Welcome!

Hello at last. It's been three weeks almost to the hour since we arrived here at Seoul English Village in Korea, and finally the internet connections have been sorted out. Hallelujah. I wrote most of the following three days after we arrived (July 1st), the plan being that I would be able to publish it in the next day or so, but since the internet never materialised until now it’s been sat on my laptop’s hard drive ever since, so it's old news, but seeing as it's all about our journey here, it still seems the best place to start Neither me or Emma had heard much about the fire that broke out at Kings Cross Station until almost 10pm on Monday night (June 27th), and we were due to be going directly there on Tuesday afternoon. Sources online were vague but indicated that due to some dodgy gas canisters near the station that officials feared might catch fire, it probably would not reopen until Wednesday. Perfect. Until then trains would be terminating at Peterborough, where buses would be arranged to ferry people into London. Emma rang National Rail at the crack of dawn on Monday (I’d tried but wasn’t patient enough to hold for 20 minutes to talk to a real person like she was). The lady there suggested getting a train instead to Sheffield, and changing there for St. Pancras, just a few tube stops down for where we intended to be in the first place. Good plan, we thought. The inspector on board the train thought otherwise. She was not impressed at all, and though she eventually punched our tickets she still kept on saying that we shouldn't travel on that train with our tickets, and she scowled at us every time she walked through our cabin. In Sheffield, we were flatly told by two officials on the platform that we could not get on any train from Sheffield with our ticket, regardless of whatever we’d been told by National Rail. Thank god, that train’s controller guy happened to be walking by during the latter of these conversations, and on appeal he said that there was no point making a bad situation (the fire in London) worse so we may as well get on after all. So everybody send good vibes out to Alan the train guy in your prayers tonight. The rest of the journey was gladly uneventful: an hour stood up on the stuffy tube to get to Heathrow; couple of hours killing time at the shops there before boarding (including desperate hunt for internet connection as we’d both neglected to print out the instructions on where to go when once we’d actually reached Korea); an eleven-hour flight which felt every bit as long as it sounds (neither of us could sleep the time away as the seats were too uncomfortable, we had some music to listen to, though it seemed to be on a madness-inducing one-hour loop, and one film, Ultraviolet, which totally lived down to the reviews I’d read back in England - it was like watching a videogame, but with poorer graphics and plot. We did get two meals, one ‘English’, one Korean (I went for the Korean breakfast, which included a truly foul rice porridge with green tea which I‘d like to never experience again please), and free drinks (impressively I resisted free wine as apparently not good for jetlag - and Emma had forbidden me as didn‘t want a repeat of the Paris trip). Also got free gift package of sleeping mask, toothbrush and shocking-pink socks, which we both wore but regrettably had to return). Finally in Korea, after an hour queuing to get through immigration, we were accosted at the airport doors by a Korean taxi driver. He was extraordinarily critical of the bus route we were planning on taking (and had in fact been instructed to take). In our defense, we were well aware that we were being scammed here, but we had been travelling for almost 24 hours at this point so we just didn’t care. We didn’t anticipate just to what extent we were gonna be scammed (I’m not telling you how much we paid the driver, but it was at least ten times what the bus would’ve cost us). At least he was fast (like, double the speed limit fast) but we still got stuck in heavy traffic so that was another hour. And that was just to the hotel in Seoul where we were to meet a few of our fellow teachers, who we were picked up in a minivan with for the final leg. We arrived at Seoul English Village (SEV), where we will be working and living for the year, at around 9pm local time (around 30 hours since we’d last slept is all I’m sure of), were met by Ken, Braden and Margaret (the senior teachers), and ushered off to our rooms to finally, blissfully, sleep. Our rooms/studios are much nicer than we expected. We have a bed, desk and chair, wee little wardrobe, filing cabinet cum bedside table, internet connection, telly with cable TV that’s far too big for the room and will rarely watch anyway as only two English-Language channels, bathroom with shower, even a little kitchenette area which I wasn’t expecting comprising of hob (singular), worktop/draining board and sink, and fridge. Also have little balcony now with insect screen to keep the mozzies out. First night we had no screen and the door had been left open so the place was swarming. Much better now. Air-conditioning too thank god. There are about 30 new teachers here with us. Of those, there are two British (that would be us), the rest are mainly Yanks, with a healthy dose of Aussies and a smattering each of Kiwis and Canadians. Even among the existing staff there are no other British here, so be prepared for me and Emma coming back in a year with our accents completely warped. Already she caught me talking about when we would get cellphones, and I overheard her tell her mum on the phone that we had tunafish (which I know she has never said before) for lunch. In fact, I was trying out my laptop’s microphone earlier, and when I played what I’d said back to myself, I found to my bewilderment that I’d totally put on an Australian accent. Quite a good one too, although it was entirely unconscious. Unfortunately/fortunately I didn’t save the file otherwise could have uploaded it for your amusement/disgust. So I apologise in advance for the baloney I’ll be coming out with in a year’s time. Anyway, everyone I’ve spoken to seems real nice, and I’ll be sure to tell you more about folks later. I do have to just say though, that the guy living right across from me is the doppelganger, in looks, size, voice and mannerisms of Penn, as in ‘and Teller’. Or possibly maybe Teller. The big one anyway. Not the one who never speaks. That would just be creepy. Anyhow, welcome to Korea, please check back on me for time to time (when I get into a more stable routine I’m gonna aim for a post a day, even if only a photo). And maybe leave the odd comment, just so I know that I’m not just writing all this for my mum! There are a few posts either below or in the archives on the right that I wrote in the weeks leading up to us coming here to check out how everything worked, so feel free to look around if you like until I can get back to you… Y’all have a nice day now.