Yesterday, we caved.
It was a long, long day.
And there was McDonalds. Right across the street from our
hotel—beckoning us in with promises of fast, delicious food.
Okay, so McDonalds is rarely what I would describe as delicious but whenever I’ve given in to
temptation while traveling and succumbed to this delightful reminder of home
it’s always tasted like the best thing ever…
This time was no exception.
Ordering was fun…because my Korean is limited to food items
(Korean food items) and
drama-lingo—which I’ve noticed is
basically useless when trying to get around. And so fingers, smiles, and head
bobs were used as a translator. To my surprise I actually ended up with what I
ordered!
But really…I feel pretty ridiculous not knowing any Korean.
Sure you can get by fairly well with English and hand-gestures but I just don’t
like going to another country and expecting everyone to cater to my
English-only needs, you know? I feel like I’m being rude but really, with the
EXTREMELY LIMITED AMOUNT OF KOREAN I KNOW (and I’m not kidding here) I am
trying. And I will try harder, I promise. A phrase book is in my near future.
Our indulgence of American-style fast food aside, today was
an especially exciting day. We headed out bright and early (the 6:30am kind of
early) so that we could visit the Seoul Immigration Office and apply for our
Ailen Registration Cards. It was a
looong series train rides that we only barely managed to navigate by ourselves
(seriously….”Oh, you’ve never been to Korea before? Here find this place—have
fun!”) but we ended arriving on time only to get lost because we couldn’t find
the actual office.
Then, when we arrived (yup it was packed with a bunch of new
teachers because it’s the end of August) we were notified we needed one more
document from our school that we never received so we had to use the PAY PHONE
because our phones don’t have any service to call the school and then have them
fax the document over to us. Uge, it was such a hassle. But luckily we managed
to get through it and even arrived back at school around when we had planned on
returning.
I’m beginning to sense a routine that crops up whenever we
have important stuff to get done and a limited time to do it.
Anyway, we finished out our day drafting lesson plans and
actually doing some teaching (which didn’t go that great….practice makes
perfect?) then finished off work with a goodbye/welcome party with all the
teachers. It was a nice event but boy were we already so tired…and our day
wasn’t even over yet.
Our apartment
When we got off of work it was time to move in to our new
apartment! Yey! Actually, this wasn’t very stressful. And we had the two
teachers who previously occupied our apartment with us so they were able to go
over all the stuff. I’m pretty sure I’ll never use the stove ever because…it’s
gas. And you have to turn the GAS on/off...which is scary.
But other than that the apartment is as we expected...small but equipped with all the necessary facilities and enough room for all of our stuff (thank goodness). Hopefully we'll be able to pick up some stuff soon to make it feel more home-y. I'm really looking forward to the weekened!
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