English Version - Week 1

Thank you to all of those who helped get me here. You are awesome!


Annyong Haseyo!

I hope you guys are doing well! As some of you know, I arrived in Seoul on Friday September 1st 2006 after almost 20 hours of flight: from Montreal to Vancouver to Seoul. Seoul is 13 hours ahead of Montreal and 7 hours ahead of Strasbourg.

I was picked up from the airport and taken to a motel where I was to stay until I found an apartment. I found it on Tuesday and moved in on Wednesday. For those of you who knew my apartment in Strasbourg, this one is smaller and has way less storage so I'll have to buy a shelf and some drawers second hand when I have some money. The apartment did come with a bed (single) and two gaz burners (still no oven!) and a fridge. An interesting point, there is no bath nor shower. The hose for the shower is above the sink and the water poors directly to the floor of the bathroom! This means that your toilet gets wet while you shower. Not very practical but I had already experienced such a thing in Bangladesh in 2002; over there I had neither hot water, nor bathroom tiles but plentry of spiders the size of my hand. Over here, there are no spiders, the floor is tiled and there is hot water so I'm in paradise!

For the moment there is not that much going on because I had a cold upon arrival here and spent my first weekend in bed watching Korean television. I have to tell you though, over here the Koreans know how to do things right: they subtitle English movies. Yes!

The language here is pretty difficult and the words sometimes pretty long with sounds I'm not in the habit of pronouncing. I'm afraid that learning this language will prove to be more difficult than learning Bangla, but I'm up for the challenge.

The people here are perhaps not the most friendly that exist, as they will easily push you in the supermarket or on the street without saying they are sorry (it's not really part of the culture to apologize), but the people here have been really indulgent with regards to me. The first night I arrived I spent about 20 minutes trying to buy food to go in a little restaurant with not more than 5 booths and the people there were very patient with me as I looked through my little Korean phrasebook to find the words I wanted. Since that night I have the opportunity to try a fantastic little soup which is a variation of miso soup (Japanese) called toenjang tchigae which has the added elements of crab, clams and an Asian form of cucumber that can be cooked. But beware! If you do not like spicy food, stay away! For those of you living in Strasbourg, there is a decent Korean restaurant in the Krutenau, for those of you in Montreal, there is a great one close to Concordia university.

On to other things...I started work on Monday. I work Monday to Friday in the following way:

6:40-7:30am
7:40-8:30am
a break of 3 hours
12:00-12:50pm
a break of 6 hours
7:20-8:10pm
8:15-9:50pm (this last course is offered two or three times a week and I teach it every day)

Saturday. 9:30-1:30pm (this is only for the first two months as I am obligated to teach on Saturdays in my contract. Afterwards I can decide to stop if I want but if I want to make extra money, I can work on Saturdays with an overtime salary)

I know that this sounds a bit crazy but for the moment it works okay. Seeing as how I'm new, I got that crappy shift in the middle of the day, but schedules change every month with the start of new classes. And surprise! I actually like my classes. The students are motivated, very respectful and the ages range from 24-45. The majority are here to improve their english for work which I find awesome. They work hard here and I can appreciate that.

I found an apartment 10 minutes from work and I wake up at 5am every morning. For those of you who know me well, you know this sounds crazy but I like waking up that early and taking my time getting dressed. I feel good here and the people I work with are pretty cool.

In the months to come I hope to take a class in Korean, join a fitness club (there is one in the building I work in) and take some day trips (Sundays for the moment) to explore Seoul a little bit as well as the immediate surroundings. Fall is supposed to be the most beautiful season here.
Don't worry about me! Things are going well in my new life and I'm feeling as though, if things continue on this path, I can easily see myself staying another year.

With love,

Annyonghi Kyeseyo (goodbye!)

L