Finally in Korea!

Flight from Johannesburg to Doha

Wednesday morning, 14 December, I woke up early to take my last bath at home and get ready for my long trip to South Korea. We left home at about 08:30 and headed for Oliver Thambo International Airport (Johannesburg Airport). I have been planning this day for the whole year now, Korea was my goal, and I finally got the opportunity, I was very excited to finally make my dream come true, yet I was very scared too. I was heading for a country that doesn’t speak English at all, except for a few (very few) odd people and even they don’t speak it properly yet. Every sign will be in the Korean alphabet and Korean language, I will have to explain myself through gestures, this fact was nerve wrecking of course! None the less I’m someone who loves to take risks and venture into the unknown, I learn fast, I’m good with direction, and I enjoy people a lot, so I was ready for the challenge! Before I left I wrote certain things down in my little book to show people at the airport or on the plane or wherever I need to, from English to Korean, for instance the word VEGETARIAN, as this is extremely important! LOL!We arrived at the airport and went directly to the international check in counter for Qatar Airways. We waited a while as they prepared (I was second in line!). My bag was 29.1 kg, I was allowed to pack 30kg, so that was okay, but I wasn’t so sure about my hand luggage, because the reason why my luggage is under the allowance is because all the heavy stuff is in my hand luggage, remember this for future travelling! So I had to ask my brother to go stand around the corner and wait for us until we’re done checking in, taking only my laptop with me so they assume that it’s my only hand luggage, I couldn’t risk them weighing it! J So we checked in and the lady labelled my lap top bag with a yellow tag that I later took off and put on my actual hand luggage! J I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to sit by the window or on the aisle! I’m not very tall or big so aeroplanes are comfortable to me, so it doesn’t matter where I sit, I usually love the window and always take a window seat on short flights, but this was a long flight... If I took an aisle the person by the window may regularly bother me in order to go to the rest room... This was a dilemma, I asked my friend Chelsea who has travelled a lot in her life, and she suggested aisle, but I couldn’t risk missing all the pretty sights next to the window! So I didn’t ask for anything, I left it to chance, said a little prayer and God choice for me. J I got window seats on both flights!!

Mum, Dad, and I at the Airport Wimpy, Anton took the photo

After check-in we went to the Wimpy to have our last breakfast together as a family, specifically chose Wimpy because it’s South African and my family’s favourite! I started getting sad at the breakfast, realising that this is the last time I’ll see my parents until next year this time, also because I’m missing Christmas with them and because I wasn’t able to say goodbye (physically) to many people, I still wanted to go to Port Elizabeth. It all happened so fast! A month ago I would have told you that I’m leaving end of January, but three weeks ago it all started happening and I left South Africa much earlier than planned. I was very happy to leave, the earlier I can make money the better, it’s time that I become independent, and it’s long overdue!

After the breakfast it was already time for me to go through security. I looked for a European adaptor first but couldn’t find any! They’re so rare in South Africa, because most of our appliances are already European (two point) so we buy adaptors to use them in our plugs (three point), but never do we buy an adaptor from three point to two point, unheard of! After the hugs and tears I went through security and on to my gate. I had to be at gate A15, it was such a long walk!! Really it’s annoying how long and far one should walk to get to the boarding gate, and it’s never gate 1 or 2, it’s ALWAYS the gates near the end...That’s the worse part of travelling. My parent waved at me until they couldn’t see me anymore, I loved it, and it made me smile it was a game of ‘spot Mariska’. I eventually found a European adaptor inside Duty Free and then eventually reached my boarding gate, with an aching arm; it’s painful to drag a heavy hand luggage and have a laptop bag full of books on your shoulder! Honestly we take a bath or shower before we fly in order to be fresh and smell like flowers, but by the time you reach your boarding gate you already sweat like a dog and smell like a foot, and you’re not even on the plane yet! I sat down to relax, but before my body could cool down from the marathon the passengers started boarding the plane, great! I like being in the front of the row, unlike some people who will sit and wait until most people boarded the plane, because every time I waited my space in the over head compartment was taken by some other misguided soul. So I had to get up and stand...My seat was A19 and I found it easily and my over head compartment was empty, I was happy, and extremely relieved to finally sit down and relax! A Chinese man sat on C19, we had an open seat between us, I was very happy, until about 5 minutes before take off a lady came rushing through the aisle, looked confused at the Chinese man and said angrily to the air hostess “This is MY seat!” The air hostess politely asked the Chinese man to move to the chair next to me, so I wasn’t that lucky, the Chinese man and I shared a look that suggested that we’ll look after each other as this lady might eat us both alive!

