One More Hurrah~ (In Korea)

Hi~

I'm back in Seoul, Korea, yet again.  This time, I have a job teaching English as well as taking Korean classes at Sogang University (same school as last spring).

It was rather treacherous trying to get to the airport during the wee hours of this morning (technically yesterday, I guess...).  Minnesota had just the right temperature for a nasty slick coating of ice that covered the roads...  So, we left at 5:30 am and it took Mom, Dad, and me an hour to get to the airport! And along a particularly harrowing stretch of road, we saw something like 15 spinouts/crashes/possibly people just waiting it out, on the side of the road. Jeez...

My parents thought I might have to go through one of those new airport scanners, but the ones at the gate at MSP weren't being used this morning, and later on, in Chicago they did every other person, and I was not chosen.  That's fine by me - I had enough xrays last spring in Korea to last me a long while.

My flight from MSP took off over an hour late due to the weather conditions.  They de-iced our plane, we taxied. Then stopped and waited. Then taxied. Then they told us all flights were grounded for the next 30-40 minutes...  So of course, I called my mom. But as soon as I got off the phone with her, they said the grounding had been lifted and we took off about 15 min. after that. Whew.

Chicago was no problem.  I didn't really have any spare time, but I made it to my gate fine.  I even had time to stop in the duty-free store to buy my friend a bottle of Grey Goose he wanted me to bring over. ^^

The flight from Chicago to Korea went by fairly fast.  I got through a 327 page book in under 5 hours. I don't know if that's fast or not, but I was pretty persistent.  It wasn't that it was that good (it wasn't bad either), but I didn't feel like watching a lot of movies for some reason... I think last time I flew over, I watched movies straight though and ended up completing about 7 movies.
Also, last time I flew over, I met one of the most awesome unnis on the airplane~ Sadly, this time, I didn't make any new friends... hehe.

Anyhow, I got my bags pretty fast at baggage claim and walked out and saw a sign with my name on it;vI had been worried that I wouldn't find my ride.  Holt had sent some ajusshi to take me to Nik's apt. where I'll be staying for the first two days.  Man, this ajusshi had the most pimped out van-taxi ever! It felt like a child's daycare inside. And it was immaculately clean!  The inside had bright red carpet.  In between the front and back, there was this fake log that kind of separated the sections, and it had a holder for a roll of toilet paper (used here instead of a kleenex box).  The back seat had a white cover and bright orange/red/blue pillows attached to the head rests.  And there was some sort of cartoon seat-cover on the front seat. Thus, the bright bold colors and the cartoons making the atmosphere seem very happy and child-like.

I really liked the driver.  He was super nice, and had this slightly tacky-korean mobster look going. Slicked back hair and a gold earring. haha!  He told me all about the renovation of the airport and about all the bridges being built near the airport using some German design/technology.

Nik was running errands for work when we got to his apt. so I went and loitered in the Garden Hotel (a very nice hotel) across the way. The taxi driver dropped me off and handed the valet guys my bags. I thought he might tell them I was just waiting for a friend, but he left that up to me. I did tell them in broken Korean and they totally let me just sit in their lobby for like 45 minutes! Wow.

Nik came and we went to his apt and I ate leftovers from the ETA's (I think this acronym stands for Fulbright's English teaching assistants?...) that they had made a few days before.  Nice! Turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, and stuffing! Yum!  So, thats pretty much all that's happened thus far.

I need to go to the immigration office (hopefully tomorrow) to get my alien registration card so I can reactivate my phone!!!!

Running out of battery on my computer so bye!