first day in my Korean home!

WOW, what a crazy day that was! On Tuesday morning, I got up early, checked out of my hostel, and walked about 15 blocks to the Gyeongbokgung subway station. Due to a combination of speed-walking on the way to the subway and lots of people crowded around once I got on the subway, sweat was literally running down my legs during the whole subway trip. Sorry if that’s too much information, but I just need you all to understand how gross that felt!! I was SO HOT!! My overheating woes aside, the subway ride wasn’t too bad. It took about an hour to get from Jongno-gu to Daechi. Obviously the subway ran underground, but when we crossed the Han River, the subway line came up and over the river! I wish I could have taken some pictures, but the subway was too crowded for me to reach my camera.

My friend Key had drawn a map in Korean for me to show to a taxi driver so I could take a taxi from the station to my school.

I looked at the map and checked the time, and decided I would just walk to the school and spare myself the cost of a taxi, because it didn’t look that far and I had about half an hour until I had to be at the school. I hope you see where this is going…twenty minutes later I was pretty lost and had to ask a police officer for directions. Finally, I got on the right road, and I was booking it to get there in time. I stopped a young woman to ask for directions again, just to make sure I wasn’t wasting any more time by going the wrong direction. The woman just happened to be Hyejin, one of the HR reps from JLS who had been communicating with me about my arrival! Talk about luck! I was about a block away from my destination (and going the right direction, just for the record!). She showed me inside where I was supposed to meet Bryan, the arrivals and recruiting coordinator for JLS.

Bryan took me to my apartment so I could see what was there and what I would need, and then we went to Lotte Mart, a large department store. He helped me find groceries, towels, shampoo, and so on…all very important things! We had lunch, he showed me how to walk from my apartment to JLS and back, and then we went to set up my bank account at Hana Bank.

By the time I got back to my apartment, I was ready for some rest. But when I looked more closely at the conditions of the apartment, I realized that the previous teacher had left the place in desperate need of some cleaning. So I spent the next five hours doing a deep cleaning and promising myself that I would leave the apartment in better shape for the next person when I leave!

The tap water here isn’t safe to drink, so I decided to go out and buy some bottled water. However, when I tried to leave my apartment, I couldn’t get the front door open!! In a dehydrated semi-delirious frenzy, I sent Bryan (the JLS coordinator who helped me earlier in the day) several messages on Skype explaining my predicament and my dire need for some water, and he talked me through how to open the door. (Pull, don’t push, and then turn the locks!) He came to pick me up at my apartment to go get some water and make sure I was doing okay after that little scare. He told me that his boss was quite upset that the previous teacher hadn’t cleaned up after himself, and Bryan apologized profusely for the state of the place.

Finally, after such a crazy day, I was able to get some pictures of my new (clean) home to share with you all. 

View from the front door into the apartment.

Spare bedroom: who wants to come visit me? :)

Kitchen and dining table.

Bathroom. Thank goodness for a Western toilet and mountable shower head! It's the little things!

My "bedroom", which is just in the open space toward the back of the apartment.

Desk area and storage stand.

Little porch at the very back of the apartment. There's a washing machine but no dryer, so I will have to hang-dry my clothes!

I will take some pictures of the surrounding area today when I’m out and about! It’s beautiful around here. Thanks everyone for reading along!