Well, we made it... 20 days ago. Oops.
In all fairness, we've been rather busy since our arrival in South Korea, but we are finally starting to settle into our new lives in Daegu.
I guess we'll go chronologically, which means we should begin with our journey from RDU to ICN.
The trip began auspiciously with waking up at the ass-crack of 3:30, but for Mitch, this meant being awoken by Heather's mother at 3:50 and scrambling to gather all of his belongings in time to leave for the airport around 4am.
Check-in was a breeze, and RDU was pretty deserted at 4:30 am on a Sunday.
We spent the wee hours of the morning smugly enjoying our complementary upgrade to first class on the RDU to Detroit segment.
We then continued being elitist by whiling away the 5 hour layover in Detroit in the Delta SkyClub (we bought cheap day-passes on eBay) where we definitely got our money's worth. However, we would have made out even better if it hadn't been a Sunday - THANKS FOR NOTHING, BLUE LAWS!
We also enjoyed what we presumed would be the last cheese consumption for a while... but luckily we also had some more on the plane!
Detroit actually has a pretty awesome airport with fancy fountains and light-up music tunnels. Perhaps that's why the city is bankrupt, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. There's some video footage to prove it, but the video uploader isn't cooperating at the moment. Check back for that.
Finally, it was time to board our international flight from Detroit to Incheon and bid the States farewell for the foreseeable future.
When we finally touched down in Korea, we had a few major things to accomplish at the airport, namely getting money and getting phones, both of which we completed successfully and relatively without incident. Take that, Arrival Store!! (A company that sells expensive, albeit convenient, stuff and phones to expats moving to Korea and keeps harassing you to order stuff from them)
We were then immediately whisked off to Jeonju University for a whirlwind week-long orientation. On the bus to orientation, they mentioned that couples could ask to room together. Being that Mitch and I are a couple... of people who prefer to stay with a friend than with a stranger, we were able to be roomies for the week. This definitely confused our fellow orientation attendees and made them think we were an actual couple, but that's okay, because the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education was already under that same impression because of our "nearly identical applications."
Orientation was busy, but informative and fun. We made friends with other teachers in our area (who also all seem to be really snarky assholes much to our delight) which will be a great support system as we adjust to life here (read: really good people to bitch with).
Arguably the best part of orientation was interacting with our Korean class leaders, Chigan and Jiye.
Jiye was the teacher for our survival Korean course and possibly the most adorable human being on planet Earth. She was super sweet and encouraging, even if Korean class level II was way over our heads.
Chigan is a Korean lady badass. We knew right away that we would adore her nonchalant attitude when she showed zero interest in giving us a thorough campus tour, as scheduled. She gave us the Cliff notes version of a tour instead, which our group was more than OK with. Chigan is not her real name. I'll tell you the origin of the name using her own words, "So I worked at this camp in Michigan, and we had to pick nicknames. It was stupid, so I chose Chigan, because Mi-chigan. It is stupid. But, now it is my name." Our love for her reached its pinnacle when she stole a bottle of wine for us from a neighboring table during the closing ceremony dinner. She really was the best!
At the end of orientation, we and 100+ of our closest friends were shipped off to Daegu. We met our main co-teachers at a ceremony in Daegu, and then we were taken to our apartments and to see our schools.
That evening, mine and Mitch's co-teachers left us to our own devices (Mitch's co-teacher asked him if he was up for the 'adventure' of finding his way back to his apartment and dropped him off at a large store in my neck of the woods). While shopping at this HomePlus store, we ran into a few fellow Native English Teachers shopping with their co-teachers. Their co-teachers seemed shocked and mildly appalled when they found out it was our first day in Daegu as well, as they'd assumed our solo-shopping meant we were experienced teachers who had been in Korea for a while. I think they mistook our calmness for competence, when really we were both just like, "well, this is happening."
Other highlights from the HomePlus excursion included meeting a man from Charlotte wearing a Panthers t-shirt and buying a shirt that said North Carolina, Alone-back kids, World Champions 1978. Whaaaat?
Some other Daegu highlights thus far involve drinking coffee in a cafe inside an old jet airplane, riding a swinging pirate-ship ride (called the 'Viking' - literally, baiking - in Korea), finding a kebab place run by a Turkish guy on our first night downtown, eating at an Uzbek/Russian restaurant, and drinking purple corn tea that tastes like popcorn. All in all, a pretty stellar first week and a half in Daegu.
I think that's a pretty good overview of the most important details thus far. Sorry it took us more than a fortnight to get around to actually blogging. We'll try to be better about it going forward, but let's be real, no promises.
