Hospitals, Apartments and Parks

Since we’ve only got out once with the camera and only took 4 pictures, they will be randomly interspersed throughout this entry:

GDA seems to be quite the friendly place; nice staff (both Korean and foreign), cute kids, amicable decor. I’m temporarily living in a two-bedroom apartment with a fellow teacher and will be moving into my own place as soon as a one-bedroom becomes available this coming Friday. As my current roomie showed me to work on Friday morning, I was able to see a bit of the neighbourhood and discovered that it was quite the cheerful spot. There are a few corner stores around (one of which is open 24 hours), a little park and finally – GDA.

Jen’s already described it (see archives for her post), so I won’t go into much detail on the school itself :) My first day consisted of meeting the teachers and being informed that I wouldn’t be able to visit with the kids quite yet – they needed to have proof that I wasn’t infected with swine flu so that if parents called asking, they would have my medical record on hand and a clean bill of health. So off I went to the Korean hospital to have blood drawn, chest x-rays, eyes and ears tested, height and weight measured… the list goes on. Thank goodness for Mr. Park (one of the administrative people), who greatly helped as my escort and translator through the hospital. All-in-all, it was a fascinating trip through a Korean medical centre.

When I returned, I was told that I was able to head home and relax for the rest of the day… except that I didn’t know where I lived. So one of the teachers (who knew where Jen lived but not where I lived) showed me to Jen’s spot and Jen let me relax at her place until she got off work. Later that night, Jen and I got our first introduction to Seoul via the subway, bus and taxi systems - one of the teachers showed us around some sort of shopping centre place where I appreciated such t-shirts as “No Slept” and “Truth – the opposite of Love.” Upon returning home that evening, we found where I lived and attempted entry, only to discover that my key didn’t work and my temporary roommate wasn’t home. I was locked out!

Thank goodness for Jen! We ended up running back to her place, where I stayed for the next couple of nights :) Good friends are priceless – she saved me from being homeless in Korea! Later that weekend, upon finding the roomie at home, we discovered that the key actually did work – you just needed to know how to use it. So, technically, I had never been locked out, but instead proved myself incapable of opening doors :)

Despite our attempts to find directions to the church we wish to attend, we were unable to figure it out before Sunday morning. We set out instead on a mission to locate a map, figure out where we are, and hopefully find some landmarks with which to navigate. We ended up touring a local park and getting some groceries. By Sunday night we were confident that we had some sort of understanding of our area and are hoping to reach the Church soon :)

My access to internet is extremely limited thus far, so I apologize if I’m not keeping up with my emails! I’m off for my third day of work soon, and I get to meet 2 new teachers who supposedly arrived in Korea last night – orientation day for the three of us today!

I hope you’re all enjoying life :)
~*~Kate~*~