annyong

Well after a long journey involving four flights, including the final flight where we had to circle Jeju due to headwinds, a very slow limo ride through snowy west Seoul, and a lucky happenstance into my boss once on the campus of Cheju Halla College, I am finally here. Actually, I am not on campus right now since there is no internet there, which is pretty silly for a junior college in one of the most heavy internet using countries in the world to not have wifi, but whatever. I got in yesterday afternoon and quickly got to orientation, which was more of disorientation, my boss has a pretty weak grasp of English, which deteriorates even more when he is not reading verbatim from a powerpoint slide. It isnt really clear how many hours of english I will be teaching per day or where exactly I am required to be. I am relying heavily on my assistant "Dorian" (Choo-Sun) who is a really amazing guy, he is in his second year studying communications at University of Seoul, and is from Jeju, but lived in Las Cruces(cities my Korean counterparts have lived in in America: Las Cruces, Eugene, Apop for two years and honed his English really well to the point where he read portrait of Dorian Gray, hence his english name being Dorian.

I am really enjoying Korea so far, the food is wonderful, although I think I might eventually tire of the combinations of red pepper, cabbage and mushrooms that are the side dish of any meal (and thats not even including the kimchi!). Jeju is a really interesting city, because as an American flying over the city, I was worried it would be a sprawling suburb. While it does have sprawl, there is no real distinction between city and town and suburb, it is just a never ending network of mixed use buildings. You never walk more than 500 feet without seeing a FamilyMart of GS25, the equivalents of seven-elevens, cafes (like the one I am sitting in now), or restaurants. The city is really teeming with life all over.

The most surprising thing so far I have seen is the 'superstores' that dominate the city. Imagine a super walmart or super target where everyone goes for everything. Last night one of my fellow teachers, Graham and I went there to get some adapters for the outlets in our dorm, and we just browsed around the store for an hour. The cost of living here is very low, so we were marveling at all the things we could buy, like washing machines, that we couldnt back home in the states. Unfortunately a single can of Budweiser would be W3500 ($3.50) at the store we settled on some Hite to enjoy after dinner, a six pack of which cost W2000 or $2.

It is also really cold. And koreans dont turn on heat, so while it is 45 degrees outside, the door is open and my fingers slowly freeze as I tap this out on my keyboard.

I'll leave you with the haiku in english on the wall behind me,
Admiration of coffee
It's blacker demon
like the hell its' hot
like the angel being pure and like love it's sweet.