Annyong Haseyo! We didn't have home internet access for a little while but hopefully we can start to update our blog a little more regularly now. In case you hadn't guessed, moving across the world makes for a long day lol. Mel left at 6am Sunday morning from NB to get to the airport in Halifax and I left Aylesford at 8 (stopping for one last Tim's on the way, of course). Our families met at the airport and we checked our ginormous bags (with no overweight fee, thanks to a nice Air Canada lady). We said or goodbyes and got on our plane to Toronto. We didn't get to sit together :( I sat next to a guy with bad B.O. who kept lifting his arms to read his newspaper. Blah.
We had about an hour in Toronto and then we got on our connecting flight (AKA the point of no return). Ever see that Simpsons episode where Marge is scared of flying, she's yelling "let me off let me off" and there's that shot of her blue hair running up and down the aisles ? That could have been either of us that day! Our plane was really big and we got to sit by ourselves. It was 15 hours so they showed three (lame) movies, served two meals (chicken and rice/beef and rice, both not so appetizing) and it never got dark because we flew through so many time zones. We flew across western Canada (even over Fort McMurray, Dayna), the Northwest Territories, Alaska, and Japan. We passed the time chatting about Korea, playing crib and skip bo, and watching forest fires in the north out the window. We didn't sleep though.
We were so dry! Because of the new airport regulations we couldn't take any chap stick with us! Have any of you ever known me to go an hour without applying blistex? Our lips were burning when we got off the plane and stll felt the damage days later...
When we got into Seoul we went through customs, grabbed our bags and left no problem. Flying in from the US my bags were searched, immigrating to Korea? Walk on by. So first we had to call our school contact, Mr Kwon. We had no idea how to use the phones. Mel tried to put in 10 won to pay for the call. That's worth less than a penny!!! LOL It wound up costing 10 won, about a dime, not too bad I'd say. Anyway, the phone had a touch screen and was a little intimidating but we got a hold of the guy, in all of his choppy english glory.
Next we had to buy a bus ticket to the Holiday Inn an hour and a half away. That was easy. Finding the right bus stop, not so easy. Luckily a Korean girl came up to us and asked if she could help us so we showed her our ticket and she assured us we were already in the right line.
The bus ride was cool, though we were nodding off as we'd been awake for 30 or so hours. There was a surprising number of english billboards and signs and we drove past crazy skyscrapers, Trump buildings, and all these different bridges- each lit up a different colour. When we got to the Holiday Inn where we were supposed to meet Mr. Kwon the bus driver put our stuff on the side of the road and we got off. We were a little concerned. We could barely carry our stuff and we were on the side of the road in Asia. Luckily Mr. Kwon appeared out of nowhere and introduced himself and helped us with our bags.
The drive through Seoul to the school was crazzzzy. It was so disorientating and intimidating. Everything was in Korean! When we got to our school he showed us to our room and one of the head teachers here helped us up. Our room was much nicer than we thought because we'd been told we'd have to share a bathroom and such. Nope, we had our own bathroom and kitchen and a balcony. The bathroom was not clean, however and was very rewarding to clean a few days later.
We unpacked our stuff and (cried- Mel) and slept like babies. We had to meet our boss at 1:50 Tuesday and we didn't wake up until 1:15 in true Mel-and-Shawn fashion. She took us to meet another head teacher who did an orientation. The school is really really nice and looks expensive/new. We found out that we'd spend the rest of the week observing classes together which was cool because we don't like doing anything alone. Overall, our first 24 hours were a series of ups and downs. There was fear of the unknown on the plane, shock and uncertainty on our drive through Seoul and relief when we found out our school and home were pretty safe and friendly.
Well, I think I'll pass the torch to Mel to let you all know how the rest of the week went. Oh and Mel wants me to tell everyone that "LOL" means laughing out loud because some of you are computer illiterate I guess.
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