I had a fun packed activities planned for the flight! LOL! There were a few movies I wanted to see and try to nap for an hour or two. I never got to nap but I watched a few things, first I watched a couple of episodes of Big Bang Theory which never grows old, and then I watched Cars 2, which was cool! I had some of that Asian crackers and a lovely vegetarian meal. I couldn’t sleep I was too excited so I watched Contagion, the last Harry Potter and a underwater Documentary of the Red Sea and the Gulf, but the most interesting documentary I watched was one on weird Hotels, there is this beautiful and surreal hotel in Berlin that I decided I HAVE to visit! Every room has a different theme and it’s bizarre, like the mirror room, floating bed room, upside down room, orange room, blue room, and so on. It is so cool; I will visit Germany soon I hope.

We were finally flying over Saudi Arabia close to Doha, Qatar. This is where the window comes in handy see, because even though you’re not on the ground you can say a lot about a country simply by “browsing” through the window. LOL! I noticed that Qatar has quite a few hotels, many in fact; they were everywhere, and also a lot of pools! This is understandable as Qatar and Saudi is a desert so it’s very hot there, every second home or building had a giant pool, they were so big I could see them from the plane. It was night time so the moon was shining, since we were now in the Northern Hemisphere the moon will look different from South Africa, I immediately looked for the man on the moon, and found him! It was an old man’s face with a moustache, so cute! In South Africa the moon is turned around and it looks like a bunny on the moon. Something I forgot to mention, all the movies had Arabic subtitles and after all that I learnt the Arabic sign for ‘no’, it kind of looks like a ‘y’, they say ‘no’ an awful lot in American movies.

Doha, Qatar

We finally landed in Doha Airport; even though it’s winter there it was still quite hot, 22 degrees Celsius, 22:30 in the evening (one hour difference, South Africa: 21:30). We slowly moved through security and I looked for the Oryx lounge. After a few international connecting flights I now realise that it is quite stupid not to make use of the lounges in Airports, it is hectic to wait on uncomfortable chairs and walking through all the shops more than 5 times! It is sensible to use the lounges, they are not that expensive, and it’s SO worth it! $40 later I booked myself into the Oryx lounge and immediately asked for a shower! It was even better than what I expected, I thought the showers will be tiny, but this shower was as big as my room back home, half of it is used to put your luggage and dress/undress and the other half was the shower! It was really big, it amazed me, and I was even given a fresh towel, even though I packed one. 

The Oryx Lounge at Doha Airport

That shower was sent from heaven! I appreciated it a lot, it was so refreshing, and I felt so much better afterwards, ready for the other part of my journey! I looked forward to the food in the lounge but after my shower I wasn’t hungry at all, this disappointed me as they had so many good things around, the couches were divine though! I didn’t have time to go on the Internet but I had good connection on my phone to let my parents know I’m safe. I didn’t stay in the lounge too long as my boarding gate was number 35, AGAIN REALLY FAR!! I didn’t want to rush and waste my perfectly good shower by sweating again! Since it is less than 0 degrees Celsius in South Korea I wanted to dress warmly in Doha, but I couldn’t, it was too hot there. So I had to wait till we were on the plane and close to Seoul. I walked slowly and calmly to my boarding gate, but near the end I started walking faster as the heavy hand luggage started working on my arms! I finally reached the gate and had enough time to read before boarding. 

My flight from Doha to Seoul

After we boarded the plane I started feeling very tired! It was 01:50 in Doha, which is 00:50 in South Africa, plus I had so much excitement for one day, it finally took its toll. As soon as the plane was in the air I dosed off and was only awake for our meal. This flight was a bit annoying because there was a jackass sitting behind me, he put his feet on the arm rests in front of him, therefore MY armrests, and every time he moved my whole chair shook! I turned around and asked him to stop, to no avail since he couldn’t understand English...it made me feel better however to picture how different the situation would be if I had a knife, I constantly pictured me stabbing his ugly feet, one does not need to understand English to get the message then! Near landing time I had to go to the restroom to change into warmer clothes, had to force myself awake to do this, as I passed the guy sitting behind me I gave him a look that said “beware of meeting me in South Korea when I have a knife handy!”

