My home for the next year (at least)

Greetings everyone and welcome to the first edition of my blog. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this going (and actually have interesting enough things to say) for the foreseeable future at least.

If you're reading this, then you probably know me, and you'll know that I have recently moved to Korea to teach English, for a year...at least. Now, after almost 2 weeks of an orientation with the other EPIK teachers in Cheongju, I have finally moved out to my placement, and this beautiful place just on the left, that would be my apartment. What you can't see in this photo is the shelving unit with the TV, DVD player, VCR, the fridge, the small kitchen and the bathroom. It's small, but, you know, it's big enough for me. And I can probably fit 2 people on the floor (hint hint!) I'm 5 minutes from the train station, 10 minutes from downtown, and 15 minutes from my school. So it's all good.

I'm in a city called Gumi (goo-me), hence the oh so hilarious title of this blog! It's not quite the rural backwater I had been angling for - industrial city of 350,000 - but I'm in a quiet part of the city and it doesn't so far feel all that big.

Orientation was fun - once you got past all the little social groupings that popped up within days, and the often rather dull lectures, and the curfew. I met some wonderful people who I most certainly intend on keeping in touch with and visiting often! We went to Seoul last weekend, which was fun - such a mission getting there in the first place, but once we had somewhere to leave our bags, we headed our for some drinks and much fun was had by all. Of course, the next day was a cultural day, visiting just some of the many sights of Seoul. Still lots to see though, but sure I've got a whole year.

The other folk in my province and I left orientation on Friday still not having a notion where exactly in Gyeongbuk we were going, so talk about a magical mystery tour! I'm quite fortunate where I am, as there is another EPIK teacher who has been in Korea for a year already, and we're living in the same apartment complex and going to the same school. Most people have headed off to rural parts where they probably won't see another foreigner for months!

Start school tomorrow, should be interesting. It's a Foreign Languages High School, and a boarding school, with a tough entrance exam. Which means the kids should be bright and enthusiastic. Which means they might well be correcting me! I'm to be eased into it for the first couple of weeks, so much so that on Thursday the school has a field trip, and I get to go. Where is the field trip to? The biggest amusement park in Korea, that's where! Fantastic.

Right so, this here blog is just to keep people updated on the little things that might not make it into e-mails that I send, little observations and experiences and thoughts and musings. I would appreciate any and all feedback. This could be highly successful, or I might give up in a month! Either way, I'm off to christen my apartment with its first cup of tea, as I just bought a kettle today, and it's one of those stove-top ones, and I only figured out the gas this evening. So a cup of tea it is! Ta ta. x