Seoul searching and Gangwon-doing it

The Korean Air Boeing 747 raced the setting sun as I sped westward over the Pacific Ocean, as the light very slowly dimmed over the course of the 11-hour flight, in what seemed like an induced state of suspended animation.   The omnipresent hiss of varying pitches from the adjustable air jets above the seats was absent on this flight, as they had not been installed on this plane; presumably due to a Korean superstition about fan death.  This left me on the precipice of breaking a profuse sweat for most of the flight, as the cabin ventilation was insufficient to offset the heat from the computer screen in my seat back, which was playing "Shrek Forever After" to the kid behind me, baking my spine and blanching my kidneys in the process.  This discomfort was assuaged by the top-notch service from the beautiful Korean Air flight attendants, who operated with balletic grace and mathematical, robotic precision, sporting their Star Trek-inspired uniforms.

As we rolled into Incheon Airport in Seoul, it was 6:30pm on 22 August.  I had 3 days to explore Seoul, relax, and recover from jetlag before attending a job orientation in Chuncheon, the capitol of the Gangwon-do province in far northeast Korea, where I would be spending the next year teaching elementary school children the English language.

Seoul was oppressive in its scale, heat, humidity, and grey rainy weather.  I have since learned that Korea is a country of weather extremes; uninhabitable hot rainy summers, and harsh, Siberian-fueled winters.  My excitement lied in the fact that I was arriving just in time for the most beautiful time of the year in Korea:  Autumn.  Autumn in Korea, I have been told, is a time of deep sapphire skies, crisp, fresh air, and colorful, fiery hills and golden rice fields.  I have since learned that Koreans also harbor a reverence for nature and deep respect and deference to the seasons; there are no peaches to be found in the grocery store during winter, and each season is seen as having it's own bounty.  What a concept!

My 3 days in Seoul were a disorienting blur of practicing my new-found knowledge of hangul by pronouncing signs in the street, becoming acquainted with kimchi, learning to walk so the inside of my heat-rashed thighs didn't rub together, deciphering the subway system, and trying desperately to stay awake when all I wanted to do was fall asleep.  Napping is the #1 cardinal sin when trying to adjust to a new time zone.  My first purchases were a new umbrella, and a subway card... what more do you need, really?  The architecture in Seoul had me second-guessing my departure from my career as an architect.  The scale, innovation, and creative use of materials of some of the modern architecture in Seoul is really amazing.  Will post more pictures after my next visit!

On 25 August, I boarded a bus back from downtown to the airport to pick up my bicycle box and large backpack in storage, and boarded the express bus to Chuncheon in Gangwon-do province.  The buses here are amazing; plentiful, fast, well-marked and planned routes, and comfortable.  Same goes for any form of public transportation in Korea.  According to my recruiter, 7 other new teachers and myself were to stay at the Q motel in Chuncheon, and then meet at the Gangwon-do office of Education the next day to meet the director who hired us, attend a brief orientation, and meet our new Co-Teachers who would then promptly whisk us away to our new apartment in our assigned location.

The orientation was nothing more than a brief introduction and bits of advice from the director, whose English was perfect, followed by a rushed 'swearing-in' ceremony, at which we were all presented with nicely bound 'letters of appointment' and a half-withered red rose wrapped in cellophane.  

Then the moment of truth:  meeting our Co-Teachers.  In the EPIK program, the Korean Co-Teacher is your Korean parent, guardian angel, best friend, boss, Buddha, translator, bread baker, money maker, tent staker, and booty shaker.  The Co-Teacher is the person English teachers work with daily, rely on for help in day-to-day life, and their relationship with them can solely and entirely make or break your experience in Korea.  (No pressure, really...)

I was paired up with a friendly, middle-aged woman with good English.  We exchanged a bow and awkward greetings, piled my belongings in her KIA car, and headed east-northeast towards the town Geojin-ri in Ganseong county, in the far northeast corner of the Gangwon-do province.....

NEXT:  first weeks in Geojin