My Arrival and First Day

Sorry this is so late, but I got to GwangJu at 11:40pm last night, and to the apartment around midnight so I didn't post. And sorry dad, my title is not as awesome as Hannah's I'm too tired to be creative :)

Anyway, my flight was fairly uneventful. My first plane (Boston to LAX) was United. We had a cool pilot, and I was in between two nice men, but the seats were so small that I had difficulty curling up to sleep. This is unusual for me as I am tiny and can normally curl and sleep quite comfortably on planes. During my layover I met another girl who was going over to teach English, though she was going to a different place, I have since forgotten her name and where she was going to teach. Asiana was fine and I slept a lot on that flight. It was definitely one of my favorite planes :) The seats were comfy, we each had our own personal TVs on the seat in front of us and could choose movies or whatnot. I watched Alice in Wonderland (finally, it was awesome!), How to Train Your Dragon (again finally, and amazingly cute!), and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (I dozed for most of that awful movie that made me mad). The food, as Hannah already mentioned, was the best airline food ever. I had the Korean food option and it was delicious, even though I didn't eat much of it as it was served early in the flight and I had recently had lunch. On that flight I had a window seat so it was a little easier to sleep. I slept most of that flight. Above are pictures my dad emailed me taken via webcam at LAX of my plane taxi-ing and taking off, and my flight plan/stats.

Then I got to have the fun of finding the bus. I was a little nervous about this. Going through customs I met two nice boys, one of whom was heading to the military base, the other was his friend, I assume, and going somewhere else, I think. They said they would help me, but I promptly lost sight of them and couldn't find them again in the Baggage claim area. I then got directions to where I could buy the tickets, got slightly turned around and one of the men outside helped me out, and put my stuff on a cart which I stupidly had not grabbed. I bought the ticket and went over to wait for the bus, and while waiting I got hit on (that's gotta be a record for me except for the few times I've been hit on while on Amtrak). He didn't believe me when I told him that I did not know my address and did not have a phone number (both of which were true facts, I'm still a little unsure as to my address and still have no cell phone, I do have a phone in my apartment, but I don't know my number). He tried to give me his and I told him I probably wouldn't call him (I know I wouldn't have, but I was too tired to remember how to make a definite statement). He finally left me alone. I went into the air-conditioned waiting area and met a nice girl who had been planning on traveling to America to study but her flight was canceled, a woman who was very kind and lent me her cell phone so I could call Sandy and let her know when my bus left, and a man who helped me get my bags on the bus and was also very nice.

That was my fun traveling story :) nothing else interesting happened on the way here.

My first day at Mun Hwa was interesting. I followed Sandy around, as I am taking her classes and this will help me get to know them and for them to get to know me. We opened each class with them asking me questions. The most common questions were my age (Korean age 23, American age 22), my height (we guessed 150cm), if I had a boyfriend (no, that question was only once followed by asking if I was married instead), and where in America I was from (I had to tell them Boston because they probably wouldn't know the states very well. This was, in all but one class, immediately followed by the boys going, "Oh, Red Sox. Do you like baseball?". Glad to know what my state is known for). It was fun. I also did roll call and tried to pronounce all the names. All but one class laughed at my attempts, but didn't help me fix them and the boys would not tell me who was who. One Grade 6 class helped me out a lot though. And there was almost always a girl who sat near or at the front correcting my mistakes. I'm a little worried about taking over some of the classes, they seem very attached to Sandy and I'm worried they'll hold her leaving against me. She told me I shouldn't worry about that though, as long as I established that I was in control of the class I'll be fine. Some of the Grade 7 boys are taller then me, though, so that will be fun. I thought I wouldn't have to deal with that as much here, oy vey.

Tomorrow I will be stalking Sandy again, though hopefully I'll be more awake, I've been very tired today. Then, apparently, we have a break from Friday until Wednesday (I think, not entirely positive, my brain is having trouble remembering things...silly jet lag, should go away tomorrow mostly, I hope) so I came at a good time :) I start teaching next week, I'm so excited! I think I covered everything, that's all I can think of anyway. So I'll say good-night for now (or good-morning for the US time zone).

~Lyn