Over the weekend we made plans to visit our longtime family friends in Songdo. Our plan was to go see Seoul all day Tuesday and head over to Songdo in the evening and spend the night. Explore Songdo all day Wednesday and come back Wednesday evening so we could prep for our classes before they start on Monday, the 12th.Monday morning our Korean co-teacher, Angela, took us to Chuncheon to get our alien immigration cards. Chuncheon, the capital of the province, is about an hour north of Wonju. On our way to Chuncheon we were chatting and told Angela that we were going to go see Seoul on Tuesday. She asked us, "you're not going to school?" Ohhh, apparently we are getting paid to work, not play! We thought if the kids weren't in school, we didn't have to be either. Especially since no one communicated our official "start" date except when the first day of classes start. However, we rolled with the punches and cancelled our trip to Seoul and Songdo.
Our first day of "work" began with a 20 minute wait in the freezing cold at the bus stop. Luckily, the bus stop is right outside of our apartment so we didn't have to walk far. Once the 2-1 bus finally arrived, we used our T-money bus cards to pay and then came the waiting game. We kept our eyes peeled looking for the Wonju airport. We were told to get off the bus one stop after the Wonju airport. The bus ride was crowded and the windows were frosted so it was hard to see outside. As we got further out of the city, the bus started to empty a bit so we actually got seats to sit in. Thirty minutes later, the airport was in sight and we hit the "stop" button on the bus. We got off one stop after the airport like we were told and our very first commute to work was a huge success! Got on the right bus, got off at the right stop, and to the school in time for our 9am work day!
Our day consisted of sitting on the computer for all eight hours browsing the web, looking for good games, songs, and activities for the kids, and chatting with Angela, our co-teacher.
The next adventure was getting home. Apparently the bus we took to school doesn't come as often as other buses. Jacob started using Google maps halfway through the day to find the right bus to get back home. Meanwhile, a very long conversation ensued between our co-teacher and the facilities guy, discussing when we needed to leave the school to get to the bus stop, which bus to take and where to get off. After twenty minutes, and more research we were told to take the number 2 bus back home. Jacob had different plans. He wanted to take the 2-8 bus back to the apartment. He had it all planned. The bus arrived at 5:14 and we were going to leave the school right at 5pm. Our co-teacher and facilities guy left a few minutes early so we ended up leaving too. We were standing at the bus stop a few minutes before 5 when the 2-1 bus pulled up to our stop. What do we do? Throw out all the plans that were just made and hop aboard! We diligently watched out the windows on the way home for our bus stop. It dropped us one block further down on the opposite side of the road from our morning bus.
We ended our day with a nice shabu shabu meal at what is becoming our favorite restaurant, Shabu Hwang. Afterward, we walked to the big department store in search of warm fuzzy slippers for school! I was very successful in finding some thick, warm Bearpaw slippers. Jacob was SOL. No one in the department store carried men's slippers. By the time we got back to our apartment it was nearing 8:30 and we were exhausted! We showered, browsed the web a wee bit more, and crawled into bed at 9:30. Our first day of work was a smashing and very, very tiring success!
Second Day
Finally caught up to present day! During lunch time Angela called us a taxi to take us to Hoengseung. Our school is located on the outskirts of town, which is to far away from the downtown area to walk. We exchanged money so we had enough to take the bus back home and then walked around the very small town for a little bit and got coffee. Before we moved here, the school gave us an option to live in Wonju or Hoengseung and we are very glad that we chose Wonju!
Here are a few pictures of Hoengseung and our workplace:
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| Downtown Hoengseung |
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| Downtown |
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| Downtown |
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| Main transit area? |
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| We found Korean Bob's Burgers! |
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| Outside of English Center. Doors were locked so we will update later with pictures of the inside! |
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| Seongnam Elementary is the big brown building. Our workplace is to the yellow "bus" to the left. |
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