My first day in Korea

My first day in Korea has been a long one. I arrived just after 5:30 and was in the program's shuttle and on my way to the orientation site by 8:10. We unloaded the bus, checked in and found our rooms. I am rooming with Trevor a Canadian with actual teacher training who is going to be living in Daejeon, the city I have been assigned to, as well.

We got along from the start and after lunch decided to explore the town. We met up with Barry from Sligo, Ireland and Jay who has resided all over the place but called Santa Cruz his last home. Additionally, Jay is a native Korean speaker who is teaching English in our program.

Barry needed a converter for his Euro style plug so we set off to get cash at an ATM, buy a converter and have a look around. We decided to hit the subway and head into Seoul, at least the outskirts of it. There was a sweet, rich smell that enveloped the station similar to walking into kitchen with someone baking fresh pies and cookies. We stopped and Jay bought us all a bag of the treats. They are a soft, pancake-y morsel filled with a sweet vanilla-ish custard. I still have no idea what they are called.

Jay with our tasty treats

Trevor, his tuque and whatever it was that we were eating in the subway station

15 minutes later we got off the train and had a look around. We ended up walking into the Lotte department store: a massive 9 story store filled with clean, shiny gadgets, clothes and just about anything else you could imagine. Everything, that is, but Barry's plug. That was found at a nearby Apple store and we were on our way back to Eulji.

I had been in contact with my friend Sun Hwa who I had met a few months back and serendipitously works 3 train stops from my orientation site. We met up and went to dinner at a Korean place. I was the only non-Korean in the immediate area all evening. Sun Hwa ordered so much food...the table was covered with things that were completely foreign to me.

(click image to embiggen)

The meal was delicious and the flavors were a mix of new and familiar. I didn't bring my camera with because I knew I would ruin the nice meal with geeky gushing photography if I did. I will be around this type of food a lot more very soon, so I will make sure to document it better for you in the future.

After dinner we got coffee and practiced more Korean (hangul, is the name of the language). We jumped back on the subway, said good bye at my stop and I got in before the 12:30 curfew with half an hour to spare and went to sleep after a long first day in Korea. If this day is any sign of things to come, I have a feeling Korea is going to far exceed my expectations. I am confident that the adventures I will have here are going to surpass what I have been imagining they will be. I'll keep an open mind and see what happens...so far so good.

Seoul street food.

Only part of subway map. The part I traveled yesterday is in the far right bottom corner. It took about 20 minutes. Calling Seoul a big city is a severe understatement.

People here have robots that help them do simple tasks, like riding a bike. In America, I had a coffee grinder.

Jive talkin' Korean barbers