Day 1

Today is my 19th day in Korea!  This is hard to believe. It seems like only yesterday I was stepping off the plane in Busan S. Korea tired and grungy after 32 hours of traveling and one very long 14 hour plane ride.  In case I fail to mention it later, Dramamine is a God send!  I don't normally get motion sickness but the combination of the nerves, my lack of sleep due to packing all night, the nerves, a bad McDonalds cheesburger, and oh yeah' the nerves had this Oklahoma girl's stomach tied in knots and swimming circles! I arrived at the airport at 11:45 pm on a Saturday, after a brief stop through customs I made it to baggage claim.  Struggling to gather all of my luggage, (2 giant suitcases that barely made the 50 lb weight limit, an overstuffed carry on bag, and a backpack/laptop case) I fastened together my suitcase and my carry on bag and away I went wearing a backpack and pulling a suitcase in each hand.  Looking for any sign I could find in English.  Luckily, I stumbled upon a currency exchange counter.  I was relived to have successfully exchanged my American dollars for Korean won!  I had been warned that since I was arriving on a weekend the banks would be closed and it would take a few days for my form to be processed for my debit card to work in Korea.  Then I walked through the gates past baggage claim looking for anyone who I thought might be my new director at the academy where I would be teaching.   I must stand out in a sea of Koreans because, it was easy for my new director to spot me in a crowd.  An hour car ride later I arrived at my new apartment in the middle of the night, was given the apartment code and told "I will see you on Monday and Linda will meet you tomorrow for lunch."  "Umm okay," I said.  Tired, confused, and afraid to drink the water I was alone in my new apartment.  I got ready for bed and got out my laptop in an attempt to find wifi.  After a brief phone call home through Skype I was able to call my mom and dad to let them know that I had made it to Korea and was in my new apartment.