Bo

At long last, a blog! I’m now arrived and settled in. It’s been nearly two weeks and all is well. My arrival and getting to Suji-gu (which is a city district in Yongin), settling in, et cetera, went off without a hitch. The school (it is a hagwon) is really nice (really, really nice) and the faculty and staff are amiable, and my co-foreign teachers are simply awesome (I count my blessings).

It’s Saturday morning and the sun is shining bright into my window. Shining bright and casting a faint glow onto my Saturday morning face. I am happy. I still have no hot water but I don’t mind so much. Spring is almost here and then it will be summer. The washing machine has been sorted (just now!), at long last, and the possibility of clean clothes hangs somewhere on the near horizon. All with the turn of a red coloured handle. I like that. Mr. Kim (our Everything Man; more on The Incredible Mr. Kim later) has brought in a nice TV for me. This, by the by, heralds a new era for me, having never personally owned a TV before. It’s not working at the moment, though, (probably due to a very simple adjustment on the controls, which are, of course, all in Korean, Hangul) so it sits as a giant, electric box in my apartment, ominously reflecting my image each time I move. That, I don’t like.

I like Suji-gu.

I miss strangers smiling back at me on the streets.

I miss my mom’s eggless oatmeal cookies and my dad’s jokes. And I miss going for pints with my good friend, Matt.