Day One

I mentioned in my previous post that I almost didn't make it to Korea. Three days before my flight I got a call from SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) telling me I had no job. It was explained to me, in Korea's finest Engrish, that due to an overfilled job pool SMOE had to let some people go.

It was probably one of the worst moments in recent memory only in that I never felt so utterly screwed over in my life. I quit my job, paid for storage for a year, bought a plane ticket, jumped through all the beaucratic hoops to get my visa, and said good bye to all my friends. I was so shocked by the call that I didn't even argue. All I could do was hang up in disbelief.

I was fortunate enough to get a job through EPIK (English Program in Korea, another government program) due to some last minute positions opening up. I chalk that up to my recuiter, Footprints Recruiting, who, having had a good relationship with EPIK in the past, managed to funnel me over and get me into orientation. Not many people got this deal.

About 100 other people, just like me, were booted this year by SMOE. The excuse? They underestimated the amount of people who applied (due to the recession) and so overfilled their positions too much. This has been the official reason, but it has yet to explain how SMOE managed to sign 100 too many contracts, only to break them later. Someone, somewhere in the bureaucratic soup, royally fucked up.

I'm not going to dwell on it too much. It does paint an interesting beginning to my trip over here. But I am a little uneasy with the fact that the Korean government can basically break a legal contract with me without any repercussions. I suppose the pendulum does swing the other way, though. I can leave at any time and not suffer any legal consequences.

The plane ride over was the longest flight I've ever been on. 12+ hours in coach wasn't the most comfortable either. On the plus side the food actually wasn't that bad and I got a snazzy TV to watch movies on (even recent ones like Star Trek). Considering I got a great deal on the ticket ($515), I wasn't complaining.

I probably watched three movies in a row before my eyes started bleeding out. I Am Legend, which I wasn't too impressed with (The Omega Man is better). The Last King of Scotland, which was pretty good. Then Coraline, which I couldn't finish due to the aforementioned bleeding of the eyes. The seating, like most seating for me, was too uncomfortable for sleeping. It was trippy from time to time to look out and only see blue (blue skies and blue sea). Otherwise, I did a whole lot of nothing on the flight. I really should have brought more books.

Seeing Korea for the first time from the air was definitely something new. The landscape, as I've said before, is very green and mountainous. Wherever there isn't mountains there's farmland or an endless sea of white (buildings). It kinda reminded me of the landscape in Dragon Ball Z, to make an extremely lame analogy.

Once off the plane we had to get a quick medical check-up. Swine flu is apparently a bigger problem here than in the States, and they weren't taking any chances. Once through that it was an eerie walk through the International section of the airport. I say eerie because as advanced and modern Incheon International Airport is, there were very few people walking around. Customs was a breeze. I actually wasn't asked anything specific, just a questionnaire about whether I had any prohibited items (weapons, drugs, pornographic materials?) and if I had any symptoms of flu.

Once in the lobby we (me and other ESL teachers that got the boot from SMOE) met some Footprints staff. Since our situation was special we had to wait around until we could catch a bus that would take use to the EPIK orientation in Jeonju. I spent the time looking around the airport. There were the usual convenience restaurants and shops. My first real holy-shit-I'm-in-another-country encounter was my discovery that you could buy beer for a dollar at the convenience store and just drink it in the airport. Awesome.

Overall the airport was pretty impressive. Granted, I usually use Oakland Airport and that place is definitely a dump, but even still, I could tell it was one of the nicer airports. I couldn't get over how much space there was. Apparently I came in on a slow night; there's usually a lot more people trucking around. I believe it considering how utterly huge Seoul is.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. The bus ride was a couple hours through the night. The bus could only take us as far as a Marriott hotel near Jeonju. We had to go the rest of the way via taxi.

Taxis in Korea. Good lord. If there's ever a specific place I'll die in this country it's in a fucking taxi. These guys drive like maniacs. Besides the fact that Korean traffic is already pretty crazy, these taxis literally run red lights all the time. And there's no seat belts, from what I could tell. And the driver has a TV on the dashboard. While he's on his cellphone.

It was definitely a scary ride, albeit a little fun. I felt like I was in a game of Crazy Taxi.

But I made it. Jeounju University. I'll end it here and talk about my orientation in the next post.

Take note that I posted a link to my facebook Korea album. I don't really feel like posting all my pictures here, so just follow that if you feel like seeing all the perrrty pictures.

An-nyeong-hi-gye-se-yo for now.