kamsa hamnida

I don't think I've ever been this tired. the 12 hr flight to Incheon was killer. The food however was bomb. Bi-Bim-Bap for dinner. Basically veggies that you mix in with some rice and add chili paste to taste. And breakfast (served at 2am...thanks asiana airlines) was rice and kimchi.

Enough about airline food.

I'M HERE!!!!!

This is awesome. I'm in a city where 90% of the people don't speak any english whatsoever and I am part of a 200 person minority. My only means of communication are pointing, hand gestures and body language. Just figuring out how to get on this computer at the PC-bang (internet cafe) was an ordeal. I have such a respect for bilingual people.

I feel like I haven't been here long enough for culture shock, although I am going through "Holy shit I can't read any of these signs or order food for myself" shock as well as "people stare at me as I walk down the street" shock. To be honest, I think I'm just too tired for culture shock right now. I got minimal sleep on my red eye to Incheon. What sleep I did get didn't last long and wasn't very restful. You can only sleep so well sitting in a coach airplane seat. I would love nothing more to pass out in my sauna of an apartment (its about 300 degrees with 9,000% humidity) but I want to try to suck it up so that I can at least try to get on a normal sleep cycle. Its 5:22 here now, 4:22am this morning back home.

Korea is like nothing I've ever experienced before. Yeosu is a city built on mountains and hills that overlook the water. My co-teacher brought me to the school today and showed me the view of the Dolsan Bridge. I almost peed. Then we did the tour de Yeosu. We went EVERYWHERE. I opened a bank account, went to E-mart to do grocery shopping, went to smart step to get slippers for school, went to the doctor to get certified that I don't have swine flu, and then lunch.

Lunch.

lunch consisted of tempura shrimp and sushi. With All the fixins. Kimchi, white kimchi, raddishes, seasoned raddishes, little onion things, soy beans (edamame style), miso soup (although not called miso soup), and kimbap aka rice wrapped with seaweed. On top of that, it came with about 20 pieces of sushi. I was in heaven. Sitting on the floor eating sushi with metal chopsticks.

After that I went back to my apartment to unpack. I have a pretty sick little place. HUGE TV, AC, deck thing where I do my laundry, kitchen. its real nice. I decided that I was dying of thirst so i went to the mini-stop on the corner to get a drink. Oh did I mention, they have an awesome booze selection at mini-stop. And if I don't care for that then I can just go to the bar that is RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO MY APARTMENT. Hell yes. No booz for jet lag tho. I got some electrolyte drink called Capari Sweat....or something like that. There is definitely sweat in the name.

I can't get my internet to work so I had to search my neighborhood for a PC-bang. This place is real intense. Korean gaming kids EVERYWHERE. I guess its a pay by the minute thing. After it took about 10 minutes for the guy that works here and I to understand what we were trying to convey...it was pretty easy. I get a card and put in the password on the card. The computer keeps track and I get charged when I leave. I'm pretty much in the middle of a Korean techno rave. All I can hear are the sounds of video games, techno, and all i can see are the blacklights and flashing lights.

Alright, time to mozy back to my apartment and rehydrate before I pass out.