So arriving in Korea was a lot like arriving in Italy, and anywhere else probably except coming back to the US. Here customs was a matter or minutes rather than hours. The best would probably be preflight the Singapore Air people asked if I'd flown there from another airline which I replied I had. The attendant the proceeded to pick up my carryon and told me it was to heavy for "their" airlines. He then asked me if I wanted to check it. I still to this moment haven't figured out what that man saw as another option. During the flight though, despite a minor migraine and a couple of minutes of here and there baby crying the flight was awesome. There's a reason Singapore Air has apparently won a lot of awards. They're super nice to the point of being annoying at points of the flight. Watched Green Lantern which I enjoyed, Bad Teacher which was take it or leave it (had some laughs) and Horrible Bosses which I didn't get to finish because I fell asleep, but what I did see I enjoyed.
After touching down I found my bus, bought a ticket, and rode the bus to the terminal where I took a cab to the hotel. Easy cheesy and threw in a couple half bows. Arriving at the hotel I check in and the lady behind the desk calls someone and hands me the phone. The lady on the phone works with my recruiter and apparently she thought my flight was later and was waiting at the airport now for me. There was a whole two minutes of going around in circles trying to explain to this women I wasn't about to get back in the taxi then on the bus just to make her happy. I handed the phone back to the concierge shrugged my shoulders and went to my room.The next day Heana, Scott and I went to the mall. The food was filling, but not very great. Scott said it was good last time so I'll trust him on that. I needed some additional passport photos and Heana talked to one of the ladies at the Kodak place and Heana was apologizing that I couldn't get fewer than 18. I was like at the rate I've been needing them 15 extras won't be bad, especially since for 18 I paid just as much as I did at Walgreens for 4. Also to be noted Korean GPS things put all American ones to shame. They're talking to you, telling you where the red light cameras are, where the speed cameras and speed traps are, they can get tv stations for when you're stuck in traffic. I'm like mine back home tells me to go left or right haha.
Monday at training after a brief introduction we had to go to the medical institute for physicals. There was a fasting blood test involved, yet we're not starting the physicals til 1 and you don't want us to eat 6-8 hours before = Byron already isn't a happy camper. They don't start on time, but then again I'm used to doctors in America so that wasn't the surprise of the century. When they call out your name they give you a locker key and you go into your sex's locker room and we leave your shirt and shoes in there and there are slippers and a kimono looking scrubs top with a tie that was just awesome. So I'm the first from our group and we're just laughing about everything at this point, probably because we're so delirious from not eating. There were apparently two different sizes, normal and giant, and the locker numbers corresponded, so we knew before they even went into the locker room what color they were coming out wearing. There is a giant in our group and the poor nurse who was handing out keys had the biggest eyes when she handed them to him and we were all laughing. She had already handed out a few of the larger sized lockers but nobody compared to this guy's stature compared to this little doll.
First room I get taken into the girl tells me to lay down and take off my shirt. Easy. She then proceeds to place these clamps (almost like woodworking clamps) with wires to my ankles and my wrists. At this point I don't have a freaking clue what's being tested, but it certainly is funny as hell to me so I'm laughing. She then attaches 7 little octopus suction things with more wires to my chest. Then tells me to close my eyes and don't move. Of course I'm almost to the point of peeing myself I think it's so funny. She comes back over and tells me "no laugh". Yeah, because that'll get it done. Haha. Anyways I finally get out of there and we were joking about it outside later and the girls were referring to it as the "boob room" so I can only imagine how crazier it must've seemed for them with the octopus suction things.
I also got blood drawn which in my short time here I haven't mastered the Korean wording for "Whoah whoah whoah hold up" so needless to say she didn't give a shit and it was much more efficient than any blood draw I've had in the states. As I'm sitting there holding my arm with cotton I do make some of my fellow trainees aware that I am borderline hypoglycemic and one of them was like haha really? I'm like yeah really. If I pass out find someone with a Coke and that speaks English. Apparently we hadn't had enough laughs because they were all hoping I hit the ground. Bastards.
Paris Baguette is this little bakery type of place that there are two on every block here in Seoul. Maybe not that many because that would be the 7Elevens, but there are a lot of the Paris Baguette venues and they're a nice, affordable, place that I've definitely enjoyed having for a breakfast type meal or just a substantial snack.
Went grocery shopping today and got some Korean toothpaste which I've already used and not bad at all, some Korean soap which I'll report on next time, some noodle bowls (a staple here for them as a culture which makes me happy) a large bottle of water to periodically refill and finally a Dr. Pepper. I was very excited about the Dr. Pepper at the grocery store because I had gotten one with a sandwich at lunch and it was 2.70 for a can. :-O I thinking that this was now going to make Dr. Pepper a luxury item, but alas at the grocery store its 78 cents so it'll probably be a once a week thing so no longer as big of a deal.
That's all for now. Taking a break from preparing my teaching demos to write this so I'll definitely be informing how that all went tomorrow.
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