit that it’s not the most scenic country. But coming from South Africa where natural beauty abounds, I was looking for something different. Massive skyscrapers envelop you in a concrete jungle, all bundled together by the impressive mountains that keep it all locked in place. There’s a Paris Baguette or Starbucks around every corner (seriously, it’s ridiculous how many of them there are) and people selling fresh fruit and vegetables out on the streets. It’s not what I’d call pretty but it is what I’d call impressive.

It's true, there is actually McDonalds here!

After what seemed like ages, I finally saw that famous yellow ‘M’. I had made it! I excitedly ordered myself a combo meal of sorts (I just pointed to the picture) and made my way back home. I climbing into bed, ready to begin my feast, and took the first bite... and was disappointed to realise that McDonalds is just as shitty everywhere in the world. It was boring. It was greasy. It was outstanding! I haven’t had a burger since I got here and I was just happy to taste something from back home, even if that something was McDonalds. Fortunately it’s far away enough that I won’t be tempted to order it every night!

...instead I ordered this (I took this picture to tell the lady
what I wanted)...

...and then felt bad that I wasn't eating enough Korean stuff
so I got this weird tea to go along with it. It's super whack,
it's basically cold, milky tea with ice and the 'pearls' are these
black, flavourless jellies that sit at the bottom. They were
pretty awful but it was an experience worth having! 

So that’s my first week. It’s been eventful to say the least. I’m going to sort out my ARC card this week which means I’ll finally be able to get a cellphone contract, which means getting a nice new phone and camera! I’ve held off on taking pictures of my studio, mostly because I want to do it justice. So once I have that you can expect to see many more pictures from Busan!

Until next time.

Lastly, my first attempt at ironing did NOT go well!

Orientation and first impressions

Seeing as I don’t actually have much time for blogging, I’m going to speed through this!

My first 10 days in Korea have been absolute madness, in the best way possible. After a long, long flight in which I slept for probably about 3 hours at most and which lasted about 31 hours in total (including the 3 hour bus journey to Dajeon), I had finally arrived. However, at that point I hardly cared anymore to be honest, I just wanted to go to bed. I gave my roommate Trent a cold hello and went straight to sleep.

We had an early day the next morning and I apologised for my horrible introduction the night before. Trent is from near Los Angeles and he turned out to be a really great roommate, so I got lucky. Anyway, neither of us had brought towels and we very soon realised that they were not going to be provided for us. On top of that, the hot water wasn’t working so my first shower in Korea was a cold one... a very cold one! Therefore we decided it would probably be a good idea to go out and get some towels before the day began properly.

After having no luck at the 7 Eleven, we carried on down the street to a shop that kind of resembled a Korean version of SPAR. There we found what appeared to be decent enough towels and we finally got to put our extremely basic Korean to the test! I felt so proud after greeting and thanking the lady – such a basic action, but so exciting in a foreign land! Turns out the towels were little more than shitty dishcloths but hey, they do the trick.

We also had the opening ceremony and welcoming dinner, both of which were outstanding. The chopsticks here are really hard to use as they’re metal and difficult to control but I was getting used to them after a few meals. Fortunately knives and forks were also provided so if there were any difficulties we could always switch over. The opening ceremony had traditional Korean dance and music and also a really excellent first lecture from Walter Foreman, who has been in Korea since 1998 if I remember correctly. All in all, a nice way to start.

Traditional dance

The medical check up was less fun. It was short but it was still a massive pain in the ass. Having been unable to take any medication up until that point had been bad enough but the check up itself is really comprehensive. They weighed and measured us, tested our eyesight, hearing, blood and urine and took an X-ray for good measure. I was happy when it was over.

That night we took to the streets to celebrate. Drinking in public is legal in Korea so instead of hitting a busy pub or club we drank soju and beer outside the 7 Eleven. Of course, the EPIK Program is careful not to let anyone get too carried away so they enforced their midnight curfew strictly. It was good to just feel a bit free for once, though, and enjoy the night.

The morning view from my dorm window

Honestly, after that the days kind of start to blur into one so I’m not entirely sure in which order the next few things happened. On another night I went walking around Dajeon with two other South Africans. We walked much further than we’d walked before and it was great to experience more of Korea. We found the local 다이소 (Daiso) which I had heard is a great place to buy cheap stuff for your home in Korea. I got a R10 pair of gloves for my frozen hands.

On Monday we had a field trip to Hanok Village in Jeonju which was pretty sweet. It’s a traditional Korean village and one of the most popular tourist attractions here. We got to walk around and see the sights before being treated to a lunch of bibimbap, which is one of Korea’s most popular dishes. It’s basically just a whole lot of stuff chucked into a large bowl... sometimes I just chose not to look at what was between my chopsticks. With that said, it was a pretty good meal and definitely something I’d like to try again! We then made coasters using some kind of traditional Korean paper, I’m not too sure how to describe it. Anyway, it was basically just making cool coasters to remember our time there. We then saw a b-boy (breakdancing) performance from some professionals, which a lot of people enjoyed but which wasn’t really my kind of thing. While I appreciated their skill and technique, it just wasn’t really my kind of entertainment. No harm done though and interesting nevertheless.

