UpDaTe

Well, here I am. It's day three in Korea.

I haven't started work yet. They have to make some schedule changes, so I'll probably start sometime next week. It isn't too bad. It just means that I get to explore for sometime.

Living in another country is strange. Stranger than visiting a country. While Europe was fun and exciting, I didn't have to worry about not seeing other people again. I see the same people everyday... so far anyways. Where I'm living in Incheon is an older neighborhood. So it hasn't seen any remodeling in the past 20 to 30 years. Which is cool in a way because everything is local and untouched by modernization. However, there aren't any foreigners around here to talk to either. It's also different than what I'm used to. In the mornings, Koreans usually go to work, school, or they just walk around looking at stuff, especially the old people. There are stores open in the day, and a few restaurants; but at night, that's when all the bars, clubs, and most of the restaurants open up. Traffic is strange around here too. There aren't many stop signs or stop lights, so Koreans usually just either go around cars that are in their way, or blow their horns at them. If you're walking around on the streets, you either get out of the way of a car or you just wait for cars to stop coming. Common sense is pretty important here. I feel as if in America everything is designed for handicap people. Here it's just move or get run over.

The other day, my boss was taking me to the school. Well, the school is on the 6th floor of some office building. So, to park there you have to take a little tunnel that goes under the building, which is pretty cool. However, someone was parked awkwardly up on the top, so my boss (Mr. Woo) made his way around it. But, as we were going down to the underground parking lot, a woman came driving up toward us and it's only one lane. So, Mr Woo told her that he couldn't back out because there was a car in the way and it would make it difficult, and he asked her if she would back down so he could get in. But this woman decided to argue.
I've never seen Koreans get mad before. It was interesting.

All I saw was Mr Woo get out of his car and walk down to the underground parking lot and yelled at this woman. The next thing I knew there was this old man that came up got into the car I was in and moved it out. He then moved her car. When I saw Mr Woo and this woman they were in each others faces yelling. Mr Woo then spit on this woman's windshield. Honestly, it was quite funny. The old man just seemed to not care. It was just yelling and spitting. Later, Mr Woo apologized to me, and told me that this woman has always been rude and mean, and that he just had enough.

So, that was one of my big experiences on Monday. I met the people I'll be working with. They're all cool. I'm only working with one American, but the rest of the people I work with speak English too, except the math and science teachers.

I've been invited to several churches. There are lots of churches around here. And what's funny is that all the crosses have neon lights around them that light up at night. Some of the churches are a bit heretical, but most of them aren't. The biggest Protestant denomination here is Presbyterianism, primarily the orthodox version. I don't mind that though, most of them have English services too. It looks like the churches I've been invited to are in Seoul. So, it'll probably take me an hour and 20 minutes to get to Seoul via bus and subway on Sunday.

Overall, everything is pretty convienent here. I do get lots of strange looks. Mostly because I'm white and I have blue eyes, but also because I'm a foreigner. Being an American can be a good thing or a bad thing. It's good if you're around older Koreans. If you're around younger Koreans, not so much. Younger Koreans will either love you or hate you. If they hate you it's because they think you just want to get drunk and act stupid. Evidently, a lot of American soldiers tend to get bored in Korea because they don't know the language, so they go out and get drunk when they're not on duty, and that's not cool. Some of the American English teachers do the same too. But what's funny is that Koreans drink like there's no tomorrow. I can't tell you how many times I've seen drunk Koreans on the street who want to fight. Oh well.

Well, that's the update right now. I'm living in my apartment now. Just trying to find food is difficult. But things are turning out OK.

Peace.