Korean Job Discussion Forums

seoultee · Joined: 11 Mar 2011

Hello board! This is my first post...

I'll be leaving for Korea on August 16th. Once I get there I will be attending 10 days of orientation for EPIK. After that I go to start life for a year in Busan. Yeah!

What were the first thing you did when you arrived for the first time in Korea or what would you recommend now looking back? Did you wander the neighborhood? Clean your apt?? Sleep?

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Was brought from the airport to the hagwon. Sat around for two hours until classes finished. Then went with all the staff to a galbi restaurant.........

........... 2 hours later I was full of delicious meat, drunk on soju, being hand-fed by beautiful young women.........and already in love with Korea!!

Died By Bear · Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 2:33 am Post subject:

I still remember the first day. It was teachers day, and my memories of the sparkles that flew off the deep green leaves along the road drive to my cool new house will never leave my mind. The year was 1995. (No I have not been teaching English for that long, I write to you from the land of the free and the home of the brave - Scotland) Maybe that sparkle was part of being single, because I have not had that goddog sparkle since I got married. I miss that sparkle.

The first thing I did and listen to this advice my friend...

...take a train, go to the ocean, relax yourself among 100 million people. Just kidding, enjoy. Try to expose yourself to the food, despite what some may say about it, a lot of newcomers grow to love it and miss it back home. Trust me on this one, people get cravings from time to time and you see them in the Korean restaurants ordering bibimbap.

Gotta go beyond the neighborhood, it's your first day! Push the limits.

Very Happy

furtakk · Joined: 02 Jun 2009

I came into Incheon really late and had to wait 5 hours for the next bus to Daegu. My school hadn't arranged anything for me. Basically just told me to 'figure it out' at the airport. It didn't help that I had already been up for nearly 30 hours by the time I touched down. I had no where to sleep and was afraid of passing out in the airport with all my luggage and missing my bus. I had to do laps around the airport for 3 hours to stay awake. By the time I got on the bus I was out.

The bus stopped at a rest stop half way through and I needed to pee really badly, but I had no idea how long the stop was and there were about 30 other buses at the rest stop and I was kind of worried I would get on the wrong bus if I got off (I was a zombie by that point) so I had to hold it until I arrived in Daegu. I rolled into Daegu and was kind of blown away by the dozens of identical apartment blocks with giant lettering on the side. I found it really weird and had seen nothing like it.

I was brought to my apartment which was next to an older outdoor market. Really big culture shock at first. I slept for 3 hours and then went to work for the last 2 hours to meet all the teachers and observe for a bit. We went out for dinner the next day and I had a lot of fun; it definitely calmed my nerves. Got lost the first few times coming back to my apartment. It was in an older neighborhood down a set of really small alleyways. After I got my bearings and met some people things picked up a lot. My first 3 months were a lot of fun.

DejaVu · Joined: 27 Jan 2011 Location: Your dreams

You should wander off

Koreadays · Joined: 20 May 2008

I was taken to my bosses place to sleep the night, he showed me my room and and said tomorrow we get your place, I looked in the room and there was nothing in the room.. I mean NOTHING..
I walked back out of the room and said to the boss,
"ummm, sorry, but, is that the right room?"
Boss:.. yes, why?
me:"because I don't see the bed anywhere!"
boss:"ohhhhhhh do you need a bed?

me:"well, I just flew 20 hours and I am tired.. " and frankly sleeping on a wooden floor doesn't sound great."

boss:"emmmmm , ok ok, come with me, take your bag"

next stop, Sex motel in Sohmyeons redlight district LOL
I told my boss, WOW this is awesome.. thanks..
he looked at me like.. you like this??
I am like YES.. I will be happy to live here..

he made arrangements and I moved into a different sex motel the next day, sound effects and all.. LOL
spent 8 months in a sex motel, once I met other foreigners I realized my situation was different LOL

oh but what did do?
I got drunk on soju and entertained by my Korean co workers.

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:32 am Post subject:

Ate dinner.

J Rock · Joined: 17 Jan 2009 Location: The center of the Earth, Suji

I got off the plane on a thursday night and was picked up by a guy hired to drive me to my school. It took about an hour to drive there and it was about 8PM when I finally got there and I was exhausted from the flight. I met everyone for about 2 minutes then my manager drove me to Paris baguette and bought me a loaf of bread and some juice, then drove me to my new apartment.

I crashed out and woke up at 3am wide awake with nothing to do. The TV didn't work and I didn't have an adapter to plug in my laptop. So I made the wise choice to go for a walk and explore. After walking around for a good hour I realized I had no idea where I was, no idea how to get back, and it was dark out. I must have walked around for 5 hours till I finally found my apartment and to this day I have never been more excited to eat plain bread and drink juice! Very Happy

DorkothyParker · Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: Jeju

Like others, I was disoriented and starving. My apartment was in the same building as my school, so my boss tried to give me a tour. But I understood nothing, so she gave up. I ended up eating a granola bar I had in my bag and crashing at 9pm.

I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed around 5:30AM. Around 9 am, my husband and I set off in search of breakfast. Imagine our surprise to see that grocery stores and even coffee shops weren't open! We ended up eating McDonald's. :/ At 11, I met with my boss again and she "explained" my books and classes.

After that, I went shopping for home supplies with my husband and I think we ate our first "orange place" meal. We crashed early again, though were woken up around 10 by my new coworkers inviting us to go out with them. We declined.

It wasn't until the following day we ventured out into the world.

marsavalanche · Joined: 27 Aug 2010 Location: where pretty lies perish

NavarroJ · Joined: 09 Aug 2011

Tarztastic · Joined: 02 Jun 2011 Location: Australia

seoultee · Joined: 11 Mar 2011

Cool. Great stories. I'm not much of a drinker now but I do plan on doing a bus tour to get a good view of things soon after I get there. Also, just roaming about like you all mentioned just to see what my neighborhood and city are like. Also, probably have to get some food and cleaning supplies to scrub the apartment...

missty · Joined: 19 Feb 2008

My first thing I did here was to be taken to my school. I was with SMOE and was picked up by some hired guy who dropped me off with my co-teacher. We ate shabu shabu together and then because they hadn't prepared any place for me to live in, I went and stayed with a teacher and her parents. O.O

It was definitely surreal, sitting on the sofa eating some fruit that I can't remember the name of, and having this old couple gawking at me. They had wanted me to stay with them for the whole year, but I quickly put a stop to that.

Thankfully they found me a place within a week. But I did have some excellent home cooked Korean food given to me, and the wifi was good. So I guess it wasn't too bad?