What up Korea?!
Saturday 23rd January 2010. Have finally arrived in Korea after 5/6 years of dwelling on the prospect. Holy shit. What am I doing? Oh well, what up Korea!
Got some bad asss DVT style pains in my leg from the 27 hour flight transition. Wgtn to Akl - Akl to Hong Kong - Hong Kong to Seoul (Incheon Airport). Met my agent James for the first time, he’s one hard case mofo. Keeps yarning about girls and drinking, am looking forward to taking him on. Drove with him to my new school in Gyeonggi-Do province, in an area called Daek Jung. Very small and very new. Met my new principal Mrs Song and new head teacher Cecilia who I interviewed with from NZ. Both very cool. Cecilia spent years in the US so speaks very good English. Mrs Song doesn’t speak a word. We have been lost in translation many times…
They took me to my new apartment and out for dinner. Got my first taste of authentic Korean Soju (very strong Rice wine around 20% alcohol). Mrs Song was very impressed with my eating skills. I explained I eat anything and everything and that dismissed her worries about my diet and brought out a great smile. Then home to rest.
Woke next day (Sunday) and went for a stroll around Daek Jung. Took about 10-15mins max! Went to GS-25 (Korean version of Starmart) and got some supplies. Luckily remembered how to say ‘bathroom’ in Korean (Hwa Jeung Shil) otherwise would have walked out with a big bag of kitchen towels instead of toilet paper. Idiot…
Taken out for lunch with some other teachers thanks to prize money they won from a competition last year.
Went to E-Mart (similar to Warehouse or K-Mart) and got toaster, snacks, 4kg bag of rice, tuna etc. Cecilia paid which was sweet! (around 50,000 won so $80 NZ). Checked out a local gaming arcade and cranked some Kareoke, pool, table tennis, internet and Wii. Finally got painkillers for my leg and cruised home…
