Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A quick note. In case you've ever wondered how to pronounce Cheonan City, which is where I live, it sounds like something between chunnin and chungun. I've seen it spelled Cheonan, Chunan, and Chungan. It's from two Chinese characters which mean "sky/heavan" and "peace/safety." So it's supposed to mean "the most peaceful place under the sky."
Monday, October 27, 2008
I know I already posted today and I was gonna try hard not to make my blog a play-by-play of my day, so I'll just write some observations in list form:
1) Lotte Mart = Walmart. Only better. It's got 3 levels (with a ramp escalator in between that you can take carts up) of everything you could possibly need, with better customer service--people are standing all over the store ready to assist you.
2) X-rays are common procedure for a physical here. I had to have a health exam to teach, and when it got the part where they told me to go in a closet and put on a hospital gown I was like WHAT?? It was just a torso x-ray. Also when they stuck my arm to take my blood it hurt a lot less than when I gave blood in the U.S. last week.
3) We (me and Jenny, one of the KNU International Relations faculty members) had to stop by a cell phone store to pick up something, and there were several college-age boys there who were eager to try to talk to me and gave me some donuts and juice lol. One asked me where I was from. Lots of attention lol.
4) Lunch was my first traditional Korean meal. It was very interesting. The hostess took our shoes and put them in a cubby, then escorted us to a cubicle with a low table where we sat on the floor on mats to eat. We all had our own dish, chopsticks (stainless steel--very slippery and hard to use), cup of rice water, and soup bowl, and then the server brought dozens of small bowls and platters of various foods. You use your chopsticks to take just a few bites onto your plate at a time and in that way sample lots of things until you are full, instead of having a huge plate of your own food that you feel obligated to finish. Most of the stuff I tried tasted good to me--various types of noodles and vegetables with kind of a sweet, garlicky, vinegary, and sometimes spicy taste. I tried some raw crab that I didn't think was that great--too slimy and fishy tasting, and it was covered in REALLY spicy sauce. But I also had some starfish that I did like. It was in a sort of noodle form rather than chunks.
5) I figured out why people can walk to everywhere here but not in the U.S. I think it's because of American zoning ordinances that group houses and businesses together. Here there are hundreds of apartment buildings maybe 30 stories each mixed right into the shops and businesses. Very handy I think. Less traffic.
Okay I'm gonna work some more on unpacking.
Well I'm here. My flight went well in that it was on time and everything. I was glad that there was nobody in the seat next to me so I had a little more room to stretch out and actually got a few hours of sleep. I was also thankful for the LCD screens on the seat backs as I was able to watch movies and tv, listen to music, and play games with the little remote (I thought "My dad would like this he could play chess"), as well as see a satellite map of where the plane was. We flew over the Arctic Ocean and I saw that the water was frozen, then we flew over northeast Siberia and it was incredible. Completely barren, like a desert, with just tan-colored hills and white frozen lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams as far as you could see. Not a single plant. I was thinking wow this would be a horrible place for the plane to go down. The Arctic Ocean would've been pretty bad too. Then I also happened to look out of the window later as we flew over the tip of the peninsula where Dalian, China is. It seemed very industrial.
Aside from being so tired on the 2 1/2 hour drive from the airport to here that I fell asleep every time I blinked, I don't really feel jet lag. I slept for about 8 hours and then woke up with the sun. I headache when I first woke up but it went away when I got up. And I guess my eyes are a BIT tired now, but no worse then how it normally is in the morning.
I don't know what people are talking about who say Korea smells bad. I haven't noticed anything and just now I went out on my balcony to make sure and all I smelled was fresh morning air. It's nice and the sun is shining and it seems to be in the 50's.
Also I heard some people say that Korea isn't as Westernized/Industrialized as they thought, but to me it seems comparable to the U.S. The highway was well-kept and the roadsigns were green like in the U.S. and in this city the sidewalks were clean (I've noticed that you can tell a lot about foreign countries by how well they keep their sidewalks. In Morocco they were cracked and in Mexico they were trashy.). There are a lot more bright lights and signs then in most U.S. cities it seems. It seemed colorful kind of like Chinatown only more electric lit up signs than painted signs.
Okay I have to go downstairs in 20 min for an orientation and I'm not even dressed so I need to sign off. Later....
Friday, October 24, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
I just wanted to type a quick update for those who I have already been giving my blog address to. I bought my plane ticket yesterday and will be flying out of Springfield on Sunday morning October 26th. I haven't been able to apply for my visa yet, but I did receive word that the people in South Korea now have all of the documentation I mailed them, so now they are submitting it all to the immigration office, which will give me the number I need in order to apply for my visa.
I know it'll all work out; I'm not too worried.
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