A New Adventure Begins

After packing up my little hotel home of two weeks, I waited for the front desk to call and give me the go-ahead to finally leave my room for the first time in two weeks. After a bit of a struggle to get my luggage onto the bus, we headed off for EPIK orientation. 

The location for orientation was Jungwon University, a college that sits atop a hill in the mountainous Goseon. Immediately, I was in awe of the gigantic building in the center of campus that looked straight out of a movie set for a historical science fiction film. The landscape was also something look at endlessly. With a gloomy sky as the backdrop, the greenery stood out even more. Due to Covid restrictions, we were not allowed to leave the campus for orientation. This was fine with me since walking around a gorgeous campus in the fresh air for a few days wasn’t the worst thing I could imagine. Plus, there was a lot of time to meet fellow EPIK teachers and make plans to meet up in the coming months.

After three days of learning more about EPIK, preparing to teach, and one broken laptop (we don’t need to talk about it) later, I was yet again on a bus heading for the Gwangju Office of Immigration. As we drove more into the city, it began to hit me that this was my home for the next year. I had been in big cities before but never lived in one, especially not one with 1.5 million people. I felt scared yet excited as we passed by every street filled with countless cafes, restaurants, and shops. If anything, I knew I wasn’t going to get bored this year. 

Waiting for all of us at the immigration office was all our co-teachers, ready to get us set up in our new life. After a bit of standing around cluelessly, I finally found my co-teacher. We began our series of errands for the day. This included applying for my “alien registration card”, visiting my school, and shopping for apartment essentials. Despite the heat, exhaustion, and language barrier, my co-teacher and I made it through the day and I was left alone in my apartment. 

I woke up on Friday at 4:00 am due to nerves about getting to school on time using the bus. My school is in a different city than Gwangju and even my co-teacher looked at available bus routes and just let out a long sigh. There was one bus that dropped me off right in front of my school so I thought perfect! Except one problem, the bus only comes every 2-3 hours and has no set schedule. I figured this out sitting at the bus stop as the rain poured. I had left early in case of mess-ups like this so I quickly changed my route and hopped on another bus. However, this was the right bus but going the wrong way. I got off at the next stop, heart pounding and feeling out of options except to bravely flag down a taxi. The first taxi driver rejected to drop me off after seeing how he would have to drive out of the city. On the verge of tears, I hopped in another taxi and almost broke out in tears when he agreed to take me to my school. 

From this story, you can take away two things. One, all the beautiful and aesthetic pictures new EPIK teachers post on Instagram on their first day in their city were most likely taken right before or after their first meltdown. Two, anyone who says you don’t need to know Korean before coming to teach in Korea is a liar! Sure, if you’re placed in Seoul (rare) you might scrape by with little Korean. But if I didn’t know how to beg a taxi driver sweetly in Korean, who knows if I would’ve made it to my first day at work. 

Luckily I did get to work and meeting my students has been amazing. They are all the cutest things and not to pick favorites but the group of 6th graders who constantly yell that I’m pretty are boosting my ego. 

That day was perhaps the most stressful since I got here. Every day presents a little stress and anxiety but every day also shows me something more amazing about Gwangju. In just one week I have already discovered my go-to chicken place, the cutest cafe/clothing store, and the best pasta I’ve ever had which is only a 10-minute walk from my apartment. Even as I type this, I am sitting in the cafe less than a minute away from my apartment sipping on a milk tea made by the nicest barista. 

So, after one week, I can comfortably say that I am starting to settle down. There are still big things to sort to and small things I’m sure I’m forgetting but I’ve been rolling with the punches. Not to pat myself on the back but if you were to tell 15 years old me that I’ve been living in a big city in a different country for a week and I survived, she wouldn’t have believed me. 

My blog posts in the future will hopefully be more put together but like this past week, my mind has been all over the place. I am so excited to fill you all in on more of my adventures!

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If you’ve read this far, you might be wondering, well Carly, how have you been getting to school since that terrible morning? On my first day, one of our homeroom teachers, Mr. Kang, asked for my phone number. He proceeded to tell my co-teacher in Korean that he would give me a ride home from school and pick me up on Monday morning to take me to school. I was already feeling so grateful that I at least had Monday figured out. Then in the car ride home, Mr. Kang said “On Monday, I will pick you up here. And every day.” And that’s how I’ve been getting to and from school, by the immense kindness of one of my co-workers. Our daily car rides are pretty silent due to the language barrier but I still have learned that he has two kids and likes the Beatles. He knows that I am from Colorado and like the song September by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Every day, I try to talk a little in Korean and he talks a good amount in English. 

I have to admit when we first drove into Gwangju. I felt like I was going to be thrown to the wolves. However, all my experiences thus far have proven the opposite. In the scariest moments of our life, we forget how kind people can be. We forget that kindness even exists. But it does. Kindness is everywhere.