Hwanyong!

11Sep07

Tuesday September 11, 2007; 8:00am; Hwaseong, South Korea

So here I am. I woke up at 6:30 this morning; only slept about 8 hours. I figured I would have passed out for 12 hours at least after the trip, but I guess my body is pretty confused so far. Can’t blame it. Went to sleep at 10:30pm last night, which would be 9:30 in the morning Boston time – even I don’t stay up that late.

Journey here was very smooth and easy, although obviously long as hell. I left my house at 5:30 EDT, then flew to San Francisco (6.5 hours) and onto Incheon (12 hours). I wouldn’t think you were lying if you said that flight actually was up in the air for 3 days. Glad I don’t have to do that again for a year.

After I picked up my bags (successfully getting everything here) I walked out to meet up with … someone. I had been told by my recruiter Brenda that I would be picked up at the airport, but that’s all I knew. If they didn’t show I’d be stuck at the airport in South Korea trying to figure out what the hell to do next. I guess I would’ve found a hotel, stayed a few days, and then flown home. But I found a young woman holding a sign that said ‘Michael G-’, so I was in luck. She didn’t introduce herself, only asked, “Flight late?”. It wasn’t really, but I had to wait for thirty or forty minutes in the immigration line, so I said “Yes, a little”. I was considering whether or not this woman could be Brenda (who I would have expected to speak more, based on my previous phone conservations) when Brenda called. Her English is very good, but I was too tired to listen carefully. All I got was that I was picked up by Miss Lee and I would ride to the school to meet up with someone else. Whatever. I just wanted to sleep.

As I pushed my bags outside, Miss Lee led me to the taxi line, and started talking to a man standing there. Was he her colleague, and had driven here? Where is our car? Wait a second. Apparently we’re taking a cab to the school. Wait a second. Apparently I’m taking a cab to the school. Miss Lee doles out W120,000 to the driver ($120!), gives him the address and phone number of the place I’m going, and says, “Nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too.”

Incheon airport is on a small island off the Western coast of Korea. The drive into Seoul is probably 25 kilometers, and I’m 40 kilometers south of that. The ride takes an hour and a half. Red crosses. They’re all over the place, dotting the Incheon skyline – red neon Christian crosses on top of building everywhere. It looks like they’re on top of churches mostly, but can there be that many churches? I’ve never seen anything like it. Good advertising I suppose: you certainly can’t miss them. I’ll have to find out more about this later.

The cabbie stops in front of a metro station in a highly commercial area flooded with neon. He makes a phone call. We wait. He drives around the block. He makes a phone call. He drives around the block. We wait. Finally a young man in a shirt and tie walks up to us and shakes my hand. He’s Andrew, and he’s who I am waiting for. I look like a slob in jeans and a t-shirt, but I did just fly 18 hours so oh well. I throw my bags in his car and he starts driving. “Do you want any food?” “No, I’m not hungry.” “OK” We drive another foot. “Are you sure you don’t want any food?” “No, I just want to sleep.” Andrew drives up the street to my apartment. I get there around 8:30pm. We bring my bags up, and he asks, “How is the apartment?” “It’s great,” I say. And it is.

“Do you have any questions?”
“Can I drink the water? Is it safe?”
“Yes, safe, but not for you. We will buy water.”

Andrew drives me down to street to the grocery store. It seems very close. Awesome. He buys me some soap, a towel, water, and some muffins for breakfast. When he drops me off again, he says he will pick me up at 1pm tomorrow.

“Can you be ready by then?”
“Yes. That’s fine.”
“Good.”
“When do I start teaching?”
“Tomorrow.”

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