Adjusting to Korean....everything

Hey Everyone,

Wow, where to start?!? I have had a packed five days.

I left you all shortly before I left for Seoul on Friday. I ended up sleeping for only about an hour…ugh. Well, it was at least better than nothing, which I often do before traveling!

 I touched briefly on my luggage in my last blog. I was very concerned about getting all of my luggage over to Korea. I was checking two very heavy bags, which I thought I would end up with $110 worth of overages, and attempting to carry on a backpack, carry on suitcase and stuff pillow. I thought I might also get a $50 charge for the carry on and be forced to check. Got to the airport and weighed my stuff. My checked baggage was 49.8 and 49.6 pound each!! Checked allowance was 50 lbs, so I just made it in!! I eventually said goodbye to my mom and brother (both brought me to the airport and hung out for a bit) which was very hard. There were definitely tears. But, after that goodbye, I had said my last and I think the emotional lead up to actually saying goodbye is actually worse than being away. With the goodbyes, I was off.

My shit was freaking heavy. My two carry on pieces were 30-40 pounds each. So, in total I had about 160 pounds or so of luggage. I was wearing a purple sweater, had a purple carryon and purple pillowcase, had a purple water bottle and my purple-ness attracted some stares (I’m used to it) and a few comments from travelers and airport staff alike. Such as, “You don’t like purple do you?” or “wow I have never seen so much purple!!!” I took it in stride; I really like purple and I am used to it. A guy later that was a fellow teacher asked if there had been a sale on purple luggage!!! LMAO!!!

I eventually boarded and made it on with all of my stuff!!! I can honestly say, of everyone I saw on the plane, I absolutely, without a doubt, had more stuff than anyone. My extra stuffed pillow full of shit went in my seat with me and my carryon suitcase had to be separated from me to another area of the plane, but it was fine. Korean Air seemed very nice and I was actually (call me crazy) looking forward to the flight! Even though it was scheduled to be 12 hours, I was finally excited. The stress and anticipation of just actually leaving and saying goodbye had melted away. We ended up leaving almost an hour late, but I figured we would make up the time in the air.

The plane ride was horrible. Painful in many ways and too damn long. The flight ended up having horrible turbulence for a very large chunk of the flight, which meant us being buckled in for the majority of the time. Thankfully, I was drugged up on Dramamine or who knows what would have happened! I recently had a sinus infection, which I am assuming wasn’t actually gone, because the pressure in the cabin and the dry air made for an excruciating trip for my sinuses. Horrible pain and pressure and I had really nothing on me to help with it. I spent a lot of the flight with my hands pressed on my sinuses probably looking like a crazy woman. But, that’s ok. I sat next to a girl also going to teach English in Korea. It was fun to talk to her about our fears, excitement and other things. The food on the plane was pretty good. I had very high expectations from what I had read. I requested vegetarian meals and am glad I did, I got American food and the other options were Korean. So, a few ‘last suppers’ so to speak. I forgot to pack snacks and there were definitely times throughout the plane where I was starving. Probably due to the fact I only slept for a two hour chunk on the flight, which ended up being over 13 hours with turbulence. I think nerves just prevented me from settling down. I ended up watching four movies! I watched Avatar (what’s the big deal with that movie?!?), Easy A, Morning Glory (horrible) and It’s a funny story. We eventually landed at 7 pm Korean time on Saturday. I left at 1 pm PST on Friday. 17 hours is a huuuuge time change swing and I would realize in the coming days that not sleeping the night before + only sleeping 2 hours on the plane would make for a horrible transition sleep-wise.

The plan was to meet my recruiter and other teachers all flying in that day from around the globe in the airport. I ended up meeting a guy at baggage claim that had been on my flight and was a part of my group. So, we set off with my ridiculous amount of luggage (don’t worry, I got a luggage cart and didn’t attempt to carry it) to find everyone. It ended up taking us a long time and by the time we got there I was huffing’ and a-puffin’ and sweating ridiculously due to pushing 160 pounds around while wearing a fleece, coat and sweater. I am sure you can get the visual. Something akin to the giant purple people eater.

We met our group (ended up being around 6 Americans) and I instantly recognized someone. I had to do a few double takes and then realized…that I went to graduate school with him!! What a random, small ass world?!?! I didn’t know his name and didn’t know him, but there were only 200 of us at the school and 100 who lived on campus (including he and I). I approached him and asked if he had gone to SIT, and he had! So weird. The world is such a small place!

We left the airport into freezing ass Seoul (complete with snow on the ground) but I had unfortunately stripped my layers and decided to not reapply them and was drenched in sweat. So, I was freezing my ass off outside! I quickly re-dressed and the guys helped me (and made fun of me) with all of my purple luggage. It was, again, quite the hit and conversation starter.

