It's only been 5 days?

I can't believe that it has only been 5 days since last I wrote and since last our cohort was still one cohesive orientation-group. Phew...Frankly, it has been a wonderful whirlwind.

Where to start...


Well, I am now moved into to my apartment. I live somewhere in Eonyang (Mom, I promise I'll send you my address ASAP). The reason I say "somewhere" is because I have still not been told my address, and the street signs here seem to be randomly sprinkled throughout the town. It makes for a slightly frustrating but also adventure-primed atmosphere. I don't mind getting lost, and in the few times I have been disoriented, I simply find myself marveling at some shop or South Korean person that, had I not gotten lost, I likely would have never encountered. So, street signs or not, it's all good :-)

In a sentence, and an unexpected/ironic one at that, Eonyang is geographically speaking the Boulder, Colorado of South Korea. There is a good size downtown with every comfort and amenity I have thus far desired, and literally 10 minutes outside of town are some massive mountains. For serious, it feels like I am living on the front range again. Bliss. Really.

About 3 minutes (running) from my house is a large river, and on either side is a bike/running path. Two days ago, I ran for 30 minutes in one direction, and didn't yet reach the end. As I amp up my time/distance, maybe I'll discover it.

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. First, move-in day.

On the 26th, I was picked up by my co-teacher Che Gi Bong (Che is his last name, Gi is his first and Bong is his last...silly South Koreans ;-)) from the orientation site in Ulsan. After a few minutes of small talk, I said good by to the other folks in my cohort, and headed into Mr. Che's car. After about a 15 minutes of slowly gaining elevation as we snaked through a lush emerald valley, we exited into Eonyong, and arrived at my apartment about 2 minutes later. That was a stress relief. People were telling me that I was out in the sticks relative to the downtown, but as it turned out, I am only about 15 minutes away.

My building, the Jenice Vill B is a brand new development. Walking in, I was happily overwhelmed by the plastic-ish smell that come w/ new linoleum floors, appliances, doors and all of the rest. In fact, similar to the plastic sheet that is stuck to the front of a cell phone to keep it from being scratched in the box, so too was almost everything in my apartment covered in plastic. So, for the past week or so, I've been peeling plastic off the fridge, doors, windows, TV, stove, and so on, but frankly, I'm thrilled to be in such a new place.

I was told to expect a studio apartment, but as I poked around I discovered that I have a bedroom, living room, laundry room, bathroom, and mud room. Super spacious. I tried to turn on the washing machine figuring that I might as well try it before my co-teacher/only person at the time I knew in Eonyong that spoke English left. Quite quickly perplexed, I asked Mr. Che for some help, but his response was, "Only my wife knows." Hello 1950's gender norms...lol. Okay, I figured I'd try Mr. Che about the heat. Again I got an "Only my wife knows." Hot damn, two for two. How about the stove I asked. "Only my wife know, but I'll call the landlord."

Suffice to say, Mr. Che called the landlord, and in her tow came about 5 other random people one of whom was the local gas-utility man. It was like we got the gas-utility to come out on demand. Talk about service. So, including me, there were 8 people in my tiny apartment, two different women trying to simultaneously show me how to use the heat and the washer, all speaking in Korean mind you, and one random dude with 5 gold teeth on the top simply leaning on the wall, just smiling and taking it all in.

Finally, I understood all the instructions I was being given, everyone said their goodbyes and suddenly I was left all alone in my apartment. Well, almost all alone. In all the hustle and bustle of the everyone coming and going, a rice cooker appeared. Score. But, essentially, after everyone left, it was just me and my rice cooker. I should say, the place is quite nicely furnished, so I have a bed, a stand-up dresser, table and chair, fridge, but once everyone left it was enjoyably yet strikingly quiet.

Hot damn...I'm spent at this point.

There's a few other key memories I'd like to jot down, but I'm a bit out of brain power now. I'll have some coffee and see where I'm at.