Flight and Arrival

Well, I must say that despite my worst fears and apprehensions, the flight was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Although it was 14.5 hrs, I had two seats to myself, and between in-flight movies, my own movies, a couple of books, hours spent failing to sleep and computer games, the time past quite quickly. Oh yes, and eating crappy airplane food. That took up some time too...


Upon landing, the first thing I noticed was that the bathrooms here are indeed very modern and clean. (They have some sort of strange "We have the best bathrooms" claim to fame here) The airport was in fact eerily like Pearson, except with cooler trees and better signage.


The Incheon (pronounced Inch'on) airport bus took an hr & 1/2 to get to Suwon, but was very comfortable, with great big leather seats!

I was picked up at the bus stop by one of the Korean admin guys at Happy Suwon (the name of the whole city, not just the school!) English Village. We caught a school bus that took us to my apartment, which is a large white block on top of a convenience store and bar. The strangest thing about the apt is that the lights in the hallway are all motion censored, so it's completely dark when you first walk in – a wee bit creepy, but great for the environment!!

I met four teachers on my first night, and they were all great, especially Jo and her bf Pete, who gave me water and a mug and tea from England! This may not seem like such a big deal, but considering that I had no cups and can't drink the tap water and you can't find Tetley tea in Korea, it was a BIG deal!

I was supposed to go down for a drink with the teachers, but it was 9pm Korean time, 8am Toronto time, and I hadn't slept more than 2 hrs in the past 24, so I passed out instead.