Arriving in Seoul

19:35 NZ time, we are about an hour away from landing, I have just completed stage one of the arduous task of transforming Sammi from complete slouch to perfect employee. So makeup done, then I’ll do my hair and lastly put on my new blouse and skirt freshly ironed by Mum thanks! I want to be ready before we get off the plane because my contact is meeting me at the arrivals and I don’t want to keep him waiting. The other kiwi’s will be meeting him too and then I’ll say good bye as they catch a bus to the suburbs. I’ve practiced my greetings over and over so hopefully I don’t screw it up when I get there!

I have absolutely no idea what to expect and I am starting to get my freak on.

Plane has landed and I go into panic mode. I walk off the plane with my excess hand luggage (almost 15 kg, no idea how I managed to get through with it) and can hardly breathe. My saving grace is having the couple with me as I don’t have to have the initial meeting by myself. We follow the signs and find ourselves about to board a subway. Was definitely not expecting that. Everyone is running so we follow and squeeze into the train seconds before the doors close. The kiwi guy asks “are we going the right way?”, we just shrug and hope for the best. After a very quick ride we jump off and find ourselves at immigration. We wait a good 10 minutes before we scan our finger prints and have a photo taken and are granted entry in Korea. We are officially here!

Picking up our bags is hassle free and within minutes we are through arrivals and meeting our contact. No customs! Our contact is lovely and we chat for half an hour before the kiwis are off on their bus. Now it is just me and my contact. He takes me to a bus where we board and travel the hour from Incheon Airport to Seoul.

Looking out the bus window I am overwhelmed at the sheer hugeness of the city, it just spreads for miles, my contact tells me that if you drove from one end of the city to the other with no traffic (impossible) it would take 2 hours and when I say city I mean like the cbd from Quay Street up to the top of Nelson, which would take what? 5-10 minutes if that.

As I stare out the window the movie Burlesque comes to mind. There is a scene as Christina’s character takes in her surroundings of LA City with those big blue eyes she soaks up everything that is so new and exciting and different from her small country town. This is how I feel (do you like how I just claimed to be Christina Aguilera haha I only wish that I looked like her)

Reality is sinking in that I am in a big place.

My First view of the city from the bus.

We arrive in Gangnam-gu where we are greeted by my Principal and School manager. It is freezing. Even with a coat, scarf and gloves I am chilled to the bone. I’m not sure of the temperature but it’s about 7pm so it’s dark and cold. We walk to the School and I am shown around. First impression = I am in heaven. It is a clean, colourful, a beautiful and creative space and it is pretty. It is how I would have decorated a classroom. I am happy and my boss's are nice and tell me I am much prettier than my picture!

After a quick tour we take a taxi to my apartment. About a 5 minute drive and its costs $2! My apartment is down a drive way off the main road first impression of outside = hmm ok, kinda scary. I am shown how to open the front door which consists of entering a code into the electronic key pad. I quickly find a pen and write down the combination. Inside a sensor light turns on and it is much nicer than I was expecting. Up one flight of stairs and the second door on the right is me. Again I am given a code to punch into the electronic lock. My door swings open and I see my new house. It is small! There is a small lip inside the door were it is custom to remove your shoes so we do so and file inside. There are 6 of us inside and it is cramped. I am shown how to work the under floor heating, shower, microwave etc, told to be ready at 10 tomo and then left to my own devices. The door shuts. I flop onto the bed and assess the situation. First I feel. It is freezing! The apartment has been vacant for some time so it has not been heated; the temperature quickly rises as the water beneath my floor heats up. Second I hear. It is noisy I can hear the traffic outside and the occasional shout from across the road, the walls them self seem soundproof and I can only hear when there are people on the landing. Then I feel. The bed is hard, I stretch out and decide I like it, it’s slightly bigger than a single and the pillow and blanket are good. There is nothing to smell, the room has been cleaned and is quite new it seems. Finally I see. First up at the lights I have two small triangular blue lights which look space age, two huge square florescent lights and two unidentified objects which I am hoping are water sprinklers and not cameras. The room is approx 4m by 5?? I will measure one day. It consists of a bed, a wardrobe, a book shelf, a desk, a chair a fridge, a microwave, a pantry (1 m by 20cm), one cooking element, a sink, a TV, a washing machine and of course a rice maker. Part of this space is sectioned off into a bathroom (1 by 1) pretty standard toilet and sink, with tile flooring and a drain on the floor, hang on where’s the shower? I look up and there is a shower head sprouting out of the wall in between the toilet and the sink. Hmmm ok this will be interesting. Crash back onto the bed and formulate plan. Toilet 1. Shower 2. Make bed then assess tiredness before adding more bullet points.

Toilet = very normal. I was told I might have one that sings to me? Hmm no toilet paper first problem. Lucky I packed a towel because there is not one of them either. Shower: perfect. Easy to get to the right temp and awesome pressure. Close my eyes and relax. It’s when I open them that I start to laugh at the situation. The whole space is getting saturated with water, guess I’ll have to get used to having a wet toilet seat! The room is now at a good temperature I look at the display and it says that the water under my floor is currently 50 degrees. Hmm I have no idea if that is too hot, guess I’ll find out if I wake up tomo completely melted. Put my jammys on, make me bed (I bought over a sheet, duvet cover and pillow case). Munch on the dinner that my boss bought for me. Start putting clothes away and am overcome with tiredness, slide in under the covers, close my eyes and BANG my mind is reeling with questions? Will there be any English on the TV, do I have internet access? Am I going to overheat/freeze in my sleep. All of a sudden I am wide awake. On goes the TV I start flicking through channels, 10, 20, 50 and it keeps going. Can u guess how many channels I have? Correct guess gets the first post card! And how many out of these are in English? Comment bellow!

Satisfied with the TV I check my Ipod for wireless access. No deal. I notice a jack in the wall with a wire attached I plug it into the laptop and fire it up. Yus it works, It’s slow, but it works, hello facebook! Hello skype! Satisfied with the internet I set my alarm and crash out. I wake up two hours later and start sorting out my stuff, soon grow tired again and lay in bed with a million questions going around my mind. The most important are whether I have set the floors at the right temperature, whether my alarm will work and where I am going to get coffee in the morning. I read my book to silence my thoughts.