Korean Job Discussion Forums

[skinhead]

[Butterfly]

Couldn't wait to get started.

[gomurr]

The night I fisrt arived in Kangnung was the same night that the North Koreans had beached one of their submarines not to far from Kyong-po. When I woke up to sound of diesel engines and looked out I could see alot of army vehicles moving along the street. My boss called me up and explained that a group (24 actually) North Koreans were running around the mountains. He was going to pick me up to make sure that nothing happened to me. Felt like I had walked into a war zone for the first couple of weeks.

[peppermint]

I was pretty freaked out, but curious at the same time. I remember walking around my neigborhood and truning only when there was a sign that I could read. I didn't cry until I wandered into a Paris Baguette and discovered the wonders of redbean paste.

[Toby]

Really excited and looking forward to starting.

[phaedrus]

Tired.

I had flown from east coast Canada with other teachers, and then we went directly to Japan after arriving in Incheon.

By the time we returned from Japan with our visas, and then got to our apartments in Seoul, it was twelve at night, and we had been travelling, or running around Osaka, for nearly thirty-six hours.

Oh yeah, and then the hagwon tells us, "Come to the school tomorrow morning by nine so you can start training."

Fucking cunt licking bastard assholes.

[iain77]

Flew from Toronto to Vancouver (never been west of Detroit before), had a two hour stopover in Van, chatted up a bartender girl in the midst of noisy construction in the Van airport. Got on my flight, changed seats with a girl so she could sit next to her husband, ended up sitting next to a korean woman who had been living in Vancouver for a few years, we talked about Canada (told her she HAD to visit Montreal), politics, religion (she was a thumper, but not pushy about it), and our favourite french existentialist philosophers. She was kind enough to explain to the stewardesses that I was a vegetarian and would not eat ANY meat they gave me (even ham or fish). That, of course has changed. Got to the airport many hours later. Called the hagwon I now work at, told them I was here. Got on an airport limo bus and wrote a poem as the sun set over the terminal, and we pulled away. As we neared Seoul it was completely dark. I found the neon crosses atop all the churches surreal, somewhat garish. I arrived at the hotel that they put me up in, half an hour later, my supervisor arrived and told me where and how to get to the hagwon the next day. I watched an hour of local TV. From that experience I have no desire to get cable. It was late, I was tired, I went to bed.

[hojucandy]

that 11/9 thing happened a few days before i came to korea the first time. 9/11 whatever... can't say it had any effect on my plans.

i came here with my girlfriend of the time. it was her idea actually. after the obligatory pre-travel fight, we flew into incheon at about 6 am on a saturday.

we waited hours for the pickup. we had a lot of luggage and when the pickup arrived it was two people in a small car. it was very difficult to fit all out stiff in the car. as we drove to ansan the driver payed christian music and quizzed us about our religion. i felt a little uneasy....

got to the apartment. it was up a dirty staircase in a filthy street. it was damn cold. the apartment was quite large but also very bare and uninviting. next door was the apartment shared by the other two teachers at the school. but they were not home.

we were left there alone with no real indication what was going to happen next.... we sat around shivering and wondering how to make the heating work.

went for a short walk down the laneway and felt quite excited by the strangeness of it all. cold cold cold - remember we had just come from PNG where i had lived for 10 years. finally the boss shows up with bed linen, curtains, various things to brighten the place up. also some food. then the other tyeachers got home and we had an impromptu party...

it was all looking good suddenly.

i cannot remember the next morning. i remember eating galbi that evening with the other teachers. i also remember asking them where they went shopping. they had been there several months but were still buying everything at the corner store. looking out the window i could see and E-Mart in the distance. but they told me they had never been there and had been told it was just electronic goods. i trekked over there and enlightened them.

521

[Saxiif]

[the_beaver]

confused

My manager ordered this fantastic-looking breakfast (some kind of soup with all the little dishes on the side) and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted what he was having but he insisted I wouldn't like it and after going back and forth for a while he ordered ��� and said I'd like it because it was western.

[Zed]

I didn't lose any weight Skinny. I had free lunch at school so I filled up on rice very well every day and then ate some cheap quick food at night. With those ajumma hagwon lunches, the soup definitely made the meal. bad soup = bad lunch.

[skinhead]

[Zyzyfer]

I just remember waking up, feeling like crap from the flight and jet lag, and having my apartment invaded to bring in various random things, like fans and curtains and crap. Then my boss drove literally across the street to a restaurant, where we had bulgogi. Mostly, I was just baffled that I didn't understand a thing going on around me, but I was pretty receptive to new stuff.

[Michelle]

Hi There,

I certainly didn't have any adjustment period, any time where I could chill out go look around, find familiar food.

It was straight to the hagwon for me. Starting work, I still knew nothing. I had very little help there.

[Homer]

Freaked and excited.

Weird mix.

First few weeks were a big adjustment but that normal and in the end you can learn a lot about yourself in those first few weeks.