Making our coasters in Hanok Village

Statue outside the chapel in Hanok Village

The next few days were kind of similar – we had Korean classes in the evenings (from 19h00 to 20h20) after a full day of lectures and we were also trying to plan our lessons for our team lesson demos on the final day. The Korean lessons were amazing though – I was placed in the intermediate class thanks to a fair amount of practice before getting to Korea and my teacher was Nicole, who was also our class leader. Just as an aside, I must say that the care and attention we got from our class leaders was outstanding. Nicole and Minsam (spelling?) were so lovely to us the whole time and really made adjusting to the new environment that much easier. Anyway, the Korean classes were just lots of fun – we learnt a lot in the classes and we basically just played a lot of really fun games! When we learnt numbers we played a game in which each person is only allowed to say 1,2 or 3 numbers and you just count down the line. The person who has to say number 31 had a predetermined punishment inflicted upon them. Of course, my mates sold me out a couple of times and I had to do a couple of these – the first, a relatively tame 10 push-ups but the second a 10-second long sexy dance. My twerking skills were admired by all but a few people recognised me in the days to come as ‘that twerking guy’ which was pretty embarrassing.

My favourite: a dining hall selfie with Minsam and Nicole

The last real order of business was the lesson demo. I was paired up with Krystle, who is from Minnesota. Needless to say, we had very different opinions about the weather! Most people were 3 in a group but we were just two. We spent a couple of days thoroughly preparing our lesson but once we realised that we had the same zany sense of humour it went all downhill from there. We stayed up late laughing about the stupidest stuff but our synergy shone through on the day, saving what (I thought was a) pretty shitty lesson. The class fortunately seemed to disagree – a win’s a win, so I’ll take it.

That night, after the excellent closing ceremony and dinner, Kayla, myself and a bunch of friends went to downtown Dajeon and what a difference it made! Up until that point, Dajeon had appeared to be a relatively unexciting city considering it’s the 5^th largest in the country. However, we soon realised that that was only because we hadn’t gone far enough. We caught a taxi and hit the town. Neon lights were flashing all around... there are just signs everywhere. Each building seems to have at least five floors all with different stores in them. It was all pretty overwhelming but for the first time I felt like I was really in Korea. Unfortunately I paid the price for my revelry and the cold that had been brewing for a few days finally hit in full force. I hardly slept that night and had a horrible few hours after that.

Downtown Dajeon

Of course, arriving in Busan was really exciting and I was glad to meet my co-teacher and discover that she’s a really lovely lady! The attitude of your co-teacher determines how your year in South Korea is going to pan out, so I was incredibly happy that she was so nice. Her English name is Jeanie and she spent the afternoon introducing me to the principal (who laughed at my poor Korean), hooking me up with WiFi and teaching me how to use the washing machine. She also bought me late lunch/early supper at a great Western-style restaurant – what a treat! I will teach my first lesson with her on Tuesday, as Monday is just a day to get settled in and perhaps discuss what we want to achieve for the rest of the year. Apparently we have some troublesome kids in our class so it’s going to be an interesting time!

Since then I’ve been hardly able to move, my cold getting the better of me. Fortunately I was a little more active today but still coughing badly and sneezing a lot. I got a fair amount of shopping done today, only to get lost in Busan. I still don’t have a phone so I couldn’t contact Jeanie and I don’t even know what to call my apartment building. Eventually, after being ignored by a whole lot of Koreans who were too scared to speak English, some kind older ladies helped me find my way. Fortunately I remembered that (as far as I could tell) there was only one Daiso in the area so if I asked for that then I should be able to find my way back. Luckily I did because I ended up walking past my building before even getting there. Bless those ladies, I thought I was going to be sleeping on the street tonight!

Even though I've been unable to find a duvet/pillow cover
yet, I'm much happier in the bed than on the street!

All in all, I can say that my first day and a bit in Busan has been way more challenging than anything we experienced during orientation – there, everyone could speak good English and there were always people around to help you. Now there is no one to direct me, feed me or translate for me. The lady at the pharmacy today basically threw a box of medication at me out of frustration of me being unable to understand what she was saying (she didn’t speak English). So now I have a whole lot of medication but I don’t know how to take it or how often, so I’ve got to stick with what I’ve got. I’m not unhappy with the experience but I think it’s indicative of how potentially difficult the first few months are going to be here. It’s the kind of challenge I was looking for though and I get to do it in this massive, exciting city that is light years away from anything I’ve ever seen or experienced before. If I thought downtown Dajeon was huge, Busan just blows it out of the water!

More to come in the following weeks...

After I got lost I took a whole bunch of photos of my building
and the surrounding area in case it happens again!

I'm on the 22nd floor - it can be a bit unnerving to look down!

Paris Baguette and Starbucks are close by

Sign next to the lift that takes me up

  

Introduction

Hi everyone!

Just as an introductory note, I want to say that I have absolutely no desire to plague the internet with yet another blog on South Korea (seriously, there are millions). Therefore, this will serve more as a convenient method of keeping family and close friends up to date on my experiences.

With that said, anyone is free to read it if they wish and I’m sure I will have plenty of crazy and terrifying experiences to share! If you want to follow me, you have three options: 1) like the Facebook page I created for the blog and I will share every time I have a new post up, 2) follow the blog via email and receive an email notification each time I post, or 3) do neither and just check the blog address when you feel like it.

Again, there is no pressure to follow so please only do so if you would like to hear me go on and on and on about myself hundreds of times over! My next post will probably be coming from my new home in Busan, once I’ve settled in and stopped freaking out!

Thanks for reading – I’m looking forward to heading off on my adventure.

P.S. For those who were wondering, my terrible headlining/titling skills have come to the fore once again, hence why I have named my blog after a Radiohead song.