another first day of school in a new country

after my visa application was accepted in atlanta last thursday, my life has been moving pretty quickly. i received my passport on friday afternoon while packing, yet again, for another year. i left tallahassee on saturday morning, after trying to cram everything i love about home into 18 hours. i went out for indian food and shopping with my mom. i love shopping with her, because both of us absolutely hate shopping; we run in and out, just lingering long enough to pick up what is absolutely necessary. we sat on our back porch and enjoyed the cool, cloudy fall day (quite the rarity in tally). we went out in town for sushi and drinks downtown. we baked chocolate chip cookies and ate cookie dough. i quickly finished packing on saturday morning, being sure to leave enough time to stop by waffle house for breakfast. oh, food and the south.

forty hours later, i arrived in seoul. i really felt like i should have arrived in bangkok after i left eh states. i was just glad to arrive after a very rough flight that involved flying around korea for an extra hour to avoid actually going through the thunderstorms covering the city. i wish we could've just gone through; it would have taken ten minutes, tops, and would have cut out a lot of screaming and puking (oh, how i wish the italian girl sitting next to me had eaten less for breakfast!).

i thought getting to my apartment would be easy after the mental morning. a korean man met me at the airport and put me on a bus. i thought he would ride with me, but he seemed to be telling the driver to let me off at a certain stop. needless to say, the driver forgot. i got off at the last stop on the line with all of my bags. freezing in the early morning wind, i asked around for a little help and made a new friend named deborah, who contacted my school for me. he was waiting many stops before mine and had been there for a couple of hours, panicking that he had lost the new teacher.

given the morning, i thought i was in for a terrible day. i was wrong. sophie teacher took grat care of me on my first couple of days here at school. the other teachers are amazingly kind. i think i will be happy here.