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Published: September 9th 2017
Hey everyone,
So 31 hours after leaving my house, I finally made it to my apartment on Thursday afternoon. Three planes and one very long bus ride, it was definitely the longest amount of straight traveling that I've ever done at once, and I was so glad once I actually arrived.
On the way here, the questions
what have you done? What are you thinking? What is wrong with you? You REALLY don't speak Korean, why didn't you just go to China? Then you would at least be able to get around. Crossed my mind no fewer than 20 times each. While I was still in China and the US, coming to Korea was just this vague adventure. And I honestly do still believe that “challenge” and “culture shock” are just synonyms of “adventure.” But once I was actually on my way here, I think it finally kind of hit me that I had agreed to come here for a full year. And I don’t speak Korean. During all of my adventures in China over the past couple of years, and even my trips to Korea and Japan, I haven’t once questioned my choices to leave home and go
abroad, because the prospect for adventure and challenge is so huge and exciting that I don’t think I even had a chance to spend time on regrets. So my trip to Korea this past week was the first time that I’ve felt that sort of terrified fear of what would happen, probably driven in large by the fact that I came by myself (as in, not as a part of a group like study abroad trips), and had no idea what I would face when I actually got here. I hadn’t had any direct contact with anybody from the school, and all of the details that I was given ahead of time were pretty vague, so just the sheer amount of
unknown was enough to terrify me pretty badly. Since actually arriving, I’ve kept myself busy enough that I haven’t had time to actually consider what I’ve done, which is typical me behavior, but is probably not the healthiest way to deal with it. Oh well.
In other news, my landlords are very sweet, although they don't speak a word of English. They're an older couple, and were very excited when I first arrived, showing me how to work
The atrium
This is where shoes come off. Past there, no outdoor shoes allowed!the water heater, the burners, TV, lights, etc. Finding out that my one room apartment doesn't have WiFi was kind of a bummer, and trying to ask my landlady to call the teacher at my school (who had told me she would message me with a time to meet her the next day for my hospital checkup) was probably the worst episode of charades I've ever played. First she wrote her phone number down for me, thinking that's what I wanted. Then she copied the teacher's number-which I had on my phone, and tried showing her to indicate that's who I wanted to call-down on paper. Also not exactly not what I was going for. Eventually, her husband went downstairs and retrieved her phone, and she showed me the call history. I kind of hesitantly hovered my finger over the "call back" button, and once she nodded yes, I went ahead and pressed it. The teacher on the other end of the line also didn't know how to set up the WiFi, so after she spoke with my landlady, my landlord went next door and knocked on my neighbors room.
She already had WiFi set up since she arrived
Main apartment space
The blanket on the bed is misleading. It's really only a blanket over a plastic-wrapped mattress. I've still yet to actually get bedding (and will probably wait until after I get paid for the first month-bedding is expensive!). In the meantime, I've been sleeping on the plastic mattress and under the blanket. on Monday, so after taking the landlady's phone from me and hanging up on the teacher before I could tell her not to, I eventually gave her my phone and she set let me get on her WiFi. So I have WiFi on my phone, but not on my computer, yet. I'm hoping I'll be able to get my own WiFi set up soon, but my friend who is teaching in a different city has told me that she's pretty sure we need to get our "alien residency cards" or ARCs first. Those can take up to a month to be processed, and they require a health check (which I did on Friday) whose results can take about a week.
*edit: the person I met the first day that I thought was my neighbor was actually my neighbor/coworker’s friend who had come from another part of Korea to help her move in. Since beginning this post on Friday morning, I have met my actual neighbor, and am pleased to announce that she seems very nice, although she is from South Africa, so sometimes our accents give us difficulties.
Anyways, it’s late Saturday night, and since arriving I have
My kitchen/laundry room
The washer is behind the fridge, and the thing extending from the ceiling is where I can hang my clothes to dry. completed my hospital checkup, observed classes for a day so that I’m ready to start on Monday, begun to figure out the bus system, found the Japanese dollar chain store
Daiso, found downtown Gwangju (which is really cool and has a shopping district that is a lot like one of Seoul’s major shopping districts), and spent way too much money trying to make my apartment more homely and liveable. The next step is to figure out how to make friends in this huge city, and finding the expat Chinese and American communities. The teacher that my neighbor and I are replacing is staying in Korea and lives closer to downtown, and has graciously offered to bring us out to meet people and to show us the more “happening” areas of Gwangju, so hopefully that will help.
Next weekend, I am headed to Seoul for an orientation through the company I employed to help me find a job, so hopefully that will be a fun weekend to look forward to!
That’s all I have for now, I hope you’re all happy and healthy!
Until next time!
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Charlotte McGee
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Katie - YOU are amazing. And BRAVE. You go girl.