Seoul from the air

The time difference between South Africa and South Korea is 7 hours, we finally landed in Seoul at 16:30, and this is 09:30 in South Africa, on Thursday 15 December, so just as we got rid of night time it was on its way again...sigh. As we were flying over Inch eon and Seoul I was mesmerised over the beauty! Water as far as the eye could see, and then small spots of land here and there, little islands some quite high. There were long bridges linking some islands with the main land, and there were many fishing boats everywhere, the sun was also busy setting, as it is winter the sun was setting early, I could stay in that plane hovering over this beauty for a long time, the plane landed too soon! We got off the plane, went through security and immigration, but then obviously I was picked for a search at customs, probably because of all the South African drug scandals in Asia recently. The man at customs had a hard time explaining to me through gestures that I have to take my bags off the trolley AGAIN so he could scan it AGAIN! I was by now sick of removing my heavy bags from the trolley, the point of the trolley was so I did not have to endure the pain of lifting them! So I pretended not to understand and let him do it. That was rude of me I know, but I was tired, physically and mentally and I really wanted to just leave the airport now. I first went to the foreign exchange to change my US$ into Won, that went smoothly and easily. Now I had to figure out how to buy a bus ticket and explain to them where I want to go. It was easier than expected, I just went outside where I saw buses and went to a counter close to it and pulled out my little book where it was written in Korean that I want a bus to Gwangju city. The lady took some time but eventually understood and gave me a ticket; I think it was 30,000 Won, about R200. 

My bus trip from Seoul to Gwangju

My bus was leaving in 20 minutes and I still had to call my agent in Gwangju to let her know about the times so she can let the English School know what time to pick me up from the bus station. I ran inside again and went to the ‘Tourist Information Desk’, the lady there could speak some English and I told her that I need to phone a lady to let her know about my bus times, I think she gets these kinds of requests often because she immediately took her phone and called Eun Ju, that was very kind of her. I then ran outside again where the cold was piercing through my skin to find 9C where I board my bus. I couldn’t put on my jackets as they were weighing down my hand luggage on the trolley, otherwise it keeps tumbling forward knocking old ladies and toddlers off their feet. J The bus came and I loaded all me luggage under the bus and put on my jacket immediately!! I took a seat right in front for the best view; I could stretch out my legs and use the empty seat next to me if I wanted to sleep. At first I was excited to look around as we drove, not that I could see much as the sun was long gone by then, but I could make out a few things, there was a lot of lights everywhere!

The route we flew, bizarre!

Something that I want to mention that I noticed during the flight, from Johannesburg to Doha it was practically straight forward, but from Doha to Seoul it was zig zag. We flew north around the Himalayas for obvious practical reasons, then over China, but instead of landing in Seoul from the north which was the easiest and most logical option the plane first flew South when we were on the sea between China and Korea, and then landed in Seoul from the West, this is because the plane is not politically allowed to fly over North Korea. How bizarre? It was really strange to see, and as a politician in the making I found it very interesting!

There was a television in the bus and obviously it was Korean, but I found it very interesting as all the shows were about food! I thought maybe it’s a food network but when I reached my flat and saw the programs on all the 49 channels I noticed most of it is about food... Gwangju is known by all Koreans as the food capital, traditional and classy Korean foods are found here, people come from all over to taste the food in Gwangju. The television in the bus made me worry about what kinds of food I’ll find, people sit and prepare their food on the floor, they’re mostly raw and mixed with this red chili powder using their naked hands. It seemed like a challenge, I should just remember to keep my book with the Korean word ‘vegetarian’ close by!

Electronic Toilet

I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore so I lowered the arm rest and slept on the chairs. I was woken up when the bus stopped suddenly and I nearly rolled on the floor. We stopped at a filling station taking a 15 minute break. I stepped outside in the freezing weather luckily this time with my jacket and gloves! To my relief the sign for ‘girl’s bathroom’ is universal, so it wasn’t hard to read the sign of the girl in the dress. I first took a photo of the electronic toilette, as it is tradition that Lelanie and I take photos of all toilets different than our own! LOL!! After using the rest room I went to the shop as I was hungry by now, except I couldn’t understand anything and all the snacks looked foreign and strange, I gave it a skip and ate the crackers I still had left from the flight instead. J

Back on the bus I immediately fell asleep again, I woke up when we were 30 minutes away from Gwangju. By now I really just wanted to get to my place and sleep in my bed. As I climbed out of the bus at 22:00 the evening I wondered how I will find the school director that was supposed to pick me up, but before I could unload my luggage I felt a tap on my shoulder, “Mariska?” It was the school director, Clinton, and his daughter whose name I have to learn to pronounce and Sunny, a supervisor working at my school, the daughter and Sunny is my age, and they’re so lovely. The daughter can’t speak English but Sunny could speak to me well enough, Clinton still struggles too, he is definitely a beginner.

