Memory Lane

It took me almost 24 hours to get to my apartment in Seoul. I arrived during a typhoon and was greeted by wind, rain, and a young Korean man who would be my driver from the airport. When I was riding along in the passenger seat in his car I had a million questions but was in a fog of jetlag and nerves. I looked at all of the buildings which had signs written in Korean, gazed upon the different architecture, and felt overwhelmed by the completely unfamiliar surroundings I had chosen to take residence in for the coming year. When my driver and I arrived at my apartment it turned out my room was not ready yet, so we ate a late dinner at Paris Baguette, a popular chain here in Korea. My first meal was an asiago bagel and overpriced vitamin water. It was almost 11pm and finally a sweaty, chubby, Korean man arrived at my apartment to let me in. I didn't know he was our go-to maintenance man, Mr.Lee, who worked at my school. All I knew was that I needed to lay down ASAP. My driver and Mr.Lee left me to unpack and go to sleep, and I glanced around my new apartment. My humble abode was totally empty, totally foreign, and I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I looked at my suitcases in disbelief. I looked out the window at the less than exciting view, and I looked around every nook of my apartment. I had an odd balcony where my laundry machine was, and when I opened the door to my bathroom I was perplexed by the fact I had no tub. There was two beds in my room and I had a momentary panic I would have to have a roommate for the coming year. I told myself, "Just go to bed, and it will somehow all make sense in the morning."

After a rocky, tossing and turning kind of night, I woke up at 6am unable to sleep anymore. I got ready for work, trying to look nice and professional, and headed out onto a nearby street to find breakfast. I went into a NesCAfe across the street, where they spoke no English whatsoever, and ordered a blueberry bagel. Desiring a taste of home, I then got a Starbucks coffee and headed back to my apartment. A fellow teacher was told to walk me to work the next day so I made sure I was waiting outside of her door promptly at 9:20am. Her name was Grace and she was also from North Carolina. Funny enough, we actually went to the same highschool and had quite a bit in common.

We walked to the main street and she shouted "Run, it's green." She began running across the street and I realized she meant the crosswalk was green. Once on the other side she explained that the crosswalks in Korea take forever, so when its green you run to catch it. She then uttered "I need bananas" and she walked into a place called the "CU." I put together that this must be like a CVS or Walgreens or something and soon saw they were everywhere. On the walk to school, I had all the usual questions; "Do you like it here?" "How long have you been here?" "Whats teaching like?" "Are you glad you live in Seoul?" "What do you do for fun?" I must have been like a 20 questions machine, and I'm lucky she answered any of them the way I was bombarding her for information. I wanted to hear that I had not made a huge mistake moving across the globe, and for the most part she reassured me, but also told me quite clearly the school we work at has many flaws. Her answers made me a bit nervous but being a half-glass-full kind of gal I didn't read too much into it.

Before I knew it I was at school being introduced to everyone and being asked how my trip over to Korea was. I soon met other new teachers that had already been there for a few days as they got into town before the typhoon, and we observed numerous classes together. I remember thinking that everything the Kindergarten kids said or did was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Their beautiful Korean faces were flawless, their hair full of bows and headbands, and all of them, boys and girls, so stylish. We watched a verteran, Jake, who had been teaching for 3 years and was a pro at the whole LCI style of teaching. He was incredibly helpful, kind, and encouraging and made it look so easy. I went to lunch with the other new teachers and my boss and had my first real Korean dish. It was a seafood soup that was incredibly spicy and almost burned my mouth off. It came with an array of sides that I was cluselss as to what they were. Everything was Korean; the menu, the people, the food, and the language around me. I felt completely engulfed in this new culture and truly could not swallow the amount of differences there were in this culture opposed to my own.

After the day of teaching was almost done, I had to sit in a meeting about the rules and regulations of my new school until 7pm. I remember my boss looking at me and saying "Are you OK?", as I looked like death warmed over. I had slept probably 8 hours in two days and the jetlag was coming hard and fast. Once I was allowed to leave, I went back to my empty apartment and got into bed immediately. I was woken up by a new teacher coming through my apartment door who was going to be my TEMPORARY roommate for a few days until her own apartment was ready to be inhabited. She also had a million questions about Korea, my first day, about the ins and outs of teaching here and wanted to pick my brain. She was from Canada and I'm assuming she also wanted some reassurance that she had not made a cross-continental move she would regret. I gave her as much positive feedback as my body could handle, then muttered something about jetlag, and pulled the covers over my head. 

My first day was done, and I could not wrap my head around this seemingly insane choice I had made to live in Seoul. A city that I knew little to nothing about, where I could not speak the language, and that was millions of miles away from my friends and family. The upcoming weeks were difficult and challenging in a refreshing way, and soon enough I found my balance. I had a great friend, I had found good food to eat at some staple restaurants, and I had decorated my empty apartment with fun accessories from the local equivalent to the Dollar Store and memorabilia from home. What I didn't know back then was that the challenges I faced in my first few weeks and months of living abroad would actually be challenges I would face all year. The ability to conquer this city in a year is impossible, and the handicap of not speaking the language is often still a problem. But the adjustment period started to come to a close, and finally I started to see Seoul as my home.