The Journey to Busan, South Korea

On Feb 22, after a busy day with an interview at the Korean Consulate and a delicious family dinner in Toronto, I said goodbye to my family and left to board my flight to Seoul.

Luckily, as I walked into the waiting area, I found a married couple (Ross and Nicole) that I had met earlier that day, who were on the same flight as me. They were kind enough to keep me company as we waited to board. This turned out to be a very helpful situation, as they had already taught in Korea for one year, and were heading back for another. They offered me much advice and wisdom which will help me in future weeks (AND helped me with my collecting my very heavy luggage!).

Walking onto the plane, I was dreading the 13 ½ hrs ahead of boredom. On a positive note, because I had to pay extra for my excessively heavy luggage, I was able to negotiate a seat change for myself into the emergency exit row, which had endless amounts of extra legroom (this did make a world of difference).

The plane was almost entirely packed but I was pleased to find an empty seat beside me. At the end of my row was a Korean man in his late twenties. I later learned that he had almost perfect English and has travelled to many parts of the world. He was extremely good to talk to because he gave me ‘the do’s and don’ts of Korea’ and made the time pass by a little faster.

Apart from the fact that my double dose of Gravol AND sleeping pills did not work to help me sleep, the flight was very good. I flew with Korean Air--- they have excellent customer service. They offered slippers, toothbrushes and paste, cool towels, hot towels, multiple beverages, wine with dinner, and even edible plane food (that’s very rare in my books).

When the flight landed in Seoul, I met back up with my friends Ross and Nicole and we waited for 5 and a half hours to board the next flight to Busan. It was a pleasant surprise walking into the airport and finding Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robins--- I was expecting everything to be foreign.

The flight to Busan went quickly and I said goodbye to my new friends and hello to my new boss. After a slightly awkward introduction (I didn’t know who he was), my boss told me that I can call him by his Catholic name, Joseph. He was very friendly and took me to both campuses of the school for a small tour. I hadn’t expected this, because by now I had been travelling for over twenty hours and was not as ‘fresh’ as I normally would like to be. None the less, I was pleased to see that both campuses of the school (elementary and middle) are well kept and very modern.

Joseph took me out for a delicious lunch of ‘Knife Noodle Soup’ and then took me back to my accommodation. This was a bit of a shock as I had been told that I would have an apartment set up for me--- apparently my apartment was not ready yet, so I was taken to a hotel near the school. Normally this would have been fine, but I thought I was being smart while packing and sucked everything into those vacuum space bags. Well now that I’ve opened them in the hotel, I don’t have a hope of shoving everything back in to my suitcases to move into the apartment in five days. Oh well--- I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

During the rest of the day, I cleaned up, had a nap and then returned to the school to meet my fellow teachers. They are all very nice and helpful--- I watched a couple of classes and then decided to return to my hotel to get an early night’s sleep. Classes at the school run from 2-10pm, so they’re later nights than a regular 9-5 job, but the kids have public school during the day.