I met a couple on the bus to the hotel from North Carolina that I hit it off with right away. The guy had been teaching in Seoul for two years (John) and his girlfriend (Molly, same age as me) was coming over to teach for the first time from North Carolina. We all got to the guest house as it was called and soon realized it was called a guest house because there were to be 3 people per room. Not ideal, but I can deal. I shared with Molly and another girl, also the same age as us from the states and also here with her boyfriend, named Danielle. The first night, even though we were so exhausted and jet lagged it was hard to see straight, was really fun. As a group we went out to dinner (about 10 of us and our recruiter). They all had Korean BBQ (meat) and I had bimpbop (sp?) which is essentially a bowl of rice and veggies with a raw egg atop. It was quite tasty. Then soju was brought out (a strong hard alcohol which I have heard is very dangerous, similar to vodka, clear and tasteless). I took a shot, went down smooth. I also tried kimchee. How do I describe the cataclysmic reaction I had to kimchee? I am very picky, VERY, to start with. I don’t like weird flavors and have quite the sensitive pallet. But honestly, it was pickled cabbage that was a bit spicy, how bad could it be? Bad. Horrendous. Vomit in your mouth, bad. Since I had just met these people just an hour before I decided to not unleash my craziness upon them and forced myself to swallow. I was gagging. Yes, I am also a baby, but I have a horrible gag reflex. I chocked it down and decided that Kimchee + Kimberly were not going to = BFF. But, I tried. We all went back to the guest house and the two girls and I got to know each other and stayed up quite late chatting. It was a lot of fun.

The next day we had breakfast at the same restaurant and I had..bimpbop, again. Being a vegetarian iin Korea is not super easy. At least  I like Bimpbop! Later, as a group we all ventured into Seoul (airport is outside in a city called Incheon). Thankfully John had lived in Seoul for the past two years so was our personal built-in tour guide. Thank God for John!! The subway system in Seoul is not only massive, but completely daunting and confusing. He got our tickets settled and figured out our journey. I have to say, I had very low hopes for Seoul. I heard it was a literal shit-hole, full of smog and should be avoided at all costs. My first step up to Seoul out from the subway, I was pleasantly surprised. It seemed very clean, modern and cool. We stopped for lunch first (subway ride was about an hour or so) and settled on a Korean restaurant (although we could have chosen Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC or Pizza Hut). I had a delicious buckwheat noodle dish in a vegetable broth. Yummmy! Everyone else had this breaded pork cutlets, which for meat, looked good as well. We then headed to the Royal Palace that was a sprawling, massive compound. It was pretty amazing. Cool architecture and vibrant colors. This is my first time in Asia and it is so unbelievably different from anywhere I have been. I had a bit of sensory overload that first day in Seoul. Trying to take in all the sounds, sights and smells. I kept trying to ‘remember’ things to write here and kept having to force myself to ‘stay’ present in Seoul and just take things as they came. After spending quite a lot of time exploring the grounds of the palace, we headed to a very large market (I can’t remember the name). Ooooh, how I love markets in other countries! They are so exciting, fast and energized. I feel they are the best way to get to know a culture, immediately. Get off the tourist track and immerse yourself with the authentic smells, people, colors and sights of the country and culture. Loved it. Tons of clothes (very tiny) and everything else you could imagine. Including deep fried bananas and hotdogs on a stick covered and French fries, fried. We headed to the higher end shopping district and there were young girls (teens) dressed in animal costumes holding FREE HUGS signs. I was taking pictures and when they spotted me freaked out and got over the top excited and posed. Then I lost the group….who had gone down into the Subway. I panicked for just a second before I saw Molly who realized I was missing and came to retrieve me! We lost a few members of the group in the subway a few more times. The subway is insanity and packed. Busiest one I have EVER seen. It makes Victoria Station in London seem like a stroll in the park. 

We headed back to Incheon to go to the airport (only had half a day in Seoul) to retrieve more teachers and set off for our week long training in our province, Chungnam, which is south of Seoul. We ended up hanging out at the airport for hours. Time went by quickly though and got to know Molly and John a lot better. They are my closest friends here and are awesome. We picked up the stragglers and headed off in a bus to Chungnam.

The ride was long (about 2 hours) and I was so exhausted I hurt, everywhere. I had only gotten about 5 hours sleep the night before, bringing my total to 8 hours in almost 3 days.  We got a goodie bag aboard the bus with books, dictionaries and info on our cities. It was fun! We eventually arrived to this government center (or underground compound, as my recruiter called it and would later realize why) that had housing, dining facilities and classrooms, all in one. It was late and I headed straight to bed. The rooms were doubles with roommates assigned, but mine hadn’t signed up yet. It took me a few trips to get my luggage up 5 flights (thankfully there are elevators). I originally thought I could handle all my luggage on my own, all at once. WRONG!! But, hey, it’s my stuff and I needed it!!

We started orientation bright and early the next day and had my first taste of Korean style cafeteria food….it was, well, bad. But, more on the food later. There are about 50 of us here, about half South African and half American with a small handful of Canadians and Brits. The orientation hours are from 7:00 (breakfast) until 9:00 pm. Long, long, day. That combined with the jet lag, I have become (as have most people) a walking zombie. 17 hour time change is ridiculously hard to adjust to. I have already learned so much stuff about teaching, the schools and life in Korea.  I can’t imagine coming here to teach with no training (lots of private schools are set up with no training for the teachers). So it is good, but demanding and a bit stressful.

