october 3rd-5th - "my first weekend in korea"

I lucked out. Friday was a holiday here so we had a three day weekend. Thursday night some girls invited me out. I got all ready to go with them, waited a long time and then finally called. They said they had decided not to go. I found out later they did and just didn't tell me. Tricky making friends...

Friday night I had someone show me how to take the subway into Seoul from Bundang. I went into Seoul that night for my very first time and all by myself. I was so proud of myself for figuring out where to change subway lines. I met up with my old friend Soo Min from college. We hung out at a hookah bar in Gangnam called the Rainbow Room and had a lot of fun catching up on the last 3 and 1/2 years since we'd seen each other.

I had to sleep in Seoul because a cab would be too expensive to take back and the public transportation stopped running at midnight-ish. That morning I had no trouble taking the subway back to Bundang, but the problem is my apartment is a 45 minute walk from the subway so it behooves one to take a bus. I got on the wrong bus. Spent hours lost and eventually in tears and called Jen multiple times for help. She very graciously came to my rescue, quite literally. I was supposed to go into work at this point, to prep myself. No one told me to, it was just to my benefit, but Jen asked, "wanna go to Itaewon?" I didn't know what was there but it sounded more fun to me...

Jen and I went shopping in Itaewon. We had an eventful shopping trip and then went to her friend Liz's apartment to get ready to go out that night to celebrate Jen's 22nd birthday. Liz has a dual command post with the Army/Navy in Seoul and a kick-ass apartment with three dogs, one a golden retriever puppy and one roommate, also a teacher. (I found out later that 99% of the foreign people here are either teachers or in the miliary. No exaggeration.) All the girls that I met that night had formed a rugby team in Seoul. Jen, me, and rugby chicks had a really awesome night dancing until the wee hours of the morning at an Irish pub called "Wolfhound." And you know what, I didn't miss home one bit.

So, at this point:

I am not homesick, per se. But I miss my friends back home, for sure. I like it here in general. I don't feel any real sense of "culture shock", I don't think. My neighborhood and school building are really clean and aesthetically-pleasing. I like Jen and everyone I've met has been pretty nice. I don't mind the children themselves. I don't mind my apartment. I guess I would say I could see myself staying with ease if it weren't for my job. I really very strongly dislike my job. I'm seriously trying to figure out how to break my contract.