J.T. vs. The 35 hour day

Well, I’ve successfully made it to Korea from the glorious state of Ohio. I figure that’s as good a time as any to start a new blog. I know I promised everybody I’d try, so I’ll do my best to keep it fairly updated.

Yesterday morning I got up, threw my last couple of things into my suitcases and backpack, and headed out to good old Port Columbus. I was a bit cranky from not getting much sleep; I spent that night visiting the Factors (Happy Birthday, Ben!), double-checking my suitcases, cleaning up my room, etc. Mom and Pop took me to the airport and Dad met me there to say goodbye. I accidentally went to the wrong terminal, because it’s the terminal I usually go to. *shrugs* The security woman looked at me like I was an idiot, but what are ya gonna do? I successfully did get on the plane and headed off for my connection in Atlanta, then on to Korea.

On the flight to Korea, there was a screen that showed some T.V. programming and a few movies. When it wasn’t showing those, though, it showed the flight information. It also had a little graphic showing the flight path. I hate flying for a long time, so I was especially irritated when I realized that the flight path from Georgia to Korea went back and passes the Ohio border. I hate it when that stuff happens. It was alright, though. The flight was mostly just very dull. There were three movies, and I watched two of them. One was “Fever Pitch,” and it was alright. The other was a Korean movie, I think. It was subtitled. It reminded me very much of the Chinese movie I’ve seen, especially that it was mostly quite depressing. There were two kids with severe Cancer, and they both took turns almost dying a lot. Both of them ended up dying, but one was just brought back by the doctors. The other one might have actually died once before, as well, and been brought back by a Tarzan-man with his magic canteen water, but I’m not really sure; the directors left that question unanswered. Other than the movies, I watched some video clips, mostly of “Norm,” on my computer until the battery gave out. I tried to sleep, but it was hard when I was sitting by several obnoxious kids and the only woman on the plane who wanted her window shade open. I didn’t sleep much on the plane at all.

Well, I finally got there. I had to go through immigration twice because I didn’t have the right forms the first time. I exchanged by money, then proceeded to wander aimlessly looking for my cabby. Another cabby tried to get me to ride with him, but I stood firm in the fact that I had no clue where I was going, so he probably couldn’t take me there. I (miraculously) found my cabby and we started the trip to Daejeon. He spoke very little English, so when things seemed like they were going wrong I was completely left in the dark. I think we got lost once. Also, when we got close, the person I was supposed to meet to let me into my apartment and such wasn’t answering her phone. I thought that was probably the case when he looked annoyed and had to make about a dozen phone calls, but I wasn’t sure until we did finally get a hold of the person and she told me that her phone was acting up.

The woman I met was one of the bosses at the school where I’m teaching. She showed me around briefly, introduced me to a couple of the other teachers living in my building, and took off. It was about 10 o’ clock p.m. I realized that, with the extra 11 hours of flight, this was my very first 35 hour day. I also realized that wasn’t cool. So, I unpacked a bit and hit the sack. I was pleased that my bed wasn’t as small as the director of the school told me it would be, but I was also irritated because that means the sheets I bought won’t fit. Well, they won’t fit right, at least. The happiness to have a sizable bed won out, though, and I drifted off to sleep.

I got up today earlier than I needed to, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. My bed is very comfortable, but only really if you’re sleeping on you back. If not, it’s way too firm. I had turned in my sleep, since I normally sleep on my side, and I woke up with no arm. Well, it felt that way, at least. It was so numb that it took about a minute just to get to the part where it feels heavy and starts to hurt. It hurt for about and hour or more, actually. Anyways, so I straightened up my room a bit and watched some T.V. There is some American programming, so I was lucky. And there’s CNN! It’s CNN international, so it’s a little different, but close enough J I watched some CNN, the end of the Mets/Nationals game, and an episode of “That 70’s show” I happened upon, then I took a shower. This was a lovely experience, since I don’t have a shower, per se. What I do have is a tiled bathroom and a shower head. That’s right, if you shower in Korea, you do so right in the middle of your bathroom, and it just runs down a drain in the corner. I promptly broke the showerhead holding clamp, because I’m cool like that. It was quite a different experience. Afterwards, of course, your bathroom is wet for half of the day. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to dry it down, or something… Eh, I’ll figure it out.

I walked with one of the school teachers to the school. She’s named Erin Perrie, and she’s from the northern wonder that is Canada. She showed me how to get to the school, and we talked about her experiences and such (which, for anybody who knows me, knows that means I was too busy talking to remember how to get to the school). We met up with Jeff, another of the Canadian school teachers, and went off to lunch. I had so good Korean food that I can’t pronounce. Erin ordered it for me. It’s the stuff you get that had the fried egg on top… Eh, I can’t remember. Anyways, I enjoyed it.

That’s it for now. I have class observations and such this afternoon, so I’ll have that to write later. Until then, I’m doing great and I hope all you peeps back in the States are doing well, too. Later!