It’s 3:21 PM, September 11th S. Korea time and I’m sitting in my classroom (Rm. 504) at Chung Dahm. I have only one class to teach tonight and it does not begin until 7:30 PM.

This week has been quite an emotional roller coaster for me and there have been moments when I positively hated S. Korea. I have shed some bitter, bitter tears but I’ve had some pretty hilarious laughter too, thanks mostly to a woman I’ve met here who started the same day as Gary and I.

Everyone here says that the fist week is the hardest and assures me that each week gets a little better and a little easier. It hasn’t helped that we’v had to commute daily from Gangnam this first week, which involves taking the green line (2) to Sadang where we transfer to the blue line (4) to Beongmye where we have to catch the 03 or 10-2 bus to the school. On a good day, the commute takes about 50 minutes, and on any given day, there are at least three opportunities to get turned around and lost on this route. After four days of this commute, I think I can do it on my own – but alas, we are moving again on Saturday to Peyongchon and will have to learn a whole new route. Fortunately our offic-tel is only 10 minutes from our school.

While there is still so much to catch up on, I have to run and prep for my class. I hope I will find time to write more this weekend.