Yeah, yeah, yeah

So I haven't forgotten about this blog thing yet but sadly I have been really busy with orientation and getting my school on before starting teaching on Monday (I found out I'm teaching 4th and 6th grade English lol)!  I don't have much time to update the gritty details at this moment but just letting you know I haven't forgotten and will be back REALLY soon! :)  Stay tuned!

Korean vocabulary count:  2 words...  I'm well on my way....  haha

I'm Here!

Well, after 16 hours of flying... I am finally in Korea!  I had a direct flight from Atlanta to Seoul then a brief layover before heading down to Busan.  I have this theory that people suffer from jetlag the most when they sleep... so I watched 7 1/2 movies and didn't even drink any coffee to stay awake (not too fond of airplane bathrooms).  I never seem to travel without having some sort of amusing story.  This time, I had two...and they happened within the first hour of the flight!

Story 1:  Lunch was served.  I wasn't quite ready to brave the "authentic" Korean food so I chose the steak...all things considered, not bad.  For a beverage I decided a cold Budwiser would be good at the time.  I had an aisle seat and the one next to me was empty then two older Korean ladies sat in the other two seats.  They were cute and kept staring at me, then would smile when I would look at them in a "is there something on my face" sort of way.  Finally they decided to let me in on what was so funny... they thought I was drinking beer to knock myself out on the plane!  We engaged in a short charades game where they pretended to look alert then suffer from narcolepsy and roll their head back with their eyes closed... "sleeping".  I laughed and nodded as if to agree, even though they were wrong...I wasn't in the mood to correct them!  Now, I wouldn't have judged them back...but the fact that they each had the flight attend search for rum... to go with their coca-cola... yeah... nice try ladies, but pounding LICOR at 12 pm gives you no right to judge my harmless beer.  They better be glad they were cute :)

Story 2:  My seat was in the first clump of seats (my plane had two floors... it was massive) so I didn't know where the bathrooms were and knew that I would have to use it at some point so I kept turning back to look.  In my direct view was a middle aged American man wearing a white shirt (this is important for the story).  I think he might have thought I was checking him out, but after probably two glances back he got up and came up to me... interrupting my movie and this is how the conversation went.

Man:  I would like you to be my travel buddy.  Please think about it and let me know.

Me:  What does that even mean?

Man:  Just think about it and let me know okay?

Me:  Yeah sure.

Now, had he been more my age and looked attractive I might have given up my aisle seat and sat with him.  But this man was special.  The first thing I noticed when he was next to me was the fact that he had red wine ALL down his white shirt.  I can understand if there was turbulence, but there was none...and I can not take a man seriously who looks as if a two year old created a Jackson Pollock using the front of his shirt.  He went back to his seat and I didn't take him up on his offer.  Sadly the entire trip I tried to hold myself from using the bathroom because I didn't want to get his hopes up!

Alright, so when I landed in Korea, I was finally with my friend Amanda (we both went to UGA and knew each other this past year).  Being an international airport, you would think that other nationalities would have been there with us...not the case.  I've never been stared out so much by so many people at once!  Maybe it was the pile of luggage, or maybe I'm just that ridiculously goodlooking, but nonetheless they ALL stared!  We found our car driver, who spoke no English, and we were on our way!  Koreans don't really use the white lines on the road like we do in the states and pretty much drive as if they are on an open track.  I had to stare at the ceiling/floor to keep myself from fearing my life.  Busan itself is a gorgeous city at night.  There are bright lights everywhere and it seems like there is water at every turn.  The bright lights make me think of Vegas and some light up like slot machines!  The weather is pretty much like Georgia "winters" so not as bad as I thought.

We are staying at the Arpina Youth Hostel and it's really cute here.  Basic rooms and a light system that took us 10 min. to figure out!  Also, they have alarms on the door and the cleaning ladies found it amusing watching us trying to figure out how to shut it up!  Luckily most people speak English and we haven't had any language barriers... yet!  Today was spent inside, it's been raining non-stop and doesn't exactly equal exploring weather!  So no pictures to post yet or stories about trying to navigate the streets of Busan!

Orientation starts tomorrow!  We have a week of training and the other teachers are getting here today so hopefully we have a good group!  This trip was last minute, but most of you who know me already know I love traveling and it was only a matter of time before I had another journey!  This time I will do my best to keep you all updated!  I am on skype/ichat/facebook so I will be able to do it easier this time!

Much love from Korea!