South Korea

Well, I am out of China. Saturday saw me flying from Dalian to South Korea to visit my good buddy Tim. Going through the airport was fairly easy for me considering the language barrier. Everything over here is written in english as well as Chinese. So yay for growing up in a country where english was my first language. There was a moment of panic as I walked to the kiosk to check in and no one was on the other side. I looked around and everyone else on that side of the airport seemed to be calm and just sitting. Thinking this could be some cultural thing I just took a seat. Slowly people started to walk up and leave their bags behind the queue line and then sat down, i soon followed suit. This was also the first time i had seen the concept of a line being followed. So with about 2 hours till the plane took off some attendants finally came out and checked us all through quickly.  Was able to catch a 40 minute nap on the plane once i sat down, before we had even taken off. Problem was, when I woke up we still had not gone anywhere. So what was supposed to be a 40 minute flight total last about 2 hours, most of which was spent waiting at the gate.

Upon arriving in SK, it was a fairly simple process of following the crowd of people and hoping that I had done my research right and did not need a VISA to enter SK. Luckily I did not. Tim greeted me on the other side of the luggage.

First night we went out and he introduced me to some of his buddies he has made here. Lots of Americans, not many Canadians. Though i was just happy to be able to understand the majority of the conversation around me. Tim lives in a very western styled area with lots of people from US, Canada, England.

My first morning here was amazing, waking up a hockey game. Due to the time difference I was able to catch the tail end of the Anaheim-Chicago game. And with the schedule for the cup final out, as long as it goes to game 6 or 7 i should be home in time to watch it.  Then went to a baseball game and a finally a friend of Tims had a little BBQ for people.

So after three weeks of Dalian I am back in travel mode. The three weeks turned out to be a great learning experience, both in how to deal with ELL students and how to remain professional in the face of criticism. It was bitter sweet to leave the group i had been with for a month, but great to see an old friend and a new country.  Really want to fill up my 10 year passport and now I have the travel bug even worse than before.

The week ahead has trips to the DMZ, 4D imax movies, triva nights, all you can eat Korean BBQ, NBA championship, museums, temples, reliable internet, maybe a soccer game and maybe a noraebang some night. So clearly I am gonna enjoy myself.