The 1st Scatterbrained Blog

After a long flight of 14 hours, Bryan and I made it to Korea. I will spare the details on the flight itself only because it's usually the same experience as anyone else who's flown economy class across the world. Constant feeding and noisy children. Ok, so now that I think about it, there were some interesting details to my flight. I have not been on an international flight in quite a while, but it is amazing the changes that have been made. The in-flight movies were free and accessible through a personal touchscreen. I watched "Annie Hall" which I had never seen in its entirety so since I had the time, I got to watch the whole thing. I also watched "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"...not so good. It was one of those movies Sarah and I would declare "embarassing". The whole "where's fluffy?" thing just grossed me out. Then, I tried to watch a docu about the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It put me to sleep which was what I needed so I was thankful. The one really off-putting part of the flight was that the young man behind me had the worst smelling socks and he rested them on the back of my chair so I could smell his stinky feet for too long. I am getting off topic.

Anyways, so when we arrived at the airport, we were about to go through customes and looked up and saw our old friend Dong Hyoung Kwon waving at us. He does computer security at the airport, so he was able to meet us when we landed! How cool. We know Dong Hyoung from a language tandem program through the U of M. He helped Bryan and I with our Korean language and we helped him with his English. His English has improved a great deal since the last time we saw him! It was nice having him at the airport because he helped us figure out where we were going and all that business.

(Is this the most boring blog ever? I appreciate feedback!)

So, from Incheon Airport, we had to take a bus all the way to Dankook University. Which has 2 campuses, one in Seoul and one here in Cheonan. Rumor has it that EPIK moved the orientation to Cheonan because people were getting too wasted in Seoul during the first week here. haha, of course stupid foreigners have to ruin it for everyone. However, the city here is quite beautiful. There is a lake across from the school and beyond that is some mountainous areas with big highrises plopped right in the middle of them! It was snowing here our first day and at the school it was graduation day. There were lots of families taking pictures of bright-eyed graduates, with puffs of snow all around. It was nice! This school must be private because it is pretty small and the dorm rooms are very nice. I share a dorm with a young lady named Josie, she is from Great Britain and I am so happy to say,that I could have had MUCH worse for a roommate. There are a lot of weirdos here and my roommate happens to be a very genuine and cool person. Bryan and I both got lucky because he has a roommate that is great as well. His roomie is also from Great Britain, the funny thing was that the first night here, Bryan heard his roommate talking in his sleep, "rrgghablala....NIGEL!...boaarrrgh". We both got lucky with the roommate situation for sure.

I have met a lot of neat people so far. There is a couple from South Africa, a woman who had already been teaching in Korea so she had a couple tips for me, some more Korean adoptees, a pompous "real" korean guy, an American couple from Pittsburgh who were looking for a change of scenery...so many people!

So far, nothing really eventful has occurred. Some medical exams, an awkward opening ceremony, luncheons in the cafeteria...that is why I will end this blog for now. I do have to get up bright and early to have an x-ray of my lungs taken. It is a test for TB which to us Americans was so absurd because TB seems to be an illness of the past, but we must obey or no alien registration card for you!

I miss my sister. I miss honeycrisp apples. Already.