Stuff That's Different

Traffic lights are horizontal.

Pedestrian lights are green and red, not white and red.

Red lights do not command the same respect here that they do in North America. I have seen a number of blatant running of red lights.

Almost everything makes noise. Buttons make weird noises, doors talk to you when you open them.

Many apartment and building doors are opened by entering a combination on a keypad.
I was just given the keys to my apartment today, so I guess my building isn't posh enough for a keypad.

Red pepper is almost the only spice they use here.

They say "kimchi" instead of "cheese" when smiling for a picture. Kimchi is pickled cabbage, seasoned with red pepper (surprise). It is the national food.

There is no distinction regarding what kind of food is served at what meal. Kimchi and rice are served with every meal, along with several side dishes that everyone shares.

Children go to school from about 9-2:30, but then they have a whole series of extra schooling in English, Tae Kwon Do, and other subjects I haven't found out about yet. They spend almost all their time on education. They stay up until midnight doing homework, and have very little time for play.

Consequently, children are spoiled before entering school and do very little work in college (so I hear).

Homes are heated through a system of pipes that run under the floors. Hot water runs through the pipes and makes the floor warm, then the heat rises. I recently found out that this water can't heat the house and come out of the shower at the same time. You have to switch it on the thermostat.

Getting Here

Sorry I haven't been updating. The only internet access I've had since I've been here has been on my boss' computers at work, and I didn't want to abuse that priviges by spending hours at a time online. I had assumed that the connection was not wireless, but today I figured I'd bring my laptop to work and see if I could connect. Apparently I can--there seem to be a number of wireless connections in this building that I can pirate, so this will help me out until I get internet at home.

So I made it to Korea. It was quite a trip--about 30 hours total. Dad and I left the house at 3am to get me there for my 6:00 flight. Of course, the car broke down, which he tells me only happens when he's on the way to the airport. We were already running a few minutes late, and waiting for Ryan, whom I had to wake up from a deep slumber, to come get us made it worse. I think we got to PWM around 4:30, a half hour later than I was supposed to, according to the travel agent. But I was lucky enough for my first leg to be both within the US and not full. So I made it from curbside to the gate in less than half an hour.

The PA system at my gate was out, as we all found out ten minutes before the flight left. Half the passengers were still sitting at the gate at 5:50 when someone shouted "Detroit!" and we all rushed to get in line and go through. In this rush, I left my brand new hat on the seat next to me, and left my reading glasses and my other two boarding passes on the floor near the gate entrance. I felt like I was running around with my head chopped off. Someone found the glasses and boarding passes and the stewardess gave them to me on the plane, but I've lose the hat forever. What a pissa.

The flights were okay. I have a quick two-hour flight to Detroit, and because it wasn't full, I got to move to an empty row. I had a middle seat on the 13-hour flight to Tokyo, which I was really unhappy about, but it was a four-seat row, and there was no one in the other middle seat, so it could have been worse. I slept a lot, watched a couple of the crappy movies they showed (Arctic Tale and Ratatouille--terrible), and ate a couple meals (luckily they were free).

I was only in the Tokyo airport for under an hour, so I didn't have time to look around or do anything. It was only another two hours to Busan, South Korea, where my boss Heather picked me up with her dad. She said that the girl I'm replacing wasn't going to be leaving Korea right away, so I would not be able to move into my apartment right away, and would have to stay with her for about ten days. I still haven't moved in, but I think I'm supposed to tomorrow. I'll be living right next to my boss' mom's apartment.

Living with Heather and her family has been okay. She had two kids, a girl who just entered fifth grade and who is one of my students, and a boy who is probably a couple years older. Heather's husband spends most of his time in Seoul doing business, but he came home this weekend. Heather's parents are also around a lot, and her mom cooks all the meals and does the cleaning. I'm finding it hard to be waited upon, but I'm discouraged from doing any clearing of the table or other cleaning myself.

I'll be doing some catch-up entries over the next few days.