We are all housed in a government complex with food and the classrooms are all here as I stated earlier. Why did my recruiter call it an underground complex? Well, turns out, we aren’t allowed to leave, drink and have to be in bed by 11 pm. Plus, we are in the middle of the mountains. Apparently, there were problems in the past with the teachers going out, getting wasted and not showing up the next day for training. Other than the restrictions, it has been a ton of fun, actually. It is like college, except with less alcohol.

The food. Oh, the food. Thankfully, most others are also struggling with it. It is bad. Really, really bad. Primarily (I think) because it is cafeteria food. Most items have meat, so there is very little for me to eat. There is a small bowl of rice at every meal (about 1 ½ cups), sometimes with a few beans thrown in for good measure, raw cabbage, kimchee, a vegetable that tastes like kimchee and meat. So, what do I eat? Primarily, raw cabbage and rice. There have been a few items here and there that I can eat. They make pasta out of squid and fish. All the veggies (which I would eat) taste like kimchee.  There is a little store here, so I have been supplementing my food with cookies and Pringles and granola bars brought from home, all washed down with copious amounts of diet coke to keep me functioning. I know, the diet of champions. But, as soon as a I leave here, it will be better. Let’s hope…Until then, I will be hungry. Oh, and chopsticks. FUCKING CHOPSTICKS! Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. I have been typical white girl in Chinese food restaurants and used silverware my entire life. I had, maybe, prior to coming to Korea, taken/attempted 5 bites of food with them IN ALL MY LIFE. I am going to need, like, a cast from carpal tunnel from these shitters.  I have gotten significantly better and was actually telling someone today how I can actually eat rice with them now, proudly. I have made a lot of progress in just a few days! Before sitting down to eat I feel like I have to loosen up, crack my knuckles and any other thing that would be shown in a warming up sports montage of a movie. Eating is an adventure and needs to be taken seriously here!

There are a significant number of people here who have never been out of the country and the stress and culture shock is starting to hit them all right about now. People have become physically ill from stress and the change. I just keep telling people give the jetlag a week and someday you will laugh your ass off remembering how you were kept prisoner for a week in an underground compound, in the middle of the mountains and ate what you thought was pasta but turned out to be kimchee flavored squid, while being jet lagged, exhausted and worked 14 hours a day. If that doesn’t help, I tell them about my first Europe trip. The whole in a cast, “backpacking” broken suitcase, flat food epidemic. I promise they will laugh, because I know I do now.  Watching these people adjust/freak out is funny in some ways, mostly because it shows me how far I have come and reminds me of a certain night in Prague, going to McDonalds with Kristina and crying our eyes out because we hated everything about Prague and just wanted something familiar (that’s why we went to MCD, but also b/c that’s all we ate, haha). So, I get it, what they are going through. That WTF AM I DOING feeling. And, it passes; that is if you allow it to before packing your shit up and heading home.  And I have to give these people some credit; Korea (in my opinion, after having been to 20+ countries and living in Nicaragua) is a hard place for anyone, let alone first-timers. It is just so, different. Everything about it. The food, the people, the fucking chop sticks, the toilet seats (they are strange and electronic) and just about everything. It is like diving head first into culture shock without a parachute. Shit is a little weird here, but hey so is pumpkin pie, stuffing and other weird shit we do and eat.

I can literally not believe I have only 5 days. My mind can’t even comprehend that. It feels like its been weeks, at least. It is this weird time travel-space and time continuum thing. If you have left the country for large periods of time, you probably understand. The friends I have met here, I feel like I have known for so long. Am already so comfortable around them. 

Also, I fail at learning Korean. F-A-I-L! It is literally one of the most difficult intellectual things I have ever attempted. I will try again, but it makes me feel incompetent. We took a two hour class, I was exhausted which may have had something to do with it….hopefully.

I think that is about it for now. I am sure I am leaving out a million and one things, some intentional some not. In case you were wondering, I still don’t have a roommate and it looks like a bomb has gone off in my room in the form of 160 pounds of luggage. I have already realized what I should have brought more of (dress clothes, *#$&$%&#) and could have done without because American products are here abundantly (lotion). Oh and ps. I shorted out my hair straightener my first morning here. Yay! I plugged it in (to a converter AND adapter) and went psssstt POP! SOB!!!! Well, the SOB is the sound I made, the later the straightener. I also broke my expensive converter in the process….sweeeeetness! So, I get to buy both when I am released from the compound. 

Ok, I think that is all the exciting trials and tribulations of Kimberly in Korea, for now. 

Ok, toodles, love and miss you all!

Kimberly/Aunt TB/Brio/Lez/Kimbo/Kimberguesa/all the other names I go by

PS, will try and post pictures soon, But I am verrrry tired and need to sleep!