Welcome to Seongan Dong!

I'm here! Ulsan, Korea! For the next year of my life, I'll be exploring, teaching, living in this sprawling city of 1.1 million people. I'll start from the beginning of my Ulsan adventure. The post might be long, so heads up :) Once I get my bearings a bit more and establish a routine, I hope to blog more regularly!

Tuesday morning rolled around, rolling clouds and all. Typhoon Bolaven was making its way through Daejeon, where we had our orientation. We were told that its path wouldn't hit our traveling route, but you never know with weather. The 17 of us boarded the bus that would take us to our final Korea destination (so far anyway). We watched the live broadcasts of the typhoon on the bus, and were jolted by the winds more than once. We pulled into the Ulsan Education offices about 3 hours later to meet our co-teachers. One by one, we were whisked away, and the numbers were dwindling down. At one point, a teacher came up and asked for Sara/h. There were 2 of us named Sara/h in the group, and I thought I heard my school's name mentioned. The other Sarah went with her. No problem. About 5 minutes later, another lady walks up with a sign for Sarah. Not me. At this point, the few of us were automatically assuming she took the "wrong" Sarah. Turns out it was one of two co-teachers! Phew! My co-teacher was the last to arrive (go figure. again). Her name is Jenn and I have a feeling she is going to be my Korea mom! She is really concerned about me and staying healthy my first month here :) First, she brought me to my school and I met the principal! He doesn't speak a lick of English, but I think he was impressed with my limited Korean. The school was closed that day due to the impending typhoon, so the visit was brief. Jenn and I then stopped to get bed sheets (thank goodness, since I ditched mine while packing), and then brought me to my apartment! It's in the lower region of Seongan Dong, which is part of the bigger region of Jung-Gu. I'm about a block away from the police academy and only about a 20 minute walk (uphill) to my school. The apartment itself is small, yet perfect! I'd post pictures, but I think a video would do it better justice. Working on getting that done this next week :)

My apartment building! Coffee and beer cafe included! :)

Once we dropped off the luggage, we ventured to the closest convenience store to pick up some essentials. While there, Jenn grabbed a few mojitos for us to sip on while we walked through the neighborhood. I could tell we will get along great! :) She brought me back to my apartment and said goodbye! The rest of the evening was filled with unpacking and settling in. After about half way through unpacking, I decided to venture out to actually find the school, since Jenn's only directions were "Up the hill, take the second right." While walking up the hill, I started taking what I thought was the second right, but it turned out to be the entrance to a temple!

I explored for awhile, amazed at how close this is to where I'm living. It came with a pretty spectacular view of Ulsan as well.

I found the school without a hitch! The walk back was a bit easier (15 minutes all downhill), and I spent the rest of the evening finishing unpacking and a dinner of ramen and Cass :) I think I'm gonna like it here.

My first 3 days at school and weekend post coming soon!