Hello to anyone who is actually reading this or if no one is and I’m just doing it for my own sanity.
Last time I discussed about plane tickets and your first day teaching-techincal boring stuff.
Today I want to talk more about your new life here.
Now most of the time as a new teacher you will be given your own apartment but size and location will be different for everyone.
In my friend Whitney’s case-she needs to take the bus to work or has a decent walk to get to school. However she is right next to a subway stop in Busan and is within walking distance to many things including Gwanggali Beach. Her apartment is small-a square shaped room with a narrow small kitchen that includes a washing machine, and a traditional korean bathroom.
What is a Korean bathroom. Well it’s maybe a little bigger than a powder room with a sink, a toliet, a cabinet (maybe) and a shower head. Yep. Her shower head is right above her sink. So you can watch yourself take a shower. It’s a little strange. It is something to get used to and while I don’t mind it when I’m spending the night at her house or whether i’m in a hostel…I don’t think I’d want that full time.
In my case- it takes me 5-7 minutes to walk to school depending on whether or not I make the light. But I need to walk about 5-7 minutes to get to the bus that then takes about 10 minutes to get to the station which has the subway and trains. So it can be a bit of a pain. Granted it’s only a 5000-7000 won taxi ride which is much cheaper than my friends but still it takes a bit of planning a head. I do have many things around me including my gym and grocery store and a “outlet mall” I can walk to so I have all my basic necessities. But if I want skin care or music I have to head down town.
My apartment is old. And I mean old. I have a key and lock which most people don’t have anymore. My floors are kind of coming up a bit…just think…old. However I have two rooms-one for bedroom and one for tv room, a big kitchen, a balcony for my washer/storage, and a western bathroom. Yep a toliet, a sink and a TUB! I’m very lucky.
So as you can see you could have either one or somewhere in between. It will depend on what your school gives you and possibliy where you are. I live in a more residential area in a smaller town so I have a bigger place but Whitney lives in Buan so her place is more modern but smaller.
Now when you arrive depending on what the person before you left, you may have little to nothing. It can be overwhelming and you might thingk WTF did I do.
I know I did. I was lucky to have the help of friends who let me stay with them for a few days, take me around in their car and just give me support.
If your co is like mine, they gave me a brief car tour and then kind of dumped in my apartment. Hopefully you can be more open and forward-asking them to help you get necessities like toliet paper, and bath towels or whatever. You also will want to make sure you find your closest grocery store.
Be foreward and straight before your co leaves you to “putter” your new apartment. Get as much info as you can.
Some things I suggest :
- Clean everything first. I know it sounds lame but you don’t know how clean the person before you was.
- Put your bed together first. Sheets, blankets, pillows. That way if you are overcome by jet lag or just want to sit down and cry yourself to sleep (yep that’s me) than you can already have your bed to do so.
- Go room by room. This was a suggestion by Emily who said my eyes were crazy when I had to put my aparmtnet together. If you go room by room it lesses the insanity a bit.
- Put music on or a movie. Laptop or ipod or something so you don’t feel lonely or sad. I was lucky that I have a huge ass tv and Rob and Emily gave me their old DVD player. I suggest something mindless that won’t remind you of missing home or something funny. For me? Real Housewives…yeah.
- Get take out that night. Whether its wandering the street for chicken or having the guts for takeout (or ask your co for help) That way no cooking -no worrying about pots and pants and cooking stuff or cleaning dishes.
- Try not to force yourself to sleep or get up. If you have a few days before school try to slowly adjust.
- Drink a lot of water. The flight wore you out and you are already on edge so the water will help keep you hydrated.
- Don’t be afraid to reach out to any friends you might have in the area or Korea. If they can spare the time ask them to come help you. If they have been here at least 1 year they will feel comfortable wandering around with you or suggesting things you might not think of. If you have no friends that I would look on facebook for your town’s expat group. There are a ton of groups. I have one for GEPIK (or whatever program you are) and my town. So don’t be afraid to reach out to these groups.
There will be things you forget and don’t worry too much about it. Once you are more settled you will be able to venture out and learn what you need.
Now you did only bring with you about 1500-2000$ so make sure what you buy you definetly need to get you through the first month.
I brought a lot of stuff with me: shampoo, conditioner, pillow, sheets-because i didn’t want to have to worry about stuff like that. I saw a video that said it is a good idea because 1 you don’t know anything about this country yet and 2 its a little comfort from home.
But if you didn’t bring stuff like I did make sure you look at prices. You will find a lot of things here are cheaper and a lot are more expensive-espeiccally anything imported from the USA.
Now food. For your first week I would suggest sticking to comfort food-pasta, pizza chicken…while not the healthiest its easy to make and find. Get used to what your grocery store has to offer. I have to go to 2 different places because one has chicken while the other has shrimp. When you get more comfortable don’t be afraid to try a restaurant or try making things yourself. I recommend buying a bag of sweet potatoes…they are the best here.
Depending on what season you come will also be a factor. Because I came in march I packed few heavy clothes and more lighter clothes because summer was coming. Now that’s it’s winter and I’ve been here almost a year I had to buy a thicker jacket but I have more money now and other things I’ve accumalted over the months.
If you are arrriving in winter like me you will probably need to buy a blanket. If you find a tourist area, like Songtan outside of osan, you can find heavy Korean blankets that might only set you back 30,000. It gets cold here and you will use it espeically fi you don’t want to rack up your ondol floor bill.
Hopefully after your first week you have settled in a little bit. I would take the first weekend to catch up on sleep, get things more oraganized, putter, shop for what you missed etc. Don’t worry about trying to get to seoul or busan or wherever..you havea year to do so. Just relax.
I didn’t go anywhere until the final week of march when a friend asked me to go to Seoul to see a concert. (if you want detail on how I fell into complete VIXX obsession than check out my other site where I ramble, make unfunny jokes and just sound like an insane person you’d never want to meet)
Now I love to do things on my own but Seoul…even with a subway map…it’s a Beast. There is an app you can get free on your phone called subway korea i believe . It tells you how to get someplace or train times etc.
I think my next update will be on getting around Seoul-things to do, learning the subway because I can make an entire post out of that alone.
I would maybe go with a friend who has been there or at least someone else if you aren’t a person who likes to do things alone espeically when it involves going sopme place new .
But I think learning your town, seeing what you have near you, is the best thing you can do for the first few weeks. Like I said, don’t feel pressured to go out and explore all of Korea because you can. Take the time to really get to know where you will be living for the next year. Go to local meet ups and meet some new people. Chances are they are just like you.
Then when you feel ready (or you have a friend who wants to go)go out and explore. Try the train and the subway. (Warning-buses are more complicated) Go to Seoul or Busan or wherever you want to go.
Next update will be on trains, subways and possibly buses. I still even struggle with buses at times because they are insane.
House of Lilacs 