So far so good.

---

Where to start? How about with my AWESOME 24 hour flight (on which I did not sleep because I was neither hungover or drunk) to South Korea from Des Moines International Airport. Yes, Des Moines has an international airport, we fly to Canada and shit. My first flight was from DM to Chicago on what appeared to be a 8 passenger plane that they managed to squeeze another 12 on, and was fortunate enough to sit next to the ONLY lady on the flight who was scared shitless of being in the air, and just preceded to have a temper tantrum the ENTIRE FLIGHT while balls deep in her prayers to our Lord and Savior. About 25 min. into the journey she noticed that I was not praying, and took that as her sign that we were destined to sit next to each other so she could save my soul. She then proceeded to smother me with literature about my future in Heaven, while still crapping her pants because we were 20,000 feet in the air. The moment we landed in Chicago was without a doubt the happiest moment of the trip.

Just when I thought the next flight couldn't be any worse, and I suppose to a large extent it wasn't, but I was again, fourtunate enough, to sit next to the love birds who more or less sucked face the entire 13 hour flight to Tokyo. I know this because they were not serving free drinks on this flight and I couldn't sleep. I made every attempt possible to get up (from my window seat) as many times as I could just to keep my self entertained. The last hour of the trip was without a doubt the highlight, because one of the stewardesses from first class had a half bottle of wine that no one wanted, so I sat there and drank that while we discussed our favorite dried fruits. I wish I was making that up...and I haven't the slightest idea how the conversation started, but it was definitely from her end. By the time we arrived in Tokyo, I was borderline delirious and was nervous about a seizure from all the flashing techno lights I assumed would be littering the airport, fortunately enough for me, the Tokyo airport is just as boring as all the rest of them. I didn't really have time to explore and search for anything Hello Kitty in the airport, but I did get a free upgrade to business class on the flight to Seoul. As soon as I got on the plane I saw all the leg room, the reclining seats, and free champagne and was filled with joy. This was soon diminished as the champagne tasted like someone peed in it and the old Korean lady next to me propped her head on my shoulder the first chance she got and passed out. Once again, I wish I was making all of this up. But whatev, I rolled with the punches, drank as much piss as I could, and relaxed until Korea, and much to my surprise, everything was smooth sailing upon arrival.

So now I'm doing Korea. My biggest challenges so far have big working the hose hanging from my bathroom wall that only has cold water (aka my shower), trying to figure out how to work my heat (which by the way comes from the heated floor), and my three day search for a power converter, only to discover after dropping 10,000 won that South Korea is the same as Europe, leaving me with 3 extra power converters...However, I love my school so far, all my co-teachers are awesome and super friendly, and my kids are great as well, even better when we can have a conversation but sometimes I think it's funnier when we can't. For example, one of my kindergartners just LOVES to rub his ass up on EVERYONE, and when he's not grinding with his fellow 6 year olds he is smelling me...straight up. I don't know what it is, but he apparently has a thing for my scent..I'm taking it as a compliment. All my older kids are great as well, in one class we were practicing phone conversations, so I had them write up a pretend convo between whomever, and this one boy had Wayne Rooney and Steve Gerrard (British soccer players) proposing to each other. Another student had Wario and Mario talking to each other with Mario responding to Wario's "who is this?" "It'za me MARIO!" This may be one of those "you had to be there" situations, but I was rolling.

Without a doubt, and to no surprise to be, my favorite part about Korea so far is the food. Even better, I eat lunch and supper free every day because one of my coworkers brings in a daily mountain of food for all the teachers. Some of the items from my first post that I have tried so far are:

Kimchi: a staple of Korean food, eaten with every meal. It's a spicy fermented cabbage dish, and it grows on me more every time I have it. So far I've only tried kimchi that's fermented for a year, but I plan on working my way up.

Bulgogi: a grilled marinated beef, I could eat this stuff day and night...and then make love to it.

Pine tree flavored toothpaste: not a food, I know, but I saw it on a shelf in the shop and had one of those 'this can't be what I think it is..' moments, and proceeded to impulse buy despite my 4 deep collection of toothpaste already. There are two metaphors I like to use when describing my experience with this, the first one being "It's like the Pacific Northwest..exploding in your mouth." and the second "It's like Colgate and Pinesol's lovechild." I use this one because despite the taste, your mouth frees remarkably clean afterwards. I'm still deciding if it's worth it.

Soju: a rice whiskey Koreans drink religiously. Considering I am definitely a beer drinker this shit is pretty rough, however, I usually do a shot or two a night as an attempt to grow some balls.

Fish balls: only two words are needed to describe these fishy little nuggets: surprisingly awesome.

Dried squid: without a doubt my favorite dish thus far. Seriously, it's fucking fantastic. Enough said.

---

Comments

[Ann]

dried squid!
ahh, can't believe you like it. the smell alone makes me wanna hurl. The fish is much more pungent though. i got a blog on here too.. raaaaaaaaandom!