Annyong haseyo!

Well, as you can guess, I have made it to Seoul. Apologies if some parts of this email are a bit messed up; I am using a Korean version of Internet Explorer! In addition, I apologize for the bulk mail but I am in a bit of a rush at the moment and wanted to make sure I had the chance to say hi to everyone.

Anyway, I arrived Tuesday morning safe and sound. The flight left SF at 1am and I had been drinking all afternoon (d'oh!) so I had NO problem sleeping on the plane! The flight was about 11 hours and I think I slept for 7. We arrived in Seoul at 4:30am and I made it over to the Princeton Review office where one of the guys met me. We went to breakfast... at Dunkin Donuts. Can you believe I flew all the way to Korea to have Dunkin Donuts? I don't think I'd had a Dunkin Donut at the one in Milford since returning from Australia. Crazy.

We went to my apartment which is about a 15 minute walk from the office. It is quite modern: it was just finished last week!! It's very nice but only two rooms and four of us will be sharing it, so it will be a little tight. The mosquitoes have been running rampant (they like the taste of foreign blood... it's true!) but we haven't seen any rats or anything crazy like that. I am sure it will be fine.

So far only three other instructors have arrived so I've been hanging out with them. Fortunately one is Korean so he is able to help out when we get ourselves into a jam. Our neighborhood is not at all "touristy" and I have only seen one other white person walking around there. However, there is a BK, McDonald's, Subway, and Baskin Robbins all within spitting distance (but I haven't been to any of them yet!).

I've done some touristy stuff (like seeing temples and such) but have mostly been doing administrative stuff (getting a phone, shopping for stuff for the apartment, etc). As for food.... nothing too crazy yet. Some octopus-like thing for lunch yesterday but nothing worse than that. Yes, I tried kimchi and no, I didn't like it. But apparently it grows on you. I have also tried a few Korean beers and think that they're mostly crap. What a surprise.

The World Cup starts tonight and I am quite excited about that. I haven't found a good pub to watch games but am hoping to do so this afternoon. Unfortunately I will be in training and working pretty much every day after Sunday, so I won't be able to spend hours in front of the TV, and I may actually have to miss two of the United States' three games! But hopefully I can work something out.

As for Seoul itself, it is a HUGE city (geographically) and it seems that every street is crowded. At times it feels like "Korea-town" in some US city, but then you realize that EVERY sign is in Korean and that EVERY person on the street is Korean, and you think "I'm a long way from home". I get a lot of strange looks from people, esp. in our neighborhood and esp. from little kids, but I was told to expect that. I have tried speaking a little Korean here and there with some success, but unfortunately most restaurants and things have signs and menus in Korean, so if I can't read it then I'm no good! Which is why it's good to have Korean friends with us. =)

For those of you who pointed out that the Princeton Review hired me without even interviewing me, I can assure you that they are as disorganized a group as I have ever worked with and it is a bit frustrating at times. I get three different instructions from three different people when it comes to things like meetings and teaching schedules, but hopefully it will work itself out.

So far, so good, I guess. I have one more day of "freedom", which I plan to spend watching soccer, and then four days of training and then I start teaching! I'll be sure to send out another mail blast in the next few days.

Chris