Travel to Busan

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So . . . I decided to go teach English in South Korea. I’d wanted to go abroad since the last time I was abroad (in the Czech Republic), and I also needed to pay off some pretty massive student loans. Asia is really the hotspot of teaching English these days, especially if you don’t have a degree in English or TEFL, TESOL, or CELTA certification (like me). Out of Asia, Korea seemed to be the country where I could make the most money. In addition, I’ve known a handful of Koreans, and I’ve gotten along well with all of them. I also happened to know a couple key phrases in Korean (never mind that most of them are for drinking games).

I departed on 2/15 very early in the morning (or more like the middle of the night) from Pittsburgh and then flew to San Francisco. From there, I flew straight to Incheon/Seoul. But in the boarding area for the flight to Korea, I began to get a sense of my future life. It seemed like 85% of the passengers were Korean teens, then there were a few white people around my age (at least 5 looked like they were in the US military), and a strange number of older white men. It was reminiscent of walking off the plane in Africa and experiencing the feeling of being a minority.

The flight to Seoul was 13 hours. About 1/3 of the way through the flight I realized I was really sick of being on the plane, but of course there was nothing I could do about it at that point. Luckily I had a window seat, so I controlled the shades. It went alright, except for some reason the lights above me and my neighbor kept randomly turning on and off. At least it added a bit of a diversion.

I arrived in Seoul at 4:30pm on 2/17 because we went over the date line. When I collected all my bags, I realized that I had packed too much stuff. Wait, let me clarify. Actually I already knew that I had packed too much, but when I finally became responsible for all of my stuff, reality hit. My bags probably weighed 95 lbs all together. So I gathered all my energy and the bags and then switched my money to Korean won. Then I got someone at the information desk to call the Incheon Guest House to come pick me up.

The Guesthouse was about 7 minutes away. Once I arrived and figured out how to get inside my room (electronic sensors in the key), I had a very satisfying shower. Then I found a PC bang (internet café) in the same building. It was very smoky and full of Korean teenagers playing computer games, but it fit my purposes once I figured out how to get English letters to show up on the screen. Anyhow, the next morning I woke up early to get a ride back to the airport. I met 4 other people in my program there. We had decided earlier to meet up and travel down to Busan together (it’s at the other end of Korea). Before we left, I mailed myself a package from the airport to the orientation site. I didn’t know how long or how far we’d have to haul our stuff so I sent the heaviest books and shoes.

The trip down to Busan was uneventful (which is good). We took a bus from the airport to the main train station in Seoul. Then we took a KTX (very fast) train from Seoul to Busan. On the train we met some other EPIKers, so once we got to the Busan train station, we had to get about 4 or 5 taxis to the university where our orientation was. I was in the first taxi, and we made it to the correct dorm and everything. I can’t believe it’s only been 2ish weeks since I got here—it seems like such a long time since I left! The next post will be about orientation!

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