Greetings from South Korea!

Word up home boys and girls! Sorry it’s taken so long to publish my first post, been ridiculously busy so just haven’t had the time, all will be revealed here.

So, after saying goodbye to everybody last week, Ben gave me a lift to the airport on Thursday morning. After having a coffee and saying farewell, I was out on my own! The flight itself was an absolute mission, 6 hours to Dubai, a 3 hour wait in the airport and then another 8 hours to Korea. The time passed pretty quickly though as I had hundreds of films to choose from and was fed at regular intervals. Unfortunately though I just didn’t get any sleep, think it was about 3 hours in total, so was on my arse by the time I got here! After taking an age to get through immigration (they really don’t want anybody getting in this country!) I was finally here. Mark’s boss was waiting for me and drove me straight to Sanbon. First impressions of Korea weren’t very good, it looked like an industrial wasteland! However, as we got to Sanbon, my fears were eased. Sanbon is about 30 mins south of Seoul and is nestled in between a mountain range so the views were pretty special. Once in Sanbon, Mr Hwang (Mark’s boss) took me to e-mart to get some bedding and stuff and then took me to my apartment.

After a quick power nap, Mark and Jade came to meet me after they finished work and immediately took me out to meet their mates and to get some food. We went to a Galbi restaurant where they only serve traditional Korean Galbi. Galbi is basically Korean BBQ. You sit on the floor around these low tables with a grill in the middle and then order your meat. The tables have these huge grills in the centre of the table that you then throw your meat on and cook yourself. You then wrap the meat in lettuce leaves and gobble it down. They also bring out loads of free side dishes for you to add to the meat. It’s absolutely delicious, and seen as it only costs like a fiver you can’t complain! As well as this, I got my first proper taste of Soju. Soju is a fermented rice vodka that is about 20%, and it’s dirt cheap. Needless to say it’s pretty lethal when consumed heavily! Everybody drinks it with their meal along with a few beers (which by the way, is rank). After that, we went to a few more bars and I got pretty hammered! After rolling in at about 5 in the morning, i crashed big time and slept right through until 5.30pm the next day.

Just a quick word on the eating and drink culture, it’s so different to anything in the west. When you’re eating, you order all of your food together and share it, same with the bars. When you order drinks in a bar, it’s pretty much obligatory to order food as well, which means your always eating. You also never pour your own drink. You order your drink together and then someone around the table pours it for you. Once you’ve drank it, somebody then has to pour it again for you. Pretty odd but I’m getting used to it!

Anyway, after sleeping until 5.30pm, Saturday night was pretty much the same. Went out in Suwon which is about 20 mins away from here, drank more beer and Soju, got smashed and talked to Americans all night! Met a really cool guy from Boston who had the best accent in the world, I got so drunk I was trying to talk about The Departed all night with him! He humoured me for a bit but think I annoyed him in the end. After two heavy nights I just chilled out on Sunday and got ready to start training on Monday.

First day of training was pretty hectic. As the training centre is in east central Seoul, I had a 1 and a half hour commute on the Subway everyday. The subway is really easy to use as everything is in English as well but was a bit of a mission to do every day. It was worth it though as it runs over the han river to get into central seoul so the views are amazing. I can imagine it’s what it must feel like driving into Manhatten. Anyway, after orientation at the training centre, a shuttle bus took us straight to the hospital for our medical. I can quite honestly say that this was the most uncomfortable experience of my life! After being herded into a room with 30 other confused foreigners, they made us fill in these forms and then queue up to be checked one by one. First they measure your height, take your blood pressure and then test your eye sight. One of the women shit me up big time because she said i had really high blood pressure and needed to be checked again. I tried to explain to her that I was nervous, hadn’t eaten and had drank like 5 cups of coffee to stay awake but I don’t think she understood me! Anyway, all was ok after they checked me again. After this, they basically push you into another room to have an x-ray, then make you go to another room for them to take blood. I’m not very good with needles so it wasn’t very enjoyable! They then give you a cup, point you to the toilet and basically tell you to go and piss. As I’d drank so much I was flowing like a river but I can imagine if you don’t need it then there are lot of people that just freeze! In total, all of this took like 3 hours, by the time i got out i felt like I’d been violated big time!

If that sounds stressful, Tuesday was when the fun really began! Monday night the jet lag well and trully kicked in, and i ended up getting about 2 hours sleep. Tuesday through to Friday was pretty much the same, have 2 hours sleep, get up, go to training, intense training for 6 hours, go home, revise and prep mock teaching for 7 hours, have 2 hours sleep, repeat. The training was really intense, they gave me so much work to do that all I saw all week were my apartment, the subway and the training centre. But, I passed with flying colours! Jade helped me a lot with the prep because she’s been doing it for ages so she really helped me out. I passed my medical as well so when I finally got out on Friday I was practically skipping down the road! I start teaching on Tuesday so quite excited to get in the classroom and meet my kids.

Friday night I went out for some food again with Mark and a few friends, had a few beers and hit the sack about 3am. Finally got my first proper nights sleep though, it felt amazing to wake up in the morning knowing I’d slept right through for the first time in a week. Sleep deprivation is the oddest feeling, by Thursday I started to feel like my life was like The Truman Show!

Yesterday (Saturday), I just chilled out, had a wander round Sanbon, got a coffee, did a bit of shopping and got an early night. Today I decided to go for a little hike up a mountain! Sanbon is built at the base of Mount Surisan so it’s only a 10 min walk away. For some reason I decided to do the steep route so my legs were killing me but made it to the summit in just over an hour. The views over Sanbon were stunning, i’ve got loads of pics so will put them up when I get chance.  That brings me up to right now, I’t’s 6pm and I’m currently sat in a PC room typing this!

So, first impressions of Korea? It’s f**##n mental! Everything that you’ve been used to culturally throughout your whole life, just flip it over, turn it on it’s head and you’ll get an idea. The way you eat is different, the way you drink is different and the people as a whole are just different. The one thing that I’ve noticed more than anything is the smells. It’s wierd how a country can just smell different to what you’re used to. It’s completely mad being a minority as well. Korea is such a homogenous society that you just never see westerners. Since I’ve been here I think I’ve seen 3 white people, not including mark and his mates, and the people at training. It’s well funny when you see them though, you kind of give a knowing glance and a nod to each other. For you guys that watch Curb your Enthusiasm, I now know what Larry’s talking about when he sees another bald person in the street! Absolutely everybody stares at you as well, it was really uncomfortable at first but now I just don’t even notice. It’s actually a bit of an ego boost when you get a hot girl staring at you (and they’re everywhere, oh yeah!).

Erm right, I think that’s everything! Sorry for the long post but seen as it’s my first one I thought I’d keep you all up to date. Pics will be up soon when I get chance.

Peace out, I love you all. x