Couples Housing

They let us out! On Friday morning our “tour guide” David brought Jamie by for a visit and just before he left he informed us that my test results came back negative and that we could get out. Thank god! He ordered us breakfast, gave us an hour to pack up and then brought us back to the university. It was so anti-climatic. When we got back, we step out of the cab and he says to us, “OK! It's your choice if you want to go to class. Do what you want. Bye!” That's it. No check in from the illusive supervisor, no report on the week. In seconds we were free. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It was just interesting.

We finished off our week (day) of orientation by watching the practice lesson plans of the other teachers and thankfully we got back in time for the Tae Kwan Do performance. It was amazing. Lots of kicking and breaking boards of wood interspersed with ridiculous skits and adorable dances. That night we played card games with our friends Chrissy and Dave (I'm hoping they'll be recurring characters so remember their names). When we woke up the next morning we put on our suits, packed up our rooms and loaded up the buses. We had a closing ceremony where again we were warned about H1N1 and told that we wouldn't be able to teach at all this coming week! They said that we would go to school every morning to check in and show that we were healthy and then we would just go home. So funny! Anyway, we took it in stride (we didn't care at this point anyway). They then served us a delicious buffet and took us to our district offices to meet our co-teacher.

Part two: The district office:remember when I joked about not being given Couple's Housing?

Arriving at the district office was real cute. All of us western teachers are standing there in a group in the parking lot waiting to be introduced to our Korean Co-Teachers who are also standing in a group in the parking lot. Everyone looks very excited and you can tell that everyone is trying to decide who they want as a co-teacher. Anyway, we get paired up and instantly swept away to our schools and new lives in Korea.

This is when the fun begins. Shortly after the crowd started to disperse I see a western man trying to contact John Pak (our “supervisor” with SMOE). Having just seen him hug a woman goodbye I'm a bit curious - upon examination it turns out that he wasn't given couples housing with his wife. Great. Jamie and his co-teacher are waiting to be picked up so I go over and ask about our housing. The co-teacher is obviously confused (it turns out she was actually just filling in so she had no idea what we were talking about). My co-teachers arrive and I ask them if they know about the situation. Their response is not encouraging. No, they say. They didn't know I was married. They had prepared a room for one person-with a single bed. At this point more people from Jamie's school show up and now their on the phone with S.M.O.E and there's about 6 people trying to figure out what to do. Finally it seems like we've been placed in the same building. So we decide we'll just see what this looks like and we head out to our schools.

We arrive at our apartment building and yes, thankfully Jamie and I have been placed in the same building, 2 floors apart. The rooms are just that. Rooms. It's an open room with a kitchen area that includes, a range, sink, and a small fridge. The bathroom is the only separate room, it has a washer, toilet and shower...but the shower is more like a shower head attached to the sink. Not actually a distinct space. Shannon's room is considerably larger than Jamie's. Shannon thinks it's funny that the rooms were so obviously prepared by men vs. women. Jamie's room was prepared by a man, as he was showing the room he pointed out the arm chair, the cable television and the big bed (he was also very proud of the curtain). In my room, prepared by my female co-teachers (both mothers), they bought me sheets and pillows (and a pig stuffed animal), cleaned my whole room top to bottom, left me with towels, plates, laundry detergent, orange juice and water. Anyway! At this point the numbers have grown, I have my two Co-Teachers, the Vice Principal and the Man in charge of Administration (he set up the room). All 5 of us traipse up to Jamie's room where there's the equivalent people from Jamie's school. They all talk trying to figure out what's happening and how to handle this situation. Ultimately we just told them we'd decide on Monday whether or not we want to keep our rooms or move to a bigger apartment.

In the mean time we get taken to visit our schools. Shannon's school is literally across the street. We can see it from our windows. Jamie's school is a 15 minute walk down the street but there are 2 buses that go that way. There's everything in walking distance, including, but not limited to, a Dunkin' Donuts (we've already tried the Garlic and herb coffee roll and Red Bean Paste filled donut), 2 bakeries, a grocery store, shops galore. You get it. We live in the city.

Well, that brings us to today. We slept in Jamie's room last night and I think we've decided to just keep the two rooms. We'll use Jamie's room as a bedroom and Shannon's room as everything else. Not great, but now we have a guest room! Come Visit! We debated having them get us a new apartment (and they would), but it's a gamble. It might be considerably farther away from our schools, we doubt there would be as much space as the two rooms combined and this really isn't so bad.

Well, that brings us to our “exciting things about Korea” section:

• Chinese food is just as popular in Korea as it in the states; instead of being “Americanized”, though, they are “Koreanized”

• Dunkin' Donuts are very prevalent in Seoul, and they are waaay nicer than in the states

• You can set up your debit/check card to draw fare money from your account for busses and subways

• The trash disposal system is very extensive in Seoul, and you need to separate EVERYTHING – the collection system is based on how much trash one produces and everyone must purchase special trash bags (one for general waste and one for food waste); recycling is highly encouraged and free

We still have a whole lot to learn and experience so keep checking in for more updates!