First few days - 14 Aug 2010

On arriving in South Korea, we spent our first night in Incheon in a hotel provided by the recruitment company. We really needed this after a nightmare flight where Khalid and I were not seated together, were sandwiched in the middle seat in the middle isle between 'interesting' strangers and the flight was packed.

The next morning we were driven to the South Korean Office of Education in the Chungnam province about two hours away. Here we had a formal interview with the provincial Education Director. Following this, we were whisked away and taken to the two schools where we shall work so that we could be interviewed by the Vice Principles at each. This was a little confusing because they gave us our instructions in Korean and we just nodded along but it seemed to go well and they gave us our settlement allowance in cash (300,000) so I guess they want to keep us!

Finally, we were driven to our apartments. Khalid's apartment is smaller but has a little balcony and we intend to live in my apartment anyway. We really like it - it has a wet room (with shower, western toilet and sink), a lounge-kitchen (with hob, microwave, toaster, a fridge-freezer, bamboo sofa and a PC on a floor desk) , a laundry room (with the biggest washing machine I have ever seen in my life) and a double bedroom (with a flatscreen TV, large wardrobe and a 4ft bed). Plus, the air conditioning unit is absolutely fabulous!

The next day, the provincial Education Director had arranged for a co-ordinator to collect us and help us buy the things that we needed immediately e.g. bedding, a wok, water etc. She also took us to get our health tests which we must pass in order to maintain residence. They checked our eyes and ears, took urine and blood, gave us mammograms etc. It was pretty thorough and the hospital was modern and efficient.

The weather has been really wierd. It's very warm and humid but the thunder and lightening has been spectacular. It doesn't stop - it's just continuous peels and flashes for hours at a time. And it's so loud. It rained this morning but it's sunny again now. I'm melting...

We've spent the whole day walking around Hongseong today and trying to work out how to get to the schools, supermarket, restaurants etc. It seems like a nice little city (?town?). We don't have a telephone yet and we don't have the internet at home either but the school is providing both and then it will be easier to post pictures.

We have our first day at work on Monday now so we'll write after that - however we don't think that we'll have any classes because it is the school holidays until the 23rd (we think!).