Back To The Future! (for the first time)

I made it!!! And I made it just in time for classes!

I was able to get everything together that I needed to submit to the Korean consulate in San Francisco by Wednesday, which was amazing considering what I had to do to get everything together. When I showed up to the Korean consulate on Wednesday with all of my documentation, they told me that I didn't need to be interviewed (they require some people to be interviewed before going to Korea), and that they would have my passport ready by Friday.

So on Friday I picked up my passport at 9:15 a.m., and hopped on a plane to South Korea that afternoon at 2:00, which didn't give me much time to get to the airport, but after what I went through to get the visa to leave, I was determined to make my flight.

The flight was 12 hours, and I didn't sleep for the entire time I was on the plane (I was awake for about 22 hours). Jet lag kicked in upon arrival to Korea, and it didn't help that I went to church on Sunday morning after arriving on Saturday evening. Fortunately church was interesting, but I didn't realize that it would be 4 hours! It wasn't so bad, and there was a potluck afterward, so at least I was well fed.

Unfortunately because I was scheduled to teach on Monday, and because I arrived on Saturday evening, I didn't get much orientation. The first couple of days involved introductory activities that involved simple discussions in English, so even though I wasn't well prepared, it wasn't so bad. Also Connexus ( the language institute that I work for) has a lot of the curriculum already prepared for me, so it's not as bad as it could be. Also the other English teachers from the US and Canada have been really helpful to me in telling me things that I need to know.

So far I have been enjoying being here! I've been thinking about my experience on SST in Ethiopia, and I think that I am much more prepared for an experience like this now than when I went to Ethiopia as a sophomore in college. It's also helpful to be in a place that has a lot of similarities to the US.