Moving

1:18pm Saturday August 17, 2013 the well dressed stewardesses of Asianna airlines brought around warm wet towels, even to us guests sitting in coach. Receive it with two hands, I thought to myself. Bow your head.

“Annyeonghaseyo”

Oh crap. That was hello.

I meant “gamsahabnida”

I’m not sure if the towels were just for our hands, but it felt good on my puffy eyes – red from little sleep plus the tears of goodbye after hanging up the last phone call to my mom at the gate.

Garrett squeezed my hand hard.

It’s happening.

We’re really doing it.

We’re moving to freaking Korea.

Armed with a bag of mini-oreos, teriyaki  beef jerky, and an iPad with 8 episodes of Breaking Bad – we had more than enough to keep us occupied.

They served us 2 large meals, plus a small sandwich in-between. The first meal we had a choice between beef and potatoes or a traditional Korean food bibimbap (mixed rice with vegetables).

Of course we chose the bibimbap – complete with a tube of chili paste. 

Turns out, 14 hours is a long time for your emotions to fluctuate. We ranged from giggles of excitement, to moments of panic flipping through our Korean language dictionary trying to learn Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) before we landed, to peaceful moments of looking out the window with a true sense that God had already gone before us and Christ was with us now.

The flight went fast.

We’d landed in freaking Korea.

For seven years running Incheon International Airport has been rated the best airport worldwide – and deservedly so. We landed, de-boarded the plane, and made it through customs in 18 minutes flat.

We got our luggage, exchanged our US Dollars for millions of Korean Won, purchased new SIM cards for our iPhones, and bought fruit smoothies at a shop playing Hall and Oates “You Make My Dream’s Come True”. 

We felt excited again.

We found the booth for EPIK teachers and were checked in by the same sweet lady who’d conducted our Skype interview months ago.

We stood around waiting for the next shuttle and eyeing who we assumed to be other expat teachers when all of a sudden we heard a mob of screams and shouting in Korean. I turned to see 200+ people running through the airport – and coming directly for us.

I panicked.

Convinced it was either a terrorist attack or zombie apocalypse, I dropped my bags ready to run for my life.

That is when I noticed everyone screaming was carrying a camera and madly snapping pictures. The crowd was primarily female ages 15-35. Their shouts weren’t shouts of terror but raving accolades. We stood our ground and directly in front of us passed the object of their desire, a 6 foot supposed K-Pop star wearing sunglasses and a backward baseball cap being shielded by 3 bodyguards. We still have no idea who he was, but he passed maybe 2 feet in front of us.

Welcome to K-Pop country.

We boarded our shuttle with about 20 other EPIK teachers and made the 1.5 hour rainy journey to our home for the week – the 2013 EPIK orientation at Daejin University.

"Its so freaking hot in here"

Unfortunately we spent the first night and half of our first day without knowing how to work the AC in our room. Our first Korea fail.

Thankfully some friends who will also be teaching in our province were kind enough to show us how to work it.

Our first full day passed quickly. Between scheduled activities, we spent a lot of time touring the campus – which is home to the Daesoonjinrihoe temple built in 1969.

the building we're staying in

so many stairs

Part of the Daesoonjinrihoe temple

Peppers drying, we're assuming for Kimchi

 As I am typing this, it is currently 4:57am – so we are still adjusting to the time differences.

We look forward to all we will learn this week and appreciate the continued prayer and support from back home.