First they took me to the school after they had a laugh in the car because I’m a vegetarian, apparently a big joke in South Korea just as it is in South Africa. LOL! I met the manager and owner of the school and was given a tour. It is such a lovely little place, full of bright colours, and I even get my own little office space with Internet! After that I was taken to me home, which is an apartment just around the corner of the school. They told me it is a one room apartment meaning everything is in one room, I expected it to be small, but to my surprise it is bigger than I imagined, like my apartment in PE, perhaps even a bit bigger, and I have a television! I didn’t have much strength to do anything, I was excited that my phone worked in Korea so I let my parents know I’m safe and then plunged into bed after I took a lovely hot shower.

First three days in Korea

The next day I was expected to be at the school at 14:30, and I only woke up at 13:00! I didn’t expect that, and slept through my alarm! I took that time to get ready and unpack everything from my luggage; I even had time to make a list of everything I need after checking everything in the flat. I arrived at the school and met the other foreign teacher at the school. She’s Filipino and her English is about intermediate, I’m the only one there who speaks English fluently. I also met all the children I’ll be teaching, they are extremely cute, a bit unruly, but I’ll fix that, the only thing that works is to keep quiet and wait for them to realise that you won’t continue the class until they have settled. It worked with every class that night when they became loud as I introduced myself. I think they’re amazing kids, very eager to learn and they have a long way to go, I still see them as beginners perhaps very early pre-intermediate English speakers, this will be easy as there is a variety I can teach, they have to expand their vocabulary and verb uses. 

At about 18:00 the school director asked if I wanted to go shop for things I need, I immediately took the offer! We went by my flat first so I can get the list of things I need, we went to this place called Lotte Mart, it’s like a shopping mall that’s four stories high but it’s all one brand (Lotte), so interesting! With the director it was easier to find things; I’m not over exaggerating when I say EVERYTHING is in Korean! Not even the shop helpers can speak a little English; I was completely lost in translation. I managed to get about half of the things on my list as this was the only things the director understood.

 I wanted to get a microwave and kettle, as the only kettle thing in the house is one you must put on the stove, I’m not use to it and the electric kettles aren’t expensive. He was very confused over the fact that I want a microwave, in South Africa obviously it’s an ordinary thing to have, a must have for every kitchen, and since I don’t have an oven, only two, gas lit, stove tops I think it’s quite essential, but he insisted that I don’t need it. LOL! Apparently almost no one there has one, like it’s a luxury or something, I left it, but I think I’ll definitely get one later! I managed to get some food, only things I understood, like salad leaves and fruit, I struggled with the coffee as they only have them in little individual bags like our Nesle Cappicino, there wasn’t much instant coffees, and I don’t know which is decaf, so I had to take anything. It took me 20 minutes to explain that I need milk, I was exhausted so decided I’ll come back in the morning and look for everything else. LOL! When we paid they didn’t put anything in bags, instead we went downstairs where we packed everything in boxes and then in the car, that was cool!

Snow around my flat

The director dropped me at home and when I entered my room I realised how tired I was AGAIN! Maybe it’s all the excitement and the fact that I’m learning and taking in every detail and my brain is overloading! It also started snowing, so the excitement was too much to contain! We had some snow in Johannesburg a few years ago; it lasted for like ten minutes, but that snow was nothing like the snow here. I never thought that you could actually see the snowflake, as it landed on my sleeves I examined them and you can see the little spikes and the different forms and it’s so soft! I just wanted to walk in it, it was my first time ever experiencing something like that, and it was beautiful!! Everyone walked around with umbrellas, like it’s raining, I realised then that I know nothing about snow, and it was evident when I nearly broke my neck slipping on the pavement! After the director left I went to take a walk in the snow, I took some pictures and observed my environment, I loved it!! I slipped a few times again, learning where and how to walk when it’s snowing. 