Anyway, I get the sense that buying the cheapest thing on the menu and hanging around for hours of free internet is not really a thing in Korea like it is back home, so we should probably head out.
Until next time!
Love,
Heather & Mitch
In all fairness, we've been rather busy since our arrival in South Korea, but we are finally starting to settle into our new lives in Daegu.
 |
| The red blob is Daegu. |
The trip began auspiciously with waking up at the ass-crack of 3:30, but for Mitch, this meant being awoken by Heather's mother at 3:50 and scrambling to gather all of his belongings in time to leave for the airport around 4am.
Check-in was a breeze, and RDU was pretty deserted at 4:30 am on a Sunday.
We spent the wee hours of the morning smugly enjoying our complementary upgrade to first class on the RDU to Detroit segment.
We then continued being elitist by whiling away the 5 hour layover in Detroit in the Delta SkyClub (we bought cheap day-passes on eBay) where we definitely got our money's worth. However, we would have made out even better if it hadn't been a Sunday - THANKS FOR NOTHING, BLUE LAWS!
 |
| Where da free booze at?!? |
Detroit actually has a pretty awesome airport with fancy fountains and light-up music tunnels. Perhaps that's why the city is bankrupt, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. There's some video footage to prove it, but the video uploader isn't cooperating at the moment. Check back for that.
Finally, it was time to board our international flight from Detroit to Incheon and bid the States farewell for the foreseeable future.
When we finally touched down in Korea, we had a few major things to accomplish at the airport, namely getting money and getting phones, both of which we completed successfully and relatively without incident. Take that, Arrival Store!! (A company that sells expensive, albeit convenient, stuff and phones to expats moving to Korea and keeps harassing you to order stuff from them)
We were then immediately whisked off to Jeonju University for a whirlwind week-long orientation. On the bus to orientation, they mentioned that couples could ask to room together. Being that Mitch and I are a couple... of people who prefer to stay with a friend than with a stranger, we were able to be roomies for the week. This definitely confused our fellow orientation attendees and made them think we were an actual couple, but that's okay, because the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education was already under that same impression because of our "nearly identical applications."
Orientation was busy, but informative and fun. We made friends with other teachers in our area (who also all seem to be really snarky assholes much to our delight) which will be a great support system as we adjust to life here (read: really good people to bitch with).
Arguably the best part of orientation was interacting with our Korean class leaders, Chigan and Jiye.
Jiye was the teacher for our survival Korean course and possibly the most adorable human being on planet Earth. She was super sweet and encouraging, even if Korean class level II was way over our heads.
Chigan is a Korean lady badass. We knew right away that we would adore her nonchalant attitude when she showed zero interest in giving us a thorough campus tour, as scheduled. She gave us the Cliff notes version of a tour instead, which our group was more than OK with. Chigan is not her real name. I'll tell you the origin of the name using her own words, "So I worked at this camp in Michigan, and we had to pick nicknames. It was stupid, so I chose Chigan, because Mi-chigan. It is stupid. But, now it is my name." Our love for her reached its pinnacle when she stole a bottle of wine for us from a neighboring table during the closing ceremony dinner. She really was the best!
At the end of orientation, we and 100+ of our closest friends were shipped off to Daegu. We met our main co-teachers at a ceremony in Daegu, and then we were taken to our apartments and to see our schools.
That evening, mine and Mitch's co-teachers left us to our own devices (Mitch's co-teacher asked him if he was up for the 'adventure' of finding his way back to his apartment and dropped him off at a large store in my neck of the woods). While shopping at this HomePlus store, we ran into a few fellow Native English Teachers shopping with their co-teachers. Their co-teachers seemed shocked and mildly appalled when they found out it was our first day in Daegu as well, as they'd assumed our solo-shopping meant we were experienced teachers who had been in Korea for a while. I think they mistook our calmness for competence, when really we were both just like, "well, this is happening."
Other highlights from the HomePlus excursion included meeting a man from Charlotte wearing a Panthers t-shirt and buying a shirt that said North Carolina, Alone-back kids, World Champions 1978. Whaaaat?
 |
| Gotta love English shirts in Asia...especially if they involve NC! |
I think that's a pretty good overview of the most important details thus far. Sorry it took us more than a fortnight to get around to actually blogging. We'll try to be better about it going forward, but let's be real, no promises.
Anyway, I get the sense that buying the cheapest thing on the menu and hanging around for hours of free internet is not really a thing in Korea like it is back home, so we should probably head out.
Until next time!
Love,
Heather & Mitch
