"Up from here" Chapter 4: Seoul, South Korea (Part One)

After Jill dropped me off at the airport I waited for my first International flight over the Pacific Ocean. I always loved to fly but 14 hours was the longest up to this point in my life I had flown in a Jetliner. A few hours into the flight I noticed the window shades were pulled down. If you pushed it up there was a bright light coming from it. It was best to leave them down so the sun did not blind you. After several in flight moves and meals we were landing in Seoul, South Korea at about 4:30 p.m. in the after noon and we left San Francisco at around 11:00 a.m. for the 14 hour flight arriving where the day starts on that side of the world before it does here in the USA.

It was a long flight and after I went through immigration I noticed a sign with my name written on it. I was told when I arrived there would be driver to pick me up at the airport. I went up to the Korean man who was holding up the sign with my name written on it. I shook his hand and he shook mine after we introduced ourselves to each other. We both grabbed my luggage and headed to his mini van parked in the parking lot. A few minutes after we loaded my luggage into the mini van and we on our way to where ever we were going. I asked the driver if he had a cigarette and I explained to him I had just quit but it did not look like I was going to make it. I was nervous and needed to have a cigarette and needed to bum one from him until I could buy a pack myself. I think I had at the time about twenty dollars US Currency. I did not have Korean money yet. He gave a cigarette to me and we both lit one up and smoked on our way to my new home in Seoul, South Korea.

It was about an hour later when we arrived to where I would be staying. We parked out front of this building and the driver lead the way up three flights of stairs carrying my luggage where I would live. He showed me the bedroom where I was going to be sleeping. We both put down my luggage and then he gave e a tour of the apartment. He showed me one room where the door was closed and explained to me that is where one of the teachers was staying. He mentioned they were back in the states and would be back in a few weeks.

Then he showed me the kitchen area and then where the shower and toilet were in the bathroom. I walked into the bathroom and got the shock of my life as I entered. I asked where is the toilet? He pointed to the ground. All I saw was hole in the ground with a handle to flush the toilet. I asked, “Well how do you go the bathroom? He just shook his head and I guess he figured I would figure it out on my own. And I did. You have to squat over it for a bowel movement and just stand over it and hope you hit the hole when you take a pee. It definitely was a strange way to go to the bathroom and something I had never seen before in my life. Talk about the Twilight Zone, this was not Disneyland that is for sure.

Before he left he wanted to show me one of the classrooms I would be teaching in. It was on the second floor below the apartment. He took me down there and I had a look around. I was excited now and felt a little better about being so far away from home and in a strange country that I had never been to before.

In a few weeks by the end of the month it would be Christmas and I was told we be moving to a new house in about a week before Christmas. He mentioned he would pick me up in the morning and take me to other school they had with classrooms too. Where I could meet the other teachers and get my teaching schedule of classes and times I would be teaching them. We bid our good-bys and he left and I settled into my new home in this strange land so far away from home.

All I know is that it was cold. It was cold in Redding, California but this place was really cold. I found the electric heater. Then I went to look for a place to plug it into. The only problem was the plug looked much different, as I had never seen plug like that before. Then I looked for the socket to plug it into. I finally figured out where the socket was in the wall. As it matched the prongs on the heater and it had to be the right place to plug the heater in. I turned on the heater and began to unpack and put some of my cloths in the dresser and to get ready to take my first shower in the new country I was now going to live in for a while. After my shower I wanted to go and see if I could find a store to buy a pack of cigarettes and to see the neighborhood I was now living in.

I went down the three flights of stairs and figured one direction was just as good as the other. I made a left towards the corner and at the corner I turned left again and about half way down the block. Around the corner I discovered a little store and went inside and bought a pack of cigarettes. They had American Cigarettes so I bought my normal brand of cigarettes. I bought a pack of Marlboro's and the person behind the counter gave me change for my twenty-dollar bill but it was in wons. I had no idea if I was given the right change or not as I had no idea what wons were or their value at the time in exchange rates.

Go to "Up from here" Chapter 4: Seoul, South Korea (Part Two)

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