First two weeks in the ROk

First two weeks in the ROk

I have now been in Korea for two weeks and it has been intense! I may have mentioned previously that I spent the first week at EPIK orientation on Daejeon (a city about 2.5 hours south of Seoul). We kept a pretty exhausting schedule but it was definitely educational and a great way to network and make friends in a new place.

While in Daejeon I was able to sneak away from the orientation site for a couple of hours and I met up with a good friend from my University. I hadn't seen her in almost a year, so it was definitely nice to catch up and see a familiar face on the other side of the world.

After orientation Tuesday morning those placed in Seoul were driven to their corresponding districts where I was greeted by my co-teacher and taken to my apartment, which is in the northeastern part of Seoul.
My apartment is pretty basic for Korean standards, but definitely different from western style. It can be described as a studio apartment but the entire space is the same size as my living room in Florida. Even though it's small it's still comfortable, and in a busy neighborhood so there is loads to do and see.
The day after I moved into my apartment I went to see my school and met my principal for the first time. He was friendly, but because of the language difference we weren't able to do much else than have small talk about Bill Clinton (came up after I said I was from Arkansas).
Today I went off on my own to the immigration office to register for the mandatory alien registration card, and opened up a bank account. Managing the subway system was pretty easy, but I spent more than two hours opening a bank account because the lady didn't speak much English. I'm really thankful she was so patient though, and I have one less thing to worry about.

Basically my first week in Seoul was spent settling in to my new place, preparing lessons, and meeting up with friends. This coming Monday I will teach my first class, so I've got to prepare and go over my lesson plan so that I can do a good job and win the trust and respect of my students. I will be teaching fourth and sixth grade so it will definitely be fun and exhausting.

I currently don't have Internet at my apartment so my posts will be few and maybe not as detailed as I'd like, but once I get Internet and phone taken care of it will be okay.

After months of waiting, I finally made it to Korea!



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