Chrissy Renae

view from office window (same side as front door)

office. there is also a huge closet. mwahaha.

view from front door. office on the right, kitchen in the middle, bathroom next right, bedroom and laundry straight ahead.

kitchen. obviously.

complete with a bathtub.

bed+closet. ugly blanket, but it was free so i won't complain. and it's insanely warm.

more bedroom. and the laundry porch, which i love.

view from my porch. apartment complexes are insanely large here.

mountains in my front yard. yayyyy.

Ok there is the grand tour. Not sure why I felt the need to show every little detail, but there you have it. I realllllllllly like it. Oh, and the floors are HEATED because it is customary to take off your shoes right when you walk inside of anybody’s house. Therefore, walking around barefoot on wooden floors is amazing.

Today I woke up at like 6am and couldn’t sleep, so I unpacked for a few hours, and then went back to bed until noon. Thennn I unpacked some more, got all ready, and set out on an adventure to find food and this internet cafe. I ended up walking like a mile or 2 to find this one, but I’m sure I’ll discover closer ones so it won’t be such a hassle.

Sooo I turned on my computer this morning, and in the process totally blew up my power converter. I didn’t see the voltage switch on the side, so it was set to the wrong one. Oops. It made this huge explosion/spark and smoked for a while, and I think my charger is now officially toast. Hahahaha. I guess I’ll have to invest in a new laptop once the paychecks start rolling in…

OK well I think that covers pretty much everything for now. I’ve been in Korea for 24 hours now!!! And I love it. I feel very out of my element here and even just looking around outside can be overwhelming. Everything is tall and close together and there are a lottt of people. Nothing is in English, and the Korean language boggles my mind. It’s weird to be confused in the convenience store, and to feel awkward when I eat because I suck at chopsticks. Getting around anywhere is a chore because I don’t want to get lost and I am perpetually stared at. And all of that is exactly why I LOVE IT. I love being confused, I love being in a new weird place, I love getting lost despite efforts to avoid it. I just love travel and this whole first 24 hours has already reminded me why I tried so hard and so long to get here. I’m addicted to this feeling and I can’t wait for a whole year of it!!!

I maaaade it! I cannot believe I am in SOUTH KOREA right now. I thought it would hit me once I got here, but I’m still kind of in la-la land I think.

The flight was nice, it all went pretty smooth. There were only 2 of us on my row, so it was nice to have  a seat between us to stretch out a little. I tried to sleep, but I was too anxious or something and could only pass out for a couple minutes at a time. Airplanes are not very good for sleeping.

Towards the end of the flight I went to the back of the plane to walk around a little and met two Korean guys who were about my age. They were sooo funny, and also really nice. They taught me a few basic Korean phrases -hello, goodbye, thank you, and I love you and said the ” i love you” was the most important. Perhaps Koreans are the romantic type?

After talking for a while, the seatbelt sign turned on so we had to go back to our seats. A few minutes later one of them brought back a note that said “It was nice to meet you. Sorry my english not so good. You look like bright sunshine.” and then went back to his seat. If everyone is this nice, I think I will like it rather quickly.

A guy from the agency I came through picked me up at the airport and drove me to Yangju, where we met my school coordinator and went to my apartment. It is HUGE!!! I’ll put up some pictures of it in a separate post, but I don’t think even that will do it justice. I mean, by huge I don’t mean like luxary pad, but it was definitely bigger than I expected. It has a bedroom, good sized bathroom and kitchen, anddd an office. Plus it has this laundry room porch thing that looks out  from the 8th floor. It faces the sun (for the clothes drying effect.. no dryers here) so it lets in lots of natural sunlight. The girl who lived there before me left tons of stuff, so I’m already fully stocked on dishes, shower supplies, and a bed set. Awesome.

After dropping off my stuff, they took me out to dinner  for some Korean-Italian food. I was exhausted (it was like 4am for my brain) so honestly the whole night is kind of a daze. The spaghetti and pizza were very different than anything I’ve ever had in America or Italy…but it was still really good. I like the Korean spin on things I think.

Every time someone talks about Yangju, they talk about how small it is, so I was expecting a very rural setting, where I could probably walk all over without a problem. However, since Seoul is the 5th largest city in the world, the Korean perception of “small” is a little askew from mine. This city is BIG. I guess my school itself is really rural and mostly farm kids (like 350 students total), so it’s a bit further out of town. I’ll have to take the bus out there every day, about a 45 minute ride through the farmlands. They put my apartment in the actual town because they thought I’d get too bored out in the boonies. Probably a good idea. Plus I think it will be nice to have a little time to/from to chill out and read or something. In Brussels I went through like 3 books a month with that type of commute so I’m looking forward to a little reading time.

(Here is a small section of downtown Yangju. Does this place look small to you? Also, in the middle of the picture there is a little sign that says “PC” on the window. That’s where I am..)

(Yangju from my front door)

Somehow I managed to make all of this:

look like this:

Before I left I kneww I was taking too much, but by that point it was a little too late to back out. I was a couple pounds over in every bag, but the check-in lady was super nice and let it slide.

At the airport I said goodbye to Erik (who kindly drove me), a goodbye that has to stretch me through the next 2 1/2 years without him!!!! I think I’m in denial about how long that really is. Yuckkk.

Before I went through security Erik captured my final American moment. The stereotypical peace sign was definitely requisite to begin an Asian adventure.

Bye America.