I'm here!!! Crazy!!

(View of part of Seoul from the SFS campus)

So Saturday- I stayed up all nite b.c. if you know me then you're aware of my amazing procrastination abilities :) and I had to be @ the airport @ 430am!!

I flew to Chicago (didn't sleep) was there for about 4hrs waiting for the dreadful long flight.. Left OHare @ 1230pm and arrived in Tokyo about 12ish hrs later!! It wasn't as long as I thought it was gonna be, DEF not as long as my flight to China last summer... but of course- I didn't sleep!! ugh. I WAS lucky enuf, however, to meet up with my coworker Buffie and she got me into the United Airlines lounge during the layover in Tokyo- which was quite nice! I'm glad that I'll be bankin' lotsa miles with United so then I'll become a VIP member and get those perks on my own :)

I left Tokyo for Incheon at about 530pm (430am Jax time) and I finally slept a little but as it was only an hr 1/2 long flight- didn't get much rest.

I flew thru immigration once I said "I'm a teacher at SFS".. the guy was like "Oh? Teacher?... Have fun!" (They really like teachers here, it's all part of that Confucian respect thing that Americans don't have!!)

I still wasn't freaking out yet.. everything was insanely surreal and it just seemed as if I was going on vacay. Strange.

My SFS people were awaiting my cart full of belongings with big smiles on their faces. We piled onto a "school bus" which is more like a charter bus than a school bus!! lol. Then we started making the journey from Incheon to Seoul- about 30-45 minutes?!

Still wasn't really freaking out..

Now- the people are all SOO nice, kinda too nice! Mostly people are married couples w. or w.o kids and then some single women.. I have yet to meet 1 single male on staff (that's not a complaint, simply an observation that I'm sharing w. my readers).. :)

Ok.. only freaked out a little by this point...

My apartment is RI-DIC-ulous!!! It's way huge and I feel like I'm living in a flat in Notting Hill or something like that. There's two apartments per spot- the top floor one has 3 bedrooms,

a living space, kitchen, and 1 bath (I don't have that one! lol) the bottom floor one has

2 bedrooms & a living space,

a kitchen,

and 1 bathroom

still way too huge! then they are on top of a basement with garage and each apartment has a balcony or porch.

(I've got the porch which has a playground right next to it! pretty nice... Also- since I live at the back of Yunhee Manor (the little housing area owned by the Baptist Misison just off campus) there are no kids in my section so no one will ever use it... BUT those of you who have kids aka Mike and Elise, ehem, there will be lots for them to do! :)

Anywho..

Today started orientation and we went to the hospital to have all our medical stuff checked out to make sure I'm not going to infect a Korean with some crazy disease I brought in with me.. the hospital looked nothing like a hospital- I actually asked my HR guy Barry if it was a mall or the subway station that we were at, Lol. It was in fact the hospital which they were quite efficient.

We then went to Starbucks (nice lil reminder of home) and checked out the area with all the action. Barry calls it the "Neon lights town".

After lunch, we took a walk of the Yonhi-Dong area which is our area.. SFS is up on this humongously steep hill- pretty much a mountain- and so the area of town we go to is at the bottom of our mountain.

We went grocery shopping for things to hold us over b4 our big shopping trip on Friday. It was interesting looking at things to buy b.c. not everything has english in it. Like- I can't tell the difference b.n my shampoo and conditioner that I bought b.c. there's no indicator! Also- trying to figure out calories when they use kilos is interesting. But I made it through rather successfully and I may starve while I'm here, but that's ok... I could use some of that!

We then went to a BBQ where the heads of the different schools cooked for us then we all sat around 4th of July-style and chilled and ate.

I met these 2 french girls that I think I will get along with quite nicely- they're real laid back and fun- I told them that if I just hang out with them while they are speaking French I will improve my understanding of the language! lol. There's so many nice people here.. pretty much everyone has lived overseas b4 and most are coming from other international schools. There's only one girl (Tricia) that it's her first time living overseas, like me, and she's from Louisiana so we hit it off pretty quickly too. I'm looking forward to working with all these people- it should be interesting.

I still don't believe I'm really here and I don't know when I'll realize it but it's (yes, I'm going to say it again) insanely surreal. lol.

More later.