Care Got Seoul

So I have been in Korea 2 months now, almost to the date and finally getting my act together and starting to blog! I feel like I have been in a whirlwind of excitement the past two months and things are finally starting to settle and feel like home (wow, this time two months ago when my knees were shaking on the plane, I never thought I would say that!)

Where to start...

My last weeks in Chicago were great! I have the best friends ever, who threw many parties and a get togethers before I left. It was the greatest send off ever! The day at the airport was one of the hardest days I have had in my life so far. I was so excited, but also nervous and scared because I had know clue what to expect and only knew one Korean word, Hello(An yang ha seyo).

Lucky for me there were 4 other foreign teachers that I would be teaching with flying over on the same day! We all were flying from different areas of the country and had a connecting flight to Seoul in Tokyo. After a surprisingly, quick 12 hr flight to Tokyo (which by the way I didn't do much on the plane, but stare into space wondering what was to lie ahead and downed a few glasses of wine), I arrived in Tokyo. We had to go through customs and while I was waiting in the security line I recognized one of my co-teachers to be (thanks to facebook), Dustin. He was the first of the teachers I met. We trekked around the Tokyo airport for awhile and eventually ran into our other co-teachers, Jeff, Kali and Stephanie. It felt like a "real world" episode.

Onward to Seoul:

After a 2 hr flight we finally reached our destination, Seoul! We were all so excited, probably to be done with our long flight and to finally meet the destiny we long awaited, a man named Mr. Han (who greeted us with a "GDA School" sign, haha). Little did we know that Mr. Han would soon becomer our new best friend.
We took an hr bus ride from the Incheon airport into Seoul. It was about 10pm at night and rainy so we could not see much on the bus ride. We finally arrived at our final stopping point for the night, a guesthouse (thank god it was not the school). We were placed in a guesthouse for a week until our apartments were ready. The guesthouses were amazing. and very close to all the bars in Hongdae(must have known we were heavy drinkers).

That night Dustin, Jeff and myself decided to check out the town. (Hell, Mr. Han told us the only thing on the agenda for the next day was the hospital). First place we went....KFC..haha..I dont think I ever ate KFC in the states. Somehow at that point it was so comforting and delicious, I didn't care. Our next stop for the night was a bar in Hongdae called "Beer Space". They served Hite pitchers ..and so that is what we drank. No one was really in the bar, but it was quite relieving to be in a bar after a 14 hr flight. After "Beer Space" we weren't ready to head in, so we hit up a local "Family Mart"convenience store for some soju drinking in the streets. This is the first time I had soju and it was very memorable as we were standing next to a subway station at 3am.

Hello 1st Korean Sunrise:

Our first day at school did not only consist of a hospital visit for random tests, but an actual orientation that Mr. Han forgot to tell us about(had I known this, I would have not been out til 3am). We had orientation with this old teacher man who looked like Mr. Rogers and wore Frankenstein shoes. He was an American who had been living and teaching in Korea for over 10 years! (wtf, I thought no one stayed here longer than a yr). He had finally decided to retire and return back to the States after he trained us. He told us some funny, some good, and some really weird stories and that is what most of our training consisted of. I will say we were very lucky bc we had a week of orientation, where most new, arriving foreign teachers have absolutely no training.

First Friday in Korea:

We finally made it through our first week in Korea and were ready to do some serious drinking. The old teachers (teachers' whose contracts were up) took us to dinner at a Galbi restaraunt up the street from our school. It was delicious! ( We had galbi earlier in the week in Hongdae.. it was also delicious). Galbi is raw strips of pork that you cook at your table on a grill with veggies and then eat it in lettuce with rice and hot sauce. After dinner we headed out to Hongdae (an area near Hongdik University with tons of bars/clubs). We went to a chill underground bar, where my friend Jeff met me. At that point I left my teachers to meet up with some of Jeff's friends at a nearby restaurant. He was hanging with all Koreans so I was excited to meet them. While they finished dinner, I drank many shots of soju and tried to converse with Minsoo and his to friends. After dinner we met up with our teachers at Gogo's and had a big dance party. I couldn't believe the music they were playing.. I was hearing all my favorite music.. passion pit, phoenix, la roux.. how the hell were they listening to this here?!
After Gogo's, Jeff wanted to meet up with some other people in this god forsaken place called "Itaewon". I had never been there, but I had heard stories and knew this is where the US Army Base was.. ick. I had no interest in going, but I told Jeff I would go.. it couldn't be so bad,right?

We got to Itaewon at god knows what hour and went to this western looking bar. We met up with Jeff's friends, Lewis, Gabe and Kerri(it was her first night in Korea).

We went to a little lounge after the western bar. Minsoo and his friends met us at this lounge and we danced our faces off, again to some of the greatest music I have ever heard. We were dancing so much, I didn't realize anything that was going on around me. Whe

Save Now

n I finally stopped to take a drink, I realized I should head to the bathroom, Minsoo's Korean girl friend came with me. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when we got to the bathroom she grabbed my chest and said "oh big", I am same size". hahaha.. oh god I love korea. After kinda getting slightly r'ed in the bathroom, I walked out to look for Jeff. I asked his friends and they said he had left.. I immeadiatley freaked out.. it was my first night in Korea and I was in this place called "Itaewon" away from the comfort of my co-teachers. I frantically looked in my purse for a phone and money. I looked scrambled through the purse to find nothing.. for some reason I didnt bring my ID, credit card or debit card with me.. I was going to be stranded..aah!
My first reaction was to ask Jeff's friends (who I barely knew) for money. So I asked Kerri for money..then Minsoo stepped in and said he would take me back to the place I called home. He took me in a cab, with his Korean boob grabbing girl friend and they dropped me off at the guest house, safe and sound! Thank you Minsoo!!