Dstination: Incheon Airport/Coatel hotel

So how does a guy with a total of 6 hours of flight time over 23 years deal with 18 hours of flying in one day? I didn’t! The first flight from Cleveland to Chicago had me scared straight just for the simple fact that when the slightest bit of turbulence hits, I think “Uh oh, this is it, we’re going down”. I know that’s a horrible mentality but I can’t shake it! Random fact: the guy next to me was Tom. The flight from Chicago to San Francisco was a little bit better in part because it was a bigger plane and there was almost no turbulence at all, although the engines did sound like they were going to blow at any time. Plus I had 2 seats to myself. And tons of people were walking around the airport with Sub Zero masks trying not to catch the swine flu.

The flight from San Francisco to Korea was a wonderful experience. I got to my seat and saw a blanket and a pillow waiting for me. I had a middle seat on the right side of the plane but I didn’t find being in the middle too bad. I sat next to Dan/Don(couldn’t quite understand which one he said) who was going to Singapore for business and June who was from Korea, but living in the states and going back to Korea f or business. Strangely enough I didn’t sleep at all for the first 7 hours of the flight. I was either talking to Dan/Don and June, watching a movie, playing a game, learning some Korean, on my laptop, grubbing on the free meals(which were pretty good), or sipping on some Singapore Sling which was a dry gin drink mix.

After we landed I felt like I was in a Resident Evil movie because everybody’s temperature had to be checked to see if we might have the “virus”. If I wasn’t with June, I’d probably still be lost at the airport right now, but luckily we had to go to the same place. I got to my hotel, and had a roommate named David who was from Australia, but easily looked like he could have been from Korea because he was Cambodian. I was the last of the trainees to arrive, I didn’t get to the hotel till around 9/10pm on Sunday. So I hit the sheets to get ready for training.

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FAQ

So here I am, 6:26am on Monday and can’t fall back asleep (training starts at 9am).

Here are a few frequently asked questions:

What made you want to go to S.Korea?
Aside from just being a kind of random person, I felt the need for some type of change, and also a challenge at the same time. It’s been almost 2 years since I graduated from college and I hadn’t had a degree-requiring job at all.

How did you come across the job?
I was browsing jobs on career builder. And saw a link from a company called Aclipse for teaching jobs overseas. I applied to it just for kicks, not really thinking “If they call me back I’m definitely going to do this”. But when they called, we had a phone interview and next thing you know they called me back saying it was a success. They had jobs in China, Japan, and S. Korea. I definitely didn’t want to go to China, so it was just a toss up between the two.

Are you nervous?
The only 2 things I was nervous about was the flight because I hate planes, and wondering how I will adjust to teaching, because I have no teaching experience at all. But as far as living here, I’m about to take the city over! Ay yo the city is mine (Which one?) A-N-S-A-N I go, A-J-I-Z-Z-L-E and you know how the story goes. That goes to a song by Drake called “City is Mine”. Check it if you haven’t already.

Don’t you need to know Korean to teach the kids?
No, I guess the children already have a basic understanding of English, we’re just there to sharpen their skills. They’re required to only speak English while in the classroom. It’s kind of like American kids, we already knew English but we still had English class.