Almost

Everything is pretty much set for me to go to Korea now. I got my flight itinerary emailed to me, so that's all set. I leave Thursday 1/17 at 6am, which means leaving for the airport at 3am. Then I spend about 18 1/2 hours travelling from Portland to Detroit to Tokyo to Busan, where I will be met by someone from my school. Busan I think is about 30 miles from Ulsan, where I'm going, so we'll probably take some sort of public transportation back to my apartment. Or maybe they'll send a limo, haha.

I'm disappointed in the airline they put me on, though. I flew with Virgin Atlantic when I went to Kenya, and that really spoiled me. I'm flying with Northwest this time--not so luxurious. I checked the website to see what I would be getting in the way of food and entertainment and such. There will be movies, but I think you have to pay for it, and it' not personal screens, just overhead stuff. The movies they have on the itinerary don't look so hot, either. Family stuff, mostly. I think I'll have to pay for my food, too, what a ripoff. I'll have to eat several times in 24 hours of travel time, so I guess I'll bring a bunch of food with me.

Packing is almost done. It's amazing how much stuff you have to bring for a year abroad. I filled up my backpacking backpack with all the essential clothes, and I'm also bringing a ton of the toiletries that you can't find or are expensive in Korea, which takes up about half of my massive suitcase. That's good, though, so I can replace all that space with stuff I've bought.

I've downloaded the internet phone service Skype, which will allow me to call people in the States for cheap. Anyone who downloads the program from Skype.com can call or receive calls from me for free from your computer. You just need an internet connection and a microphone headset and it works like instant messenger services. Just add me as a contact: alia.pugh.

Visa Process and Other Junk

Well, for those of you who were wondering, I did make it to Maine. Eventually. I stopped in New York City to stay with a friend for a couple nights, and that was fun. We walked around Brooklyn and Manhattan, went to Central Park, saw the giant Christmas tree (which was ugly), and went to a couple restaurants. Riding the subway was fun, and I got a lot of exercise doing all that walking.

I should have stayed another night. I ended up driving right along with the major storm that hit New England and didn't get too far. After I got out of the city, I got stuck in the worst traffic I've ever experienced--it was bumper to bumper for a large portion of CT's highways, and for at least 90 minutes I didn't achieve speeds higher than 10mph, mostly less than 5mph. I travelled only 165 miles after eight hours of driving, and then decided it would be best to stop at a motel for the night. Thanks for the help in setting that up, Dad. It was a very frustrating day. I even had to shovel out my own parking space at the hotel (a 45 minute endeavor). I'm told Pakistanis have different standards when it comes to customer service.

But, home at last.

I applied for my Korean E-2 visa the day after I got home. Then I found out that there was a new requirement being instated by the Korean government as of December 15th. I was able to get my other materials, like the local criminal background check and the medical checkup form that I made myself, before the new, stricter changes were made in the whole teaching in Korean process, but not this one. I was forced to drive to my "local" Korean consulate where I had mailed the application materials to complete an interview with the consul to determine my eligbility. This meant taking three hours to drive to Newton, Mass. for a ten-minute interview and driving all the way back. Had I known this (and they could have told me when I called and asked a bunch of questions about the visa process), I would have scheduled the interview and brought in my application at that time, instead of paying FedEx to overnight the docs. What a hassle. I went, though, and got even more angry that all the consul asked me was already written on my application, plus the question about why I want to teach in Korea, all of which could have been done over the phone (they refused a phone interview).

I was approved, though, and my passport was mailed back to me last week with the visa inside. I'm kind of wondering what happens if I fill up all the pages in my passport while I'm away, since Kenya took up a few pages and I only have a few pages left...

With the visa process complete, I now just have to get over there. I received an email from the company that serves as the liaison between me and the school, and they say I'll be departing January 17th, arriving the 18th, and starting at the school after a couple days of rest on the 21st. I really hope they fly me out of Portland, not New York.