To title this as day 1 is a bit misleading, as it's now Monday in Korea, and we left Saturday from Calgary. However, two days of travelling have finally taken us to our temporary residence in Gwanju, South Korea, capital of the province Jeollanamdo (which I believe can also be referred to as simply "Jeollanam").
Travelling here was long, but of course I guess that's inevitable when going overseas. The fact that Shannon and I were up till the time we had to leave for the airport on our depature day (4am), cleaning and moving out of the house, didn't help our ability to travel at all - we both slept on the one hour flight from Calgary to Seattle, which left us nearly incapacitated and unable to function at all once we arrived, forcing us to sit down for 10 or 20 minutes before even trying to find the correct gate for our next flight, and then curling up in a corner to sleep on the floor for the next three hours.
The flight from Seattle to Gwanju was delayed for an hour and a half. At the time I really didn't mind this at all, I had started reading the Lonely Planet travel guide for Korea, Shannon was sleeping, so a little extra time to enjoy the ample leg room was appreciated. 11 hours later however, when it dawned on us we were going to miss our connecting flight to Gwanju, I wasn't so pleased with the delay. We tried to make a mad dash from Incheon airport to the domestic, Gimpo airport, but even with the effciency of the Korean shuttle drivers, we were much too late (until now I'd never even heard of an airport shuttle that didn't wait for 20 minutes after loading your bags then make 8 or 9 stops before leaving the airport to go to your hotel or other location. We had hardly sat down before this one peeled out of the airport and drove straight to where we needed to be).
Shannon and I seem to be travelling very well together, though we have a very different way of going about things, especially when it comes to language barriers. I get a little embarrassed at not speaking the language of the country I'm in, and I don't like the expectation that it seems so many English speaking people have that other countries should all speak English. So, I mutter, stammer, and have so far avoided conversation with a lot of gestures, pointing and, welll... getting Shannon to speak. She's to the point, persistent, and while at times bordering on rude, she gets the job done. So when we couldn't find the shuttle for the hotel we now had to stay in, I tried to go back and ask where and when it was coming. Of course, every Korean lady who I see looked the same, I couldn't find the lady we spoke with before, no one knew what i was talking about it seemed, and I quickly left, a touch embarrassed. Shannon returned to talk to them all a moment later, and the entire group of women had a good laugh as she came to do the job I just failed so badly at.
We're in Gwanju now, after catching a connecting flight the next morning. Shannon is ill already, though we're not sure from what as we've both eaten all the same foods so far. We started our teacher orientation today (boring!) and she had to leave at least 3 times to be sick in the bathroom. She says she's a little better now, hopefully that's the case.
Some interesting things I've leanred so far:
Women's washrooms have an etiquette button - if you're going to be making "noises" while on the toilet, push it, and an array of chirping birds and ocean waves will ensure no one is the wiser.
Just because you order vegetables doesn't mean a pig didn't get cooked up and served with it.
There are people from Saskatchewan who have never been anywhere in the world except Saskatchewan. It's quite a mind-trip to meet one of them here in Korea (this girl is going to:
1) see the mountains for the first time
2) see the ocean for the first time
3) see another country for the first time
and all of this on the same trip. You'd think a person would take some baby-steps, but hey, why not just throw yourself into it all like this.
Well, I think I just fried my power adapter, which could quickly become a giant pain if I can't get another one. But for the moment, I'll have to get off it before the battery dies, so this brings an end to my first blog ever. Lee, this has been done on your request so I hope you've enjoyed it!
Rich
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