Arrival

I’m barely awake as I write this but I’m too excited to sleep just yet! I arrived today around 6am in Korea (after some minor delays and an airport train debacle in Chicago O’hara). I met with my driver who took my luggage for me and helped me to my apartment from the airport. After getting locked out of my apartment with only my phone on me for a long 10 minutes, I finally got inside and was able to start to explore and settle in.

I was happily surprised to find that there were already many amenities provided by my school. I have internet set up and ready, cable coming in a couple weeks (once the teacher I’m replacing moves out), a TV, microwave, rice cooker, kettle, iron, hairdryer...even one of the teachers dropped by to donate an umbrella to me! Yeah, Korea was pretty gloomy and rainy today (geez, what kind of meaning does that have for me lol) but at least the pollution (미세먼지) was pretty low.

I’m so impressed by my apartment and all the help my school has given me. After a nap, shower, and a couple phone calls, I texted my supervisor to let her know I was pretty much all settled in. Ms. S came by and showed me the boiler room, how to work the heating and cooling, and wrote some translations on sticky notes for my intercom (!!! so fancy, Korea doesn’t do peepholes I have a whole camera and speaker system!) and microwave. She also gave me a LOT of information about the businesses in the building (dentist, two nail salons, clinic, convenience store, cafe, sauna...etc. etc.) and what will need to be done this week. A lot of information to take in, but I was glad to know that she really had it all prepared and helped answer questions I didn’t even realize I had.

After going through every cupboard and appliance in my apartment, she took me and some of the other teachers who were available to a buffet dinner. It was really good and she even checked with the staff about my food allergies for me. I got to know some of the other teachers and they seem really great! I’m excited to be training with one of them and working with the others!

Tomorrow Ms. S will take me for my medical exam and I will go with her and another teacher to the teacher’s clinic appointment. Ms. S really seems to go out of her way to help her staff out, which is really sweet and makes me feel a lot better about being in a foreign country where everything is really...foreign for lack of better term. I’m going with them so that I can see more of the area and go grocery shopping with them.

I’m really...happy right now. I was so anxious from arriving in the airport to finding my taxi man, and getting my bearings. I started to unpack and I can organize everything nicely later on, I just want to get everything out of the luggage so I can see what I need. I am happy to be in my space, knowing that I’m only a floor away from two other teachers and down the hall from another. I have my supervisor on speed dial as she insists she’s here for us all 24/7. It’s great to have this tiny community for help in a time where it would be really easy to feel alone. I can’t want to start working with the kids (I think my youngest class are 3rd graders!? That will be interesting...) and get adjusted to this lifestyle. I know that I can do this well, I just have to let myself take it all in and give myself the time to adjust. It might be weeks or months before I finally can take a breath and feel like I’m in control again (and if you know me, you KNOW control is a huge thing for me), but I’m ready to take this all as it comes to me. It won’t come easy, but taking the easy way out was never my intention.