Day One

Oh my goodness. What a first day. It's now Tuesday, my first day of work. I'm writing about yesterday, my first full day of being here.

This place is a big ball of insanity. First of all--it snowed today! My first full day here and it snowed! Check out the pictures in my "Korea" album! Unbelievable. Consequently, there was an enormous snowball fight which lasted for more than 20 minutes. I have only met a handful of people so far, but everyone in the whole place seemed to come out of their places to throw snowballs. It was hilarious. I didn't throw a snowball at anyone, nor did anyone throw one at me. Thankfully, I'm new here, so no one would dare hit the new person, nor would I feel comfortable hitting anyone I didn't know. It didn't hurt that my hands were freezing cold, even though I was wearing gloves, and packing a snowball would have caused my fingers to fall off. But I got some cool pictures and even some video of the snowball fight. As soon as I can figure out how to put video from my camera onto my computer--you'll be seeing what I'm seeing.

I woke up after a great night's sleep. My first night's sleep. I'm glad it was good--especially after a week of sleeping horribly.

When I first arrived the first night, I was met by a guy named Mike. He's a team leader here, and he showed me to my temporary apartment. Well, he was going to be going into town the next day (my first full day--Monday), and asked if I'd like to go. I said Yes.

We went into the town of Gumchon. It was my first excursion into anything other than my apartment. I tried to go outside in the morning to take some pictures, but it was so freezing cold, I had to come back inside. So I wasn't doing much. Since I'm not in my actual apartment yet, I can't unpack and get really settled yet.

In town, we went to a place called E-Mart, which is like Wal-Mart for Korea, except without the disgusting stale popcorn/urine smell that seems to accompany every Wal-Mart. Be certain, however, that E-Mart has it's own set of disgusting smells, including, but not limited to, dried squid just sitting out, dried anchovies, dried fish, and an entire section of the grocery department dedicated to various kinds of kimchi. Look up "kimchi". You'll die. It reeked like the devil in there.

But I bought a space heater for 22,000 Korean Won. That's like $22. Not bad. It's apparently really expensive to heat the apartments, and I have to pay for my own heat (it's gas), so this was recommended to me. Mike bought one for 75,000 won. He has a bigger place than mine.

I also bought peanut butter and jelly, Frosted Flakes, OJ, apples, some Oreo's, some caramel popcorn, some chocolate marshmallow cakes (mmm), and some plastic tupperware containers which will double as bowls. I failed to get a spoon, so consequently, this morning, I was forced to eat a bowl of Frosted Flakes with chopsticks. Yes, I really did. It was hilarious, and I was much better at it than I would have thought.

Here's my address in case you desperately want to show your love by sending me something:

Jason M. Hammond
Gyeonggi English Village, Paju Camp
1779 Beopheung-Ri, Tanhyeon-Myeon
Paju-Si, Gyeonggi-Do, 413-780
Republic of Korea

Incredible.

Oh, at the store, you have to pay for a shopping cart. You insert a coin into this thing on the handle of the cart, and you get your coin back if you return the cart. Hilarious. Also, they charge you for plastic bags. Can you imagine? How many plastic shopping bags do you use on a regular basis? How many do you have laying around your house or stuffed into a cabinet somewhere? However, you can box up your groceries for free. They have a big counter towards the exit with broken-down boxes, and you can pick one and tape it up yourself and carry your groceries that way. How random is that!? It's incredible!

While we were in the store, several young children would stare at us. Apparently, this happens frequently. Obviously, I'm in the minority out here, and I guess it's so much so that kids don't often see Americans or foreigners. It was so strange.

E-Mart is the place to be. It has everything from clothes like Macy's to groceries like Vons. It's a one-stop shop. Great fun. They also have people with food to try, like at Costco or Sam's Club. They are behind a little counter and they hand you things on toothpicks. You can imagine my horror at seeing some of the things they were offering! I had to politely refuse to accept some of these things. I did try a dumpling thing that had God knows what inside of it. I took one bite and had to give up. It wasn't friendly at all. This is going to be hard!

Just to give you an idea of how serious this place is, there is a bridge you must cross on the way into town that has camoflauge paint all over it. It is a one-lane bridge. Apparently, the bridge is or was built with explosives all over it, so that if North Korea moved closer, the South Koreans could simply blow up this bridge and deny them easy access. CREEPY. There is a large military presence here. Even on my drive from the airport to the village (where I live) I saw two trucks that had license plates that read "US Army". And on the way to the store today I saw some Korean soldiers getting out of a camoflauge vehicle. Very interesting.

Once we arrived back at the Village, we took our boxes to our apartments. I opened up my space heater and started using it at my cold feet.

Around dinner time, I headed over to Mike's apartment. He invited me to have tacos with some other people from the village. (From hereafter, the Village will refer to the Gyeonggi English Village, which is where I live and work). Apparently, you just can't get Mexican food over here (surprise, surprise), and it's quite a luxury. Mike had brought back a Taco Bell taco kit from home (he's from Colorad). I met his girlfriend Chloe (who's from England), Mary, Christian, and Brian. My very first night, after getting to my temporary apartment, I met Candy and Nikki. They stopped by my place to say HI and Welcome. Very nice of them.

Dinner was great, though it hasn't been that long since I've had Taco Bell, but it was a real treat for the rest of them, who had been craving Mexican food (at least the kind of Mexican food Taco Bell provides). Mike has a Nintendo Wii at his apartment--and I've never played the Wii. It was incredible. I did Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, Boxing and Golf. I was super good at golf, for some odd reason, and I did pretty good at tennis as well. Boxing was a bit of a stretch, and the baseball thing is rather hard. It's all in the timing.

Sometime after dinner, there was a bright flash of light outside, followed by a low rumbling noise. Of course, I thought thunder and lightning. Brian said, "It's that or missiles." Is that supposed to be funny??!?! Anyway, it was thunder and lightning. Rain was forecasted for last night. But what happens when it's below freezing temperatures and it starts to rain??? SNOW. We looked out the window and it was snowing profusely. I ran out without grabbing my jacket (BIG MISTAKE) to see the snow. I didn't last but about 6 seconds, then I ran back into the apartment to get my jacket and scarf and head back to my apartment to get my camera. Thusly, I was able to capture the pictures. So exciting.

Then the snowball fight ensued. Monday is everyone's day off, it's kind of like Broadway here, Mondays are dark. The park (they call it a park, just like Disney) is closed on Monday's. People came from all around to the snowball fight. It was the first snow of the season, and people were excited.

I now embark on my first day of work. I do not know entirely what to expect, but am open and ready to learn.

Thanks for reading and possibly caring at all.