For everyone keeping score, I finished training, had a medical exam, and have moved to my school's city (Daejeon). End of post. Go away.
Kidding. So training was...intense? Crazy? Exciting? Nerve wracking? Amazing? Maybe a bit of all of the above. It was all of the above because we had a LOT of information to absorb in a really short period of time. But I passed (amazingly) and straight to the bus I went. Remember when I was talking about how your luggage should be something you'd be willing to carry long distances?
Expat Negro Tip: Be prepared to walk/carry luggage long distances.
That? Well, the luggage thing came back with a vengeance. And not in the cool Patrick Swayze loves Demi Moore so much that death isn't enough to keep him away kind of way. I'm talking crying in the dark about all the people that died in the last hour and half kind of vengeance. 100+ pounds of luggage is dumb. Matter of fact:
Expat Negro Tip: 100+ lbs of luggage IS DUMB! Like...real dumb.
I'm a big dude in some kind of shape. I'm not to the most athletic or even the most fit of anyone I know. But I do okay. I lift weights in a gym. I run. I own health supplements. I have never had a gut check like carrying a 70 pound army rupsack on my back, with a 50 pound suitcase and a 30 pound garment bag in each hand through the bus terminal. Sounds bad right? Oh don't worry. It was. To make matters worse, my non English speaking taxi driver was running through the terminal at breakneck speeds.
Expat Negro Tip: Koreans run everywhere, oftentimes for no reason whatsoever.
Seriously. Imagine a country where the floors are heated, where every place that makes food will deliver for no extra charge, and where escalators are so plentiful that it's borderline ridiculous. Now imagine the people in that country. They should all just be obese sacks of fat right? Wrong. Koreans have all of these things but are remarkably thin. Some of it is an obsession with weight. I think the other part really is because they believe in hustle. Fast walking, jogging across streets, sprinting to catch subways, jogging up to a counter to get coffee...Koreans have stuff to do apparently. (the jogging up to the counter to get coffee is actually made up before you ask)
Either way, I lost my tablet, I'll update on whether or not that gets turned into the lost and found. All the expats I talked to told me that was a real thing.
Expat Negro Tip: If you lose things (in Korea), check the lost and found. You might actually find what you lost.
Okay, the tauntaun reference at the beginning probably has you wondering what's going on. Well here it is: the story you're all dying to hear.
I finally get to my apartment, and I'll admit I was pretty excited. I have a loft bed complete with steps leading up to it, a good amount of space, a front loading washer, and pretty remarkable bathroom. Score one for me, right? So we go out to get dinner with the head instructor of my school, and I turned everything in the apartment off.
Expat Negro Tip: Don't turn off stuff with LED readouts. Just don't.
I get back to the apartment, it was still there, and kinda warm, I unpacked some stuff, ran to the HomePlus (which is amazing, but that's another post for another time) and decided to call it a night. I woke up at three in the morning shivering like Luke on Hoth, pre-Tauntaun. I had turned off my heater without realizing I had. It was -10 C outside. Frightful. The fire inside was non-existent. Not delightful.
To explain: The heating in my apartment is radiant. Which means that the floor is heated and all the heat from the floor rises. In theory, that's AWESOME. It's pretty efficient, cost effective (as long as you don't crank it up over 20 C) and your floors are heated. That's pretty luxurious right? But if you turn your heat off, and it gets cold, it takes a while for it to heat back up. Which is how the night of extreme cold went into full effect. I ended up sleeping in a thick hoodie, a wool coat, socks and shoes. Still shivering. It was...unpleasant. I finally broke down and texted a picture of what I assumed was the thermostat with the word help to an expat friend who's currently in Seoul. He sent back an explanation. I opened the blinds and let the sun help and now my apartment is a nice 21 C. Win.
At least until I get my first utility bill...
Expat Negro Tip: The utility bill cometh.
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