The rain kept me indoors all day while my roommates went to work. It was a long day. I woke up with a start early, early in the morning and for a blinding moment could not remember where I was. Tossing and turning and uncontrollably clenching all the muscles in my face I spent the next few hours trying to convince my body that THIS was the time to sleep, but my mind churned up worry after worry, thought after thought, worst-case scenarios one right after the other. So I got up and padded into the kitchen to refill my water mug. The floor in my Korean apartment doesn't creak like the Ann Arbor house. I could walk around as much as I wanted without worrying anyone would be disturbed. It was an oddly satisfying feeling.
I walked over to the large living room windows and looked out, sipping my water. I watched a couple early birds - all men - walking, biking, smoking, carrying things. I peered into the apartment complex across the street from us and studied the massive apartment bloki just to the right. That's when I decided that Seoul is just a city, like any other. It has Polish looking apartment buildings and people who are just trying to make their way through life. This revelation cut through all that tossing and turning like a laser beam and I felt infinitely better.
*****
When Jen got home from work she took me over to the school. I was utterly delighted by the tiny space. It's cozy and friendly, covered in blue-sky wallpaper and the children's artwork. Hosung (my super-supportive boss who called me earlier in the day while I was unpacking just to make sure I was ok) gave me the grand tour and a quick rundown of how things work. My class is called Cherry Class, and was decorated with a large, glitter-glue-rific banner welcoming me (well, welcoming Adrina, at least =). I have a sense that I am going to have an immense amount of support from Hosung, who smoothed out all my worry-wrinkles by promising to let me observe him teach for a day or two.
Oh, and all that effort that went into finding me a pair of work appropriate flats was all for nought. All teachers and students leave their shoes by the door and wear slippers all day. I am strangely excited about this quirk of Korean culture. The klapki they gave me are really comfy!
Samantha showed me around the neighborhood after that. We went up to the food court and movie theater on the top floor of Bauhaus, the monster department store by which I will collect my bearings when I'm out and about. We stopped into a pet store full of the most adorable miniature dogs I have ever seen. Samantha fell in love with a baby chihuahua that was small enough to fit in my purse. She took us down to the river where there is a beautiful jogging/biking path paved with rubber and lined with free outdoor weight lifting equipment, all under a canopy of Japanese cherry blossoms that promise to be stunning come spring.
We ate samgyeopsal for dinner - thick pieces of fatty pork grilled right at our table with kimchi and dipping sauces. Samantha also ordered a cold noodle soup with a little kimchi in it that was extremely delicious. The restaurant is right around the corner from our apartment, and a friend of Samantha's came to meet us. Her name is Apple, also known as Blaire, and I can't remember what her Korean name is. I love this idea of choosing your own English name. You get some absolutely bizarre ones, like Saturn, a boy at the school. Maybe I should choose a Korean name for myself.
The jet lag is out of this world. I went to asleep around midnight and woke up for the first time at 2am. Again at 4am and could not get back to sleep. And here I am, blogging because it's too exhausting arguing with my body over sleep schedules. All I can say is thank god I don't have to teach until Monday. Hopefully by then I'll have figured this sleep thing out.
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