Snow near my flat

When I returned home the director was waiting for me in front of my door that was funny! He said he came to pick me up to go for supper, it was his daughter’s birthday and they wanted to celebrate...note that it was now 22:00 at night. LOL! So we went and stopped at this little restaurant where the manager first had a good long stare at my face, while telling everyone else what she thought of me. I just smiled and nodded and said ‘thank you’ a lot, as it seems to please them when I do. J Earlier I told Clinton that I want to learn Taekwondo, and magically like fate he told me that his daughter and he go for Taekwondo lessons in the mornings, and it’s English! I was so excited, and I told him that I want to join from next week! Apparently you get fit quickly in these classes, it makes me excited! To my surprise the Taekwondo teacher (called Master in Korea) joined us for the supper so I could meet him! He’s English is the best I’m heard so far, we were able to communicate a bit more fluently, because he’s been in Canada for a year. Again there was a lot of laughing going around when we tried to order food as I am a vegetarian, lucky for me apparently seaweed soup is a special kind of soup that is made and served only on Birthdays in Korea, it’s a celebration. I found that interesting, and I was very happy that there was something I could eat! The Taekwondo Master explained to me that there are special soups for all special occasions and celebrations, even New Years has a special soup to be drunk, and I’m excited to try New Years soup! I kind of like the seaweed soup, I’ll definitely eat it again, but I don’t want to wait for a birthday! The table looked like a fruit and seaweed party! There were dry seaweed leaves, like the ones you roll rice over to make sushi and soy sauce to dip the leave in, it was so nice, and it’s very healthy for you! You can make little rice and seaweed cakes when you roll the seaweed around sticky rice, tight, and then cut the roll in thin round pieces that you can easily pick up with the chop stick and dip into soy. There was a fruit platter as well, that was nice, the Taekwondo Master explained to me that the grapes found in South Korea is much different from any other grape in the world, and he was absolutely right!! When I put it in my mouth it jumped out of the skin covering and it was so chewy and delicious, so much softer and juicier that our grapes back in South Africa, they’re smaller too. There was another fruit there that I’ve never eaten in my life, I forgot the name of it but I know it’s from South Korea, was a bit like apple and pear put together without that powdery taste pears have, it was smooth, but had a lot of pips. 

Add for Cass Light Beer

We had a lot of beer; beer seems to be the “thing” in South Korea, and also “Soju” that is closer to Vodka. Beer is adored here just like that funny add on television that I finally figured out is an advertisement for beer, so this fat boy dressed in a blue sweat suit with fake six pack on his bulge start dancing while another girl appears around the corner of this gigantic beer can, they both then dance while they sing ‘Yes sir, I can boogy, boogy oogy all night long! Boogy yes sir I can boogy, boogy oogy all night long!” And that is now going to sell millions of the Cass Light beer!

After our birthday feast I was dragged along to go have fun at the karaoke bar! I knew that Karaoke was serious in Asia, I just never knew they took it THAT serious, it’s something all families go and do, very often too. You pay an amount and you are given a room for about an hour.  In the room you sit on the couches with the TV and microphones in front of you. Everyone gets a turn to choose their song so it can line up on the system and then action! It was funny to see them sing these songs they love and getting emotionally involved in it, the birthday girl even cried a little. It was fun actually, and since I’m not that amazing at singing my song didn’t go that bad, you should have seen me shaking my hips, moving my arms and singing “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog!, Crying all the time, you ain’t nothing but a hound dog and you ain’t nothing of mine. You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time, you ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine!”

Kareoke

After about a few funny songs I finally started to become sentimental like them and sing something with meaning, and I sang “Blue eyes crying in the rain. When we kiss goodbye and pardon, only memories remain, blue eyes crying in the rain.” What I also wanted to sing was this, “I am coming back some day come what may to Blue Bayou, where the folks are fine, and the world is mine at Blue Bayou. Saving nickels saving dimes working till the sun don’t shine looking forward to happy times at Blue Bayou!”

That was all very fun but I was over exhausted by now, so we went home, I took a shower and fell onto bed as it was now somewhere between 2:00 and 4:00, didn’t even know. Went on to facebook while I was in bed and then passed out. I woke up at 14:00 Saturday afternoon!!! That was a shocker!! I decided that this is not going to happen again! I have to get rid of this jet lag NOW, so from now on I go to bed normal time and wake up at least 09:00 in the morning. That afternoon I made ready and ate a little cereal even though it’s not morning. By now most of the snow has melted and gone, just like that!! Can’t wait for the next bunch! I flagged a taxi to take me to the Lotte Mart Again, there I attempted to use my intellect and time to figure out what exactly these people sell and what of those things I need. I skipped the microwave again, thinking I might get it after I received my first pay along with a DVD player so I can watch more English movies. 

At the moment I need to focus on getting a cell phone, after I’ve done my medical check next week and then also getting my bank account which will be a great blessing when I have it and also Internet in my flat! I saw the scales at Lotte Mart and I must get one later! Saw some containers too that I want to get, one for the bathroom and the other for the kitchen. I got bowls for cereal, three glasses, and a little mat for the bathroom, a towel, and some other food that I now understand. The seaweed that you dip into soy! Talking about food, after the shopping I came back home and ate something! It was absolutely perfect! Noodles in cheese, made it myself with cooked water, wait for a few minutes and it was ready. Officially my first real meal in Korea, most of the time I just don’t eat, let’s hope I can keep this up. I see food making and food eating in Korea as a sort of show to me, I enjoy it, but I don’t eat it myself, we’ll see how this all goes!