We arrived in Seoul Saturday 5/8. The flight took 13 hours. We spent the bulk of it napping or watching movies. Once we arrived, got through customs and picked up our baggage. It was a journey to get to our hotel. We were given very specific directions and made our way to Coatel Hotel (yeah, really). One awesome moment: we took a bus from the airport to Seoul and it was dusk. The sun was a bright flaming orange and you could look directly at it. We were exhausted and looking at that sun drained us. Then the sun sank into the mountains and we arrived at our hotel. It was nice a hotel. We had a bidet. I used the bidet at some point...not my favorite. I prefer wiping my ass. We had all of Sunday to rest up before we began our week long training. It sounds like it would be enough time but we suffered major jet lag throughout the entire week. We slept most of Sunday and ventured out into the city (Gangnam district) for a while before we got exhausted and had to go back again.
We began training Monday. I will blog more about this later because this beginning part of our adventure was insane.
We obviously completed training Friday 5/14 and were immediately transported to Daegu. We took a three hour train and arrived in Daegu around 10pm at night. We have since been getting acclimated to our new home and feeling completely welcome by our fellow ESL instructors. Whatever doubts that developed during our training were immediately erased by the people in Daegu. And while I'm still nervous, I know that we made the decision to have this adventure for a good reason.
Things we have explored in Daegu:
- Sam Duk Seo Bang So: nightlife in Daegu with lots of westerners, foreigners, Koreans alike. Lots of bars, restaurants, shops, neon lights, excitement, pretty boys and even prettier girls.
- Banwoldang (downtown Daegu): lots of shops. Korea is very compact and crowded. We watched Iron Man 2 and buying a ticket to see this movie was a mini-adventure as well.
- Seumun Market: old school market that sold lots of fish and eel and crabs, cheap goods, textiles, exotic vegetables, puppies (for eating or for petting)...
- Daegu Arboretum: exactly what is sounds like, but even more peaceful than what you probably have in your mind
- Korean cuisine: galbi, kimbap, kimchi jeon pizza, shabu shabu (apparently, this is actually Chinese but it tasted Korean to me), chewy noodles, bibimbap, etc.
- Dongwasa Temple at Pangolsan Park to celebrate Buddha's birthday
So. We've been busy. We start teaching Monday and we're currently preparing for our first class. Actually, I'm procrastinating right now but I'll get it done.
