Arrival and Such

Well, here I am.

And by here, I mean a hotel room with all the fun little Korean quirks one isn't used to. For example, if one wants to take a hot shower, one must first turn on the hot water. Cold showers are actually pretty refreshing, though, so I've been availing myself of those. There's also a smoking room attached to the bedroom because Korea is cool like that.

The flight over was pretty sweet. If you've never flown on an Asian airline before, you're missing out. Even the cramped hell that is coach becomes halfway decent when the young, attractive stewardesses keep supplying you with free wine, and politely asking if they can bring you more food. It helped too that the in-flight entertainment system had Street Fighter II and Pac-man. I am not good at Street Fighter (there are only so many times I can stomach being body-slammed by a muscle-bound resident of the U.S.S.R.), but I think my attempts amused the sweet Korean couple next to me, whose actions alternated between snuggling each other, praying the rosary, doing complex math equations, and beating Street Fighter. I watched all of these things unfold next to me, and they made me wish I spoke Korean so that we could be awesome rosary-praying, Street Fighter friends.

After making it through customs, I successfully navigated Incheon Airport to find the bus to Seoul (correction: the RIGHT bus to Seoul. Every bus goes to Seoul.), whereupon I met a few other Americans also here to work for Chungdahm. This particular bus, but probably also every bus, was equipped with a television broadcasting the Olympics.

One of my favorite things about traveling to a foreign country is watching its advertising. Not knowing the language makes it even better because you have to go entirely upon what you see. The result will either be a great triumph for the advertiser, or a hilarious cultural misunderstanding. For example:

1. Expedia no longer needs to aid of William Shatner to sell tickets. Rather, a large, man-sized bear with stars on its chest does the job much better.

2. Also, a well-dressed, young man would rather eat sausages than be undressed by two attractive young women.

The second message is, of course, my favorite, and as far as I can discern, that is exactly what the commercial says. Language barrier! Yes!

After wild gesticulations and poor pronunciation of my hotel name, I finally made it clear to a cab driver where I wanted to go, and, like magic, he got me there. I am now comfortably situated in a sweet room, eating sweets with a sweet roommate. This morning, we ventured out for breakfast at a patisserie and coffee at one of the many, many coffee shops that populate every region of Korea. Seriously. There are, like, five different coffee shops on every block. If there was any doubt in my mind about whether or not I'd like Korea, this just confirmed that I will, in fact, love Korea.

In fact, I think I'm going to go get some more coffee as soon as I'm done posting this. Which is now. Orientation starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Tarico